Our Alabaster Cities

undimmed by human tears

      Well the city lights are burning brightly and people are running here and there chasing their dreams. We have just passed through the ninth anniversary of that terrible day in September that we refer to as 911.  Maybe that great old song, "America the Beautiful" is right about the cities lights not being dimmed by human tears, but when I think and talk and listen to others talk about that dreadful day the lights get blurry, maybe not dimmed but definitely blurry.
     On Saturday our pastor Gary Hargrave brought an open and honest sermon on standing up and being an influence on this age. It was an awesome word about how our nation's leaders and even the common folks stood down the preacher in Florida who wanted to burn the Koran. Gary declare that this was a great example to the world how to denounce those who do not represent  Americans  and what we believe in. The few misguided souls should not be the spokesmen for our "God Blessed" country. He pointed out how leaders of the military, religious leaders of different faiths, across the isle politicians and even our President stood up and "sanctioned" (using the legal form of the word) the preacher.
     Simply and tastefully Gary said he is waiting for the day when leaders of other nations, both political and religious, take a stand publicly against what happened on 911, adding "today would have been a good day for it to happen." And I agree. Why haven't they? The quiet is deafening if not incriminating.
     This is a good time for Christians to continue to stand up and be counted for what we believe and not let those less honest and more misguided try to represent Christ and His Kingdom. And a good way for us to never forget and never let it happen again.

You can hear the complete messages on CD entitled "911- Never Forget - Never Again"  and  "Lord Make Us Your Kingdom"

Refiner's Fire

    Refiner's Fire. That is a beautiful song. Sung by someone who is either waiting to enter the crucible or has been through the process and now is pure gold. But while one is going through the process it may be a little less "beautiful". It maybe down right ugly. Warning: This may be a little caustic so if you have children up reading this then this is for mature audiences only. It is rated R - Refiners R - for violence and destruction. There may be some foul language, too.

      When I was in college I took an art course where we made bronzes  statures, not brazen, bronze. We had to melt down our own in a smelter's crucible. I can remember very clearly watching the black dross come to the surface and having to scoop it off. It was a hot, sweaty, ugly job. That part stands out the most and of course the finished product. I made a man kneeling in prayer. It was quite beautiful. The statue in bronze, kneeling in prayer, quite religious, was somehow praiseworthy. People commented on it, how nice it was. I put it on a stained piece of wood. What a nice sculpture it made. I placed a brass plack on the foundation with a scripture on it and gave it to a friend. He was quite pleased.  But all I could think about when I saw that sculpture, was the the little guy I had carefully carved out of wax. The creation was in the wax. I did not take a glob of bronze and carve the praying man. I used wax and carved him carefully. Then I put him in a designed mold and poured the hot metal onto him. He was gone in a awful instance, in a puff of smoke. All melted away. The pure bronze man was left. The process is called the lost wax method. Sort of how God tests our works, with fire (1 Cor. 3:13).
       When we sing that song, (Refiners Fire) "Purify my heart, let it be as gold and silver," I think of that little man and flinch. What are we asking for? Some people go to the fire worshiping, some praying, some resigned, and some, like me, kicking and screaming. In times like these, the Christ I identify with is the one at Gethsemane.
       The band looks so nice and sound so great playing that song. I on the other hand am sweating blood and groaning in sounds too deep for words. Throwing myself around on the ground so it looks more like a wrestling match. I know in the end the "nevertheless" part will happen, but until the dross is scraped off it's going to be ugly.
     - Comments after a sermon from our pastor on 1 Corinthians 3. -

