Preach The Foolish Gospel

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Preach The Foolish Gospel

I have a tendency to intellectualize things and want to make a compelling argument.

But far be it from me when God has chosen foolishness for me to make it reasonable and render it of no effect!

“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”
—1 Corinthians 1:21

I was not called to win debates.

I was called to preach the gospel.

“And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
—1 Corinthians 2:4-5

Jesus said His sheep know His voice and they follow Him.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
—John 10:27

So, my aim is simply to speak with His voice by His Spirit to gather His Sheep to Him that He leads to good pasture in God.

If the preaching of His Anointed Word does not cause them to hear, nothing will.

If the foolishness of the gospel does not save them, nothing will.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
—1 Corinthians 1:18

The foolishness of the gospel is the God ordained means by which He chooses. It is His dividing rod. I must be careful not to modify it or corrupt it to make it suitable lest it is no longer the gospel.

I must trust God.

I must do it His way.

If I don’t, those who are “saved” by my “ministry” are not saved at all, rather they are deceived again by the deceitfully wicked heart of man.

Preach the foolish gospel.

Here it is:

God alone is good.

We sinned and thereby died, becoming instruments of death, killing and being killed, languishing in darkness, hopelessly separated from God and condemned to the same destruction of every evil thing by a good and Holy God.

But, God demonstrating His exceeding goodness and love provided a Way, while we were His enemies, that we can be with Him. Jesus is the Way.

God came Himself, to do what only He could do, taking the form of man by sending His Son to live a sinless life so that He might be the perfect sacrifice -a sacrifice infinitely greater than sheep, goats and bulls, a sacrifice sufficient for the sins of the whole world for all time. Because, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

But, God through Jesus, who having the riches of God, paid the debt and took the penalty we owe -death. God made Him who knew no sin become sin that we might become the righteousness of God.

God through Jesus provides a way of salvation from the death we are dying now and the death to come.

But, God not only had Jesus to die for us. Jesus being God laid down His life and took it up again. He was raised from the dead as the firstborn of a new creation which we become part of as a new creature when we believe.

And, this is the good news: we can be with God.

Our sin is great but God’s love is greater and God has provided a Way to be with Him for all who will accept it. Jesus is the Way.

We accept it by believing God, that Jesus is God who came in the flesh, that He is the Word, that He alone makes the truth of who God is known to us, that He died for our sin and that He was raised from the dead.

Acceptance is indicated by repenting of our sin: denouncing the world -the kingdom of darkness, forsaking it with joy in exchange for the kingdom of light, seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness above all, confessing Jesus as King and Master and giving our lives to Him who in turn reconciles us to God.

When we believe God, not only does He account Jesus’ payment on the cross to our account so that our current, past and future debt is forever paid, He gives us new life, making us righteous and acceptable in the Beloved, making us instruments of life rather than death through the same Power that raised Jesus from the dead -the Holy Spirit, and by Him makes available to us all of the riches of God, including a bodily resurrection on the Last Day so we can be with God forever.

God has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.

God has done this, not we ourselves, so it will not fail.

God did it for Himself, not for us, so His reason will never change.

God didn’t do it because we earned it, deserve it, or because of anything desirable in us, quite the contrary.

God did it because He’s just that good.

And, the good news is that we can be with God.

Repent.

Accept what God’s done.

Believe in Him who God sent: Jesus.

And, be saved.

#gospel #preaching #perfectourlove

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #21 – A Quiz (About Fasting)

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #21 - A Quiz (About Fasting)

In week 21 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks for a quiz.

I was at Rosey Baby’s for lunch and as I was leaving I passed a table where Monica Banks was having lunch with a colleague.

She was aware that I had recently accepted my call to the ministry and she motioned for me to come to her table.

Now Mrs. Banks was constantly investing in people, looking to develop leaders in the community and trying to help them get to the next level.

She asked me a question, “What does it mean to fast?”

She was quizzing me, because, being a seasoned woman of faith and also a minister, she knew the answer better than I did.

I gave her an answer that may have been technically correct but I could sense from my delivery and from her response that it was from my head but not from my heart. It was something I thought, not something I knew.

She responded, “Thank you, Reverend. Hug Melissa and those babies for me.”

That was almost two decades ago, and since that moment I’ve been pondering her question in my heart.

Providential factors: life, seeking, surviving a crisis of faith, and reading the following passage at just the right time brought her question full circle.

