On June 17, 2023

¡SÍ, YO PUEDO! NOTES ON DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE THROUGH CHRIST IN THE DAYS OF TRIAL

SCRIPTURE. “I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace].” – PHILIPPIANS 4:13, AMP

KEY TERMS. Do; All things; Infuses

QUOTATIONS

THE BAPTIST.“And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” ― MATTHEW 3:10-12, NKJV, c. 28 AD

RANDY PAUSCH. “The Brick Walls are there for a reason. The Brick Walls are not there to keep us out. The Brick Walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the Brick Walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” ― The Last Lecture, 2008; edited

I. FIRST THOUGHTS

We are living in The Last Days. No surprise there. But what is a surprise is that there are so many people ‘living as usual,’ even though most of them are aware of events all around us that are shouting, “Make ready!” This Historic Disconnect is clearly predicted by the Scriptures, so let’s take a closer look.

FROM PAROUSIA TO POLITICS. A recent survey of 1,000 pastors in April 2020 reflecting on their sermons of past years (before COVID-19) by Lifeway Research reported by AARON EARLS showed that almost 9 in 10 pastors see some current events matching those Jesus said would occur shortly before He Returns to Earth. And at least half of those pastors said they preached about End Times several times a year.

But a later study in July 2021 from the Pew Research Center (after Covid-19) reported by KIM HART showed a Sea Change of Sermon Topics, from teaching on Last Things to talking about Politics, the Election of 2020, and not submitting to a tyrannical federal government insisting that we take the diabolical vaccine!

Or, even more often, not preaching about anything of substance at all.

In Sum: The Church shifted from talking about the Coming of Messiah in the near future, to the Coming of a President who could ensure that we can ‘live life well right now!’ Can you grasp the titanic significance of that shift, beloved? I can. God can.

Indeed, He anticipated it 2,000 years ago in the following iconic passage.

DAYS OF NOAH AND LOT. “‘And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:’ They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. ‘Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot:’ They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” – JESUS OF NAZARETH, Luke 17:26-30, New King James

Some amazingly pertinent Commentary is offered by the late JOHN BLANKENSPOOR, Reform Bible scholar and teacher. Though penning his remarks generations ago, his words penetrate straight through the years to our present moment brilliantly. – “As In the Days of Noah,” The Outlook, 1983, p. 3; edited

“The Lord Jesus compares Noah’s time with the conditions of the world and its manner of living before He comes back. The True Church surely preaches about the Return of Christ, the righteousness of God and the Coming Judgment of all people according to their works. But the life of the world and of much of the Church is characterized by the same secular preoccupation as was life in the days of Noah and Lot … In speaking [in] the way He does, we are shown how strongly God condemns the secular and materialistic mind. In the daily lives of people, in their conversations, in their thoughts and aspirations, what is uppermost? The answer is obvious: The temporal things, the economy, the recession, the lack of business and work. Noah also mentions marriage, which refers to the sexual aspect of life that is so prominent in our society.

Of course, during all this time the Nominal Church will profess to believe in the Bible. She will also have a few beautiful articles about the Return of Christ neatly tucked away in the back of their ‘Psalter Hymnal’ [or lifeless devotionals]. But there they will usually stay, and the preaching may be little more than a social [or political] gospel.”

WE HAVE ARRIVED. I propose without blinking that in the year 2023, in these very “Days of Noah and Lot,” that the United States of America and most especially and tragically, the majority of her Church, have become politicized, or nominalized, or worse, ‘Tepid and Lukewarm’ concerning sin in the camp and the Return of the Messiah to judge that sin.

II. HOW BAD DO YOU WANT HIM?

I rather loved Mr. Pausch’s Brick Wall Analogy, since it goes directly to the heart of a Major Question that we must all address in these Last Days: WHAT DOES IT COST to become a true disciple, a genuine follower of Jesus Christ and thereby a member of the consistently faithful Remnant Church?

In a Word of Prelude: Everything!

The first thing that comes to mind here is of course DIETRICH BONHOEFFER’S extraordinary life’s work, The Cost of Discipleship (1937). But I am not going to go there this time around. Rather, I am going to a much Higher Authority than Bonhoeffer in the Person of JESUS THE CHRIST, who lays it out exquisitely, and in no uncertain terms.

THE PRICE OF DISCIPLESHIP. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and ‘count the cost,’ whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. ‘So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.’” – LUKE 14:26-33, NKJV

Well now, when’s the last time you heard these Words preached in your Seeker Friendly Church, beloved? I am 78 years of age but cannot recall a single sermon on this passage – in memory! You may belong to a congregation where such teaching is commonplace, but you would be a supremely blessed minority.

