Today is Good Friday. I went into an Eastern Orthodox Church to worship. They have such rich rituals and observances on all Feast days. The Church service started at 5.30 am but I reached only by 7.30 am. The worship and various rituals went on till 3.30 pm and then there was a traditional community meal. The whole drama of Crucifixion was enacted and at 3.00 pm a big black cross, symbolic of the body of the Lord was interned behind the Alter. It will remain there till Sunday early morning. At 2.00 am on Sunday the Cross will be taken out of the vault behind the alter and that will signal the Easter celebration. The whole series of events were very absorbing and all the participants went about it in dead seriousness.

What I want to share with you is something that happened in a procession around the Church today. Towards the end of the service the whole congregation went around the Church three times in a procession. The Priest was in the front with the Cross on his shoulder, reenacting the ‘Way of the Cross’. The cross was a fair sized one and was visible high above the heads of the people. I was walking with a special friend Joshua, a four year old child, grandson of a friend of mine. We were at the far end of the procession. Making conversation with the him I asked “Where are we really going Joshua?” With out wasting a moment he replied ” Don’t worry. We only have to follow the Cross.”

I could not talk for a long time. Joshua was curiously looking up at me. I kept looking at the Cross far ahead of us lifted up above on the shoulder of the Priest. I wish I would be able to keep my eyes on the Cross and follow it ALWAYS!

The way to life is narrow and will take a narrow mind.

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” –Jesus Christ, John 12:32
Isn’t it interesting that so many things are contagious rather than received because they inspire belief? If a church is having great success at bringing in believers from the other churches, pastors and committees flock there to discover and imitate the program. Sometimes the program is quite complex. Everything must be timed to the minute. Songs must be ordered in such a way as to lead people to worship. The facility must be user friendly, and the latest pet social ill must be addressed with the utmost sensitivity. Well, amen! An old friend of mine, whose pastor was on to a new church growth plan, stopped him by saying, “This plan costs too much and is too complex!” At that the pastor answered, “Don’t you see that both parking lots are full?” The old man responded, “The parking lot at Walmart is full every Sunday, too. Now here is my plan for growth. It is simple and doesn’t cost money. ‘If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me!’” The pastor shook his head and walked off, but what the old man said was true! We do so much work, when a focus on the crucified/resurrected Savior would ensure that He did the drawing. I am sick of the work of drawing. If God gets all the glory, then He does all the work. To hear many evangelists speak, you would think that they are doing the drawing. They have yet to learn the difference between a crowd and an audience. A fellow said to me the other day, “Wells, you know all the repetition of your message isn’t keeping people away; it’s why we come. I like hearing that Jesus is everything.” I know, then, that it is Jesus Who will draw the people. However, this simplicity takes faith; unbelief will always make things complex. The way to life is narrow and will take a narrow mind. Man will not enter in through the broad way or a broad mind. The narrow mind believes the simplest of things.

None of us have flesh that wants to die for the sins of others.

II Cor. 4: 7-12, But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; 8we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12So death works in us, but life in you.
Col. 1:24, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.
What an odd thing for Paul to say, “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions,” and yet every believer should be able to say this very thing. In the fullness of time, Jesus came and died for all sins past, present, and those in the future. We are now in Jesus, and Jesus is in us. Therefore, we share in Him in every way. His salvation is ours, His victory is ours, and the fellowship that He has with the Father is ours. But so is His suffering for sin. There are many days in which a believer will die for the sins of others. We experience the death that has come from the sins of those who have long ago passed away from the presence of the earth. I can’t walk about Africa or India without seeing and experiencing the sins of those who hundreds of years ago oppressed the people. We wear those sins. In the present, we suffer because of the sins of those in our society. The disgruntled teen shoots a gun in your window. And one day we will see the sins of the future. In a simple practical illustration, an automobile driver cuts in front of you and is cursing you. Your response is to bless those who curse you, so you just wore the other’s sin. Someone in your family offends you, it is unmerited, and you take it, die, bury it, and say nothing. You have suffered for that one’s sin. The rebellious child sneaks out and in pride is quite happy, and yet the parent hurts and wears the sin. We don’t want to die for the sins of others. We don’t want our flesh to share with His and come under the cross. We want to rebel against the injustice. But we must, and we must learn to do it in Him joyfully. Until His return, as long is He is on this earth in the form of His body, the Church, the eternal now will bear in His body afflictions. We are that body and must bear these afflictions. I remember the man in Africa and the story of his vision. He was in heaven, invited to eat at Jesus’ table, where there was food that wasn’t exactly food. There was a bowl of Christ’s righteousness, a plate of Christ’s love, or a bowl of Christ’s holiness. He sat down, intending to eat, but instead looked at Jesus and immediately began to curse Him. He thought to himself, I must have a demon! However, Jesus knew what was in his mind, looked at him, and said, “You don’t have a demon, it is your flesh not wanting to come under my control. Sit and eat; it will be quieted!” None of us have flesh that wants to die for the sins of others. However, it must if we are to rejoice. When we are offended unjustly, we must bear that sin, that affliction, and that suffering. It is all part of being in Him.

