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Why My Kids Do Not Believe in Santa

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pastortravislv's avatarPastor Travis Peterson

My children do not believe in Santa Claus. To some, this is an obvious move. To others, this is a shock. What’s the deal? Am I some sort of anti-holiday Scrooge? Am I some sort of overzealous fundamentalist? Why in the world would I not have my little ones believe in Santa?

 

I am probably asked every year about what our family has decided to do about Santa at Christmas time. And, every year, I share a version of this post to try to explain the process that my wife and I went through in deciding our answer to the big question: To Santa or not to Santa.

Since you know the answer already, let me very briefly tell you the reasoning that made the no Santa policy in my home. Then, I will share with you a bit of how we deal with Santa.

 

Christmas is a…

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Accepting Christ–Repenting and Believing

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When I was growing up, I heard one word over and over again in discussions about how to be saved. People who taught me and shared the gospel with me encouraged me to “accept” Christ as my Lord and Savior. The funny thing was, as a child and even as a young man, I really barely understood what they meant.

I’m grateful to God for those who shared Christ with me. I’m grateful for those who called me to be saved. I want to be clear that God used those preachers and friends to bring me to himself. But I have to say that I do not think that the word “accept” was the most helpful word, the most biblical word, they could have used.

With the word “accept,” those who taught me were, I believe, trying to communicate to me a couple of significant concepts. Sadly, that word, left to itself, is too small and too unspecific. They wanted to tell me to accept, in the world of faith, that Jesus is who the Bible says he is and that he did what the Bible says he did. But also, in the hearts of the more faithful, the word accept had to also be including the concept of my yielding to Jesus’ lordship, his mastery and authority over my life. Thus, in that word, my dear pastors and friends were calling me to faith and repentance.

Isaiah 55:6-7

6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

When Isaiah called on the nation to return to the Lord, note his language. There was an urgency, as the time for salvation was limited. The people could miss it. This fits the urgency of any evangelism. People need to come to Jesus before they face the judgment of God.

Look then at verse 7. We see the concepts needed for salvation. One includes the wicked forsaking his way. A person who is to be forgiven by God must forsake his or her wickedness. That does not mean that the person cleans himself or herself up before bowing to the Lord and seeking salvation. But it is understood that a choice to follow God by definition includes a choice to no longer follow one’s own sinful desires.

Perhaps I can illustrate that with marriage. To choose one person as a spouse is to, by definition, forsake all others. Similarly, to come to God as Savior demands a turning away from choices of rebellion against God. To come to Christ to be saved is to say that you will no longer be the lord and master of your own life. It is repentance, or as my dear former pastors and deacons called accepting Jesus as your Lord.

But next, God talks about the person returning to the Lord who will have compassion and who will pardon. that is more than just turning from sin. This concept is one of believing something. In Isaiah it is believing that God will have that compassion. In the New Testament, it is better defined. To come to the Lord is to have genuine faith in Jesus. It is to believe that Jesus is who the Bible declares him to be and did what the Bible says he did. Jesus is God the Son who became a man, lived a perfect life, died to pay the price for our sins, and rose from the grave to live eternally. Thus, accepting Christ is also to believe in him, accepting the truth of what the Bible says about him.

Honestly, I would not use the term “accept” Christ as the best term for what it means to be saved. I think we communicate more clearly when we use the Bible’s language of repenting of sin and believing in Jesus for salvation. But, I am grateful to God that men of God, men who did not pretend to be scholars, used the best word they knew to help me to see the truth that I needed to accept Jesus, believing in him and his finished work even as I bow to him as my Master.

Giving God Our Leftovers

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We just rounded the corner of the Thanksgiving holiday. So many feasted. So many fixed the big turkey and dressing, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, and all the rest. So many talked about loving the leftovers, those turkey sandwiches and reheated sides. And for us, in this setting, leftovers are good.

But, leftovers are not what you serve when your guest is somebody special. You could not imagine having an honored guest over to your home and telling him or her, “Just scrounge in the fridge; we’ve got leftovers.” If you were meeting your favorite athlete, actor, or musician, your favorite preacher or author, you would not tell them to just slap a sandwich together with whatever they can find. When you are wanting to do something special for a guest, you try in general to give them your best. And giving your best is not usually giving them leftovers.