ALBERT BARNES. A favorite theologian of mine, fierce abolitionist and Bible scholar Mr. Barnes gives us rich detail in his interpretation of Christ’s Teaching.

1. Every man who becomes a follower of Jesus should calmly and deliberately ‘look at all the consequences of such an act and be prepared to meet them.’

2. ‘Men in other things act with prudence and forethought.’ They do not begin to build without a reasonable prospect of being able to finish. They do not go to war when there is every prospect that they will be defeated.

3. ‘Religion is a work of soberness, of thought, of calm and fixed purpose,’ and no man can properly enter on it who does not resolve by the Grace of God to fulfill all its requirements and make it the business of his life.

4. ‘We are to expect difficulties in Religion.’ It will cost us the mortification of our sins, and a life of self-denial, and a conflict with our lusts, and the enmity and ridicule of the world. Perhaps it may cost us our reputation, or possibly our lives and liberties, and all that is dear to us; but we must cheerfully undertake all this and be prepared for it all.

5. ‘If we do not deliberately resolve to leave all things, to suffer all things that may be laid on us, and to persevere to the end of our days in the service of Christ, we cannot be his disciples.’No man can be a Christian who, when he makes a profession, is resolved after a while to turn back to the world … If he comes not with a‘full purpose always’to be a Christian; if he means not to persevere, by the Grace of God, through all hazards, and trials, and temptations; if he is not willing to bear his cross, and meet contempt, and poverty, and pain, and death, without turning back,he cannot be a disciple of the Lord Jesus.”– Notes on the Old and New Testament, 14 vols., 1884; edited

DK. As I have said of it before, I did not come to this point until the beginning of the loss of pretty much everything I had worked for a lifetime to gain: Permanent, well-paid employment. A position of authority and responsibility. A professional reputation to be proud of. A big house, and new car every three years. Excellent health of course was presupposed.

After all, I had been taught to desire such things in most churches I had attended for the previous 30 years. Most, but not all. I chose to believe in “the Most.” Then, MY AWAKENING came, beginning in March 2016:

Fired by Jerry Falwell, Jr. from my professorship at Liberty University for refusing to support Donald Trump followed by years of shunning from the Church and severe financial hardship. And the rest is history, beloved, writ long and dark, but quite necessary to God’s entire Redefinition of My Calling:

The Circuit Ride Mission.

III. THE TEACHING

KEY TERMS. ‘Do; All things; Infuses’

DO. ‘Ischuó’ [ἰσχύω]: “To be strong, have power; to possess or exercise force; in full health and vigor, am able; to prevail; to be robust [formidable], both physical and morally; properly, embodied strength that ‘gets into the fray (action), i.e., engaging the resistance;’ to overpower any opponent; to be effective; ‘combative, confrontive force’ to achieve all He gives faith for; i.e., ‘Can do it!’”

ALL THINGS. ‘Pas’ [πᾶς]: “The whole, every kind of; means ‘all’ in the sense of ‘each (every) part that applies;’ includes the idea of oneness, a totality; in the sense of all possible, the greatest, utmost, supreme; all manner of; highest degree, the maximum; everything (anything) whatsoever; in every way, on every side, in every particular or relation; implies all things in a group, leaving nothing out.”

INFUSES. ‘Endunamoó:’ [ἐνδυναμόω]: “To empower, fill with Divine power; to strengthen, make strong; properly, to impart ability (make able); to make bold [for better or for worse]; from ‘dunamis’ [or the impartation of divine, miraculous power or ability to accomplish extraordinary feats]; to confirm or establish; doctrinally, to make strong that which is inherently weak (cf. 1 Cor. 1:27; 2 Cor. 12:9).

COMMENTARY. “I can do all things – From the experience which Paul had in these various circumstances of life, he comes here to the general conclusion that he could ‘do all things.’ He could bear any trial, perform any duty, subdue any evil propensity of his nature, and meet all the temptations incident to any condition of prosperity or adversity. His own experience in the various changes of life had warranted him in arriving at this conclusion; and he now expresses the firm confidence that nothing would be required of him which he would not be able to perform. In Paul, this Declaration was not a vain self-reliance, nor was it the mere result of his former experience. ‘He knew well where the strength was to be obtained by which to do all things,’ and on that Arm that was able to uphold him he confidently relied.

