I Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.”

Peter’s statement that “a woman will be saved in childbirth” is confusing until the word saved is properly defined. The term saved, as used in the Bible, refers a majority of the time to deliverance in the present. Nothing hinders daily victory and joy as much as selfishness. Experiencing childbirth, a woman’s self-life is given a severe blow as she devotes her own wellbeing to the good of another, her newborn child. This very loss of self-centeredness allows her to be more susceptible to daily victory in Christ.

Peter’s statement is not meant to be a dig to women who have not borne children any more so than to men, who also have never borne children. He is pointing to a greater truth, and that truth is that selfishness needs a deathblow in order for mankind to find life. Childbirth seems to validate a woman’s existence (not all women, but many) in the sense that once a woman is a mother, the course of her life is believed to be set, and she therefore has validation and purpose. Men do not have such an experience, and I find that many are looking for purpose and validation. However, we seek for the things that can only be found in Him.

I have collected several suicide notes from men over the years (more men successfully commit suicide than women). The notes are predictable and often carry the same theme: “I am sorry that I did not amount to more”; “I should have done more with my life”; “I am a disappointment.” In short, they never found validation–or, rather, a fulfilled purpose–in living. Within the context of discipleship I often play a suicide game. I pretend that I am the person sitting before me wanting to commit suicide, and the person must take the name of Suicide. I say, “Suicide, why do you want to kill me?” The answer comes in various forms, but always with the same general thrust: “Because you are worthless, you have not accomplished anything with your life, and you have not lived up to your potential.” I then respond, “Exactly what is my potential? How will I know if I have accomplished enough or lived well enough to fulfill my potential? Will it be when I have made a medical discovery, become popular, obtained my own television show, gained the praise of my family, or memorized the whole Bible? The problem is that I know of men who fall into the previous categories of accomplishment that have all committed suicide, therefore proving that your definition of validation is faulty.”

Something very depressing to many is that they have “made it” in the world’s sense and wake up in the morning being their same old selves. Validation from yourself, the world, or others is like taking a dry dishrag and wringing it for a full, thirst-satisfying, glass of water. When man cannot find validation, he will live to the world, others, and self in an attempt to justify his existence on the earth. I have not mentioned the things that we do that actually, in our minds, do the opposite of validating us. There are the outbursts, the deeds of the flesh, the old habits that return, the failed marriages, and more. Men more than women need to stop looking for validation in any place other than the Lord. Naked you entered the world and naked you will leave. Frank Sinatra died and Las Vegas dimmed its lights for a short time. Wow! What a tribute. They then turned them back on full blaze and went on gambling.

If the Lord validates you, you no longer must live to the world, yourself, or others. You will be free, free indeed. He validates every man with a simple statement, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” That is enough. With that statement echoing in my heart, I am as happy sitting on a tractor turning up the grubs and watching the seagulls eat them as I am preaching before five thousand. I am as expectant in defeat as in victory. I am not watching myself obsessively, nor does the affirmation or rejection of the world or others change my day.

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.

II Cor. 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

That sin was great that it drove the very life out of him.

How? Take two magnets and try to hold them together. It will be opposites that attract not the positives. As you try to hold the positives together the magnets wiggle and move about trying to escape each other. As they flip they fit together nicely and tightly. Jesus is the invisible nuclear glue that is holding all things together. He is the positive. Man, attempting to be like God believes that man is the positive. Therefore, man invites sin into his being. The glue and the sin are repelled by each other. The glue withdraws and man becomes less and less in the image of God. If sin is continued to be invited in the man will, in time, no longer resemble the image of God. Therefore, God allowed a fix. The sin could be taken out of a man and placed on an animal. Man is in the image of God and the sin makes him sick. However, that sin placed on an animal, not in the image of God, will so distort the animal that it must be killed. The animal represented what man had lost in his sin. For example a dove, for a dove represents freedom, song, and peace. A sacrifice of man was never required. Not required until the fullness of time when the sins of the whole world (past, present, and future) had reached their culmination. On the cross God broke the divine umbilical cord that ran from Himself to the Son and placed on the Son the sins of the whole world. That sin was great that it drove the very life out of him. When the life was out of him, sin, Satan, the World, Death, Captivity, and Hell encased Him. He sank to the depths of Hell and there to the surprise of all there broke out! He conquered all that had encased His life, ripped open the gates of hell, preached, and even took Captivity captive so that it no longer could take captives. He then waited until God raised Him back into the body where the sin’s of the whole world lay. This time He entered back into the body with the power of an indestructible life, meet the sin, and conquered Sin in the body! His Life was so powerful that it even transformed his earthly body. Now, I believe that He has done all that in His body but the next step is believing that He can do it in my body!. He can, He will, and He has.

He did it for love.

