INTIMACY WITH GOD

JOURNAL

JUNE 2009

                   Mike and Linda Schreurs

                  It’s a June Spectacular!

   We’re now at the half way point for this amazing year of 2009.  So, how’s it going for you?  Are you out of focus, or are you feeling right on track for all God has purposed for you this year?  Whichever it is, stay in fellowship with Him; stay connected to His Body of believers.  Stay on course through His divine Word.   Psalm 119 is pure delight for whatever place you are.  Verse 50 says, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that Thy Word has revived me.”   Verse 105 declares, “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  (Ps. 119:105)”  

   One day recently while in prayer, I was enjoying reading my Bible so much, being wonderfully blessed and affirmed by its power of love that I literally embraced it.  I

picked it up and held it to my pounding heart.  I prayed, “Your Word is so holy,

Lord!  So holy!  So holy!  It makes me weep and tremble with joy unspeakable.  Glory!  O the privilege of walking into God’s Divine Breath – His God-breathed words!”  (2 Tim. 3:16) 

    This summer, if you’re unable to take a vacation because of the economy, may I suggest holy travels through God’s Word?   Pack a picnic and gather around its pages sharing with family and friends.  Stop and smell the roses with the Sweet Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys as the fragrance of Christ comes forth.  (Song of Songs 2)  Graze in its green pastures whereby our Holy Shepherd will lead you to still waters of peace and tranquility.  (Ps. 23)

   Precious friends, God’s Word is spectacular!  I want to encourage you to keep climbing onward and upward by its astounding power.  By walking in it, living in it, you are advancing into your divine destiny fulfilling all you were created to be.  (Rom. 8:37)

                                                                   Linda Schreurs

   DECEPTION RUNS RAMPANT

   Help prevent forest fires this summer! Help prevent fiery, eternal deaths in hell.  Open your mouth and testify to those in your sphere of influence.   Don’t hold back from sharing the Lord’s grace and mercy for all who are open to listening and willing to turn from their wrongful ways.  Just as Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to ‘go and sin no more,’ we’re all commissioned to do likewise.  (John 8:3-11)

   I’m reminded of a line from a favorite movie Mike and I have always loved.  The movie is. “On Golden Pond,” and the quote is:  “deviousness runs rampant on Golden Pond.”  Thus the above title: “Deception Runs Rampant,” which came by way of the Holy Spirit after a recent incident.  

   I encountered a gentleman who has released a new Christian e-book on the web.  He said he’s walking “deep in the Lord.”  Unbelievably however, he and his fiancé have lived together for awhile now.   He said they plan to get married.  That’s good.  But it doesn’t negate the sin of fornication, unless it’s repented of.  Our souls are only wiped clean through confession through the Lamb of God.  But how can one repent if they believe they’ve not sinned?   Unfortunately, their sin remains.

   My heart began to ache deeply for this man and his live-in girlfriend.   After telling me of their living arrangement, he was quick to quote Romans 8:1 and how there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

   Excuse me?!  Judas had been ‘in Christ Jesus’ as well, or so it had seemed.  He had walked with the Lord for a number of years seeing and doing great exploits with Him.  But in the end, he chose worldly possessions (30 pieces of silver), and worldly lies (not engaging in a godly repentance that leads to life as Peter had done).   He lost it all as a ‘son of perdition.’  (John 17:12)  Beware!  The safest route any one of us can take is the way of God as revealed in His written Word.   

    My prayer for this deceived couple is straight from Romans 10:1-2 which declares, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.  For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.  For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”

   Deathly deceptions are running rampant not only in our society as a whole, but in some churches as well.  Surely this breaks the Lord’s gracious heart.  He loves us and died for us.  Nevertheless, His own Breath warns in Matthew 7:13-14 the road to hell is wide and many would take that path.   He also said the road to glory is narrow and few would take it.   Few!  What a travesty!

Greasy grace

   It’s a sad fact that some in the church today worldwide preach ‘greasy grace’ straying far from sound scriptural teachings.  Let it be known and shouted from the pinnacles of churches everywhere - no one has been given divine permission to continue their sinful lifestyles because they’ve met the Lord Jesus Christ!  Meeting Him is one thing but living in actual fellowship with Him is another matter entirely. 

   I meet many people during the course of a year.  But I don’t really know most them.  Likewise, there were multitudes who came in contact with the Lamb of God.  They could rightly attest to His miracles, signs and astounding wonders, but they did not love Him, obey Him, serve Him or commune intimately with Him in their souls.   

   In today’s society, some religious denominations’ have a philosophy of slippery grace that causes great deception.  Let’s stay alert to the Lord’s Divine Breath which states explicitly:  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast our demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”  (Matt. 7:21-23.  My emphases). 

