Spicy and Hot

Spicy and Hot

Acts 3:19 American Standard Version

Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord;

   A funny thing happened the other night.  I like General Tso’s chicken, which is labeled “spicy and hot,” but usually is neither spicy nor hot.  I picked up a package at the store in the frozen food section and brought it home.  After it heated up in the oven, I put it in a bowl and poured the sauce over it.  Sitting at the table, I stabbed the first piece with my fork and bit into it.  The box, which read “spicy and hot,” was not lying.  It was the spiciest and hottest General Tso’s chicken I have ever eaten.  After being promised “spicy and hot” so often and only getting bland, it was a shock to actually get “spicy and hot.”  And it tasted so good; I ate every bite of it in spite of the burning pain in my mouth. 

   OK, nice story, but so what?  Well, one thing I’ve heard dozens of times in church is people praying for revival and pastors preaching for revival.  And I’ve attended a few revival services over the years, too.  All of these are labeled, in church-y speak, “spicy and hot.”  And what I’ve experienced has been bland.  In fact, most of the church I’ve experienced in my life has been, frankly, bland.

   When I read Paul’s epistles, I don’t see bland.  He lived and preached and taught a “spicy and hot” Christian experience.  Romans 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Paul preaches a radical life that’s out-of-step with the world.  He pleads with us to draw closer to God, to focus on His Word, to forget all else and serve God with our whole being, and know that we can only live fulfilling lives when we live for Christ.  Nowhere in his many writings do I see him say it’s okay to live a bland Christian life.  Nowhere in his many writings do I see him call us to mediocrity.  He calls us to be different – to be radical. 

   If you’re happy with a boring Christian experience, don’t read Paul’s epistles.  If you’re happy with going nowhere and doing nothing, don’t read Paul’s epistles.  He’ll try to appeal to you to step out of boring and bland spiritual life and into a Christianity that’s more exciting and fulfilling. 

   I’ll warn you, though.  Revival will upset your life.  Revival will upset your church.  Revival will cause you to lose friends.  John Kilpatrick, formerly of the Brownsville, FL. church that saw revival in the 90’s, wrote that revival rocked his life and his world and his ministry, and also affected him some ways he never thought about.  His church lost parishioners, some big supporters in the church.  The church’s electric bill and water bill soared and they kept running out of soap, paper towels and toilet paper.  There were problems with the city police about streets being blocked and cars parked everywhere. 

   But also there were lives changed forever.  Souls came to Christ by the hundreds.  Christians visiting went back home re-energized.  Revival is “spicy and hot” and will change your life.

   Before you ask God to revive you, be sure you’re ready to experience revival.  Before you preach about revival in your church, be sure you want revival in your church.  When you pray about revival, God may just grant your prayer and give you what you ask.  You’re used to picking out bland food from His Word, are you ready for something “spicy and hot?”  It will burn you and shock you and yet you’ll find you like it and want more of it.  I find the more I read God’s Word, the more I want from it.  The more I pray and wait in His Presence, the more I want to just stay there.  Being in God’s Presence frightens me, and makes me feel every failure, but also calls to me and makes me want more. 

   Revive us, O Lord.

Stephen Cram                            October 21, 2012                      Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8 

Location Location Location

Location Location Location

Hebrews 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

   The Golden Rule of real estate is location, location, location.  Property located in a good neighborhood is most desirable and has the greatest value and demands the highest price.  Even though residences in other areas may be more beautiful and have larger yards, they simply can't demand the same high prices as a residence located in a better neighborhood.

   Homes located near shopping and near schools are the best to find and bring the highest prices.  If you live outside the city, you have to fight traf­fic every morning on the way to the office; then you have to do it all over again every night on the way home.  Living near where everything is makes it much easier and more convenient.

   In this verse in Hebrews, the word translated "without" comes from the Greek word which means to be outside of some­thing, such as someone who lives outside the city.  The word brings me to make a comparison, for example, in the house or out of the house, in the city or out of the city.  The word tells that someone is in a spe­cific place.    

     Here the word is used to describe faith.  This is saying that someone can live a life outside of faith.   This means faith must be a real place that has boundaries.  Just as you can live in a good neighborhood or not, you can live in faith or outside of faith.  Needless to say God wants you to be located at the address of faith because this is the location He deems the most valuable and prof­itable for your life.

   The part of this verse that troubles me the most is that if you are living outside of faith, you will find it is impossible to please God.  Impossible – something you simply cannot do.