Rosh Hashanah

      Years ago I visited the head waters of the Mississippi River. I grew up on the banks of that mighty old man and often sat on the bluffs of Memphis just to watch it roll along. It is a force of nature. Its headwaters begin many miles up that river in Minnesota in a place called Itasca. Growing up I used to read about David Livingstone and his quest to find the headwaters of the Nile. Livingstone spent his life as a missionary in Africa where his heart was buried before his body was sent home (That can either be gross or romantic). I would go with him, in my mind, as he searched for the source of the Nile.
        While visiting Colorado a few years ago I saw the first dam on the Arkansas River. It was a beaver dam but a dam none the less. Why am I fascinated with the "headwaters  of rivers"? I am not sure, except it might have to do the beginning of great and mighty rivers that affect so many people and cultures. The rivers begin in small creeks end up carrying hugh boats in commerce to all parts of the earth. The waters of the Arkansas River start half way across our continent and end up in a confluence with the Mississippi. It reminds me of the water flowing as a small creek from behind the altar that ends up being a river that Ezekiel swam in (Ezekiel 47). This represents God's kingdom.
      Tonight starts the Rosh Hashanah. This is the Jewish new year. The literal translation is "head of the year". Like the head waters of a river, this day begins the flow of this year. It traditionally starts off with the blowing of the shofar. In our tradition (The Living Word Fellowship) we equate the blowing of the shofar with prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:1-5). We believe that in lifting our voice like a trumpet what flows out of our prophecy can become a mighty river of God flowing and affecting many peoples and nations of the earth. Needless to say this is an important time of year for us.
       Our Jewish brothers feel that this day, Rosh Hashanah, is the anniversary of the human race's head waters, the creation of Adam and Eve. We join with them in believing that what God created and started when he created us male and female, and what His thoughts and intents were for His creation will prevail. This year we will see fulfillment to what God voiced when all the earth was created "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31 KJV).
        Happy Rosh Hashanah.