“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
—Deuteronomy 8:2-3

All that God does is to make Himself known. There is not only no higher good, there is no good beside that.

It is during a fast where the cloak of our sufficiency is removed and we are confronted with the depth of our earthly dependencies to the point of idolatry. We are confronted with our reaction to withdrawal from them and the true condition of our heart from which our reactions spring.

God’s objective toward us is to perfect us so that He can shine through us, like He does through Jesus, His only begotten Son.

**We can either do it with Him** and cooperate by willingly putting things down and exercise ourselves to godliness through disciplines such as fasting, **or it can happen to us** through a “forced fast” like the one experienced in this passage by the Children of Israel as they are tried and trained in the wilderness.

Either way, we’re going to be made to learn, if we’re His. And, it’s for our good.

“If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.”
—Hebrews 12:7-8

We can either seek out opportunities to confront those things that get between us and God, that block His love to and through us, or find ourselves thrust into situations that cause us to confront them, or both.

He desires to make us stronger, to conform us to the image of Christ, until like Jesus we are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

It is a work that He will complete without fail.

“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”
—Philippians 1:6

God wants to grow us to the point where, when the enemy attacks us at our weakest point, tempting us, our Strength is so overwhelming we can respond, “Man shall not live by bread alone [our earthly dependencies or whatever Satan’s offering], but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

But [Jesus] answered [Satan’s temptation] and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
—Matthew 4:4

Fasting is a spiritual discipline of forsaking natural satisfaction in pursuit of spiritual sustenance.

Without the **pursuit** of God, fasting is just dieting.

But, a real fast is much more.

Fasting is more than abstaining, it’s availing ourselves of the sustenance only God can provide, through seeking His revelation, obedience to what He reveals, while putting aside our earthly comforts and dependencies to rely on Him alone.

“In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’

But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’

Therefore the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?’

Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.'”
—John 4:31-34

Fasting is strength conditioning, where at the point of our weakness, His strength is made perfect. It is preparation for the trials that are sure to come.

I’m so thankful to my dear sister in Christ, Monica Banks, for her quiz that prepares me for the test.

I’m grateful.

#52WoG #fasting #spiritualwarfare

What To Do When I’m Not Feeling It

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - What To Do When I'm Not Feeling It

Anyone who has been married for any significant amount of time can tell you that there are days when you’re “not feeling it”.

It’s the whole reason faithfulness is a thing.

If I were “feeling it” all the time, there would be no need for faithfulness.

On those days that I’m not feeling it, I **feel** like doing something that makes me feel better, that satisfies my craving, that soothes my pain, that fills what I’m lacking…

But, I **choose** to be faithful: to continually advance that which I have committed to.

“Feel”
Sense
Senses:
Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing, Sight

Sight

But, the just live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

I must choose to be faithful.

#perfectourlove #thriveday

My New Found Freedom In Slavery To Christ

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - My New Found Freedom In Slavery To Christ

I am beginning to experience a wonderful new found freedom as a slave of Christ.

I have been in the bondage of worry, thinking that I have to take care of things, I have to make ends meet, I have to make a way, I have to do this, I have to do that to hold everything together, which is true if I’m building my own house.

But, Christ provides for His house.

When I forsake all as following Christ demands, abandoning my own ambitions for my own house and instead serve Him and His house, when His purposes are my pursuit **first** (πρῶτον – “chiefly” or “above all” as in Matthew 6:33, which means everything that follows is subordinate, whatever is 2nd, 3rd, 4th will not violate what is 1st), I find that I can have complete confidence that He will provide everything I need, including the grace needed to glorify God in hard times (2 Corinthians 12:8-9, Philippians 4:11-13).

Because, God’s glory is the goal and He will have it (John 12:28).

If I am truly in His house, the glory of the Father is my goal as is my Master’s, Christ.

His glory **is** increasingly becoming the singular goal of my life, and in this new stage of my walk with Christ, I am consistently seeing His perfect provision even though I serve imperfectly!

He is so faithful.

But it started with dying, beginning with dying to my own identity and my own ambition. You can’t serve two masters.

To enjoy this freedom and the peace that comes with it, I have to forsake all.

And, please do not confuse this as me saying I don’t have to work. A heart that loves compels action to prosper what it loves. I work and in many cases the job I do every day does not change, but what does change is who my work is in service to.

I am not saying I do not have to work.