Are you living in obedience to His Word and to the understanding He has given you?  That is where He wants you to live and where you will be able to grow and be able to influence the world around you.  If you move out of that location in your life called faith, you are moving to cheaper territory that God doesn't value as highly.  You will find yourself in a place in your life where you will experience the hardships and inconveniences brought on by poor choices and unbelief.

   The entire eleventh chapter of Hebrews is about men and women who lived "in" faith. They each received a word from God and they worked towards fulfilling that goal.  Sometimes they strayed from that location of faith but the successful ones always went back home to God and picked up their lives and went on to victory.  Their lives impacted their world and they pleased God.

   The devil will try to tempt you from being faithful.  He'll throw situations at you to make you take your eyes off Jesus and to fill you with worry and fear.  If you fall for these temptations, it won't be long before your bags will be packed and you'll be moving to a less desirable address.  Be careful not to move out of your faith location to a new place in the world.  These are bad neighborhoods and you will not be happy living there.

   Refuse to allow the devil to persuade you to fix your eyes on circum­stances.   Don't take the enemy's path that leads away from faith.  Remember that God is a "rewarder." for those who continually live at the address of faith - those who refuse to be moved by cir­cumstances and reject any temptations around them.  Don’t surrender to doubt; just hang onto God and believe His Word.  This verse tells of those who diligently seek him.  It takes diligence to stay in faith.  Living "in" faith isn’t a side issue in life; it has to be a priority in life. 

Stephen Cram                            October 14, 2012                     Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8 

Redeeming Gomer

Redeeming Gomer

Hosea 3:1-3
1 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.
3 And I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you.”

   As if the strange story of Hosea wasn’t strange enough, now God tells Hosea to go and find Gomer and buy her back and take her back to his home and love her.  God wanted to illustrate how He loved an unfaithful Israel and would one day buy her back from her evil lifestyle for a price.
   Why did God command Hosea to go back to his still-unfaithful wife? Not only for the sake of Hosea and his wife Gomer, but also so that they would become a living lesson of the God’s relationship with us.  Even while we still are attracted to the world and spend time with the world God still loves us.
   Hosea goes and finds Gomer but she is enslaved and he has to buy her for a price.  He loved her so much he paid the price and bought her freedom - fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.
      Hosea is also told to love her, even though she had willingly committed adultery with other men.  Even though she had been unfaithful, Hosea brought her back into his home and loved her again.
   Some commentators believe Hosea was merely paying her going rate and hiring her to come home with him.  Some believe she had become a slave and was being purchased.  I lean towards this second scenario.  This is a well-known practice in prostitution rings.  When a woman becomes too sick to be valuable or are injured or just have a mental collapse, and they are no longer profitable they are disposed of.  Many today are merely thrown out in the street.  In days when slavery was common, they would be sold into slavery.  The price Hosea paid was high but not too high so might be the price for a former harlot who was no longer earning money but had been sold into slavery.
   This happens to people trapped in sins and living “eat, drink and merry” lives.  If they become overwhelmed by their sins, and their physical and mental condition deteriorates, they find themselves left alone.  I have met so many, too many, who have suffered this fate.  Drunks who never sober up and drug addicts who are sick all the time and never draw a breath without pain.  People who have had mental breakdowns and retreated into themselves and can’t react normally with others.  Sex addicts who have contracted some incurable disease.  The list of cast aside humanity makes me sick at heart to even think about.  They are cast aside because the enemy has no further use for them.  They cannot entice anyone else to sin so he is done with them and they find themselves enslaved by their lifestyle and then cast into the mud, unwanted even by the devil.  Who would even look at them, to say nothing of loving them?
   God loves them.  He has reached into countless mudholes and pigstys and drawn out broken vessels who seem too far gone to even be considered human anymore.  His hand is held out to the lost and to the broken and to the hopeless.  And the lost can find their way back and the broken can be mended and the hopeless can find a new spark of hope in their lives.  I’ve witnessed many who have been miraculously transformed by the love of God.
   I confess I don’t like the story of Hosea and Gomer much; it shines a light onto a strange and uncomfortable story.  But the message of Hosea taking his wife back to himself gives hope to a dying, lost world.  God will not stop calling you as long as you have the ability to hear His voice.  His hand will reach out to you until you draw your last breath and pass from this life.  God loves you in whatever condition you have put yourself into.  He paid a high price for your freedom and you need only respond to His call.  Jesus blood shed on the cross has an amazing capacity to clean even the dirtiest heart and make it clean and new.  The hand that reaches out to you has a scar on it from a nail.  The face is scarred from the beatings and the thrones.
   You have been redeemed at a price, and He wants you to come home to Him.