Caught in the Transition

          The dromedarian caravan  rolled slowly down the Jericho road toward Bethany,  the one beyond the Jordan. The caravan was chartered in Jerusalem and was carrying a group of potentates from the holiest of cities. The owner of the caravan is Joseph.  He is lost in thought as his band of day travelers lumbers down the steep road that leads from Jerusalem at 2400 ft above the sea to a place of 1300 ft. below the sea level. A place called the Jordan valley. His "cargo" are priests and levites from the Temple. Joseph muses quietly  "They want to see for themselves John the Baptist, Zac's boy. He really has all Jerusalem talking. They are  disgusted that he didn't follow in his family footsteps but put on a camel skin. That is radical even for John. I've ridden these things all my life and they stink! And in this heat man! I was a councilor at the temple school John attended. (laughs to himself) He was funny. Never agreed with the rabbis. Argued all the time with them. One time he replaced the honey with tree resin so when the other boys, as a reward for memorization, got to lick the honey off  the Torah, their tongues got stuck. But that's not the time he got kicked out of school. That was about his cousin Joshua." Suddenly Joseph is interrupted. "What? What Herbie?" Joseph snapping out of his day dream addresses his second in command as he came running up to his camel. "The wife of the priest has to take a pee," Herbie yells.
"We can't stop these camels! Going down hill, are you kidding me? We will lose 2 hours, it will be the third watch before we get them up. The third watch!" Joseph turning red in the face.
"She's pregnant", Herbie insists.
"Well she is not suppose to be on this trip if she is pregnant. Okay, okay", Joseph relents. He was getting too old for this trip anyway and probably would enjoy a stretch.
The camels go down precariously forward which almost throws off the fat priest and then they go backward which does lose the wife. She rolls head over heels off the rear of the camel. Herbie runs to give her aid. "I'm okay, I'm alright. But you should warn people about this back and forward business," she said looking at Herbie.
Joseph yells, "The seat rope use the seat rope! Boy that's dangerous, they never listen." He was tired of this business. He used to love it but lately something was eating away at his insides. He couldn't put his finger on it but he wanted more out of life than being rich. He almost felt guilty thinking that. He had all he wanted, except that his poor wife died from a camel fall. He missed her. Since then things had not been the same.  This is my last trip. I am going to turn this over to Herbie and retire to east Jerusalem. I have a place on sweet side of Galgotha, great view, but the view really did nothing for him. There was more, he could feel it, but what?
        As the camel driver walked around waiting on the priest he noticed the throng of people walking and wondered really for the first time what the draw was? After all, he knew John. He even agreed with some of the things he said. But a lot of it echoed the Essenes and he did like their lifestyle. Man how could John have left that cushie job at the temple? Everybody loved him. He broke his old man's heart. But it is a crazy time, look at these people going down to be dunked in that dirty river. The temple is the other way!! for God sake. You can't get your sin forgiven without sacrifice at the temple. Not that I care that much. The Essenes are right about somethings. Just look at this fat priest and his oppulant pregnat never rode a camel wife, Joseph said shaking his head and muttering to himself. what a strange time we live in. Just when the temple is being finished and things look like they are going to be normal this tumult happens.  Just one more ride, then I going back to Arimathaea, maybe that is where I can find what I looking for.
"Let's go. Get on those camels we're burning sunlight." Joseph hollared at everyone.
Herbie turned to Joseph, "Okay the wench is coming now.  Have you seen these signs they have. "Come to Jordan and Join the Throng" sponsored by Locus inc. What is that?"
Joseph replied, "I am not sure, but the other ones kill me."
"You mean the ones that say "Stop, your going the wrong way?"
"Yeah, those the Temple had put up. They even know something is changing because they're going down too. Look at this couple." Joseph motioned to the two Temple elites trying to mount on their saddles squishing the driver's helper.
        The elderly couple were in a hot debate. As her husband struggled to get on the camel saddle, he said to his wife."Remind me again why we are going all the way down here in this increasingly hot hell hole?" The temperature change from Jerusalem to the Jordan valley could be as much as forty degrees. His wife shot over her shoulder, "Hush Saul, this is what you have been talking about for years. Just because it's happening outside the temple and in a different way. You don't know what God is going to do. The Baptist is right about the corruption of the temple. You know that. The people want change. Look at the throng of people parading out to see the Baptist. You can feel that there is change in the air."
"But what?" Overhearing the argument, Joseph answers to himself. God was not in the temple? Is he out here in the desert? Our beautiful new temple. Wow, think of the tradition, the sacrifice, the alter, the holy of holies. Man, what was John saying? He thought of the priest. He is caught in a time of change. Between the alter and the Jordan river.
Having mounted their steeds of the sand they rambled on down the Jericho road toward their destiny at the Jordan.

Jordan near Bethany

            The reeds were high for this time of year where the wadi Gharrar flows into the Jordan. The old timers called these reeds the 'pride of the Jordan". Joseph never knew why. They just made it difficult to get close to where the baptisms were taking place. Often people said that this was a preparation for the coming of something great. The Baptist, who some thought was father Elijah who must come before the "great day", was talking about someone else coming who was greater than he. The baptizer had said. "Whose sandals he was not worthy to untie." Others thought this humorous as they had a low opinion of John the Baptist and what he was doing. They thought he was unworthy to touch a lot of people's feet.
        The caravan stopped along a bluff and Joseph and Herbie peered down the river where they could see John baptizing. They stood there for  a minute while the rest of the team joined them and the elite couple from Jerusalem. As they stood there Joseph felt an urge to get closer and hear more clearly what was being said.
        He pushed his way down the bank, in through the reeds, getting his feet wet. The water felt good after the hot descent into the Jordan valley heat. He waded closer and then just as the reed separated, he felt someone push past him, then two more young men. "Excuse me", said the first man. Something in his voice made Joseph stop and look closer at him. As he gazed, the young man took off his outer garment and was just wearing his tunic. John turned to see him and proclaimed in a booming voice that sounded at once familiar and again louder and deeper than he remembered, "Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."