We are into the third day and begin our devotions with a question. Why did the God of love kill so many in the Old Testament? The answer is hard to believe, because we have been so indoctrinated by humanism, but the answer is quite simple: love. He did it for love. How can God’s actions not be consistent with His love? Everything He does is an expression of His character. If there were an option better than love, God would have taken it. I personally have seen those given over to sin to the point that death would have been a welcomed relief. Once the heart is revealed and there is no desire for repentance, each day remaining in sin only adds to the judgment to come. Would it not be gracious to take this life and stop the sin? God’s goal is to stop sin, for it is unnatural and makes man miserable. He can stop our misery by having us turn to Him, and He could also stop our misery by taking our earthly life. We must ask ourselves an important question. What is the purpose of life if it is lived in sin? Is a life lived in sin really life? Love, love, love, God is love.

“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God.”

Is. 53:3
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4Surely our £griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5But He was £pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.

I suppose that after all the years of traveling in what is referred to as the Third World, and having observed and participated in the affliction–and, let me add, attempted to relieve some of that affliction–I have come to two conclusions. First, none of us, by ourselves, have all the resources needed to cure all the world’s ills or to bring equality of ownership. Second, God is using poverty and suffering in the world to drive men to Himself. Third, we all, even the poorest, are doing better than Jesus ever did. Hundreds of stories about what people need have been told to me, often during time alone with people who have used pretense to gain time with me only to ask for money. However, I can see they still have more earthly possessions than did Jesus. He has not let them starve to this point, and, more importantly, they have not yet learned to live out of their own faith; they trust in man’s provision more than God’s. A person can get by on very little and be happy with that. Sometimes I think that we cheat people by giving too much. “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God.” You are doing better than Jesus.

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.

In the village next to the Niger River I had noticed a cage holding one lone, odd-looking eagle. All the basic features were there; the body, neck, and two-thirds of the wings were white. Yet the end of the wings and the head were black. I was told, “That is a white eagle.” You could understand my confusion, since it had black on its wings, and the head was completely black. Upon questioning I was told, “It is a young white eagle; as the bird grows, the white will push its way to the tip of the wings and beak. The mature bird will be completely white in the end.” Again, all things created are preaching Jesus. The DNA of the bird dictates that it will be a white bird. As the bird grows, it expands into what it really is in fact: a white eagle. It doesn’t become a white eagle; it is a white eagle even when the black is on it. Growth and maturity will force out what does not belong to the very nature of the bird. The head is where the thoughts of the flesh hide in hopes of manifesting themselves. The black on the wings, our unbelief, is the only thing associating us with earthly living. Would it in any way be possible to stop the growth of this bird? No, but if it remained caged, the expression and exercise of its growth and maturity will never be seen. This white eagle gives me hope. First, it will grow, and what it is will be revealed; it has no choice. Second, God will not keep it captive. There will be a mounting up in the fullness of time. Imagine giving birth to a child if it were up to you to make it grow. Wouldn’t you be a nervous wreck? You can’t make a child grow, for that is God’s work. Likewise, you don’t make yourself grow spiritually! That is God’s work, a work that He has ordained by writing into your very DNA that you are a child of God. In the end, you cannot make one hair [one feather] black or white. Your “color” is the outgrowth of the new nature that He has given you. Christ’s life is written into your very nature. By the way, eagles devour the serpent and are feared by all the other little creatures that sneak about.

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.

Genesis 9:18-25, “Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was populated. Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. So he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants he shall be to his brothers.’” There is a lesson for us. Are we to uncover the nakedness of our brother? Many believe it is their job to find the sins of others and then expose them to everyone. Not only is this contrary to Matthew 18, but it will bring a curse upon the accuser. Let God deal with a man’s nakedness. I know a pastor who, out of spiritual jealousy, discovered a hidden sin that another pastor committed some thirty years ago, and he made sure that everyone found out about it. Is this how we treat the people of God? If you want to be a Ham, it is. I prefer to be like the other two brothers, backing up with the Blood that covers and not publicizing the failures.

The facts of the earth and the faith of heaven blend perfectly without conflict.

Well, the Indians say it, and it is an obvious truth: If you go east long enough you will find yourself west, and likewise, if you go west long enough you will find yourself east. Maybe those in the West have yet to travel far enough east, and those in the East have not traveled far enough west. Eastern Religion, in the absence of fact, draws pictures. There was never a boy with an elephant head, and drawing it doesn’t make it so. Please, travel a bit further to the West. On the other hand, no one in the East would question the existence of God, and when I say that Jesus spoke to me, no one questions it, for God must be alive. However, in the West many have yet to believe that there even is a God, and to say one has heard Him is to border on insanity. Those in the West need to travel a little more to the East. In the East miracles are an accepted part of life, and yet they have opened the door to the false and the deceiving. In the West, those without an inner awareness that Jesus is actually alive and active IN them seek miracles OUTSIDE them as proof that He exists. Move east a little and discover the greatest miracle: Christ is in you. In the West it is believed that the flower must be dissected to be understood, and yet the beauty is destroyed. In the East the flower must simply be smelled. In the West a bridge made out of water is unthinkable; in the East many have walked on ice across a great river. In Christ East meets West. The facts of the earth and the faith of heaven blend perfectly without conflict. In Him everything created on the earth and in the heavens merges without contradiction. This place many believe is impossible to find–the place where East meets West–is not a place but a person, Jesus!