His Final Days

In Loving Memory of Mark Edward Snider.

Mark Edward Snider is resting at peace in Christ. He was found kneeling as in prayer the morning of March 15, 2012. His death was unexpected and he will be missed.

Mark Snider is my brother in Christ and also my father-in-law. My first childhood memory of him was at the San Antonio Zoo. My mother took my brother Jonathan and me one day which happened to be the same day Mark took his two daughters, Jennifer and Nicole to whom I am now married. Nicole stopped to say hi while I ran away and hid. This would continue throughout grade school, Junior High, High School, College, Bible College, and then some. I think I liked her.

My fondest memory of Mark during my adolescence was after a church meeting. Since I liked his daughter I wanted to walk up and respectfully greet him. I waved and said, “Hi brother Mark”. To my recollection, that was the first time I had ever addressed anyone as “brother”. It was very weird at first. Now I love it.

My recent memories of Mark were as a father-in-law. When I called to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage, he said “of course” before I even had a chance to ask. I have referred to him as “dad” ever since.

Although I never got to talk to Mark in person since our marriage, I got to know him through phone calls and home videos. The week of his death, Nicole and I had been watching these holiday home videos he made. The last day of his life, we compiled all of these videos to DVD to send him. Although I will never get to send them to him, I did get to see the happiest days of his life, dancing with his girls, taking them to parks, and playing with them. He was very funny, friendly, peaceful, and pleasant.

Mark said two things the last week of his life that touched me very deeply. He told my wife on the phone that he started to pass out gospel tracts. Then, the day he died, he called and left a message which he ended by saying how he would stand up in the [church] meetings without knowing what to say and would speak for the Lord.

Preaching the gospel, praying for people, and prophesying to build up the church as Mark did is the meaning of human life. Nicole would pray that her dad would be an overcomer in the Lord. Now we believe he is praying the same for us.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11

…our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us in order that whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore comfort one another, and build up each one the other…

How Sweet!

A number of churches just finished an in-depth study of Psalm 119, the longest Psalm and the longest chapter in the entire Bible. There are a total of 176 verses which are divided into 22 sections. Each section begins with a word that starts with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It is a poetic masterpiece.

My favorite verse in Psalm 119 is verse 103 which say

How sweet are Your words to my taste! Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

This is a sweet verse that summarizes the writer’s thought throughout this chapter. There are many more sweet verses like this. Unfortunately, I missed them when I read through it about a month ago because they contained words like commandments, ordinances, statutes, precepts, testimonies, and worst of all, law. These words were not sweet unto my taste. Rather, they were a little bitter until…

I read in the Life-Study of Psalms, message 40 entitled, CHRIST—THE REALITY OF THE LAW AS THE TESTIMONY AND THE WORD OF GOD.  This message points out that the word for “ten commandments” in Exodus 34:28 is literally translated “ten words.”

Now, when I read Psalm 119, I consider the commandments as the psalmist did, as God’s word which is God’s breath. He chose, believed, loved, tasted, rejoiced in, sang, regarded, sought, longed for, hoped in, mused on, considered, esteemed, learned, treasured, remembered, clung to, kept, observed, did, walked and ran the way of God’s Word.

Also this week, I went to visit a buddy of mine, Peter Derrick, and brought him a big, 3 pound jar of honey. While we were in his room looking for something to eat with it, he pulled out a bag of salt and vinegar chips. I really don’t like salt and vinegar chips even though they are probably healthier than others. I was worried he would taint the pure honey we were about to enjoy. As he dipped in a chip, I cringed as I imagined what it would taste like. He had nothing but a huge smile on his face as he munched down. He then offered me one so I tried it. It was very flavorful!  I also got all the benefits from the salt and vinegar which act together as flavor enhancers. They were sweet to my taste!

Many times when we read the Word, it can be bitter if we don’t apply the sweetness of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This had been my experience when I read the Bible as a book of laws and commandments. Galations 3:24 says that the law should bring us to Christ, just like the chip bringing me honey.  Without the Spirit, the law is not only bitter but even deadly (1 Corinthians 3:6). After seeing the psalmist munch down and enjoy these “other” verses, I tried it. They were sweet to my taste!

The Bridal Army

This week a number of churches are covering Psalm 110. I have always viewed this chapter in terms of “warfare” as mentioned in verse 3.  The chapter then goes on to say that the Lord will “shatter kings” (v. 5), “execute judgment”, “fill the place with corpses”, and “shatter the head” (v. 6). As graphic and gory as this sounds, I also find it romantic.

In Revelation 19 there is more graphic detail about the Lord and His army. One detail I would like to focus on is in verse 14.

And the armies which are in heaven followed Him on white horses, dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 

Why would the armies be dressed in fine linen white and clean? A few verses before the bride is mentioned, also dressed in fine linen, bright and clean. That is understandable for a bride but what’s up with the armies get-up? The armies are the bride. This matches the revelation of the church in Ephesians. The church is seen as the bride in chapter 5 then as the warrior in chapter 6.