As a side note, I think we would be a better people if we became a little more comfortable not being fancy in our fellowship. Maybe we should be a bit more comfortable with leftovers. We would do well to learn to serve simple soup and bread, sandwiches and sides, instead of trying to impress each other. The church should be a family, a close and familiar group, who is comfortable being simple with each other. If we were more simple, we would host more people, be in each other’s lives better, and enjoy more of the fellowship God wants us to enjoy.

But with that aside, we all know that, when we are wanting to give a guest something special, we make sure things are right. We prepare our best dishes. WE serve on the pretty plates. We pick up the toys off the floor. We treat our guests like they are important.

How sad, then, that people who are supposed to be the people of God do not give their Lord the same consideration. Take a look at these words from Malachi 1, and imagine the audacity of Judah in the fifth century BC regarding the things of God.

Malachi 1:6-8

6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ 7 By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the LORD’s table may be despised. 8 When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts.

After the return of Judah from the Babylonian captivity, the people still had a long road to get back to worship in the temple. The rebuilding of the temple took time and effort. The rebuilding of Jerusalem took time and effort. The return to the word of God and right rituals took time and effort. Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi all had major roles to play in calling the people to do what was simply right before the Lord.

But by the time Malachi is preaching to the people of God, the people had begun to give God only their leftovers. They were bringing second-best or even tenth-best to worship. Instead of offering the spotless animals required by the Lord, the people were offering what they could spare, the ugly animals, the blind and lame animals, the ones they did not want reproducing in their flocks. And the Lord is not pleased.

In the text, the Lord says that these people have despised his name. They have not honored him like a father or a master. They have not given him the same level of respect they would give their governor. And the Lord was not going to allow that to stand.

While we could stay here and talk about what was wrong with the people of Judah, we need to think about ourselves. It is not so important what they were failing to do. Instead, it is far more important that we figure out if we are doing the same.

So, here is the question for us all. Are we giving God our leftovers? Are we giving God only what we determine we can spare? Are we giving the Lord only the time, the energy, the offerings that we generally want rid of anyway?

Ask yourself how easy is it for you to skip time for worship? How easy is it for you to decide that you are too busy, too tired, too in need of a break to simply make it to church. Is that not giving God your leftovers?

How about your participation in the spiritual disciplines? Do you read the word? Do you pray? Do you meet with Christians to talk about the word of God and obedience? Are you giving God your best?

How about relationally in the church? Do you give to the church financially for the support of the work and as an act of worship? Do you work to develop friendships in the body? Do you help others in the body by investing in their spiritual health? Are you open enough with a few others in the body so they can invest in you?

All in all, are you giving the Lord your best as you follow him? Remember, every week, you have the honor of a real meeting, a real audience, with the King over all creation. God allows you to stand in his presence, sing his praise, and hear his proclamation. God allows you to eat and drink to remember the body and blood of his Son who gave his life to save your soul. God gives you the privilege of bowing with fellow believers to seek his favor and present him, the King, with your petitions. And that is just Sunday morning.

During the week, The King of kings has given you a family to reach out to, to care for, to laugh with, to encourage, to counsel. God has given you people to love and so demonstrate to a watching world that we really are his disciples. God has given you people to call you to holiness and for you to call to holiness. God has given you people to help and so show his kindness. God has given you people to unite with as we collectively become the bride of Christ.

Friends, I know this all is piercing, at least it is for me. But my heart here is that we would not only be convicted. My heart is that we would see the great honor and joy that it is to give God our very best. He is worth more than our leftovers. No, our relationship with God is not founded on our ability to give him anything. Our relationship with God is all of Grace, unmerited favor. We all have different capacities to give and to serve as we go through different stages of life; so what you might be able to do has nothing to do with what another can do. But why would we not, in the light of that grace, desire to give our Lord more than and better than simply what we think we can spare?

A Single Day of Change

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How long does it take for the Lord to make a major change? We need to stop and consider that question from time to time. After all, we look at our world, and we are not always hopeful. We see the oncoming persecution and rejection we face, and we think there is just no way that things are going to get better.

