My God Is A Shocker! : God's Unorthodox Methods

MY GOD IS A SHOCKER! : PART THREE

Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Net

Last Updated : July 23, 2006

Our Wild, Crazy God, Foul-Mouthed Paul - It's All Dung!,
Jesus Gave It All, Are You Ashamed?, Physically Rich But
Spiritually Poor?, Contend For The Faith, Translation Of The
KJV, The Word 'Crap', God's Vessel Or Yours?, For Better Or
For Worse But Let Me Change You, Quench Not The Spirit, Let
Your Light Shine, Physically Alive But Spiritually Dead,
Walk Humbly Before God, Rebuke Not An Elder, Old Bottles?

Well, I must tell you; I truly got a good laugh as I
finished that previous paragraph where I described the kinds
of people God has chosen to use down through the ages. We
Christians must have the wildest, craziest, most unorthodox
God in the entire universe! Who can possibly doubt that He
must have a good sense of humor; and I love it; and I love
Him; and I love His Word! I am not the least bit ashamed
about what I have learned from His Word! I am not ashamed of
my faith! I am not ashamed of our spiritual ancestry.

Let us take a look now at one final example found in the
New Testament. This list of examples would not be complete
if we didn't include one of the greatest icons of the New
Testament era: the Apostle Paul. Here we have a highly
educated, and a devoutly religious man; a Pharisee of
Pharisees, as he tells us in his own words. This man was
very serious about his religion and Jewish upbringing:

"I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in
Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of
Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the
law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all
are this day." Acts 22:3, KJV

"But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees,
and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men
and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the
hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question."
Acts 23:6, KJV

So here we have a man who had received the best possible
education available to a Jew living at that time; and then
he has this life-changing experience on the dusty road to
Damascus, which not only totally reverses his personal
belief system, but which changes his personal values and
priorities in life as well. Following his miraculous
conversion to the Christian faith, exactly how did Paul
describe everything he had acquired while he was still a
citizen of the world? Consider the following:

"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count
them but dung, that I may win Christ,"
Philippians 3:8, KJV

DUNG! It was all just a bunch of dung; and you all know
perfectly well what word is commonly used today for dung.
Yes, my friends, the original Greek word used in this verse
does in fact mean excrement; or to be even more precise, the
excrement of animals. Everything was just a pile of crap
compared to having Christ in his life. So tell me; was Paul
any less of a servant of the Lord because he used such a
word in his letter to the Philippians? Some of his Jewish
enemies might have even accused Paul of being a hypocrite;
because in this very same Epistle, and in his letter to the
Ephesians, he plainly states the following:

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if
there be any praise, think on these things."
Philippians 4:8, KJV

"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,
but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may
minister grace unto the hearers." Ephesians 4:29, KJV

So was Paul a hypocrite? Was he unholy? Was he any less of a
Christian because he used this word? Hardly! No honest
Christian can deny that the Apostle Paul was undoubtedly one
of the greatest evangelists and missionaries of his time; and
we all know that he paid the ultimate price for his faith in
the end, when he was beheaded by his evil enemies in Rome;
the very ones he went to witness to in the first place.

In light of everything we have discussed thus far, allow me
to ask you a question: Are you ashamed of your Creator? Are
you ashamed of His Holy Book? Are you ashamed of your faith?
I certainly hope not, because our Lord was most certainly
not ashamed of us when He voluntarily chose to leave His
majestic Throne in Heaven, in order to take on the lowly
form of human flesh, so that He could fulfill His Father's
Divine Plan. He was not ashamed to be falsely accused of
things which He did not do. He was not ashamed to be mocked
and ridiculed. He was not ashamed to be called a glutton and
a drunk, or a companion of whores and a devil. He was not
ashamed to be beaten, to be stripped naked, and to be hung
on the Cross in public like a common criminal, in order to
demonstrate His Father's magnificent love for us, by dying
for our sins. Please consider the following verses:

"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 12:2, KJV

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross." Philippians 2:5-8, KJV