I was at a wedding today sitting through the consecration, eagerly awaiting the kiss. After the groom said his vows, the bride asked if she could just kiss the groom. After the laughter died down the bride said her vows, they kissed, everyone cheered and kids squirmed. It was very romantic.

What’s so cool about kissing? The kiss means that you are giving yourself to that person. It means you love them. It is also very refreshing. Imagine a husband working a long day, then overtime, then stuck in traffic on the way home. That is exhausting but well worth the kiss awaiting him at home. It is invigorating. It is also what the Lord wants from us.

The “young men” mentioned in Psalm 110 are consecrating themselves to the Lord. This means that they are offering themselves willingly. The Lord loves this. Words like “splendor” and “dew” are used to describe their consecration. This refreshes the Lord much like a wife kissing her husband.

Another verse that supports this thought is Song of Songs 1:2 which says

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine.

Finally, Psalm 110 ends by saying

He will drink from the brook by the way; Therefore He will lift up His head.

Our loving the Lord Jesus satisfies Him and gives Him a drink as He rides on to victory.

Here is a stanza of a hymn I love singing

My Beloved, come on spices’ mountain;

How I yearn to see Thee face to face.

Drink, dear Lord, from my heart’s flowing fountain,

Till I rest fore’er in Thine embrace.

Not alone, O Lord, do I adore Thee,

But with all the saints as Thy dear Bride;

Quickly come, our love is waiting for Thee;

Jesus Lord, Thou wilt be satisfied.

http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/1159

WWJD?

A popular Christian acronym I saw growing up was WWJD which stands for What Would Jesus Do? The thought is that Jesus lived a moral life on this earth for us to imitate. When we are at a crossroads we should reflect on what Jesus did and do our best to follow His pattern.

What did Jesus do? He did the Father’s will. How did He know what that was? He was abiding in God and God was abiding in Him. What does that mean? A good verse to help explain this is 1 John 2:27.

And as for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him.

The footnote in the Recovery Version says that we should practice this abiding according to the teaching of the all-inclusive anointing.

What is the all-inclusive anointing? There is an awesome footnote for that too.

The anointing is the moving and working of the indwelling compound Spirit, who is fully typified by the anointing oil, the compound ointment, in Exo. 30:23-25.

Another blog I found that talks more about how this compound ointment relates to us is

http://holdingtotruth.com/2011/11/10/the-spirit-as-our-bountiful-supply/

At the end of the day, what matters when making a decision is not whether we choose correctly what Jesus would do. What matters is that we invite Him into our decision, get His mind and His feeling and His anointing. The more we do this, the more Jesus can do what He wants to do in us and through us.

Here is a hymn we sang this week at my friends house related to the anointing.

1.  In the Word of God I found it,

Wonderful this Word to me;

I need not man’s natural teaching,

The anointing lives in me!

 

Yes, in my spirit now He is moving!

Yes I have the anointing!

God in me is flowing!

Thank God, I see it!

His Word revealed it!

I will apply it ever!

The anointing lives in me!

 

2.  Making Christ experiential,

God at His pure Word I take;

As the Spirit joined unto me,

He cannot His promise break.

 

3.  Based upon the blood that cleanses

So that nothing stands between,

Christ, the ointment, moves within me!

For His move I’m made so clean.

 

4.  God in Christ as life in Spirit

Into my own spirit came!

He the Holy One anoints me

Till in spirit we’re the same.

 

5.  God in Spirit; I can touch Him;

In my spirit He’s the flow.

Deeper, wider, richer, fuller-

Oh, the very God I know!

 

6.  As I heed “that same anointing”

Ever to “abide in Him,”

He is teaching, He is reaching,

Even all my heart to win.

 

Source:  http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/1119#ixzz1nRplRyfi

Witnessing

This week the church read through a booklet entitled Witnessing. This booklet contains many gospel stories that encouraged us to tell everyone the good news. This can be as simple as telling someone in an elevator “Jesus is the Son of God”. Or like the woman at the well in John chapter 4, “Come see a Man”.

This is encouraging because a big hinderance to witnessing is that I don’t know enough. I don’t know enough Bible verses and the ones I do know I can’t find. Just share your experience and enjoyment of Christ. This is what we do with movies we watch and restaurants we eat at. It shouldn’t be any different with witnessing.

A good example of this was in one of our Bible studies this week. A girl came in for the first time and said, “I don’t know much about the Bible, I don’t know any verses, maybe John 3:16, but I do know that Jesus is real. He saved me and healed me”. She was really ecstactic. Her testimony was so simple yet deeply impressed everyone in the room. It is the only thing I remember from that Bible study.

Another experience I had this week was talking to an athiest for two hours. The first thing I tell athiests is that I don’t believe in athiests. I really don’t. They are just disappointed seekers. The honest ones will eventually confess that they are agnostic which this young man did. He tried to reason out the existence of God so I tried to save him some time. I said, “If you really want to disprove God, read Romans 10:13. This verse says that the Lord is rich to all who call on His name. Let’s try this experiment. Say ‘Lord Jesus’ audibly a few times and if the Lord isn’t rich to you then you can walk away happy, knowing that you can now live however you want without worrying about anything other than yourself. But if God is rich to you, then you can walk away even happier that you found the unsearchably rich Christ.”