While it is true that the Lord does not promise us anything like an easy life in the here and now, we also should not forget the fact that the Lord can accomplish world-changing moves in a single moment. The Lord can bring about great salvation and sudden destruction in a single day.

I thought of this concept when reading through Zechariah 3. Most Christians know this chapter of Zechariah because of its depiction of Joshua the high priest who stands accused by the devil. Joshua is given clean clothes and a clean turban by the Lord. And this reminds us of the work of Jesus to cleanse us before the Lord and to come to our defense against the devil who accuses us.

After Joshua gets his clean clothes and is clearly under the protection of the Lord, we read something else that is lovely to see.

Zechariah 3:8-10 – 8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. 9 For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. 10 In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”

I see three things that I love to see this morning. There is a servant, the branch, who will come. He will remove iniquity in a single day. And the result of his coming will be life and joy.

The servant or the branch is a reference to the Messiah. While Zechariah presents something here that is pretty complicated with images, one thing is for sure: Jesus is coming. God’s servant, the branch of God, is going to arrive. As we find ourselves at the beginning of the advent season, we should remember how great was the longing and the hope of godly people that the Messiah would come. And we look forward to the second coming of Messiah as well.

Without trying to touch the imagery of the stone, we can still see the declaration of the Lord. In a single day, he will remove the iniquity of the land. In one day, the Lord will fix what generations of humanity could not get right. In a single hour, the Lord will set right what kings and priests could not do on their own. Yes, we saw in the Old Testament that the high priest would make atonement for the sin of the land on one special day of the year. But here, It looks like a greater, a more forever, atonement is being made. IN a moment, the world is changed. In a single act of grace, God is doing what man cannot do.

And the result in verse 10 is that those who are atoned for will have life and joy. These men sitting under their own vine and inviting others to come are people who have been blessed by God so that they can share that blessing with others.

This is our great hope. Jesus came. Jesus is the Messiah and the branch. Jesus, on a single day, made one and only one offering for sin. Jesus laid down his life to substitute for us in the judgment we should receive. Jesus took our place, bearing the wrath of God on our behalf, so that we could be forgiven. IN his perfect blood and imputed righteousness, Jesus cleanses us as we see symbolized in Joshua and his clean clothes.

In a single moment, Jesus changed the world. In a single hour, the one God had promised would come crushed the head of the serpent. In a single moment, Jesus took the wrath of God for us and bought for us eternal life. In a day, he took our iniquity.

And in that act, Jesus grants us the blessing of God. We are promised life. We are promised the rewards that God has for his children. We are promised adoption into God’s family. We are promised heaven. We are promised fellowship with God. We have greater than a vine to sit under with our neighbors; we are promised membership in the family of God and his holy church.

The Christian should see this passage represents God’s past faithfulness, as the Lord really did take away our iniquity in a single day in Christ. It represents God’s future faithfulness, as we look forward to the return of Christ when he will reign with his people forever. And it reminds us that God can change the world. It reminds us that God can do the impossible. In a single day, the Lord takes away sin, sets up reward, and shows us his glory. Let us find life and hope in this glorious word.

To Be Like Jesus is Painful

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Christian, do you want to be like Jesus? Does your church want to be a representation of the body of Christ in your community? Do you want to live out the word, Christian, which means a little imitation of Christ? If so, it will hurt.

John 7:7 – The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.

Jesus, speaking to his half-brothers, makes a very simple, very telling statement. The world will not hate those men, as they are just like the world. But the world will hate Jesus. Why will the world hate Jesus? Jesus testifies that the deeds of the world are evil in the sight of God. And that testimony garners the hatred of the world.

So, do you really want to be like Jesus? If so, the world will hate you too. We can’t tone that down and tell the truth. Social popularity is not our destination until the Lord returns and all is made right under the rule of Christ.

Now, a quick disclaimer: This does not mean that you should go out and do hateful things. Nor does this mean that you should be a mean-spirited person. Jesus never did such things. Jesus did not walk around with a chip on his shoulder just trying to find a way to offend the world. He came expressing the love of God even as he upheld God’s standards in all things. Jesus was pro marriage. Jesus was anti sexual immorality. Jesus was anti drunkenness. Jesus was not open to a variety of world religions. Jesus taught that there is only one way to God, through him. Jesus was clear that faith and repentance are how we get under his grace.

