Category: All Articles

Are You Christian?

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Church, Theology

–Summer of 1997

Are You Christian?

To pose such a question as this to my readers this month will be to many the essence of folly.  I can hear some of you saying, “Of course, we’re Christian.  What else could born-again believers in Jesus Christ be?”

What is forgotten, however, is that a new creation in Christ is the embodiment of growing life, and, as such, may be retarded, stunted, undernourished, or injured.  It is possible for a whole generation of Christians to be victims of erroneous or poor teaching, low moral standards, and unscriptural or extra scriptural teaching, resulting in a life that is not New Testament Christianity.

I’m convinced that there are many in the church today who have never truly understood nor grasped what it means to be a Christian.  I worked for a lady once who smoked, drank, swore, and was consumed with bitterness and hate.  However, she felt confident in her Christianity, because, “all you have to do is just believe,” she said.  On the other hand, I pastured a lady one time who was filled with anger, bitterness, hatred, and a critical spirit.  But, she, too, was confident in her faith because “I don’t do things like the world does.”

Granted, these two cases may be extreme; but there are a lot of people who are taking too much comfort from “comparing themselves among themselves” or simply embracing a false security by accepting certain “historical facts” about Jesus.  They have anchored their confidence to the wrong thing rather than finding the Biblical norm for real Christianity.

God doesn’t leave us guessing on such important issues.  The Bible gives clear principles to guide us in determining and knowing if we are expressing a genuine faith.  One of the broadest-reaching principles that the Bible articulates from cover to cover could be stated like this: The Christian is essentially a unique and special kind of person.  This is a principle that can never be emphasized sufficiently, and nothing but tragedy will follow in the wake of forgetting or failing to understand this.  The Christian is someone quite distinct and apart.  He is a man who lives in the world but is not of the world.  He is a man who can never be explained away in natural terms, but can only be understood in terms of his relationship to Christ.  This uniqueness separates him from those who are not Christian.  It doesn’t dehumanize him, but it does enable him to live far above and beyond the natural man.  His perspective on life is different.  He lives with eternity in view.  He loves his enemy rather than seeks revenge.  He prays for those who persecute him.  He gives more than grudging obedience to the law of God, but actually delights in God’s law and meditates on it day and night.  He faces life with the optimism of faith rather than the debilitating dread of unbelief.  He indeed is different.

How can he be so radically different?  He has been born from above – born of the Spirit.  The power of grace is working in his life, enabling him to be different.  Frankly, it enables him to be Christlike and this is the secret of his difference.  It is essential to the New Testament definition of a Christian that the real Christian is different from the world because he is like Christ.  The Christian is meant to follow the pattern and imitate the example of Jesus.  We are not only meant to be unlike the natural man, but we are meant to be like Christ.  If this Christlikeness is absent from our lives, we have no other way to authenticate to an unbelieving world that we are truly Christian.

The question we must ask ourselves, then, if we want to know for certain if we truly are Christian is this: As I examine the actions and attitudes in my life, and look at my life in detail, can I claim for it something that cannot be explained in ordinary terms?   Something which can only be explained in terms of a life-changing relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ?  Do I see in my life a positive difference that is not seen in the life of a non-Christian?  Can I truly say that because of my faith I am Christlike?  Am I Christian?

The Demands of Calvary

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Theology

–March of 1997

The Demands of Calvary

One of the most striking statements found in Holy Writ about the atoning work of Christ was penned some 700 years before Calvary ever occurred.  Isaiah lifts the veil that shrouded the future and with graphic words paints a moving portrait of our suffering Saviour.  That picture, however, does not stop with His suffering.  With the masterful strokes of a prophetic brush Isaiah shows the triumphant Son of God looking back as it were from eternity, back on all that Calvary meant and provided.  The expression of the Saviour’s heart on all that He saw was framed in these words, “He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied.”

He looked back upon his humiliation.  He thought equality with God not something to be grasped, but took upon Himself the form of a servant.  He laid aside the royal robes of heavenly splendor and clothed Himself with the fading garment of our humanity.  He saw all of this and was satisfied.  He saw again as we spat in His face, plowed His back with a scourge, spiked Him naked and thorn-crowned to a tree, and mocked His anguish until the sun hid its face in shame and the earth reeled in terror.  He relived drinking the bitter cup to the very last drop.  He looked upon it all – all the rejection, all the agony – and was satisfied with the travail of His soul.

