Indifference

Holocaust survivor Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel once said, “The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy; it’s indifference. The opposite of life is not death; it’s indifference.”

In Luke 10:25-37 is the wonderful story of the Good Samaritan. It is the story that is being played out time and time again in our society in the last few decades. In this passage Jesus tells a story to a lawyer who was trying to justify his own existence of indifference. This lawyer was trying to look important to those in his sphere of influence by trying to cozy up to the great teacher. He was debating, or better yet discussing his way by showing how good his knowledge of the word of God was. Of course Jesus saw right through it and went right to the heart of the issue of indifference.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?”"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 

Jesus said this man had answered correctly. Indeed, he gave the exact answer that Jesus later gave in response to the same question (Mt 22:36-40). This was very unusual among the Jewish religious leaders and shows that this lawyer had some great truths revealed to him by God. However, Lu 10:29 shows that he did not yield himself to this revelation but sought to justify his own actions before God.

Just as with this lawyer, pride causes many people to resist the truth of justification by faith in the grace of God (Eph 2:8, Lu 10:29). This lawyer loved himself and the public recognition his "holy acts" gave him. He was not willing to love God first and his fellow man ahead of himself. This was not a sincere question on the lawyer's part but rather an evasive question seeking to shun responsibility. This man was seeking to be justified in the sight of God through his actions. 

He knew he had not loved everyone as he loved himself, so he was trying to interpret the scripture (Le 19:18) in a way that would conform to his actions. He wanted to define "neighbor" as just his close friends whom he had treated well. Jesus, through this parable, however, defined a neighbor as any fellow human being that crosses our path and is in need of our assistance. It is always wrong to try to interpret God's Word in a way that will match our experiences. We should instead make our experiences match God's Word.

Jesus taught repentance and faith as the means of justification with God (Mt 4:17 with John 6:28-29, and Luke 18:9-14). This lawyer was seeking to be right with God on the basis of his own actions. Self-justification always produces excuses, while repentance and faith toward God produces obedience.

This question of "Who is my neighbor?" can be used by Satan to deceive us in more than one way. Not only can he deceive us into thinking we have fulfilled the command to "love thy neighbor as thyself" when we haven't, but he will also try to apply this command in a way that condemns those of us who are seeking to fulfill it by making us think we are not doing enough. We cannot meet the needs of every single person in the world. Jesus wasn't teaching that. This wounded man was directly in the path of these three men. The priest and the Levite had to walk around him. The priest and the Levite were indifferent to the needs of someone who they only saw. We see people and their needs all the time, but we see past them and do not really look. We become hard hearted because people don’t fit into the category of how we want to help. So we just pass on by seeing but not really seeing. Our hearts are closed off or just hard. Jesus was simply teaching that we should take advantage of the opportunities we have. The fact that we can't help everyone is no excuse not to help anyone. When we develop the excuse is when we are indifferent.

Indifference is the great sin of our time. In Revelation chapter three John the beloved apostle describes seven churches and the seventh one is the church of Laodicea, neither hot, nor cold, but lukewarm. Lukewarm is indifference. Jesus replies “You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. “

We need to see, indifference has blinded us to the needs of people around us. Indifference is the sign of the Laodicean church, the church of the last days.

The Church's Great Deception

Rev 2:4
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
(NIV)

I Jn 4:19
19 We love because he first loved us.
(NIV)




The great deception is that there is a sign out in front of the church that say’s “We are a Hospital” where Jesus is calling out "Come to me to all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest",
but inside the doors it changes into “A Courtroom”, where there is division, judgement, condemnation, and there is no rest.

It is not just about the words that we speak, but it is how we speak them and how we demonstrate those words. Talk is cheap, we can say all the words that we want to but if it does not align with our actions (as James 1:22 would put it) then we are just hearers only.

Jesus’ answer to the great commission is that they (the world) would know us by the love that we have for one another (John 13:35). We the church have lost that love because we lost that Christ first loved us. Grace being given to us is the hospital that we have all needed. Instead we have incorporated a courtroom and are to busy judging and pointing fingers.