Jesus was never mean, but he was hated. His message, the word of God, is hated by a world that will not surrender to that word. The world around us does not want the God of the Bible. The world around us does not wish to be bound by the morality defined by the Creator. And so the world around us will hate what speaks of their deeds as evil in the sight of God.

We need to be a kind and gracious people. But we need to not be so deluded as to think that the world is going to think we are just a great part of their society. Yes, the world will receive charity from the church. They will generally like it when we build hospitals, feed the homeless, and help clean up the park. But, understand, they will love us until, and only until, we speak the true message of the Lord. The moment that our message and the morality of the Lord goes up against the new morality of this culture, they will turn on the people they smiled at when we did our random acts of kindness.

Am I saying not to be kind or not to engage the community? No. But I am saying not to be deceived. In the end, the word of God is divisive. In the end, Jesus is exclusive. In the end, the message of Christ will offend our world just like it did when the world shouted, “Hosanna!” on Sunday and, “Crucify him!” on Friday.

God’s Priorities or Ours

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If you want to know a person, really know them, you must get to know what is important to them. Typically, in friendships and good relationships, we will find that the high priorities of one person will be somehow shared by another. Those things help us get along.

Consider a business. IF one leader in a corporation says that the number one priority he has is creating the highest quality product possible while another says that her top priority is making money, there will be problems in the board meetings. When decisions arise as to whether or not to cut a corner on the product for a higher profit margin, there will be conflict. The two priorities are not the same. Solid businesses know that they must share top priorities in leadership.

But I wonder if many of our churches today share high priorities with the Lord our God. I know, that might sound a little edgy to say, but consider what the verse below says is exalted above all.

Psalm 138:2

I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.

What is top priority to God? Many would love to say people. Many would love to say church growth. Many would love to say making an impact on the fallen world. And those things all matter to the Lord.

But the word of God tells us that his top priority is his name and his word. God’s honor, God’s reputation, God’s glory, God’s worship is number one. Right there with it is the word of God, his commands, his Scripture. These are tops. These are the things that his followers must share with him as top values if we are to really please him.

Consider what this must say to us about what we do as churches. First and foremost, honoring his name and lifting high his word is central to all we are. If we decide that we are going to be about something else, we are going to mis worshipping our God in a way that pleases him. There are many things that exalting his name and word will lead us to do. But we cannot be wise and lose sight of the fact that his name and his word are first priorities.

Just think of the worship service here as one example. What is it for? If you think that God’s top priority is the salvation of the lost, you will be tempted to make the service as showy and entertaining as possible. You will change the messages to be things that people who do not know God will still enjoy. You’ll develop a combination concert and Ted Talk. But, if you see that God’s name and God’s word are number one, your music will be first and foremost about speaking the truth about the Lord in a beautiful way. You will see that ceremonies that feel odd to the world around us will be vital. You will see that the direct preaching of the word will be more important than the entertainment value of the message. That is not to say that you will intentionally be dull. Rather, it is to say that your focus will be to achieve the result of exalting God’s name in accord with God’s word.

How Good and Pleasant

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In the Psalms, we run across great glory and deep sorrow. We find praise and lament. We find expression of love and imprecations. We find gigantic texts in praise of Scripture and sweeping histories of Israel. And we find tiny little psalms, songs we almost forget, that have beautiful truths to share.

Psalm 133

1 A Song of Ascents. Of David.
Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.

Psalm 133 is all of 3 verses long. And what do we learn from it? What does it praise? We see the beauty of the unity of brothers. There is something good, something glorious, something magnificent when brothers dwell together in unity.

David tells us in this short text that, when brothers live united, it is like oil poured over the head. It is like the sweet and sacred anointing oil flowing over the head and shoulders of the high priest. It is sacred, special, and sensational. There is a good feeling, a refreshing feeling.

David also says that unity is like dew on a mountain. This is the original mountain dew, not a caffeinated sugary mess. It is just lovely to see and refreshing to the soul.

When brothers dwell together in unity, there is a blessing of life from the Lord. That is what the whole Psalm is pointing us too. Unity among the brethren is a sign of the blessing of God on us and a cause of further blessing.