"Jesus came to John the Baptist"
by Richard Hubal

       Joseph "The what...?" The words just hung the air while his mouth remained open. John was looking right at this guy. Joseph looked closer. That Lamb was Joshua! That's the guy that got thrown out of Sabbath school! Of course he was visiting from Galilee at the time, but still he thought he knew more than the rabbi. We called him Jr. Rabbi. Now John is calling him the Lamb that takes away our sins!  What does that even mean?
        As Joseph pondered this, John and Joshua said a few words and John baptized Joshua. The water was all stirred up from previous baptisms and all Joseph was able to think was, "that water is muddy".  As these thoughts muddled around in his head, a voice resounded from the clouds, "This is my son, in whom I am well pleased"! And just as odd, a bright light rested on Joshua. With that sound and light Joseph fell backwards on his butt in the shallow water. Not conscienous of the fact that he was sitting in mud he stared at Joshua. A strange glow was beginning in his heart. A warmness he had never felt. Immediately Joshua turned and headed straight for him. The words came back to him "whose sandals  I am not worthy to untie". The 'lamb/son" was looking straight at him. His eyes were intense yet soft. Joshua stopped right in front of him and extended his hand. Joseph stared at it for the longest time until Joshua said, "let me help you up." It was then that Joseph realized that that distant wet feeling was because he was sitting in the river water. Joseph quickly gave him his hand and as he did a jolt went through his whole body. He fell down again.
       This time Joshua and his followers all laughed. One said "That's happened before. Remember at Tiberias?" The other rough looking guy said, "Yeah and it scared the hell out me." They all laughed. Getting up again with help from one of the guys, Joseph stood and watch as Joshua and company headed out the east side of the river, still talking and laughing.

       Joseph had felt something happening in him that he had never experienced before.  He stood there dripping as he watched the trio until he could not see them any more.

     "Hey Joe. Hey Joe!" Suddenly a voice broke the spell and Joseph turned towards its source. Herbie was waving from the bluff.  Then he motioned for Joseph to come up.
When Joseph reached the top of the bluff, Herbie said, "Wow, did you hear that thunder and see the lightening? It scared the camels, especially sophie. And the fat priest ran to hide under that palm. His wife told me she heard a voice. She said it was amazing."
"Herbie where is she?" Inquired Joseph. Herbie pointed down toward the river. In the background he could hear Herbie asking about his brown, muddy butt, but it was just background noise. Joseph could not believe his eyes. There she was standing in line in that muddy river water in her beautiful dress.  Then it hit him like lightening.
     Joseph realized that God was moving HERE on the banks of the Jordan. That the voice he heard was God's voice! Somehow he knew! It was very clear to him. God had called Joshua his son!! The son of God. The thought as real and truthful as any he has ever had, seem wildly exciting. Could..., was this the Messiah? From the bluff he could still see Joshua like tiny figures headed in the direction of the desert. Where were they going?
        Herbie, in a kind of mocking tone said, "She and her old man got into a fight". "She said this could be the one. I told you that it was a time of transition.' What did she mean by that?"
"Herbie."
"Yes."
      "I am not going back to Aramathea. I am going to get baptized by John. Then.. well I don't know. You take the caravan business like we talked about. Do it now. Take the fat guy and his wife back, if she'll go. Tell Martha that I am not waiting. I am retiring now. She a great secretary. She knows about the biz."
    Herbie did not understand why his boss was doing this. But he saw a look in his eyes he had never seen before. Excitement. Joy. Wildness. Freedom. Something was different. "Okay, you're the boss, well techniquely I guess I am now the boss. You'll get your money, don't worry."
Joesph was not even looking at Herbie any more. He patted him on the shoulder as he headed down the bluff, "I know, I know, I can trust you and I'm not worried about the money, I have found something I have been looking for my entire life."