What I am saying is, I don’t have to worry.

Christ provides for His house.

He will provide everything I need, including the grace needed to glorify God in hard times.

I only need to love Him and do what love does.

This is so freeing.

And, it results in better work too.

The challenge is not allowing myself to be seduced back into the clutches of my old master.

Please pray for me.

See: Matthew 6:24-33
#perfectourlove #work

The False Doctrine Of ‘I Earned It’

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Evil Eye

We feel justified living in luxury while people around us languish because “I earned it”.

We have made it a doctrine and enshrined it in our self-made American Judeo-Christian religion.

But, Jesus does not share our American ideals of capitalism.

If we belong to Christ we do not “work for money” or ourselves. We serve the Lord, so we regard money and prosperity differently.

The goal of gaining more is not to eat more.

The goal of gaining more is so that everybody eats.

Consider Matthew 20:10-15:

“But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius.

“And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, “saying,

‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them and said,‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

‘Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.

‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’
— Matthew 20:10-15

Note that the landowner didn’t just go find workers, he sought people who didn’t have work.

This is in keeping with the point that Jesus is making about the Kingdom of Heaven: we all were without means of earning a living (eternal life) but I choose you and gave you that opportunity, and My heart was that everybody could live (good eye) while your heart was to have more than others (evil eye).

Being born again includes being given a new heart that looks at everything, including money with new eyes.

It is errant to save up treasure for yourself. See Luke 12:19-21

Because I’ve worked for it does not mean I can do with it whatever I please. I am the Lord’s.

Our approach to money and the power He’s given us to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) should be seen as resources made available to take care of our Lord’s house and our fellow servants. See Matthew 25:44-51

Repent, with me.

This is an excerpt from one of three areas (identity, treasure, purpose) where the Lord is challenging lies I’ve embraced that hinder my receiving the “true riches”, and where He’s imparting to me the “things that make for my peace”.

#trueriches #money #thethingsthatmakeformypeace

52 Weeks of Gratefulness #19 – The Victory That Christ Provides

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - 52 Weeks of Gratefulness #19 – The Victory That Christ Provides

I was overwhelmed.
I found strength in the presence of Christ’s people who were gathered in His name.

So, in Week 19 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks for the victory that Christ provides.

I’ll repeat this nugget from Alan Hawkins again:

“Victory is in the Lord’s communion.”

When faced with challenges, sometimes all we need is to get in formation -we need to run to the Lord’s communion, that is, the fellowship with others in Christ, especially over a meal.

Sometimes, we don’t even have to share our problems or solve that of others.

There’s a transmission happening just being in the midst of Christ’s people who are being attentive to His Spirit.

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”
—2 Corinthians 2:14

But the greater the intimacy, the greater the power.

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
— Matthew 18:20

So, there’s even more strength to be had if we do share our problems with those we discern love God, love us and have His Spirit.

“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
— James 5:16

Are you a believer that’s struggling? Burdened? Overwhelmed?

“Victory is in the Lord’s communion.”

I’m grateful.

#52WoG

The Discipline Of Looking For Life In Others

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The Discipline Of Looking For Life In Others

It’s easy to focus on what’s wrong or where I believe a person is falling short and completely overlook the areas where they’re growing and making an effort.

To ignore or deny where a person is trying is discouraging and destructive.

I realize how I’ve been guilty of this and I repent.

Very often, we kill the grape vine we’re given because we’re looking for an apple tree (and it might not even be the season for whatever we’re looking for).

I must learn to work patiently with the Holy Spirit within His appointed seasons, to sow what I want (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31) and faithfully attend to what I get, to nurture and cultivate what is rather than railing against what isn’t.

God has placed me in a garden. I have been entrusted with many fields. The goal is that there would be life in those fields and to help them be fruitful.

I must remember that the goal is not to get what I want, but to seek what God wants -fruit: to be co-laborers with God in conforming each person, all the fields He’s given me the great privilege of working with Him in, to the glorious image of Christ.

So, a good question to ask in my frustration about what I’m not seeing is, where else are they trying, where else are they budding, what is needful for Christ to be further formed in them?

Then I can turn that budding seed toward the Son, nurture it, and lean into what God is doing -in them and me.

“[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.” –1 Corinthians 13:7-8

#perfectourlove

How God’s Love Is Different

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - How God's Love Is Different

One of many ways the love of God is different:

God’s love is not transactional, it’s relational.