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from
him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not"
Isaiah 53:3, KJV

"He came unto his own, and his own received him not."
John 1:11, KJV

"...Thou hast a devil..." John 7:20, KJV

If Jesus was not ashamed to die for us, Lord help us, and
Lord give us the strength to not be ashamed of Him and our
faith either. Lord help us all not to be ashamed to suffer a
little persecution for His Name's sake, if and when we are
called to do so. We folks in the West live such comfortable,
padded lives. Even those of us who live on limited incomes,
live much better than the poor of other lands; but has our
physical wealth and comfort caused us to become spiritually
lax, and robbed us of our faith? Are we more afraid of the
opinions of others, than we are of disappointing our Lord?
Have we unknowingly bowed to political correctness? As I
have stated before, if we are ashamed of our Lord, He will
most certainly be ashamed of us one of these days as well;
for as He Himself said:

"Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words
in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall
the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of
his Father with the holy angels." Mark 8:38, KJV

So Lord help us all to do as the Apostles Jude and Paul both
admonished us to do. Lord help us to truly contend, to stand
up for, our faith, and to be ready to give an answer to them
that ask us concerning our faith. Lord help us not to cower
in fear, or to be ashamed of the unorthodox methods used by
our great God:

"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the
common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you,
and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the
faith which was once delivered unto the saints."
Jude 1:3, KJV

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready
always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a
reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:"
1 Peter 3:15, KJV

If you are not ashamed, offended or embarrassed by the many
examples I have provided in this series, which reveal God's
unorthodox nature, then neither should you object or take
offense if I occasionally choose to use such a word as
'crap' in order to emphasize my disapproval of something. I
hope that you can agree by now, that this little word does
not even come close to the gross and disgusting things we
find written in the Bible. As I mentioned to our mailing
list members, given the political and spiritual environment
surrounding the court of King James during the early seven-
teenth century, I would not be the least surprised if a few
words were intentionally toned down during the translation
process, by the dedicated translators of the KJV; because
some of them were equally holier-than-thou like some people
today; and they were also fearful of offending the king!
Remember; we are talking about puritanical England. It must
have been quite a task for them to translate some of those
words, in a form which would be acceptable to King James.

On the other hand, if you are offended by my occasional use
of the word 'crap', and if you really think that I am acting
in an unChristian manner, then I ask that you really seek
the Lord about it. As you do so, please ponder the question:
Is the problem really my attitude, or is it a result of your
personal upbringing within organized religion? Is it even
possible that your sensitivities are born of pride and
self-righteousness, and a holier-than-thou image you have of
yourself?

Now, in light of what the Scriptures teach us about bearing
the infirmities of the weak, out of love, and because I
don't want to offend anyone, I can immediately stop using
the word 'crap', if that is what some folks really want me
to do; but if I were to do that, please consider the fact
that by doing so, I am allowing you to make this vessel into
something that it is not. I am allowing you to mold me into
what YOU think I should be in order to meet your personal
standard of holiness, instead of what GOD has already
fashioned me to be. This is the very same thing that a lot
of married couples do with each other. They supposedly
accept each other, for better or for worse, exactly as they
are at the altar, and then they spend the rest of their
lives trying to change their mate, in order to meet their
personal expectations of what that person should be like.
Women are particularly notorious for doing this. We've
all heard of the hen-pecked husband!

As I was thinking on this issue, the Lord reminded me of a
verse which was written by the Apostle Paul in his first
Epistle to the Thessalonians. He wrote:

"Quench not the Spirit." 1 Thessalonians 5:19, KJV

In the original Greek, the word translated here as 'quench'
is 'sbennumi'. It means to extinguish, stifle or suppress.
In other words, people are not supposed to try to smother
the flame of the Spirit which God is using to work through a
certain person; but rather, they are to allow it to burn
freely, as God sees fit, and NOT as they see fit. After all,
didn't Jesus say the following:

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
Matthew 5:16, KJV

How can we let our light shine, if we allow someone to put a
bushel over it? The flame will soon start to sputter and
smoke, and it will eventually die. Sadly, this is precisely
what has happened to quite a few modern Christian churches.
The leaders have bowed to political correctness; they have
softened the message; they have compromised the truth of the
Scriptures; because they don't want to offend anyone; and
they most certainly don't want to lose their tax-exempt
status by appearing too radical to the System which controls
them. But you see, when the light goes out, everyone walks
in spiritual darkness; and that is what we have in modern
America today. A lot of people go through the motions of
being Christians, but inwardly, they are spiritually dead;
just as we see in these verses:

"And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These
things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the
seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that
thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the
things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not
found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how
thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If
therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a
thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon
thee." Revelation 3:1-3, KJV

Taking into consideration the verses I have been sharing
with you, I do not believe that it is anyone's place, or
right, to judge my degree of holiness. Neither is it their
place to try to mold my character, so that it conforms to
their personal standard, which may be influenced by their
religious background, or even by their cultural background.
Their idea of what is Christian behavior, and what isn't,
could be totally wrong! As we have seen by the examples
presented in this series, God sometimes does things totally
contrary to what we would think or expect. Sometimes He
tells His servants to do or say things which simply will not
be acceptable to the common herd of men; not even to other
Christians. When a well-meaning person writes to me, and
begins to tell me how I should act, how I should write, or
how I should speak, while they may not understand it, they
are in fact making a small attempt to usurp the influence of
God's Spirit working in my life, in my mind and in my heart
as I write; and this simply is not good. I must be allowed
to burn free!

My daughter knows that I have always taught her to walk
humbly before the Lord, and humbly before others. I have
often told her that we are no better than anyone else. What
makes the difference is the Spirit of Christ working in us.
She knows that this is what God expects of us; and when she
is not doing this, I have been quick to point it out to her.
I do my best to act in the same manner on our mailing list.
While I have never claimed to be some great leader of God,
(even though a few well-meaning folks have tried to convince
me of that very fact over the years), God has placed me in a
position where I am viewed by some folks as having a certain
degree of spiritual authority in their lives. In short, they
view me as their spiritual elder. Exactly what does the New
Testament plan reveal to us concerning elders in regards to
the flock? In his first Epistle to Timothy, the Apostle Paul
wrote:

"Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the
younger men as brethren;" 1 Timothy 5:1, KJV

In that verse, the word 'rebuke' is derived from the Greek
word 'epiplesso', which means to chastise with words, to
chide, to upbraid, or to rebuke. So when a person writes to
me and says 'You shouldn't use that word; you shouldn't say
that; it isn't very Christian-like', that is basically what
they are doing. They are chiding me; they are rebuking me.
Am I perfect? Am I sinless? Of course not; but I do believe
that I possess enough of the Spirit of God to know how He
expects me to act before the flock He has given me.

In conclusion then, God is radical! God is a shocker! God is
totally unorthodox! He likes to do and say things which wake
people up out of their spiritual lethargy and sin. His
definition of holiness and righteousness is A LOT different
from the modern, manpleasing, political correct version,
which is pushed by holier-than-thou organized religion. They
base holiness on outward appearances and hypocritical false
images; just like the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees
of old; while God bases it on obedience to, and submission
to His Will and Spirit. He asked His servants in the Bible
to do some very unorthodox things in order to make a point;
yet they did them; because they had a greater fear of God,
than they did a fear of the opinions of men. Sometimes I too
will choose to use a strong word in order to emphasize a
point. I hope that you are spiritually mature enough to take
the milk of the Word, as well as the stronger meat.

Please remain pliable. Please remain flexible. Do not become
a rigid, old bottle which can no longer handle the radical
nature of God's Spirit. As Jesus said:

"And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new
wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles
shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and
both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine
straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better."
Luke 5:37-39, KJV

Which one are you; an old bottle or a new one? The choice
is really up to you! I pray that this series has been an
inspiration and a blessing to many.