Now, in David’s context, he is dealing with the nation of Israel. It is good when this nation, as the people of god, lives united. It is good when the people are kind to one another. It is good when they resolve conflicts simply. It is good when they are headed in the right direction together. It is sacred, beautiful, and it brings a blessing.

But what about our context? Of course the same is true. It is good when the people of God, the church of the Lord Jesus, find loving Christian unity. It is good when we live together graciously. It is good when we are humble enough to care about others and their needs. It is good when we let go of our preferences in nonessential areas so as to be kind to others. It is good when we lay down our lives for one another. It is good like we see in this Psalm. It is good like sweet and sacred oil on the head or the dew on the mountain. When we are united, when we care, when we help each other, we are showing that we have the blessing of God and that we are receiving even more blessing from our Lord.

Yes, this is a Psalm we can quote in about 10 seconds. Yes, it is short and simple. But it is surely needed. All churches need brothers and sisters in Christ who come alongside one another. WE all need people to care about us and people we can care about. We all need to learn to live this life together as we honor the Lord.

And, of course, as a disclaimer, we do not unify when major sin or major doctrinal error is threatening the honor of the Lord in our body. We go after that sin and lovingly press for repentance. We must never use the word unity as a club to prevent a person from calling us to be faithful to the word of God. But even as we call one another to righteous living and faithful biblical interpretation, we do so as brothers and sisters. And if we have been living together in unity, if we have been showing godly love, we will do a much better job of helping each other to turn from sin and honor the Lord.

Christians, let us pray that we will have a Psalm 133 church. May our fellowship be sweet and sacred. May our lives be united under the word of God. May we find the church family that refreshes our souls like the dew refreshes mountain plants. May we receive the blessing of the Lord, life forevermore.

Evangelism as Warning

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In the world of the modern church, I can think of few places where pastors beat up their church members more than the area of evangelism. I have known pastors who can be sweet and encouraging toward people who are hurting, who are kind to those who are slow learners, who are patient with those who just can’t seem to throw off a habitual sin, but who will absolutely grind you to powder if your practice of evangelism does not match theirs—or what they wish theirs was.

Let’s be sure we have a couple of things clear as Christians. God certainly commands us to go and make disciples. Evangelism is a right, loving practice. When you share the gospel, you love God, love your neighbor, and benefit yourself. Preaching Christ matters.

Part of the problem for us could be that we have mistaken the outcome of evangelism with the command to evangelize. We think that we are commanded to make people believe. Thus, we are afraid that our practice of sharing the gospel will do harm and not good. This is a theologically illogical view, but it is common.

But let me remind us that the true success in evangelism is honoring God by obeying his commands and speaking the truth. We are to tell people the truth and leave the results to God. That does not mean we are passionless or unconcerned regarding the souls of our friends. But it does mean that we do not bear the weight of responsibility regarding their response or the hidden workings of God’s Holy Spirit.

Consider the watchman passage from Ezekiel 33.

Ezekiel 33:1-6 – – 1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3 and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.

What is the watchman’s job? The job of the watchman is to sound an alarm. He is to give a warning. He is to tell the truth. The Watchman is guilty if he has knowledge of danger that he refuses to share. But the watchman is not guilty if he shares and people do not care.

I think we would do well to remember that in many cases, our job is to warn of real dangers. We are to play the watchman role. We are to tell the world around us that there is a danger they face and a solution to that danger. We do not have to own responsibility for their responses. But we do need to carry the weight of knowing the truth and the need to share that truth with those who will hear us.

In fact, I wonder if the warning motif might be a helpful way to share the gospel. We often attempt to share with others by trying to convince them of all the neat benefits they could have if they would just be in the faith. And, of course, the benefits of knowing the Lord are infinitely wonderful. But what about a kind warning? You think about it. What would it sound like to offer a friend or family member a caring warning for their souls? How would it be different if the conversation began with, “Because I care about you, I want to let you know about a danger we all face?” This is not the conversation that says I am good and they are bad. Nor is it me offering an opinion about what I think about modern ethics. It is simply me saying that God’s word gives us clear data, and we need to be under his grace if we are to avoid his judgment.

If they respond with a lack of caring about the word or the message, I do not have to continue a major argument. But what I can do for sure is know that I have offered an honest warning of a real danger. I can be sure that people understand that my warning comes from me caring about them and not from me feeling superior to them.