The travail of His soul has provided a completely adequate atonement for the deepest needs of every man who has ever lived or ever will live.  He met every demand of a broken law, fully satisfied the justice of an offended God, and silenced every accusation of Satan.  He held nothing back.  He gave His all.  Jesus Christ is satisfied with what Calvary has wrought.

The question that surfaces immediately in my mind is this: “Is He satisfied with the full appropriation of Calvary as it touches and works its way out in my life?”  A missionary returning from Africa during the early stages of World War II went down to the bottom of the ocean in an ill-fated ship.  In one of her last letters she wrote, “The gift of forgiveness has become exceedingly precious to me when I ponder the cost to Christ to pardon mankind.  God has to curse His only child to free me from the curse of sin.  To lay nothing to my charge, He charged His own Son with all the guilt a sinful world could produce.  To give me a mother’s care He forsook His Son in His hour of loneliness and need.  To give me a taste of the sweetness of Heaven, He caused His Son to taste the bitterness of Hell.  To fill my heart with all the peace it can contain, He filled the heart of His Son with all the agony it could contain.  Oh, the fathomless love of the Father’s heart for me, a sinner sunk in fathomless sin!  Pray for me that God may get all out of my life that Calvary can get out of it.  And that in me and through me He may see the travail of His soul and be satisfied.”

 The haunting question that leaps from the pages of this missionary’s diary is this: “Has God got out of my life all that Calvary can get out of it?”  When He looks at me and remembers the travail of His soul, is He satisfied?  Have I allowed the cross of Christ to wean my heart from all other affections, from sin, from the world and from self?  Has it met and surrendered to the love that Calvary demands?

Jesus held back nothing.  He gave everything.  He did not withhold one drop of His precious blood or one fleeting second of His life.  Have I allowed Calvary to do that in my life?  Am I clutching to any of the trinkets and souvenirs of this world, or have I forsaken them all in the light of Calvary?

I’m firmly convinced that this Easter we would all shout in harmony that we are satisfied with what Jesus has done for us.  But the haunting question that still remains is this: “Has God received from my life all that Calvary can get out of it?”

Today’s Students—Tomorrow’s Gatekeepers

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Education

–September of 1996

Today’s Students—Tomorrow’s Gatekeepers

Fearful of invading armies, early inhabitants of China erected a 1,500-mile-long wall along their northern border. However, this massive barricade did not bring perfect security; hostile forces continued to make their way into ancient China from time to time. No, these intruders did not batter through the 35 foot-high structure. Rather, enemies simply gained entrance through the watchtower gates by bribing the gatekeepers. You see, in their quest for national security, the ancient Orientals forgot that the wall around their country was only as strong as the character of the people who were guarding it.

In many ways, the “gatekeepers” of our nation today appear to be in the throws of a character crisis of their own. This assessment appears to be beyond dispute. But the church cannot piously look down upon the moral chaos of the day and claim total exemption from charges of impropriety. Too often her own story has simply been a replay of the very themes that mark the world around her. Sadly, even our beloved holiness movement has not been altogether without those who would barter the message of heart purity and its far-reaching ethical implications on the auction-block of compromise and secularism.

Just as national survival depends not upon missiles and bombs, but upon the character of those who are entrusted with those weapons, so the future of the church-at-large, and the holiness movement in particular, depends not simply upon creeds and codes—the “walls,” if you will—but upon the personal integrity of those who recite them. This is not a call to abandon the time-honored statements of faith and practice which have served as “walls of protection” to incubate and nourish the message of entire sanctification. Rather, it is simply an observation that these walls alone will not insure the faithful perpetuation of the holiness message. Walls are only as secure as the integrity of the gatekeepers.

Here at God’s Bible School we are in the business of training tomorrow’s “gatekeepers.” Those who fill our classrooms today will fill our pulpits tomorrow. To them will be entrusted a particular heritage which we believe has marked us as people of God. Will our students be men and women if integrity? Will they prove worthy of their spiritual inheritance? We certainly hope so. But more than merely hoping, we are taking definite steps to address the character question in the lives of tomorrow’s leaders who are currently enrolled as students here at GBS. We hope to share some of these specific plans with you through the pages of the Revivalist in the near future. Until then, we remain fully committed to academic excellence at God’s Bible School. Furthermore, we intend to continue the faithful transmission of Scriptural doctrines and practices to the next generation. But as another school year begins, we solemnly recognize that fine scholarship and an impeccable grasp of doctrine are sheer vanity unless they are rooted in the soil of a good heart. Pray for us as we do our best to nurture the integrity and godliness of tomorrow’s gatekeepers.