As great as this sounds, what was even better was that there were a few others sitting with us that had been enjoying Christ. Their faces were shining like angels. After one of them left, the young man started shining and said that was the happiest guy he ever saw. This is exactly what the booklet meant by lighting as many other “candles” as we can before ours burns out.

Here is a hymn about witnessing I really like.

1. Come let us speak till the kingdom of the Lord comes down. Yes, let us speak till the kingdom of the Lord comes down.
   Why hold your peace?
   The Word release.
   Let us speak until the kingdom of the Lord comes down.
2. Oh, loose the Word! It shall not return unto Him void.
   Yes, loose the Word! It shall not return unto Him void.
   Let’s sow the seed,
   This is our need;
   Loose the Word, and it shall not return unto Him void!
3. It’s gospel time! Let us spread the gospel all around.
   Yes, gospel time! We will never fear the people’s frown!
   God’s done His work;
   Let us not shirk;
   We’re but pilgrims here, and we’ll not fear the people’s frown!
4. If we will speak, Christ will witness in the hearts of men.
   If we will speak, Christ will witness in the hearts of men.
   Tell every man,
   Win all we can.
   Through our speaking, Christ is speaking in the hearts of men!
5. The harvest’s ripe! We are preaching the full gospel now!
   The fields are white! We are preaching the full gospel now!
   For this men search—
   Christ and the church!
   Let us reap the harvest, preaching the full gospel now!

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/1294#ixzz1kuRg8IHU

PRAISING

Churches around the world just finished a crystallization study of the Psalms. This study consisted of 12 messages given in Anaheim, California. Leading up to this study, I had become very interested in the warfare mentioned in Ephesians 6. In particular, the verses about standing against the stratagems of the devil and against spiritual forces. I started reading a few books that addressed this topic.

Earth’s Earliest Ages by G.H. Pember delves into the pre-Adamic race that rebelled against God and explains how demons came about. This and Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis helped me understand what the goal of demons are and how they strategize and attack. The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee further explains more specifically and scripturally how to withstand these attacks in our mind.

I originally wanted to blog about some of my findings in these books, especially after message 11 of the Psalms study addressed this matter. After much prayer and consideration, I found something much better I want to share.

Psalms can be summed up in four words, Christ, House, City, Earth. The implication here is that Christ is enlarging and expanding His dominion over the whole earth. There is a lot of resistance in the spiritual realm because once this happens satan and all his followers will be judged. It was sobering to be reminded that one day we will even judge fallen angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). It was encouraging to hear that demons are scared of us.

Message 12 is entitled Offering the Consummate Praise to God for the Recovery of Christ, the House, the City, and the Earth. Praising is mentioned throughout the Psalms as well as the entire Bible. King David stresses the importance of Praising when he says that he prays three times a day but praises 7 times a day (Psa. 55:17, 119:164).

What I realized was how much praising the Lord is lacking on the earth today and in my own life. This is because the ultimate goal of satan is to stop all praises to God. Anyone who has played defense in any sport knows how exhausting it can be. This is satan’s wearing out tactic. If we never take an offensive stance, we will eventually wear out and be defeated. The way to fight back is by praising the Lord!

This is seen in 2 Chronicles 20 when King Jehoshaphat was being attacked by three opposing nations. He and all of Judah and Jerusalem bowed down to worship Jehovah. They rose early in the morning, believed in Jehovah, gave thanks to Jehovah and began to shout in song and in praise. The Amplified Bible says that very moment, the enemies were “self-slaughtered” or self-destructed.

How could they sing, praise and thank the Lord when they were being triple teamed and were about to be destroyed? This is what it means to believe that the Lord has already won the victory. We know how the Bible ends and we believe it! Satan is destroyed! Jesus Christ is Victor! Praise You Lord You have won the Victory!

Here is a hymn I enjoy singing about praising and thanking the Lord.

1.         God’s economy and His eternal plan,
His heart’s desire and intention is to be one with man.
Yet man has failed completely throughout all history.
But hallelujah! Praise the Lord! God’s life is now in me.

2.         Now this life in me is flowing as the river of water of life,
Washing away all my sins, my cares, and all my strife.
This life is overcoming situations in my day.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! For this is what I pray:

Lord Jesus, I love You!
I give You the preeminence in what I do.
Enjoying You is the overcoming way.
Thank You for Your recovery; Your Word we will obey.

3.         Thank You for our situations and the environments we are in.
That we’d turn to You in all things, and turn away from sin.
We’d drop all our anxieties and put our trust in You.
And experience this living One whose life is ever new.

4.         Now the church life is so precious with all the saints so dear.
Enjoying all Your riches, our vision is so clear,
That all would prophesy of Christ from what they’ve seen,
According to Your scripture in First Corinthians fourteen.

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/ns/181#ixzz1k7mIiDUr

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 30 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.