The Eternal Goal

Spiritual Warfare

My Goal is God Himself. . .
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

      "There are no such things as calamities or accidents to God's children--'all things work together for good.' sin and evil and the devil are not God's order; they are here by the direct permission of His providence.
     "If we governed the universe, we would clear them all out at once, but God does not work in that way. He did not work in that way with us--think how patient God has been with us!
     "When the world, the flesh and the devil do their worst, it is for us to understand where our true life is to be lived, not in the outer courts, but 'hid with Christ in God.' Whatever happens, happens by God's permission." GW 128
     "And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.'” John 2:14-17
‘But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord, and he shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord, and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him.’ ” Numbers 15:30-31

Spiritual Undertow

"You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump." Galatians 5:7-9"

"An undertow is an undercurrent flowing in a different direction from the water at the surface. It is the undercurrent that drowns; a swimmer will never plunge into an undercurrent, a fool will.

The spiritual undertow that switched away the Galatians was Judaism, formalism. It was not dominant, but hidden; it ran in exactly the opposite direction to the current of liberty into which they were being brought by Christ. Instead of going out to sea, out into the glorious liberty of the children of God, they were being switched away.
"You ran well..." They had been heading straight for the ocean, but the undercurrent of ritualism bewitched them, hindering them from obeying the truth." (page 904)

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life." John 5:39-40

Note: This "undercurrent" illustrates the postmodern transformation of churches around the world. On the surface it looks good. Leaders quote Bible verses and point to the gospel. They tell us that their message of hope is based on the redemption. But then their message strays off course, drawing members and churches into an undercurrent that chokes out the truths that set us free.
     The new church leaders and managers will tell us the opposite: that their psycho-social strategies and ground rules for group discussion free people from the burdens of shame and the pangs of guilt. But by presenting a feel-good universal gospel that rationalizes sin and shields the suffering sinner from genuine conviction can only bring an illusion of salvation.

    For the person who believes in Christ without coming broken and contrite to the cross will not be

cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus

nor freed from bondage to sin

nor filled with the Spirit that enables us to walk in the new life of joy, peace and victory.

Always striving to follow the new vision and social rules for "spiritual community," such seekers are hindered from the very Life of Jesus, the Shepherd that at first put the hunger for truth and God in their hearts.

See The Eternal Goal & Preparing for Persecution

My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace;

Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.

'Tis His to lead me there, not mine but His...

At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

By Frederick Brook

See the rest of this wonderful poem here