This Thanksgiving, Focus on the Good

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Holiday

–November of 1996

This Thanksgiving, Focus on the Good

I recently held a revival meeting in Binghamton, New York, with a wonderful congregation, who is privileged to be shepherded by a fine man of God and his wife.  God gave a gracious moving of His spirit, as well as a wonderful time of fellowship with the parsonage family.  The pastor, Rev. Rowan Fay, is such a delightful man, full of optimism and cheer.  In our conversations together, he was ever sharing something good about the people in the church or community or about someone both of us knew.  It seemed that he spoke of every person in such delightful, positive terms.  I became so intrigued by his genuinely positive evaluation of people that I asked him the “secret” to seeing the good in all men.  He told me that his father, Rev. O.L. Fay, had instilled in him as a young man this philosophy.  He would say, “Son, look for all the good in all the men which you can; and when you have found it, dwell on it until you know men for the good that is in them.”  This little nugget of pure gold struck a responsive chord in my own heart.  What a refreshing view of life!

The unfortunate truth is that far too many Christians have developed a view of life that has them focused on the bad.  They are always looking suspiciously for the flaws, weaknesses and failures of others.  If any good is seen or ever mentioned, it is only by accident and not by design.  There are even those who almost feel that it is their Christian duty to speak of everything and everyone in somber, negative tones.  What an awful view of life!

Christians who live out this simple philosophy of Brother Fay are just naïve people who are blind to all the warts and failures of others who are around them.  Rather, they are those who have chosen to catch and possess the spirit of perfect love that is found in the New Testament.  Jesus looked upon a renegade tax collector and saw a man—filled with potential.  Jesus looked upon the emotionally volatile Peter and saw a “rock” of a man that would lead His church.  The New Testament teaches us that perfect love enables us to “suffer long,” and “speak kindly” to and of our brothers.  On the other hand, it is the writing of the book of Proverbs who tells us “the ungodly man digs up evil, and it is on his lips like a burning fire.  A perverse man sows strife and a whisperer separates the best of friends.”

I know that a Dale Carnegie course or a Zig Zigler seminar can teach a man how to have public optimism for the good of his business.  However, I am convinced that it is only the work of God in the soul that can enable us to see the redeemable good in others, to dwell on that good, and to speak of others in kind and positive ways.

As Thanksgiving rapidly approaches, let me challenge you to look for all the good in all the men that you can; and when you have found it, dwell on it until you will know men for the good that is in them, so that on this Thanksgiving Day, you can thank God for good men.

Needed: Men of God

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living

–April of 1996

Needed: Men of God

The Church at this moment has a pressing need of men.  The right kind of men, bold men, fearless men—men of God.  Most pulpits and periodicals are telling us that we need revival and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  God knows we desperately need both!  Yet, as Tozer put it, “God will not revive mice and fill rabbits with the Holy Ghost.”  He must have men!

We need men who are worthy role models.  Men that are secure in their masculinity, yet humble and holy in their walk.  Men that serve God and others from high and noble motives.  Men that make no decisions out of fear, take no course out of a desire to please, and accept no compromise on ethical issues.  Men who live for a cause greater than themselves.

These men are desperately needed—needed by our children as heroes to look up to.  In a barber shop some time ago a minister asked a small boy, “Hey, son, whom do you want to be like?”  He looked the minister straight in the eye and said, “Mister I ain’t found nobody I want to be like.”  The pedestals are almost empty.  The world is immortalizing athletes and movie stars, and it is having a devastating effect.  We must have men, godly men, who can be the heroes for another generation of our children.

We need men who can mentor a younger generation.  Our world has a serious deficiency in male leadership.  The average child growing up in our society doesn’t have a clue as to what a good father and husband looks like.

We need godly men in the classroom.  We live in a day of competing faiths and conflicting philosophies even in the Church.  This has created a large number of young people who are stumbling, strolling, or staggering through life with little regard for their heritage, uncertain in their faith, and with little hope for their future.  They need a godly man to show them the way.  They need a mentor.  They need someone who will do more than pontificate on a theory or point them to a textbook.  They need a man of God who will not only speak to them from the Word but will live the Word out in front of them.  They need a man who will teach them to pray, pray with them and pray for them.  They need a man of God who will allow them to walk down the road of life with him and share in all honesty and candor the wisdom he has learned from the failures and successes of his life.  They need a man who will hold them to a standard of accountability, one that will insist on their morality, integrity and decency.  It has been this kind of faculty here on the Hilltop that has made the difference in countless thousands of lives.

God sought for a man who would stand in the hedge and fill the gap.  God is looking today for men.  Can He look to you?