Stephen Cram                            October 7, 2012                      Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8

Married to a Harlot

Married to a Harlot

Hosea 1:2 NKJV
When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:
“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great harlotry
By departing from the Lord.”

   I have read and heard many talk about Hosea and admit they do not understand why God commanded him to take a harlot as a wife.  (Also known as a prostitute or a lady of the evening.)    But the explanation is right here in the verse where God gave the command.  “For the land has committed great harlotry…”  The “land” mentioned here is the nation, and people, of Israel.  And the harlotry they committed was to leave the God Who loved them and provided for them and protected them and begin worshipping other gods.
   We often think people just one day wake up, throw away their Holy Scriptures, and buy a stone or wood idol and set it up in their home and bow down to it.  This is hardly ever the case.  What happens is that in one house a wife does not have a baby the first year and she buys a small, wooden fertility goddess.  She prays to Yahweh and then prays to Astarte, the Canaanite goddess of fertility.  And in a neighbor’s home a man has planted his fields and watched his crops wither and die.  He prays to Yahweh and then buys a small carved stone image of Dagon, the god of harvest and crops.  Idolatry did not fall on Israel overnight, it worked its way in one heart at a time, quietly, without calling attention to itself.
   Many commentators try to explain that Gomer was not a prostitute when Hosea first met and married her, but she only became that later and Hosea knew from God that she would become one.  What I see in the text is that she was a prostitute already and Hosea was commanded to take her as wife anyway knowing she would later betray his love.  It showed a lot of obedience for him to actually carry out this difficult command.  And it is clear from the text that when Hosea married Gomer, she did not give up her career as a prostitute.  It wasn't that Hosea found a fallen woman and through love and kindness restored her to virtue.  He married a prostitute and she stayed a prostitute.
   When Hosea and Gomer first married, she probably promised eternal love and devotion.  She probably showed every sign of being committed to Hosea, but after a while and after some hard times she fell back into prostitution.
   So why did the Lord God have Hosea go through all this?  He wanted us to have an example we could understand.  And if you read Hosea, (when we get to Heaven, I can tell Hosea I read his book, can you?) you will be able to see a sad story unfold right before your eyes.  And if you pray and ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes, you’ll see the parallels to Israel’s idolatry and then you will be able to see our own idolatry today.
   Jesus uses the comparison of our relationship to God and His for us as being like the relationship between a husband and wife.  God loves us and loves us completely.  He showed us His love by the extraordinary lengths He went to to provide us with salvation.  But is our love for Him as strong?  Is our devotion to Him as fervent?  Maybe in Heaven it will be, but in this life we are Gomer and treat God the way she treated Hosea.
   In this book we are shown in graphic detail how our idolatry and rejection of the Lord God feels to Him.  We casually put things in front of God, choosing to do whatever we want rather than give Him a few minutes to pray or read the Bible or witness to an unsaved person.  When we put anything before our time with the God it hurts Him like unfaithfulness hurts the victim of an adulterous marriage.  By commanding Hosea to take a harlot as a wife Hosea is put in the place where he can experience what God feels, the rejection of the one he loves.  Sadly, we share the same sad story in our relationship with God.  We start out so fervent in our faith and we love God with all our heart.  We sing praises to him and share what happened to us with others without shame or fear.  We promise Him our eternal love and devotion.  And we really mean it.  So what happens?  Life happens.  We go through a hard time and find ourselves hurt and confused.  We expected life to be roses and sunshine but now the thorns have stuck in our fingers and clouds fill the skies.  We begin to look for answers to questions that don’t have answers.  Why did God let (fill in the name of a loved one) die?  Why did I lose my job?  Why did I get sick?  Why does (fill in the name of person) hate me?
   I would like to say I still felt that way, but life has pushed me off that path many times.  Staying faithful to God is hard work and this world makes it hard to stay faithful.  Life takes effort and determination and sheer guts.  We must work hard and keep diligent in our spiritual lives.  We cannot let ourselves be drawn away from God every time some distraction comes into our lives.  We need to examine our hearts and our motives and see where we stand.
Mark 12:29&30
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.



Stephen Cram                           September 30, 2012                    Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8

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