George the Pruner

Looking out my back door (CCR)

        I am standing at my back door, looking at our ornamental grass that we planted early in the spring. It began as most of our plants do as an example of Darwin's principle. We placed it in the backyard and dared it to survive. It has taken the challenge well. It has now reached the place where it is challenging us to deal with its success. I have been told that I need to cut it back for winter. I guess like our roses out front that get whacked down to about a foot or two every year,  these beauties will be pruned back, too. I reason  if you develop the right attitude it can be a pleasant thing. But I do wonder every year, however fleetingly, if those roses are just going to get mad and stop blooming."That's it, you've cut me back for the last time." I feel that because I know that in due season God prunes me back too.
       Its tough living with a God who demands change. Sometimes the Lord's pruning of my life can get a wrong reaction. So I guess I am transferring my feelings to the roses. But John helps me with my reaction in verses 1 and 2 of John 15.
      John records Christ telling us what this is all about. He said, "Call in George its time to cut back, so the new can come in stronger and be more abundant"(DHBV). It is an odd way to produce more abundance. Cut back. And it's not just the dead vegetation either. The whole plant gets cut down to size. My mother used to "pinch" back her blooms. I don't think it had the same purpose when she pinched me in church, though, but back to the point. 
        I was reading about George in chapter 15 of John. How he prunes the plants so it can produce more. Jesus is actually talking about a vine, probably a grape vine.

1. =Egw◊ ei∆mi hJ a⁄mpeloß hJ a˙lhqinh; kai… oJ pathvr mou oJ gewrgovß e∆stin. 

2. paÇn klh:ma e∆n e∆moi… mh; fe√ron karpo;n ai“rei aujtov, kai… paÇn to; karpo;n fe√ron kaqai√rei aujto; i”na karpo;n plei√ona fe√rh≥. 

Not Jorge

      Who is George?  He is Jesus' father. Last half of verse one reads and I will write it out in transliteration, "ego eimi he ampelos he alethine kai ho pater mou ho georgos estin. - You can see where we get the name George. It means farmer (literal: worker of earth) or in this case since we are talking about vines, he is the vinedresser or husbandman. But the literal could mean (doug's translation dhb)  "my father is  George". Okay I am making the wrong point here. The real point is that in verse 2 the Father prunes "so that it (the plant) may keep on producing fruit (subjunctive case hina purpose clause - for the Greekies) . Not that it has not borne fruit, but that it may keep bearing fruit. According to Robertson, the word translated for pruning, kaqai√re, is used only here in NT although it is used in many 1st century ceremonial cleansings.  We derive our English word cathartic from this word, meaning a purging.  So pruning is not just cutting back, but a deeper health or cleansing, or purging  is going on in the plant. 
      So this can explain what is happening to us (as Christians). Our father, the good husbandman  cuts what we are making, producing, or ministering, and prunes it all back so it may keep on producing. When this happens we know we are in a time of change. A time of transition is happening, from an old to a new.  The health of our ministry in Christ is at stake. Not that we were sick, because the dead wood he throws away, but the producing branches he makes them stronger and newer by this cathartic process. 

i”na karpo;n plei√ona fe√rh≥.

       I am glad to know this because I have been going through a time of cut backs. Some have been simple like cleaning out our attic, and throwing away stuff that I have been hanging onto that was just clutter.   Others have been more complicated like pulling back from and even cutting off some relationships. I know in my heart that it is God doing it.  I trust that He is being the good husbandman, and He will bring back fruit in those areas that will be healthier, stronger, and yes cleaner in Christ. Sometimes I am reminded that God wants us to move to a new place in Him. He has to cut away the old so the new buds can come forth in due season. This is my prayer and expectation. It really is a way of life with God. He does not change but we do change into him. He doesn't seem to let us settle. Like Abraham we are in a transition looking for a new land. A place where we can live and grow strong in God.
      And that really is every Christians' prayer  that we would grow stronger in Christ. This makes me love the scriptures even more with deepening meaning. "I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing." 15:5.