Stop and start talking about Jesus.

John 12:34, “The Son of Man must be lifted up.”

There are so many popular programs in the West for building churches, with the idea in mind that more is better and is proof that we are on track with Jesus. Of course, Jesus emphasized the few and not the many. There is also a clamoring to see something spectacular outside of man because there is so little reality of the relationship with the Lord going on inside man. A fellow that I know was talking to his pastor and said, “I know a way to grow the church. It is a simple program that won’t cost much.” The pastor responded, “Have you noticed that the parking lot for both services is full?” My friend replied, “I noticed that the parking lot at Wal-Mart is always full on Sundays, also! My program is better; it is this, ‘If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me!’” At that, the pastor walked off. However, the point was made. When we stop pointing to Jesus, we may have a crowd, but it is no different from the crowd at Wal-Mart. If you are teaching, preaching, or sharing and you feel the thing dying, just stop and start talking about Jesus. You will have a crowd, even if it is just one person.

Eph 6:12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We attended a bullfight in Spain. I can’t say that it is an enjoyable experience, but it is an interesting one. Having grown up on and around a farm, the kill before butchering was never something that I looked forward to. Some would argue that the death of the bull in a bullfight is as humane as the death in a slaughterhouse. Well, amen, they both happen. After watching six bulls fight the matadors, my admiration for bulls has gone way up.

Religion is religion, and Jesus isn’t a religion, He is a relationship.

As a child, I was never allowed to even touch a bull. There was the temptation when feeding the cows and petting them to do the same to the bull. However, any advance toward the bull was met with a strong rebuke from my grandfather. He had hauled several and seen men gored; he never trusted any bull. The bulls in Spain enter the arena full of attitude, strength, and catlike quickness. They look for anything that is moving and immediately charge. The power is awe-inspiring to witness; they send every matador scrambling behind a thick wooden wall, and then they hammer the wall with their horns. I just had never witnessed that in a bull, nor had I seen that kind of endurance. It is impressive.

Because of the bull’s strength and superiority, the fight would take hours if the bull were not slowed down. Nothing about a bullfight is fair (the only way to make it less fair would be to remove one of the bull’s legs). Carrying a spear, a horseman rides in on a heavily padded and blindfolded horse. The bull will immediately head for the horse. The first bull we saw actually knocked the horse over and was able to gore it, even as the rider, falling down, drove the spear deep into the bull. Next, four matadors begin to wear the bull down by having the bull make a series of charges at the pink cape. When the bull is sufficiently tiring, another matador will come with two colorful skewers. He will let the bull charge him straight on and then jump, driving the skewers into the back of the bull and maneuvering sideways just in time to be missed by the horns. This is repeated three times. Still, the stamina of the bull at this point is awing. The matador, with his large, red cape, will now come out to work the bull until it finally has its strength bled out of it. With an air of satisfaction he draws a sword; the great beast bows its head, ready to charge one more time at the rag that has given it so much grief, and the matador drives the sword into the heart of the great beast. Some are better at this than others, but ideally, the bull’s demise is quick, and it drops, immediately dead. The whole exhibition takes around 15 minutes.
Personally, I think the matadors should wear little tight pants because they fight like girls.

OK, why all this talk of bullfights? I couldn’t help but think about our fight against the “rulers, powers, forces of darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness.” In Christ, the battle is won. On the cross He did not say, “To be continued!” He said, “It is finished.” We in Christ, like the bull, have the superior strength. However, the bull makes one fatal mistake by thinking the cape, a simple piece of lifeless rag, is the enemy, the source of its pain! I kept thinking to myself, If only you would stop fighting the rag, stop looking down, look up at the head, and move eighteen inches to the right! The battle would be yours. Even to its dying breath, the bull was eyeing the rag as the matador drove the sword deep into his heart. A physically superior creature defeated because of a wrong focus. How often in our spiritual battles the enemy has our focus on something other than him; we never pay attention to his ugly head.

So many times I have talked to couples ready to divorce over absolutely nothing but a rag. However, the enemy keeps poking and making them think that the rag is what is hurting them. It isn’t the rag! It is the one behind the rag. Move eighteen inches to the right, go for the head, and you will see the truth of it. Many times, I will stop in the middle of a situation and just say, “The Lord rebuke you!” I know the issue isn’t the issue; there is someone behind the issue and I want to go for the head. The believer has the superior strength, but it will do no good if it is focused in the wrong place. So many just bow and let the enemy drive the sword deep into the heart. There will nearly always be the need for 20% improvement in any relationship (the rag). Why let the 20% steal the 80% joy? On any given day, you should immediately be able to say three things that are right about your situation and about your mate. Well, again, we need grace to go for the head.

The believers in Spain, as in Portugal, have to labor. Christians are not embraced; Catholicism, with its religious spirit, has driven the least little desire out of the people to look for something spiritual. Therefore, Jesus just isn’t easily considered. I can’t say the people are hardhearted; it is just that their definition of Jesus includes suffering, crawling, misery, bondage, lack of joy, confinement, and total deadness. With that definition, why look any further into the prospect? Our friends have worked here for 12 years, and the end result, in part, is this little meeting that we are going to have in the morning. They have invited their friends and coworkers. They have done everything to make it a beautiful experience for them.

