Thomas Brooks (Puritan)

Thomas Brooks on the title page of his book The Riches of Christ.

Courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Brooks_(Puritan)

This post  by Thomas Brooks below merged well with my post on April 12 :  Complete & Effective Dominion

 

I mentioned how important it is to test the spirits. A minister who is not breaking your heart with the word of God almost every time he takes the pulpit, there is a strong chance that he has not been hand picked by Him. A real minister of God will cause you to go home somewhat, if not fully offended every time you hear him. Why? Because it is the nature of the true Gospel it offends unbelievers as much as it offends believers that are not right with Him.

 

Sadly, Satan has worked it so nicely for us to make us comfortable with a half truth, that in the Church, we scream “apostasy” when we are offended by the truth of  the Gospel and in our state of spiritual we have no idea that we are led by Satan to react this way. Satan has done such a great job that we love our mediocre preachers, they make us feel good, we agree with them, we say AMEN, HALLELLUJAH! We get all emotional and drunk on “god”   yet, we go back home with the same compartmentalized lives, wrong attitude toward Him, stubborn hearts,  lack of obedience and our rituals that make us feel good because we found “religion”

 

Even on my death bed, I will keep saying over and over again. The reason we are offended by the preaching, the posts or the books that call for examination of our hearts, or to a deeper life and make us feel inadequate is because we are not where we should be. Deep inside of us, we know something is wrong, but we shut if off and slap our mask on again. For a lot of us, often the subtlety of Satan acts like a snooze alarm we keep pressing the button just so we can get a few more minutes of sleep. Before we know it, time passes us by, we get so deep with Satan, and in our slumber it would take a bulldozer to get us out of our lethargy and laziness. By then, it is easier to say Oh! Well God is good!

 

May God have mercy on us!

Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) was an English non-conformist Puritan preacher and author

Consider carefully what you hear." Mark 4:24"

It is sad to see how many preachers in our days, make 

it their business to enrich men's heads with high, empty, 

airy notions; instead of enriching their souls with saving 

truths. 

Fix yourself under that man's ministry, who makes it his 

business, his work to enrich the soul, to win the soul, and 

to build up the soul; not to tickle the ear, or please the 

fancy. This age is full of such light, delirious souls—who 

dislike everything—but what is empty and airy.

Do not judge a minister . . .

  by his voice, nor

  by the multitude who follow him, nor

  by his affected tone, nor

  by his rhetoric and flashes of wit;

but by the holiness, heavenliness, and spiritualness 

of his teaching. Many ministers are like empty orators, 

who have a flood of words—but a drop of matter.

Some preachers affect rhetorical strains; they seek abstrusities, 

and love to hover and soar aloft in dark and cloudy expressions, 

and so shoot their arrows over their hearers' heads—instead of 

bettering their hearers' hearts. Mirthful things in a sermon 

are only for men to gaze upon and admire. He is the best 

preacher, not who tickles the ear—but who breaks the heart.

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and

 persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's

 power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom,

 but on God's power." 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

THE FEAR OF MAN!

DEVOTION

Read Jeremiah 1:11-19

Jeremiah has been placed as a watchdog over the nation and everything that came out of his mouth was going to be God’s judgement over the nation. He knew of the destruction awaiting Judah, and the fact that judgement was close by so there was no time to waste in finding the way back to Him in repentance. I can see his dilemma. Imagine you knew for a fact that a train is going to derail with everyone aboard, yet the people are not interested in what you know. If anything, they think there is something wrong with you. Your heart is breaking from the pain of possessing such knowledge with no power to convince the people that you know what you are talking about. As if it was not enough you have to deal with the fear of what they could do to you for disturbing the joy they found in their wickedness and idolatry.

God knew Jeremiah was terrified. His fear and his pity party in his mind and heart did not matter to God. The job had to be done and he was the chosen one. Instead God told Jeremiah “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

The fear of man is a powerful snare. It can cripple us and causes us to miss out on all that God has in store for us. In my life I found the only remedy that liberates us from the fear of man is the fear of God. Often we make decisions and side with man just to be on what seems the safe side. We let our fear take over, and our need for approval. This comes from a lack of knowing God, walking with Him and lack of fearing Him. When you fear and respect Him, the choice is always clear. This does not mean you are not trembling with fear of other people's reaction but your fear and reverence for God must come first. Just because God is not in your face, wagging His finger does not mean we get away with it when we side with man instead of Him. No matter what, we are to choose His side, no deletions, no alterations and no cutting corners to soften the blows. If you do, you will be judged by God severely. The only tool we ever need is God Himself.

PRAY: Lord I pray that I never compromise my walk with you to please men. I pray that other Christians would be willing to do the same for your Glory my Lord. That we would be people after your heart. We would be willing to give up our interest, personal agendas and wishes. Lord, may we never fail the call my Lord.  I love you daddy!

SMASHWORDS

CHOSE WISELY WHOM YOU SERVE

DEVOTION

Jeremiah 1:10

 "See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

The sole purpose of Jeremiah’s birth and the authority given to Him by God for his ministry are found in verse 10. The story of Jeremiah is astonishing. One would think that he would naturally become a priest. Instead of following in his father's footsteps, he had a much a bigger challenge presented to him at a young age. It was indeed a daunting task to try to reform his people and convince them to change their ways. In his ministry he was not to mince word because they had left behind all they had learned about God’s characters and Holiness. They had compromised so much, in their exceeding sinfulness they could not recover because their hearts became so callous and they were enjoying the ease of their new found religions. Jeremiah was given power to pull down and destroy and to remove evil among them.

There is no half way with God. He puts before us two choices “good and evil” it is up to us to choose. But we better use this freedom of the will to choose wisely. There is a price for choosing according to our will instead of His and we better be ready to pay the price tag attached to living in our own filth and our own will, because at judgement time, no stones will be left unturned.

 Sadly, in today’s church we are missing anointed ministers from the pulpits to lead the flock. We are living in time where everything is permissible and justifiable. While our ministers preach with gadgets, they tweak God’s message with their own philosophy and variety of their theology. God will be harsher with us come judgement time, because we have His revealed Word in the Bible, and the Holy Spirit to guide us to Him.

 What about you? Are you more interested in what the false prophet have to say than the Word of God? Do you find yourself enjoying the idleness and ease of religions? How can you use this message to turn around?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for today’s passage. It is a reminder that you are a God to be feared. Please help me to seek your ways and surrender in humility, everything each day into your care.  Only in you my Lord we can find true fulfilment and joy. Please help me live by the truth and honor you with my life!

Thanks,  M. J. Andre

Please visit my website and download for free the first chapter of my book

"Apprehended & Apprehending"

Let's create a fun giveaway contest together