November 2001

Part Forty-six

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory (K)

I have read a fiery Gospel
Writ in burnished rows of steel,
"As ye deal with my condemners,
So with you My Grace shall deal";
Let the Hero, born of woman,
Crush the serpent with his heel
Since God is marching on!

     This verse in Julia Ward Howe’s original poem- Battle Hymn of the Republic is usually omitted from today’s hymnals, but Father recently brought it to my attention. These lyrics add new dimension to this blessed message. Here God clearly alludes to His divine principle [also called the “Golden Rule”] which declares, “In all things do to others what you would have them do to you!” (Mt 7:12) He also counsels, “Do not deceive yourselves thinking God can be mocked, He cannot! A man reaps what he sows! If he sows to the flesh, he must reap corruption from the flesh; but if he sows to the Spirit, he will reap Eternal Life of the Spirit!” (Gal 6:7)
     The above verse says Grace will deal with us the same way we deal with His condemners! But who are God’s condemners? They are THOUGHTS ensuing from the MIND OF FLESH! This accursed carnal mind was the lying serpent that tempted the first Adam in the garden of Eden; (Gen 3:1) and the same devil who tempted the last Christ-Adam in the wilderness; (Mt 4:1) and the same “generation of vipers” who were the religious hypocrites of Christ’s day; (Mt 23:33) and the same messenger of death Scripture calls a demon, dragon, fox, Baal, Satan, and Antichrist. Of all the thoughts of worldly-minded natural man, apostle Paul said, “None are righteous, no, not one! None have spiritual understanding; none seek after God! They have all gone out of ‘The Way’ (Jesus is “The Way!” Jn 14:6) All (flesh thoughts) are profitless; none does good, no, not one! The throat from which they emerge is an open sepulcher and its tongue is used for deceit. Poison is under the lips of the mouth that is full of cursing and bitterness. The feet that carry them forth a are swift to shed blood, with destruction and misery in their ways. (Pr 14:12 says, “Man’s ways seem right in his own eyes, but they all end in death!”) They have never known The Way of Peace and there is no Fear of the Lord before their eyes!” (Ro 3:10-18)
      Many believers disqualify themselves, “My thoughts never condemn God!” But Jesus says, “What you do to the LEAST of My brethren, you have done to ME!” (Mt 25:40) Have we ever entertained condemning thoughts toward our fellow man? Was there ever a time we judged as sinful another’s action, speech or outward appearance, and this prompted us to look down on them in self-righteousness, as one superior to them?! This is a trap laid for all Godly men by that cunning cur of our carnal minds! Our Father looks upon all men with the same unconditional Love and Mercy! He not only knows what the weakness of every man’s flesh will cause him to do, but He also knows that natural men cannot understand why evil thoughts pop up amidst their good thoughts, as deadly weeds among lovely flowers in a garden. It was to rid our hearts forever of such thorny thoughts Jesus endured the Cross crying, “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing!” By the same token we read, “To him that does know to do right, but does not do it, to him it is sin!!” (Jas 4:17) What this means is if God allows a man’s human frailty to be brought to our attention, we are to treat him with the same non-judgmental compassion we want from our heavenly Father! Let us remember, God foreknew- not just one flaw in our earthly nature- but ALL of them! What sobering food for thought! Have you ever stopped to realize the only reason we can detect one another’s shortcomings is that God lets them manifest outwardly as a test of our character! Remember that God sees into our hearts and observes- not one, but- ALL our inner imperfections!!
     What a nasty sight that must be! But remember also, if our Creator saw our every character defect- that we cannot even see in ourselves- and yet loved us enough to humble Himself, assume the guise of a mortal man so He could die on a Cross for our Atonement; how can we wrongfully judge those few impurities God chooses to expose in our fellow man? Our Lord Jesus addresses this very thing in His parable of the unrighteous debtor in Mt 18:21-35.

    “Peter said to Jesus, Lord, how often shall I forgive a brother who sins against me- As many as 7 times?’ Jesus said, ‘I do not say, up to 7 times, but 70 times 7! For the kingdom of heaven is like the king who kept accounts of his servants; and as he began calculating, a servant was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents! As he could not pay, his master commanded that the man, his wife, his children, and all he owned, were to be sold as payment for his debt! But the servant fell down and worshipped him, ‘Lord, be patient with me and I will pay it all! The servant’s master was moved with compassion and set him free, canceling the entire debt!!
     But then that same servant went out and found a fellow servants who owed him only 100 pennies! He laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ His fellow servant fell at his feet pleading, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you all I owe!’ But he would not hear of it and went ahead and threw him into prison till he could pay the debt.
     Now when his fellow servants saw what he had done, they were very distressed, and went to tell their lord what was done. The lord then called him and said, ‘Oh, you wicked servant! I forgave you all your debt because you desired me: shouldn’t you also have had compassion on your fellow servant even as I had pity on you?! So his master was very angry and delivered him to the tormentors till he could pay all that was due him. This is what my heavenly Father will do to you if you each do not, from your hearts, freely forgive every trespass of all your brothers!”

[TO BE CONTINUED]

Notice: this ministry will be in LONDON, ENGLAND the week of Dec 9-16

[except 2 one-day trips to Dublin, Ireland and Paris, France]. Any Kingdom group interested in hosting a meeting must please contact us as soon as possible by email: Sonrise1@aol.com, or telephone: 702-647-2131. Our itinerary is filling up quickly.

[P.S. We are not in need of lodgings as all our accommodations are prearranged.]