    As the Day of the Lord nears, scripture is clear that deceptive thinking will run rampant.  (2Tim. 4:2-4; Rev. 12:9) When the Lord told the woman caught in adultery to “go and sin no more,” He meant what He said.   There’s nothing difficult to understand here.  But far too many think the New Testament means no law, only grace.  Jesus clearly states that He came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it.  (Matt. 5:17)   Jesus did not give the adulterer greasy grace to proceed as she saw fit.  We’re sorely deceived if we think otherwise.  As Billy Graham has preached so well over many years, “repentance means turning around…turning away from a lifestyle of sin,”… sleeping around, doing drugs, living the gay lifestyle, abusing others physically or verbally - and a host of other sins that fill our land on a daily basis. 

Time to change clothes

   Good deeds as seen by the world are OK,  but they get us nowhere in the end if they are not aligned with God’s righteousness.   Isaiah 64:6b clearly states, “…And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.”  We must remove our grave clothes of self-conceived righteousness, worldly beliefs and contaminations.   We need to put on fresh, holy, anointed garments of true praise, worship and obedience to the Lamb of God.  Let’s clothe ourselves with the Lord’s robe of righteousness.  (Isa. 61:3; Isa. 4)  Forget the world’s fashion designers!  What we need is complete submission to the Divine Designer (our Creator) who has clothed us with His own robe of purity, honor and true love!

   Upgrade your spiritual wardrobe with these verses from Zechariah 3:2-3: “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan!  Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!  Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?’  Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel.  And he spoke and said to those who were standing before him saying, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’  Again, he said to him, ‘See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.”  (Zech. 3:2-3)

   These powerful verses point directly to the last book of the Bible (Revelation) which is the only one yet to be lived out by an upcoming generation.   In chapter 19, we find verse 8 regarding the pure and spotless Bride of Christ who has made herself ready with festal robes as in Zechariah.  “And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” 

   The Church needs to be awakened to preach the pure, uncompromising Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It needs to make it very clear that sin destroys, it burns, it kills, and it buries one in hell for all eternity if there’s no true repentance.  For example:  the word ‘fornication’ is still in the New Testament, but many today ignore it believing it’s not relevant for the world in which we now live.  But if the Church does not warn people that living together without marriage is wrong, who will?!  Are we falling into the snare of the enemy because we want to be politically correct rather than Biblically correct?  If so, there will be a terrible price to pay in the end.  Beloved believers, this is our Mount Carmel moment in history!  These are days of Elijah!  (1 Kings 18)

Tell them

   Most assuredly we need compassion and love in our approach.  But Jesus was also quick to rebuke those who diluted and dissected the Word of God into bits and pieces with their own ‘uninspired’ interpretations.  He called them ‘vipers’!  His gentleness, gave way to a whip when cleansing the temple. (John 2:14-16; Matt. 23:33)     

   As followers of our Messiah, Jesus, we have the mandate to tell people that God’s Word does not allow compromise on what He has established.  We’re walking a serious fine line here if we’re silent on these issues.   It’s ordained from the Lord that we share His saving grace with others, and if we do not, we’ll be held accountable!  (2 Chron. 19:10; Ps. 81:8; Ezek. 33; Luke 16:28; Heb. 12:25)    It can’t be said any louder and clearer than in Ezekiel 3:18-19: “When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die’, and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.  Yet if you have warned the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.”

   In light of that verse, would you still lean on the side of political correctness with beliefs that are contrary to scripture?!  Many in the House of God simply have not read through the most significant book on the face of the earth – the Holy Bible!   It’s the greatest cause of apostasy in our times.   We must realize this is where all of humanity’s answers to life are found.  Beloved saints, we need to know the Word of God inside and out, in season and out of season, in church and outside its walls.  (2 Tim. 4:2)  And we need to understand that our accountability isn’t just for ourselves but for those around us as well.  Silence is not golden in this case, it’s deathly!  

   Please understand that I chime in with Paul when he says, “I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.” (1 Cor. 4:14)  

Be bold

   The Divine Word of God wonderfully states the ‘righteous are as bold as a lion.’   With the Lion of Judah at our side, what do we have to fear?   Let us not fear mere man, but let us fear the Maker of heaven, earth and mankind.  Let us fear the Lord of Hosts!  (Pvb. 28:1; Luke 12:4-5; Rev. 5:5)

   To piecemeal or slice and dice God’s Word to suit our own lifestyle, is deathly dangerous.  Many followers of Jesus have never read the Bible all the way through.  Too many want to be spoon fed by their Pastor or someone else.   It’s a dangerous lifestyle that ignores the entirety of the Living Bread.  

