Martha's Sunrise

The Spirit's primary work is in guiding us into God's plan for our lives. I saw the Spirit work in this way in Martha. Martha, age thirty-five and a believer in Christ, was suffering from deep emotional pain. During a counseling session, I asked the lord to bring to light the lies Satan had hidden in her inner being. As I prayed, the Lord brought several lies to Martha's mind. "I believe I am really evil," she soon noted. I showed her then what God actually says about her. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). Martha thought about this and said, "Then according to the Bible I am washed clean." The next lie the Holy Spirit brought to her mind was "God can never love me because I am so awful." I then read the wonderful truth, "We love Him because He first loved us" (I John 4:19). Her eyes lit up as the truth of God's love for her sank into her heart. A third lie soon came to mind: "I can never change: I will always be sinful, dirty, and awful." At this time I personalized 2 Corinthians's 5:17 for Martha: "Therefore, if Martha be in Christ, she is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things for Martha have become new." I must start acting on the truth that I am a new person in Christ." Martha said. I continued to pray that the Lord would reveal the enemy's lies, and even more were revealed. It was all most as if we were in Sunday school and I was asking a class of children these questions. Except in this case, my class was one, Martha, and not a little child but an adult. And yet, as she sought the truth through the Holy Spirit, the truth shone through in that way Jesus spoke of when He said, "Unless you...become as little children, you will by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). As we explored the lies that were more deeply ingrained in Martha's thought processes, she said, "If I serve the Lord, I will never be able to serve people because they will become idols to me." The Lord destroyed this lie through Ephesians 2:10: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." "So a true servant worships God, and part of that worship involves serving people," Martha replied. The last lie the Lord showed her was "I can't face truth because it hurts too much." A number of Scriptures served here, but I read John 8:32 "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. It was as if a sunrise suddenly appeared to someone on as desert island. The pain simply melted out of Martha's heart, and she began to reveal the real nature of what she'd endured. She had been abused beyond description by her parents and siblings. Amazingly, despite the sin in this household, Martha was taken to church every Sunday. During that time, Martha would often pray, "Please, God make my family stop hurting me." Yet the most severe physical and sexual abuse would take place on Sunday afternoons, after attending church. Part of Martha loved God and part despised Him. Martha would hear the pastor preach on answered prayer, but then the enemy would whisper, "God doesn't answer your prayer, now, does He?" Another sermon explained the "peace that passes all understanding," Martha would cry out for such peace, but when it didn't come Satan seemed to say, "You will never have this peace, only pain, because God hates you." Still a later sermon title was "God Can Get You Out of Any Problem." Satan loved this sermon; he said, "Anybody but you, Martha, because you are not worth it." During counseling, I looked with Martha at Scriptures that described God's good plan to have His children serve Him because He loves and accepts them. Knowing the truths that God makes no mistakes and uses all things for our good (Isaiah 40:10; Romans 8:28-29) sets a person free from the past. It frees him or her to walk confidently in the present. Maratha is now able to search the Scriptures on her own, and often the Lord gives her special insights. Several times she has explained a passage to me in ways that no one had ever been able to. I often marvel at the wisdom the Holy Spirit gives her through His Word. The guidance of the Holy Spirit gives us confidence, and His teaching in truth makes our lives truly worth living. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.