Another way to say this is like gold being refined. Impure gold is added to a oven that produces 2000 degree temperatures and is melted. What happens is that gold is a very heavy metal and the impurities (dross) rise to the surface and the gold remains beneath. The gold is taken out of the oven and the dross is skimmed off. The gold then is put back into the oven over and over again till the dross is eliminated.

In relationship to the church when an individual is being put through the refining fire and that person comes out with dross on the surface the church is standing all around pointing fingers and judging. But what does not happen is that this same church can’t go deep enough to see the refined gold that lays below the surface to see that God is changing a life His way and time and not the Churches way and time. It is God’s job to refine, He is the husbandman (gardener – oven tender) who prunes, skims off the dross.

John 15:1-2
1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
(NIV)

The reason for this is that church has lost its first love, lost that Christ loved them first despite their own sin and frailty. While they were still sinners Christ died for them. We are not commanded by God as a church to judge, we are commanded to love. We lost the ability to love because we lack the foresight on how much Christ loves us. We think that now that we have arrived it is okay to now judge and it’s not.


John 13:34-35
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
(NIV)

We wonder why the world is not interested in Church; it is because we do not love. Loving means laying down our lives for one another. It means looking out for other people’s interest even foregoing our own. The world would bust the Churches door down if they saw the real thing. Were to busy pointing out the dross to notice the hurting individuals that exist across the street, next to our desk, across the hallway, and even sitting in the pew next to us.

This is the great deception, trading a hospital for a courtroom.

Now more than ever our country and the world is desperate for an authentic witness of God's love expressed through Jesus Christ.

Why I'm Ashamed of the American Church

12:00PM EST 1/18/2013 DANITA ESTRELLA

The gospel in my Bible is dramatically different from that preached in many churches.

I spend most of my time on the mission field in Haiti. Yet when I come to the U.S., I am reluctant to go to church. It's embarrassing to admit, but it's true. Often I hesitate to walk through the church doors.

I continually ask myself, Why? I love God with all my heart, I love His people and I love His Word.

So then, what is the problem?

My struggle stems from the fact that the gospel I read in my Bible is dramatically different from the gospel that is preached in many American churches today. Before I explain, let me give you some background.

First, I believe in prosperity. I am a mother to 72 children, and 504 children sit at my lunch table daily.

I moved to Haiti alone in 1999 with a promise from God: "Go, and I will be with you." Though the early years were marked with pain and hardship, in the last eight years, the Lord has blessed me beyond measure.

Second, I believe in healing. I have to! Good medical care is nonexistent where I live in Haiti.

In 2002, my 3-year-old boy, Guy, was dying of AIDS. His face looked skeletal, his eyes had sunken in, and he refused to eat or drink.

It was my faith and prayers of desperation that brought him back to life. Today, he is 8 years old, healthy and beautiful.

Third, I am a woman of faith. In 2001, the property that I had purchased was a cactus field. Today, we have a church, a school and two orphanages.

I do not consider myself to be a "poverty-mentality" missionary. I believe God's people should be blessed.

But when was the last time you heard a teaching on suffering? Why does the church love to teach on Hebrews 11, the chapter of faith, but conveniently stop at verse 34?

Verses 36-39 state of the heroic saints who went before us: "Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them.

"They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised" (NIV).

Why do we not teach new converts Philippians 1:29? "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him."

Not many churches today are raising up a generation of men and women who are prepared to risk it all for the sake of the gospel. Why? Because we have omitted the teaching about suffering saints.

Could this be the reason that the American missionary is becoming a dying breed and most of them who do go, do not return for a second term?

Do I think the church should stop preaching about the blessings of God? No. I believe the church should teach that God is an intimate God. He deals with us as individuals.

He may require something from you that He does not require from others. We are not all chosen to walk the same road.