In our world, I hear warnings from people regularly. People love to tell us what too much social media does to our brains. People tell us what too much sugar does to our bodies. People tell us that gluten is pure evil. Why not be willing to sound a simple alarm about the need to be under the grace of God?

The Danger of False Prophets

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During the days of Ezekiel, as Jerusalem was about to fall to the Babylonians, God expressed great anger against false prophets. Men and women were still in Israel, still speaking as though from God, and still misleading people. The nation was being misled by people who used their authoritative-sounding speech to make money.

Ezekiel 13:1-7

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, who are prophesying, and say to those who prophesy from their own hearts: ‘Hear the word of the Lord!’ 3 Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! 4 Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel. 5 You have not gone up into the breaches, or built up a wall for the house of Israel, that it might stand in battle in the day of the Lord. 6 They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘Declares the Lord,’ when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word. 7 Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination, whenever you have said, ‘Declares the Lord,’ although I have not spoken?”

In the Pentateuch, God made it clear that a person who was a false prophet in Israel was to be put to death. Here, we see that, though such was the law, many people still found the idea of declaring a false statement to be from the Lord too tempting. And God will bring judgment on such people.

And here we are, it is around 2600 years later. Is there something to learn? Yes. God hates false prophets still. God will still not tolerate it when a person claims to speak for him but does not. God still knows it is utterly wrong to comfort the guilty or to condemn the innocent in the name of the Lord. And God will move to protect his word.

Think about that as you consider what you listen to as teaching from the Lord. Think about that as you consider what you hear people say who claim to have knowledge of what God wants. Think about that, and be very careful with how you allow your ears to take in something with God’s name attached.

The true prophet in the Old Testament only communicated to the people what God had really said. In most cases, that was less a prediction of the future and more a proclamation of what God’s written word had already promised.

Now, in our world, we live in a very new era. The Holy Spirit now personally indwells believers. And the Holy Spirit has inspired a completed canon of Scripture. What then will a prophet have to do? The answer should be that a man or woman who wants to tell you what God has said should be telling you what is clearly written and taught in the Scripture. God has indeed spoken. We have his word written down. And we need to be called to obey that word, to be convicted by that word, and to be encouraged by that word.

The Holy Spirit does not live in us to give us mystical visions of the future. The Holy Spirit will work with the written word of God to help us be illumined, allowing us to understand and apply the word of God to our lives and circumstances. And a person who wants to tell you or me what God says needs to be rightly handling the word of God aided by the Spirit of God.

IF you have a person tell you that they know God is telling them something, be very careful. Is what God is telling them what he wrote down? Is what the person claims consistent with the word of God? If it is in violation of the word, it is clearly false. If it is in keeping with the word, then you know that extrabiblical revelation was not needed for you to have that word.

When we see God speak strongly against false prophets, we should be drawn strongly to the word of god. Pray a lot. Love the word. Be constant in Scripture. Listen to faithful, biblical teaching. But be very wary of a person who tells you that God is telling them something not in the word.

A Prophet Has Been Among them

pastortravislv

There are some single lines in the Bible that ring in my ears every time I hear them. One such line is found in Ezekiel 2. I hear the sound of this sentence, and it sort of has the impact of hearing the Rocky theme for a preacher who cares about what he is doing.

Ezekiel 2:3-5- 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. 4 The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ 5 And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.

God is sending Ezekiel to a people who have been stubborn and disobedient. His job will be to tell this rebellious people the word of God. And any preacher would wonder what he should think about the mission. What if I’m not successful? What if they will not listen?

God says to Ezekiel, and this is what rings in my ears, “And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.” No matter what they do, whether they listen or not, they will know that a prophet has been among them.

Christians, does this not set your blood aflame? We are in a stubborn and fallen world. We have a gospel to proclaim. They may not listen. But do we not want them to know that there have been preachers of God’s word among them?

And pastors, does this not set your heart aflame? We will stand in pulpits. We will bring the word of God to a people, some of whom care and some of whom are ticking a box on their to-do lists. But you and I, we can preach the word. We can tell the truth. We can refuse to compromise. We can make sure they know that a prophet of God has been among them.