Does God Ever Give Up

Please read Romans 1:18-32. Hear ye! Hear ye! Court is now in session! Paul could have used those awesome words at this point in his letter, because Romans 1:18 is the door that leads us into God's courtroom. This picture Paul paints here is an ugly one. When I lived in North Minneapolis I avoided some neighborhoods. My avoiding them did not change nor eliminate them. God's description of this section does not teach evolution (that man started low and climbed high), but devolution, he started high and because of sin sank lower than the beasts. There are four stages that mark man's tragic devolution. First, intelligence. Human history began with man knowing God. Man was not a beast that worshiped idols, then evolved into a man worshiping one God. Human history is just the opposite. Man began knowing God, but turned away from the truth and rejected God. God revealed Himself to man through creation. From the world around him man knew that there was a God who had the wisdom to plan and the power to create. Man realized too, that this Creator was eternal, he knew of "His eternal power and Godhead". Innate human reason deducts that God could not have been created if He is the Creator. The word translated "Hold" can also be translated "Suppress, or hold down". Men knew the truth about God, but they did not allow this truth to work in their lives. The result was refusing the truth. They suppressed truth in order that they might live their own lives and not be convicted by God's truth. Finally, man so abandoned the truth that he became like a beast in his thinking and in his living. Second, ignorance. Man knew God, but did not want to know Him or honor Him as God. Man refused to give God the glory He deserves. Man was willing to use God's gifts, but he was not willing to worship and praise God for His gifts. The result was an empty mind and a darkened heart. Man the worshiper became man the philosopher. This empty wisdom only revealed his foolishness. Having held down God's truth and refusing to acknowledge God's glory, man was left without a god. Man is so constituted that he must worship something. This fact about man accounts for his propensity to idolatry. If he will not worship the true God, he will worship a false god, even if he has to manufacture it himself. Man then exchanged glory for shame, in-corruption for corruption and truth for lies. First on the list of false gods is man. This fulfilled Satan's purpose when he told Eve "You shall be as God" (Gen. 3:5). "glory to man in the highest." Instead of man being made in God's image man made gods in his own image, then worshiped birds, beasts and bugs. Third, indulgence. From idolatry to immorality is just one short step. If man is his own god, then he can do whatever he pleases and fulfill his desires without fear of judgment. We reach the climax of man's battle with God's truth when man exchanges the truth of God for "The lie". The lie is that man is his own god and should worship and serve himself. It was the lie that Satan used in the Garden to lead Eve into sin. Satan wants the worship that belongs only to God. The result of self deification is self indulgence. Here Paul mentions homosexuality. This is repeatedly condemned in Scripture. Paul characterizes it as "Vile and unnatural," Men and women were guilty. Because of sin "God gave them up." He abandoned sinful men to their lustful ways. Forth, impenitence. When man began to feel the tragic consequences of his sins, you would think he would repent and seek God, but just the opposite was true. Because he was abandoned by God, he could only become worse. Man did not want to retain God in his knowledge so God gave them over to a depraved mind. That is a mind that cannot form right judgments. They now abandoned themselves to sin. Paul names 24 specific sins, all with us today (Rom 1:29-30). But the worst is yet to come. Men not only committed these sins in open defiance of God, but encouraged others and applauded them when they sinned. How far man fell. He began glorifying God, and ended exchanging that glory for idols. He began knowing God, and ended refusing to keep the knowledge of God in his mind and heart. He began as the highest of God's creatures, made in the image of God and ended lower than the beasts. The verdict? "They are without excuse!" Dan Crawford, a missionary to Africa said "The heathen are sinning against a flood of light." There is a desperate need for us to carry the Gospel to all men, for this is the only way they can be saved. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.

Are You Despondent

Please open your Bible and read the entire 42Nd. Psalm. This will give you context for this writing. The Psalmist was clearly despondent. He cried out to God and he observed “By day the LORD directs his love (toward David), at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life" Psalm 42:8. David was aware of God's song being played in his heart by night. That night song worked itself out as a prayer to the Lord. Please read (42:7). As the author watches the melted snow gushing forth in waves from the mountain cataracts, he sees in this a picture of his own present situation as blow after blow descends upon him. But notice he does not say "these breakers and these waves have rolled over me." He says "your breakers and your waves . . . " This is very important, because he is affirming that the situation is not out of control or evidence of God's lack of concern—but rather that God is sovereignty (even if mysteriously) at work through these sufferings for an eventual outcome that will be good and vindicate his choice to go on trusting God (read 42:8). There is an old saying "Trouble talked about makes it double." Trouble talked about in the form of gossip and slander does make it increase. However when we talk to the Lord about our troubles (in prayer) they begin to take on new perspective. When we begin to see our trails through His eyes, then we can rejoice because He is in control and His purposes are being worked out in our lives. This is something the Bible teaches over and over again—the rhythm of trials followed by blessing (PS. 66:10-12; Lam. 3:21-36), suffering followed by hope (Rom. 5:3-5), "death" followed by "life" (2 Cor. 4:11). Read 1 Pet. 5:10. This is why David could say "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:11. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.