A Story of Lament

"Lament" by Connie Bulter

     Have you ever heard a baby cry? Of course you have. What can be more irritating? I think it  is that way on purpose. God made it so that it is hard to ignore its cry. As a parent and a grandparent nothing grabs my attention more than when my baby is crying. I can't sleep. I can't watch t.v. I can't talk to someone. I have been in a  conversations with a person when a baby is crying and it is really hard to concentrate on what the person is saying.  I am looking at their lips moving but all I can really hear is the baby crying. All I want to do is help that baby so it will stop crying!
     There are times in the bible when God's children cried out and He heard them.  We are made in imago Dei, right? We are in His image. If we are like this then he is probably made us like Him. He has a hard time resisting our cries.  Good examples are: (I'll name one and then you name one) I'll take the easy one, God heard the cries of the Children of Israel coming up before Him. I wonder if he was in a conversation with an angle and had to break it off?  Your turn. Yes you can use individuals, like Hagar. She had to leave her baby Ishmael to die in the desert. But God heard her cries and saved them both. Alright another please, I gave you that one. Yes great example.  Hanah crying out because she was barren and her sister-wife, as they are called on Big Love, was making fun of her. Eli thought she was drunk because she was making such a scene. I know you have more but we have made my point. Thanks.
      Crying out to God is a major point of the Old Testament, and I think it is in a walk with God. Nearly a third of the Psalms are laments, fourty-four Psalms (Stevens). That is a lot of crying out and lamenting. Why are there so many Psalms of Lament and examples of people crying out to God?
      I think, like the baby, God put something in the ears of parents that is like His ears. They can not look away when the baby is in need and crying desperately for help. When I read the passages in Psalms,  the cry from the psalmist  is coupled with the request for God to hear the cry. A good word study might be to see how many times the word "cry" is followed by the word "hear".  The cry of despair carries in its vibrations the effectiveness desired by the perpetrator to God's ears.

On the farm w/ my bro. & cuzs

     It reminds me of being on my uncle's farm where I used to go work during the summer when I was a boy. He raised hogs that are similar but not exactly like pigs. There is one thing they have in common. When one would get caught in a fence, he squeels with amazing ear-piercing penetration. We used to ride those hogs when they would come up to the feed wagon. We would jump on their backs and they would head straight for the fence. Of course we would fall off into the mud long before the hog went through the hole in the fence. Some would get stuck in the fence. When they did,  they would started hollering and we would take off. We knew Uncle Sid would be coming and you didn't want to be caught riding his hogs. But you could hear that hog all over the farm. It didn't matter where Uncle Sid was we knew he could hear that hog 'hollarin'. Well, I know we are not hogs, at least most of us. But I know when I have myself caught in a rough spot I can start hollering or as a Biblical expert might call it, lamenting.
       It really is a good place to be, because I know when I reach that point, like Hagar, or the Children of Israel, or Hannah, in my distress I cry out and the Lord will hear me. It  reaches His ears. Like a good father, actually the best, He will answer our cries.
      There have been times when I have prayed and prayed and have received nothing. The heavens seemed as a bowl of brass. But when I am finally where God wants me, caught in that fence and my cries come from a place of real helplessness and need, he answers me and delivers me from the mire. Psalm 69 is a great lament that starts off with a cry and ends with deliverance.  This is not the exception but the rule for songs of lament. God seems to answer speedily when we are finally in that place of seeking Him only for the answer.
     Twelve years she sought medical help, but in one despairing moment, in desperation she made a cry only God could hear and she touched Him. She touched Him and he made her whole (Matt.9:20-22 KJV).

     Post thought. What if a third of our song books in our churches were laments. We could come to church and sing those laments maybe a third of the time, I wonder if we would be met more by God?
One word in Psalms 54 for lament or "cry out" is  Hama, cry aloud, mourn, rage, roar,make noise, tumult; be clamorous, disquieted. Our quiet Sunday morning services may not be the same. 