  Again, it behooves us to stick to the entirety of God’s Word.   It’s all there in black, white, and red.  We must not dissect it to the point of grinding it into powered, diluted piecemeal.  Devouring bits and pieces of it here and there only serve to give a diet of snacking which is just as unhealthy in the spiritual, as it is in the natural. We’re to eat the whole loaf – Old Testament and New.  (Matt. 4:4)

   The majority of the globe’s people are darkened with ungodly opinions and beliefs.  That’s not surprising.  But what about the church called by His Name?   Do we, as the people of God, make it clear what the consequences of sin really are?  Let’s not become whitewashed tombs!  (Matt. 23:25-28)

   Certainly showing up for church on Sunday, or being able to quote scriptures, preach a nice sermon, or even heal the sick, blind and deaf is a wonderful thing.  But – is it really?   We need to wake up to the fact that only a life completely submitted in communion with the Lord will get us into heaven.  There can be no half truths, twisted truths, contaminated truths, nor watered down truths to suit our worldly lifestyles.  Satan himself can quote scripture just as well as anyone.  (Matt. 4)  But he does not hold them near and dear, nor obey them.  Do we?

   This evil being can appear as an angel of light.  Stay alert!  (2 Cor. 11:13-15)  Many of you are aware of an End Time prophecy by the Lord Himself that says even the ‘elect’ can be deceived at that precarious hour of humanity.  (Matt. 24:24)   How are you going to know the real deal?  There’s one sure way - know the Son of God intimately, up close and personal for yourself, obeying every Word in His Divine Book.  Godly, holy spiritual fruit will be the evidence of a life lived in Christ.  (See Matt.7:13-27)

Vain worship

   The Lord alerts us to the deceptive ‘religious spirit’ (prevalent in the Pharisees of His day)…in Matthew 15:7-9, “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.  But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”  Therefore, the couple mentioned in this article, are living in great deception and in danger of losing their souls unless there is repentance.  Greasy grace does not stick!

   Precious friends, there’s an urgency to the hour in which we live.  Our gatherings cannot be as they’ve been.   The Bridal wine at the End of the Age has begun to flow.  It’s time the church begin to light the torch of God’s holy fire, so we escape hell’s fire!  Chasing miracles, signs and wonders is OK, but only to a point - the point being if we’re in right relationship with God.  (Matt. 7: 21-23) A compromised lifestyle that’s contrary to God’s holy covenants places our eternal soul in harm’s way.  In death, there is no turning back.  If the entirety of God’s Word (Old and New Testament), are falling on deaf ears, there will be a torturous reality upon entering eternity.  Beware.  (Luke 16: 19-31)

Preach it, brother!

   I believe the Lord is about to clean house – His house!  Judgment begins there first and foremost.  That’s exactly as it should be since we’re the ones out there preaching the Gospel.  (Deut.1:16-17; Is. 3:13-14)  If God’s people are filled with compromise, the world surely doesn’t care to join us in what they already have!   Too often there’s barely a noticeable distinction between the world, the flesh and the devil and those of us in the Body of Christ.

    I think there needs to be a new campaign by the church called, “Preach it, brother!” {or sister}  Let’s begin to tell it like it is.  Let’s emulate Jonah who having been previously afraid of others, became fearless in the light of God’s divine commission.  He preached only 7 words and a whole city repented and was saved from destruction!  His powerful words resound through the generations: “Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Those precious hearts didn’t have a lot of time to think about it.  40 days wasn’t far off.  But whatever it was in Jonah’s voice, it thundered through the area even to the king’s house!

   Those who casually use the Lord’s Name in vain, those who toy with the occult, those involved with pornography, those living the gay lifestyle or involved with bi-sexuality, transgenderism, those men and women living together without marriage or - any one of us who do anything contrary to God’s Word – living without repentance…are doomed to hell fire.  

Holy fire or hell fire?

   Let’s stop the fires that are raging all around us!  The Righteous Branch, Jesus, has snatched many of us from deathly fires as we’ve submitted to Him wholly and completely with every area of our lives.   But others are being readied for eternal judgment.  Let’s become much more diligent to pray for them, and speak truth to them in love. 

   The following is the  cry of the Lord’s heart as He walked the face of the earth over 2,000 years ago.  “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!”  (Luke 12:49)  The choice is ours – Holy fire {personal Pentecost}, or hell fire!  Whether we like it or not, Truth is Truth.  We will be judged by it.  The Lord has come to bring a Sword and it will divide the earth between those who are His and those who are not.   (Matt. 10:34)

   The Lord beckons us, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”  (Matt. 11:28)

   Preach it, brother! 

               ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Women’s Hermitage -  Oct. 8-11, 2009. Call for details.

Check web site for Linda’s other book:  Armageddon Bride.