The apostle Paul was beheaded in prison, but prior to his death he told Timothy to endure hardship as a good soldier (see 2 Tim. 2:3). Peter's final words to the church were "Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Pet. 2:21).

You may never have to give your life for the gospel, but would you be willing? When God hears the cries of His people, He looks for a deliverer. And the deliverer He calls may be you.

The message of the cross can be summed up in two words: "Follow Me." Today, the eyes of the Lord are going to and fro throughout the earth and He is asking: "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?"

Can you honestly say, "Here I am, Lord, send me"?

Danita Estrella is the founder of Hope for Haiti Children's center, a ministry that provides food, clothing, education, medical care and the teaching of the gospel to impoverished children in Ouanaminthe, Haiti. She has lived in Haiti since 1999. For more information, go to danitaschildren.org.

New, new, new!

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Romans 15:5-6 (NIV)

A new idea, a new project, a new goal, or new adventure seems to come pre-packaged with a dose of adrenaline, anticipation, and excitement.  The residue of simply thinking about the possibilities can power an electric plant!

For some of us, it takes time to warm up to… or buy into taking on something new.  The fear of change, the thought of pouring energy into change, and the resistance that change brings – keeps many on the bench and far from those tingling nerve endings that emerge when embarking on a new path.

We can spend all of our resources inviting people to change.  We get caught up in their emotional highs and soak up the outflow of the energy they produce – and we push forward together.  Getting started… making change… easy.  Staying the course, pressing on, breaking through, and pushing beyond the re-boot… takes fierce persistence.

We consume our fuel and pour it all into new beginnings… hoping someone will refill the tank to help us continue.  In any new plan… we need gas!

As Christians, we can soak up the excitement of new beginnings with our buddies – that’s easy work.  But we should be prepared to encourage one another as our resolutions lose their resolve – and we hit the wall.  Reach out today – find someone who’s sluggish – give them fuel.  They are hungry for the boost.


by Jeremiah
Argument plus depiction still offer a potent combination. Argument without depiction risks being dull to all but highly motivated specialists, while depiction without argument risks confusion and even appropriation by contrary convictions. But argument and depiction that is worked out in life produces the abundant fruit for all to eat.

Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf

Proverbs 11:28- "Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf." A truly righteous man not only trusts in the Lord in all situations, but is patient in doing so.
God calms the storm in His time; knowing the exact duration of fire needed to perfect His work, for His glory; which in turn produces fruit in our lives richly. Praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for always being right on time!

Is it Politics or Is it the Church

John Adams, the second president of the United States, wrote, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.... Free government rests upon public and private morality." It is not our government that has failed; it's the church that has failed to be the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13).

Read what Dr. Jedediah Morse said in 1799: "In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, either through unbelief, or the corruption of its doctrines, or the neglect of its institutions; in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom...Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them." He was saying that Christianity, not government, is the driving force behind true freedom.

When World War II brought America back to her knees, a revival broke out that is still referred to as the era of the highest church attendance in recent history. A time of repentance and seeking God brought peace and a period of great prosperity. But sadly, the result was a church that was lulled to sleep. While it was sleeping, a generation of "baby boomers" became obsessed with materialism and freedom from moral constraint.

How did the church react? In a variety of ways, some of which were very good. People began seeking the Lord, and the Lord answered through what is often called "The Jesus People Movement," "The Charismatic Movement," "The Word of Faith Movement," "The Lay Witness Renewal," and others. These revivals were not spearheaded by any individual, yet they had worldwide impact. Truly these were mighty moves of God's Spirit.

Yet, as a whole, the church responded by promoting political involvement as the answer to society's woes. Make no mistake--Christians who live in a country that provides them the freedom to govern through voting or holding political office have a responsibility to participate. However, for many, politics has not been a weapon against the moral decline; it has been the only weapon.