  Reference: John Robert Stevens: The Effectiveness of Despair.

A Deeper Salvation

     Sunday our pastor, Gary Hargrave,  talked to us about salvation. Well,  it was an expanded explanation of salvation.  He read from Romans 8 and discussed the ministry of condemnation that belongs, not to the saints but to Satan. You can only truly minister what you are. Satan is a liar and an accuser (Rev.12:10). He tries to pass on to us his judgment by getting us to believe his lies. These would not be lies if it weren't for the fact that Christ delivered us. Our salvation involves the transferring of our sin to Christ who bore all our sins, even before we were born! (2 Cor.5:21).

Self-Condemnation (that's me in the blue)

       One aspect that is very important about our salvation, our pastor reminded us, is about condemnation. Paul tells us therefore there is NOW no condemnation (Ro.8:1) for those in Christ Jesus. I am glad he pointed that out because I can get condemned about a lot of things. I can get condemned over forgetting what a great salvation we have.  Because if you are like me, sometimes I forget about that wonder and power of what Christ did on the cross. He did it for the whole world and just as important He did it for me (after all it really is about me:). What an awesome fact that we all who have experienced this salvation never get tired of hearing and  being reminded about its wonder and transport.  Satan would love for us to forget about that and accept his condemnation.
        The other day we had our grandson over for lunch and swimming. His parents came too. After swimming my wife played dominoes with little Joshie. The game  turned into setting up winding rows of dominoes and then watching them knock each other down. That is always fun! (A secret is when you get a big long row set up take two or three out of different places so if an anxious little boy gets clumsy it won't knock down the whole bunch.) But condemnation works likes those dominoes for me. If I am feeling condemned then in my mind I start passing it along from one thing to another until all my love dominoes are down. It can even spill over onto my family. How I feel about myself colors how I see and feel about others. If I am believing God's love for me, I am in love with the world. But if I feel condemned, therefore not believing God's love,  then I often become critical of others. Condemnation can begin with the slightest nudge and end up affecting us and our loved ones right down the line. Sin is transferrable.
       The great news is that salvation and righteousness is transferrable too.  That is what Christ did on the cross.  It is a spiritual principle. It makes the Cross work for us. Our sin was transferred to Christ.
        Satan knows this spiritual principle. He uses it to escape his judgment. Gary pointed out that he, the  "accuser of the brethern"(KJV), uses this principle to pass on unbelief and judgment onto us. This is where the condemnation starts. This is known as spiritual warfare. Wow! By the way, the Greek word for condemnation is kata◊krima. If you look closely at the word it contains two Greek words. kata which means "according to" and  krinvw which means judgment. Put them together and we get "according to judgment".  So when we are feeling condemned we are feeling the judgment according to God, but for whom? Are we under judgment?
        If we believe in Christ we are not under condemnation (judgment), so it can't be ours. Who is under Judgment?  It is Old spilt hoof.
       I took a moment to re-read John 3:16-19. That beautiful passage is about God's love and our salvation. But it is also about condemnation. "God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved! He that believes not is condemned already..."(3:18 KJV).
      Probably the thing that hit me the hardest is the point our pastor made about not believing in Jesus at any point is denying the blood and sacrifice of Christ. Now don't get condemned. But that is the point, we do receive condemnation. Who can deliver us from this revolting development? This is the exact spot that brought Paul in Romans 7:25 to exclaim "Thanks be to God"(NIV).

       So when that overpowering evidence of my failure is pointed out so distinctly to me by myself, anyone else or the main player, Satan, I can reject it as not belonging to me. What about all that failure? It belongs to Christ and his blood. I am free.  Thanks be to God. I do not have to play the cards dealt to me. I am not stuck with the hand the house (this world) has given me. Christ has set me free from sin and death! It's all Aces baby, read them and rejoice.
For a better interpretation of this sermon listen to the original, yourself! Salvation, Condemnation and Spiritual Warfare.