Abiding

“DAWN of LIBERTY” [revival] PERSECUTED LEADER Speaks OUT

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“DAWN of LIBERTY”

-Extracts by Michael Phillips.

Dieder Palacki from behind the Iron Curtain addresses the West…

It was several long moments before he at last spoke. “It has

been a curious past several days,” he began, speaking softly.

“I have been listening with great interest to the many discussions

and exhortations, all with the end in view of promoting the

Christian faith in a region of the world where one might conclude

never before had a single soul heard the name Jesus of Nazareth.”

“I must admit that when the invitation came to join you, and even

to address this gathering, I found myself seized with a certain

trepidation. As you know, large assemblies of Christians such

as this have not been customary where I come from, and thus

most of my work among Christians has been in small groups of

less than one hundred. Addressing several thousand I found a

very intimidating prospect.”

“In the end however, I decided to join you, for we pastors and

Christians from the regions formerly behind the Iron Curtain are

certainly excited about the new possibilities for evangelism in our

nations too.”

“But as I listened to more and more talk of money and pamphlets,

of missionaries being sent and books being shipped, of teachers

and pastors coming to help and train us in spreading the gospel,

and of your gospel TV and radio stations and your gospel trains

and gospel trucks full of your Western-style gospel paraphernalia –

your badges and tracts and stickers and music and gaily written

happiness-books with their joy-filled, razzle-dazzle Christianity – a

knot has steadily risen in my stomach.”

“Do not forget, I have spent much time in your countries. I have

been in your churches and bookstores. I have witnessed with my

own eyes the trappings of your so-called spiritual prosperity,

which is really no prosperity at all, but a hollow empty shell.”

“Something within me wants to shout and say to you all, “Go

home to your contented and wealthy homes and communities

and churches. The Good News of Jesus Christ is alive and

vibrant and is fully capable of carrying itself abroad into the hearts

of hungry men and women without the benefit of your expensive

and lavish commercial efforts on its behalf.”

“Why do you think that those of us such as my brothers

Wurmbrand and Duduman and Vins and others have been

risking our lives for all these years? Each of us has been

imprisoned, beaten, tortured, humiliated because of our preaching

of Christ’s gospel. Thousands upon thousands of our fellow Poles

and Russians and Slavs and East Germans have laid their lives on

the line for the sake of their faith and in order to share that faith with

others.”

“I tell you, my friends, God’s church is alive and well in the areas

you represent as lost and in such desperate need. Small, perhaps,

it may be, but it is alive and thriving because in our corners of the

world there is a price to be paid to call yourself a disciple of the

Lord Jesus Christ. A price that cannot be measured, as you seem

to measure all things – by money. No, you who hear my words who

I hope and pray are my brothers and sisters, it costs to believe in

the East. It costs all you have to be a Christian. So there are very

few lukewarm, halfhearted souls among us. To be halfhearted can

cost you your life!”

“For years we have tried to alert you Christians of the West to the

true state of affairs behind the Iron Curtain. We have written, we

have traveled, we have spoken, we have prayed, we have wept.”

“How many of you listened to us?”

“My brother and friend Alexandr Solzhenitsyn attempted for a

decade to be heard, as have so many others. We asked for your

prayers, for Bibles, for help in teaching and training our people.

And some help did come, for which we were grateful.”

“But the rest of you continued to feed your own mammoth

religious systems, building yet bigger and bigger transmitting

stations and more television stations and publishing more books –

all in the name of proclaiming the gospel.”

“But did you ever give of yourselves? Did you come help us? Did

you pray for us? Did you suffer and die and starve with us? How

much did you really care about the people you now so pompously

think you will save for the kingdom?”

“Where have you been all this time? We needed your help and

prayers and support and Bibles when times were hard! We have

been beaten and imprisoned and even killed for the gospel’s sake.

Where were you when it counted? We lived our faith behind the

Iron Curtain, and now that it is down, who is to say we even want

you coming with your pompous egoism and self-reliance?…. Do

you truly expect us to share your enthusiasm and welcome you

and your wealthy brand of capitalistic Christianity with open arms?”

“Think again, my friends, those I would still call my brothers and

sisters in spite of your blindness. Pause and consider the egotism

of your presumption and the worldliness of your method.”

By now the auditorium was filled with the heaviness of shocked

silence. No one dared move a muscle or so much as shift in his

seat. But Palacki’s chastening diatribe was not over yet.

“How dare you well-fed, contented, prosperous Christians of the

West, come here now and think you can throw your money at us

poor unfortunates and suddenly save the world with all the gadgets

and inventions and high-tech wizardry of electronic spirituality! You

with your multi-million-dollar architecturally imposing churches, you

with your computer Bibles and preprogrammed Bible Studies, you

with your posh cars and soft, upholstered pews, your grand libraries

of Christian books, your leather-bound reference Bibles, you who have

all the answers to the world’s ills nicely at hand to spout off when

asked.”

“Have we Christians of the East been idle all this time? What

would you have us to do, go off quietly somewhere so you can

come in and pat yourselves on the back before your watching

congregations and claim credit for saving all the souls who would

be lost without you?”

“No my shallow brothers and sisters of wealthy, contented

Western evangelicalism! Build a prayer tower or a glass church

somewhere, but think not that your money can save souls. Go

back from whence you came, and spend your evangelistic self-

gratifying mammon elsewhere!”

Suddenly he stopped, stood another two or three seconds gazing

at his listeners with calm countenance, yet flaming eyes. Then,

with decisive motion he ripped the check he was still holding into

several pieces and let it drop to the floor.

Palacki turned and strode off the platform and out of sight, leaving

his hearers gaping in stunned silence.

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The Reign of Christ! [podcast]

White and Clean: Garments of the KING’s Bride [podcast]

“This Hope” of Christ’s Return [podcast]

Abiding

“Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith” [podcast]

Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith and He requires our personal participation both initially and ongoing, as we “endure to the end”, abiding in Him (Matthew 10:22; 24:13; John 15, etc.).

“From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?” John 6:66-67

WHERE O WHERE are we going to go if we depart from Jesus? …. does He, the eternal God and Creator of all things not hold the future of every living soul in His holy hand?

FB Meyer on John 6:60-71

“THE SIFTING OF JESUS’ FOLLOWERS
Christ’s pathetic question-Will ye also go away?-elicited from Peter a reply which proved that the inner meaning of His words had already broken upon their souls. ‘Thy words give us and nourish within us the eternal life.'”

“Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?” John 6:66-67

There are many today, who like the 5,000 who departed from Christ, leave when they hear the cross message – the divine command to be crucified with Christ. Jesus asks us today: “Will you allow He who authored your faith to finish it?”

“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ezekiel 18:4

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. ²Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. ³For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? ²God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? ³Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? ⁴Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: ⁶knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. ⁷For he that is dead is freed from sin. ⁸Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: ⁹knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. ¹⁰For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. ¹¹Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. ¹²Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. ¹³Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. ¹⁴For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. ¹⁵What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. ¹⁶Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness”? Romans 6:1-16

“In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ⁴And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. ⁵For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. ⁶As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: ⁷rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. ⁸Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. ⁹For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. ¹⁰And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:” Colossians 2:3-10

The Gospel, the Resurrection of Christ

1 Corinthians 15

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

Christology | The Cross