The `70s and `80s saw the largest influx of Christians into the political process in recent history, and it did produce some good results. It influenced who was elected president and helped change the balance of power in Congress and the Supreme Court. Although some good came of it and the potential destruction of our nation was stayed off a little longer, it hasn't turned the tide. There are still millions of innocent children killed every year. Immorality continues to advance nearly unchecked. And some of our so-called "conservative" Supreme Court appointees defied logic by turning the government loose in ways that would have caused our Founding Fathers to mount a revolution.

Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth president of the United States (1923-1929), declared, "The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them [the foundations of society] if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country" (brackets mine).

Our society isn't sick because of the government; it's sick because the church has not made faith in the teaching of the Bible "practically universal in our country." Once we cease to win the hearts of man, it is inevitable that ungodly people will make their way into leadership and take the country with them.

If we change people's hearts with the Gospel, the people will change the government with their votes. Government merely reflects what people believe in their hearts; it does nothing to form those beliefs. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, wrote in the late 1600s, "Government seems to me to be a part of religion itself.... Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad."

It's good to pursue legal action and political means to right wrongs. But the power of the Gospel has more power to change the hearts of man than all the military might and legislative bodies of any government. Billy Graham understood that when he was asked to run for president in the 1950s. He responded by saying he would not lower himself to that position. He was not attempting to diminish the office of the president; he was elevating the office of a minister of the Gospel.

Elias Boudinot, president of the Continental Congress in 1783 and later congressman from New Jersey who served as president of the American Bible Society, said "the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow."

There is a civil war going on in America today, but it is not political. Sure, the courtrooms and congressional halls are the battlegrounds, but the war itself is between light and dark--the truth of the Gospel and the lies of the devil. It's between the people of God and the children of the devil.

In this war, the Enemy tries to hide his true objectives behind the mask of individual rights and personal liberties. But make no mistake: The real goal is the elimination of God and His influence from society so people can indulge in their carnal lifestyles without conviction or guilt.

The way to win this war and save the political character of this nation is to change the moral character of its people with the Gospel. Our Founding Fathers understood that. Dr. Benjamin Rush said in 1786, "Nothing can be politically right that is morally wrong."

The church needs to refocus its energies back to the Great Commission that our Lord Jesus Christ gave us: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen" (Matt. 28:19-20).

God Is For Us! by Jack Hayford

God Is For Us! by Jack Hayford



God is for us, loved one!

Those words are His—found in abundance in His Holy Word. They are found in verses so clear, so Self-expressive of our Father's love, so totally supportive and so fully committed to us that there is no mistaking His intent that we firmly grasp the idea. The reason? Because doubts and fears too easily and constantly beset us.

We are all tempted at times to wonder: Is God's mind tuned to my heart-cry...my need? Is His eye focused on me now...on my present situation? Will God's hand reach my way...to cover me—in time? But His Word answers these questions for us. When we cry out, "What shall we say to these things?" His Word thunders in response: "If God be for us, who can be against us!" (Romans 8:31).

What kinds of "things" does this cover? What are the situations where we can expect we will find, "God is for us"? Here's just the beginning of a list:

He is for us when we are going through hard times.

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God...Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you..." (Isaiah 43:2-4)

He is for us when we feel others have forgotten or forsaken us.

"Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands..." (Isaiah 49:15-16)

I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread... (Psalm 37:25)

For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:5-6)

He is for us when physical or material needs press around us.

"I am the Lord who heals you..." (Exodus 15:26)

"For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds..." (Jeremiah 30:17)
"I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away..." (Hosea 14:4)

...[Since He] did not spare His own Son...shall He not with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know [and]... whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. (Jeremiah 33:3; Joel 2:32)

There is not a moment when we are out of God's mind, His gaze, or His touch. And there is not a moment when He is ever, ever anything less than completely for us!

Hear it once for all: He has made an eternal vow to His own, saying, "The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has mercy on you (Isaiah 54:10).

Let each of us settle it in our souls. What we read is what He wants us to declare: God is for us! So say it—then say it again.

Then let us move into our days, serving Him because He loves us—not working for Him in hope we might earn His love. Shout it with all your heart! Everybody deserves to know...God is for us!