Through Christ which strengtheneth me – See the notes at John 15:5. Of the strength which Christ can impart, Paul had had abundant experience; and now his whole reliance was there. It was not in any native ability which he had; not in any vigor of body or of mind; not in any power which there was in his own resolutions; it was in the strength that he derived from the Redeemer. By that he was enabled to bear cold, fatigue, and hunger; by that, he met temptations and persecutions; and by that, he engaged in the performance of his arduous duties …

Trials, temptations, poverty, want, persecution, may await us; but we need not sink into despondency. At every step of life, Christ is able to strengthen us, and can bring us triumphantly through. What a privilege it is, therefore, to be a Christian – To feel, in the trials of life, that we have One Friend, unchanging and most mighty, who can always help us! How cheerfully should we engage in our duties, and meet the trials that are before us, leaning on the arm of our Almighty Redeemer! Let us not shrink from duty; let us not dread persecution, let us not fear the bed of death! In all circumstances, Christ, our unchanging Friend, can uphold us. Let the eye and the affections of the heart be fixed on Him; let the simple, fervent, believing prayer be directed always to Him when trials come, when temptations assail, when duty presses hard upon us, and when a crowd of unholy and forbidden thoughts rush into the soul: and we shall be safe.” – JOSEPH BENSON,Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

DK. I love this Commentary greatly because it covers so much challenging ground, yet always with Divine Uplift. We are clearly reminded here that so long as Christ is ‘Our Dread Champion,’ there is simply nothing that we cannot achieve nor face since we are never ever alone to do so.

The Calling of Paul. His Mission was in some ways The Calling to us all, but especially to leaders and Pastors and Priests and Evangelists and Teachers and all Travelers for the King.

Let us not shrink from it but rather run to it, embrace it, even revel in it! This is the heart of loving courage that God so loves and honors in return. Selah.

“[For] the Lord is with me as a dread champion [One to be greatly feared]; Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not overcome [me]. They will be completely shamed, for they have not acted wisely and have failed [in their schemes]; Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.” – JEREMIAH 20:11, AMP

WE ARE CALLED TO SPIRITUAL WAR. Not to the soft pillows of the American Gospel. Not to the accumulation of wealth and power in this life. And not to the Broad Road leading to flesh and shameful failure. But to a much Grander Purpose – The very souls of those who will otherwise perish without our obedience to Christ.

And no less importantly, for His honor.

IV. LIVING LARGE FOR THE KING

Now at first glance at that Subheading, you might think I’m calling us to some sort of fame and prosperity gospel, but nothing could be further from the Truth. To this point: If Jesus promised us that we can do “ALL things”through He who will divinely strengthen us along the way, then why not set our sights high rather than low.

Minimalism does not honor The King!

THE STORY OF “SHORT EYES.” My five-foot tall Hispanic mother (thus the nickname), birth named Daris Elizabeth Rodriguez, is a study in fierce devotion to and love for Messiah. Possessed of a feisty, red-headed temperament with faith that stretched from horizon to horizon. To be blunt: She really believed this passage from the Apostle Paul and took it to the limits of that prodigious faith.

Specifically, she asked for (I want to say, “demanded”) the salvation of every single member of her Hispanic Rodriquez clan – young, old, male or female, drunk or sober, churched or pagan. We are talking about some 80 souls here, conservatively. By the time she passed in June 1994, having only been a Christian for some 15 years, she saw her prayers nearly perfectly fulfilled.

There were two who held out – one an alcoholic who took his own life while confined to a hospital bed, and his brother, a former Marine Corps sergeant and border patrol cop who was resentful of White Nationalism and adopted our ancestral Mexican-Indian ways.

Bearing in mind, however, that we cannot possibly know what may have occurred between each man and God at their last.

THE VISION. A former firefighter, fitness coach and businessman who ended up with a Master of Divinity from Knox Theological Seminary and a calling to start Cross Community Church in Deerfield, Florida, PASTOR TOMMY BORLAND gets us focused with his sermon, appropriately entitled, “Living Large” (Nov. 20, 2019).

Sounding a bit like me, he begins in this way.

“You may be wondering what I’m thinking when I present a title like that, and that is a good thing! If I were using the phrase ‘Living Large’ as the common slang term that it is, I would be suggesting living a life marked by extravagant, excessively wealthy, or self-indulgent living. May God forbid that such a message would ever appear in ‘Grace for the Race!’ [the title of his Blog]. ‘I’d like to encourage you today to be “living large” in the Biblical sense,’ and that boils down to understanding which kingdom you are living for—either the little kingdom of the Self or the infinitely larger Kingdom of the Savior … This is ‘Transcendent Living,’ which is the way God has designed us to live. This is ‘living large,’ because we are: ‘Living for the Lord, regardless of the cost or the circumstance.’” Selah.

UNSUNG HEROES. Please do not mistake, again, that this is somehow a calling to “human greatness” as Pastor Borland has rightly observed. No! It is for the Glory of God that we live large, beloved. The Gospel Coalition has penned a superb historical example of this principle by TREVIN WAX (May 31, 2011).