We are to be in a small room in a new “meditation” lodge. We will have four hours of teaching and then a vegetarian meal. Nine people arrive. Two are unbelievers. I have been told by the Lord the direction to take in the teaching. I will spend the first three hours talking about how we live, how we feel, what we think, and the struggles of man. I will not mention Jesus until the end. After three hours, it was obvious that Jesus had, as He always does, the right people there. If He gets all the glory, then He must do all the work, and He does. As I talk about Jesus, everything must be redefined, for the words that we commonly use have one meaning to us but another to them. Nearly every term has a distorted religious meaning. I just stick to Jesus, His uniqueness, His love, His difference, His life, and all that He is. Then we talk about His being our life. Not praying, “Jesus, help me,” but praying, “Jesus, come and be my words, my life, my love, my joy, my everything.” I wasn’t saying anything that I have not said a hundred times before, and yet, when I looked up, there were only a few dry eyes. The one girl, an unbeliever, came immediately up to me, and crying said, “Something has awakened in me! I knew I needed something; I knew I was being called!” The fellow, who we were really surprised even came, was right into it.

As we shifted to dinner, the topic was Jesus. One brother, with a beautiful heart, has labored for years and only has a few couples around Spain that have come to Jesus. He was excited and said, “This approach of life, of getting in the person’s skin, of showing in that context the need for Jesus, will be received. We will pray about putting a conference together for the couples I know around Spain.” Well, amen, I am also tagging along, building on the work of others.

Next we move to the house. I wanted to show my friends how the approach worked individually. That was great fun. Then the two “former” unbelievers showed up with dinner. We talked about Jesus until nearly 1:00 a.m. As I was being driven home, my friend turned to me, “In twelve years, that is the most openness that I have ever experienced with a group of people. It is the deepest conversation that we have ever had.” It excited me, and yet it vexed me, for I could see how he and his wife had suffered here in loneliness, going it by themselves, how much they forfeited to be with these people and to labor in such a religious environment. Again, the ugliest religion in the world is Christianity. There is nothing that will kill the spirit of man like the Christian religion. Why? Every other religion is made to be a religion. Christianity is centered in a great God Who lives through us. Try to make it a religion of lists, and the standard will become so high that the people will be wiped out; they then will focus on some insignificant speck that they CAN accomplish, as though it were of ultimate importance, in order to avoid the fact of their failure to be “like” Jesus. It becomes so obvious that at some time and place during the history of the Catholic Church, it became expedient, to the carnal, to have a “Christian religion.” This religion would stir the pride of the masses and make them forget that they should not be fighting for the earthly kingdom of a man and actually forsaking Jesus. The whole thing tends to sicken us in light of the fact that Jesus is alive (mind you, we wouldn’t have that light without the revelation of the Spirit, and this will always soften our criticism).

I have a silent disgust for all things religious. I suppose that I shouldn’t, in fairness, contain it to the Catholics, but Jesus is not a religion. He never wrote anything, and His emphasis was that there was no obstacle between man and God. Religion is religion, and Jesus isn’t a religion, He is a relationship.

I Tim. 2:5, For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

The fearful person is the perfect person in whom God can be creative.

Mark 2:22, No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.
God can only do something creative through a weak, unknowing person. Familiarity with a job encourages doing it the same way and not, in humility, seeking Him for His way. For example, a person with 50 years’ successful experience with missions, teaching, or church building will not, generally speaking, seek the Father for how He wants things done in a new place. It will be done the same way, without thought, and the person will find himself in a rut. The problem with many churches is that they either stay in a rut or go examine other people’s ruts instead of going to the Lord and discovering whether there is something new that He would do. I meet many people fearful to take up the call of God. They don’t know how to preach, they don’t know how to lead, and they don’t know enough about the topic. But here is a secret: water cannot be put in a full cup; new wine cannot be put in an old wineskin. The fearful person is the perfect person in whom God can be creative. If you can’t do something, admit it, and let Him do something new. This message of Christ in you is old, and yet with each generation God would make it fresh. In your weakness, allow Him to do just that, make it fresh.

We are pregnant with the great truth of Christ in us.

Rev. 12:2, and she was with child; and she cried* out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.
We are pregnant with the great truth of Christ in us. We must give birth to it. Has anyone told you what a spiritual pregnancy will look like? You are carrying something that is eternal. There are many symptoms, and here is one: You must have continued revelations of yourself, your flesh, in order to have continued revelations of Him, which come from need. You must see your need for Him in an area before He will be your life in that area. You must see yourself as selfish before He can become your selflessness. Don’t be discouraged but be realistic. We can easily think of three things the people at work do to annoy us, three things our mate does, three things the children do, and three things that are done at church. But can you think of three things you do in all these areas? Do you really believe yourself to be so pleasant and perfect to live with? Stop examining others, come under His light (“Search me, oh God”), see your weakness, accept His strength and have a move in God, a revelation of Jesus.