When I love you with God’s love, I love you, not on the basis of what you do or even who you are, or not even because of my relationship to you, but I love you based on my relationship to God.

The beginning of love is not the appreciation of some virtue in the subject.

Love is like light. There is no virtue in the darkness that activates light. Light shines simply because that’s what light does.

The beginning of love is God. Loves does what love is. Said another way, Love does who God is.

The question is, do I have Him [love], or perhaps better said, does love [God] have me?

If so, love is just going to do what it do and there should be nothing the subject can do to stop that.

The principal thing then, is to know Love, to have Him and Him have me.

Abide.

Only then am I in a position to love.

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
-John 15:9

#perfectourlove

Stop Being A Church Member And Start Being A Disciple

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Stop Being A Church Member And Start Being A Disciple

Imagine a firefighter that has to bring a burning house to the fire station before anything that can be done.

Or, an EMT that doesn’t do anything in the field but has to bring an injured or dying patient to the hospital before anything can be done.

There would be a lot of homes destroyed and a lot of people crippled or dying for lack of life-saving care.

Sounds familiar?

The industrial church teaches us to bring people to “church”, that when you encounter them to refer them elsewhere (to a pastor, a service, a class, a program) -to send them somewhere else.

That’s what the disciples said to Jesus in Mark 6:36,

“Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.”

But, what was Jesus’ reply in Mark 6:37?

“But He answered and said to them, ‘You give them something to eat.'”

We are called to be disciples of Christ, not merely members of a club.

Disciple, μαθητής, means “learner, pupil, student”.

What are we learning?

We are being taught by God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) The Way of the Kingdom of God and to do what our Master, Jesus, does (love: preach the good news, heal and set people free -Luke 4:18).

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
-John 14:12

We should be disciples, learning to do that work, making the Father known through the revelation and ministry of His Son and making disciples –not recruiting people to an organization.

Our Lord has given each of us, every one of us, all of us work to do and gifts to do them. And the greatest gift of all is the Lord Himself, resident in each of us through the Holy Spirit.

Without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5) and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).

We have the bread of life. If you don’t, get it.

Don’t send them away.

Our Lord commands,
‘You give them something to eat.’

The industrial church has lulled you to sleep.

Repent!

Stop being a “church” member and start being a disciple.

I love you.

#industrialchurch #discipleship

What Shall We Do

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - What Shall We Do?

Prostrate. Repentance. Praise.

These are proper responses to God.

I thank God for my dear sister Stephanie Atkins Arnett who regularly challenges me with her bias toward love in action. She asked a question that reminded me of the believers’ response to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit during Pentecost in Acts 2:37,

“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?'”

In a previous post, I admonished us as a church, declaring that we have a problem.

The problem is we don’t love each other.

Sister Stephanie replied,

“You cited a challenge of our community…
Several have accepted the premise…
My question to you… what are actionable steps we can take, in addition to prayer?”

Thank you, dear sister, for that question and challenge!

This is what I believe God has put in my heart:

First, we need to become and operate as disciples NOT as members of an organization. Each of us, every one of us, should be functioning and expressing the life of Christ everywhere, every day and not just at club sanctioned activities.

Then, my answer [to the question] would first be the answer of the first century church, to come together at every opportunity (Acts 2:46), and labor intentionally to remove everything that separates us (Ephesians 4:1-5).

The idea is simple: by the grace of God, love each other the way Christ loves us, which flows out of the way He loves the Father, and then invite others into that love.

I have a vision of various fellowships across our community being held by disciples (not as a club recruitment function but as a sharing the love of Christ function) in their homes and businesses every day where we share the love of Christ and learn how to grow it (different people hosting at different places on different days. I personally want to attend one every day). Praise God that this is already happening to some degree.

We should then look around our fellowships and ask, “Is this representative of the makeup of my community, and moreover is this representative of the Kingdom of God?” If it is not, repent and strive to correct that. As Christ left heaven to get us, we should leave our comfort zones to get them (those that are lost or missing).

We should then connect those fellowships, using that network to identify and address needs and seize opportunities to grow the family of God.

Let’s start by dropping any such fellowships (not as a club recruitment function but as a sharing the love of Christ function) that we’re aware of in the comments.

If you’d like some training on this, let me know and we’ll make that happen.

Thanks again dear sister for the call to arms and action!

I love you.