I cite just THREE relatively unknown Champions of the Faith from a much longer list to drive home the point that fame and notoriety have little to do with greatness in the eyes of God.

“IN COLOSSIANS 4 [VV. 7-10], the Apostle Paul lists TEN less-familiar names from the Early Church. Paul’s ‘shout-out’ to these saints reminds me of the vast majority of Christians who [normally] play important roles in the Kingdom of God. Even though these mentions are brief, they contain life-long lessons for us today.

TYCHICUS – ‘Tychicus, our dearly loved brother, faithful servant, and fellow slave in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know how we are and so that he may encourage your hearts’ … Tychicus had a job to do. He was to deliver news about Paul, as well as Paul’s letter to the people in Colossae. The result would be the encouragement of the Christian’s hearts …

ONESIMUS – ‘[Tychicus] is with Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here.’

Onesimus was a runaway slave. His name meant ‘Useful,’ but he had proven ‘useless’ to his master, Philemon. Yet Paul commended him as a faithful and dearly loved brother, adding ‘he is one of you.’ The Cross unites what the world would keep separate …

ARISTARCHUS. ‘Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you’ … Aristarchus was one of Paul’s companions in ministry, and here he is shown as a companion in suffering. We need people like Aristarchus, who stay focused on the Kingdom regardless of the consequences, who rejoice with us in times of joy and mourn with us in times of trial …

CONCLUSION. Mr. Wax wisely notes that when our most passionate desire is that Christ’s praises be sung, we too can be an unsung hero. It is all a matter of our self-determined definition of our Life’s Priorities.

V. LAST THOUGHTS

To be perfectly fair, all this writing I do about Radical Commitment to Christ is a lot easier for me than it is for many of you. As I approach my 80^th year, I realize that my race is very likely going to come to an end in the not-too-distant future, and I’m good with that. In fact, in most ways I look forward to it.

All that to say this: I think it gets easier the older we get to say, “Here am I, Lord, send me!” since I’ve done pretty much all I set out to do by this point. It’s harder for younger people who still have their life goals to achieve. But I tell you the truth, beloved, there is nothing like it once you make the plunge. In Sum:

“Live each day as if it’s your last!”

LIVING LARGE IN THE LAST DAYS. Now if you stop and think about it a bit, that saying makes a great deal of sense if we really believe we are living in the Last Times, and that Jesus is going to Return soon. If we actually believe this: Why not live like it?

In his now famous statement from his best-selling book, I, Steve (2011), STEVE JOBS wrote: “If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you’ll be right. Every morning I looked in the mirror and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I do today?’”

THE QUESTION. I believe with all my heart this is a legitimate question that every single Christian, especially in America in these tortured times, needs to ask: “What can I possibly do Lord, however unseen and quiet, to make a real difference in the lives of those around me?”

PASTOR T.O. BONSO. I love what this brother writes and preaches about all this in his sobering yet deeply encouraging article, “Living Each Day As If It Is Your Last Day On Earth” (Cedar Ministry, April 3, 2019). Listen to the wisdom of an elder statesman in the Church.

“‘LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath’ (PSALM 39:4-5, NLT).

For the saints and the sinners, ‘this earth is not our home.’ That means everybody will die one day. It could be a natural death or unnatural death. People can die at old age or at a young age. They can die due to old age, sickness, disaster, or unknown reasons. Somehow, something will happen to terminate our existence on earth …

Everybody prays for long life, but we must live, ready for Death or the Rapture every time. We must live our lives as if each day is the last day on earth. In Hebrews 11:13, the Bible says that all HEROES OF THE FAITH died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were ‘strangers and pilgrims on the earth.’”

CODA. Beloved, these truly are THE LAST DAYS, therefore we ought to live each day in the Blaze of that incandescent Reality. ‘To transcend the Chaos by ‘Speaking the Truth in Love’ to all willing to hear it, to breathe deep the rarified air all around us that increasingly shout to all:

He’s Coming!

Being at the same ever mindful of this as well:

“‘Behold, I tell you a mystery:’ We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’ …

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. ‘Therefore comfort one another with these words.’” – 1 CORINTHIANS 15:51-54; 1 THESSALONIANS 4:16-18, NKJV

“Therefore comfort one another with these words,” beloved. Live life one day at a time, bold as The Lion we serve, tender toward all who hurt, as if it were your Last Day. Just before The King explodes in the skies with a Trumpet Blast and a Shout:

“Come up! Come up all you faithful to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!”

Ever your servant, DK

Cliff Kelly, Ph.D.

Digital Circuit Rider

YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/dlnrUymZ4Wg