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Summary

In this episode, Alan Wartes explores the concept of radical repentance, emphasizing its biblical roots and profound implications for believers. He discusses how true repentance involves a revolutionary, even violent, confrontation with our sinful nature, and the importance of dying to self to truly follow Christ.

Keywords

radical repentance, Christian faith, spiritual transformation, death to self, Jesus teachings, Christian growth, biblical repentance

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Personal Reflection on Consistency in Sharing

02:52 Introduction to Kathy’s Question on Radical Repentance

03:22 Defining Radical Repentance: Not a Different Echelon

04:01 Synonyms for Radical and Their Connotations

04:33 Jesus’ Statement on Bringing a Sword and Its Radical Implication

05:27 The True Nature of Repentance as Revolutionary

06:07 The Full Gospel: Beyond Salvation to Radical Calling

07:04 Repentance as Consent to Death and Transformation

08:13 The Power of Death in Christian Transformation

09:09 Following Christ Through Death to Life

09:32 The Cross as the Path to True Life

10:22 The Holy Spirit’s Role in Dead Self Transformation

11:28 Living Daily in Radical Surrender and Abiding in Christ

Transcript

Hi and welcome to Dispatches from the Spiritual Front. I’m Alan Wartes.

In this episode I plan to address a question posed by one of our subscribers. She wants to understand why I so often use the word “radical” to describe repentance. It’s a great question that really made me think.

But first I want to acknowledge that it’s been three weeks since my last dispatch. I admit that’s a long interval. Partly, I allowed myself to be distracted by other things, some that were beneficial in themselves and others, not so much. I suspect everyone can relate to that.

On the other hand, I always want to guard against the impulse to come up with something to post just because the calendar says it’s time. I think that’s where a lot of the empty, lukewarm teaching comes from that is so common these days in Christian circles. That’s especially true in the realm of social media. Someone who is chasing an ever-larger online audience feels they can’t afford to be quiet for even a day. In that world, momentum, or the lack of it is real and to be silent is to be invisible.

That may be why so much of what we see and hear on platforms like this one is just a thicket of platitudes. Such posts are placeholders meant to be seen but not much else. Under the relentless pressure to post it’s hard to blame people for that.

Over time, though, so much empty noise has a hypnotic effect that hardens our hearts and dulls our ears to the truth. That is the unspeakably rich and radical calling we have received in Christ.

So, there is a time to speak and a time to be still and listen. The only algorithm I care about is what the Holy Spirit can do, first to inspire a message and then to deliver it exactly where it is needed.

That means this may not be the last gap between dispatches. If you are a paid subscriber and that feels like less value than you expected, please contact me. I’ll be more than happy to refund your support.

Now, on to Cathy’s question. Here’s what she wrote:

“You’ve mentioned in your messages something you call ‘radical repentance.’ How do you understand ‘radical repentance,’ and what is the difference between repentance without the adjective, and ‘radical repentance?’”

Great question. First, I don’t use the word “radical” to imply there is a different echelon of repentance, something that’s above and beyond ordinary repentance. The word is there to remind me that there is no such thing as “ordinary” repentance. Seen from the world’s point of view —from the perspective of our sinful nature — all repentance is radical.

Here’s a list of synonyms for the word radical:

· extreme

· revolutionary

· ultra

· fanatic

· violent

· subversive

I’m sure you’ll agree that these words all have negative connotations by modern standards. I was even tempted to remove “violent” from the list to avoid objections. But for reasons that will be clear in a moment, I believe it does belong in the context of repentance. If nothing else, it helps to explain a statement of Jesus that sounds jarring to a lot of people these days:

Sounds pretty radical to me. I believe repentance, properly understood, is the reason.

True repentance is extreme, revolutionary, subversive and even violent in the sense that it confronts and tears down the status quo of relationships and other ways of being in the world.

Jesus preached this. John the Baptist preached it. But we’ve lost sight of this fact in our time in part because we are tangled up in that thicket of platitudes I just mentioned. So much of that messaging is soft, reassuring and comforting. It’s about making us feel better where we are and makes few demands of us.

To be sure, salvation from judgment for our sins, freely available to anyone who believes, is a tremendous source of comfort and hope. It is contained in the message of “glad tidings of great joy” the angels delivered when Jesus was born.

But that’s not the only part of the message. The full gospel of our redemption as sanctified and glorified sons and daughters of the Most High God involves an unspeakably ferocious calling — to repent.

Yes, ferocious.

But repentance is not ferocious if we think it simply a confession of guilt and acceptance of salvation. Nor is it the resolve, after salvation, to “do better” or to henceforth live your life for God. The old covenant and the law proved once and for all that you can’t do any of that. What’s called for is something completely revolutionary. Something radical.

Here’s the key point: Repentance is radical because it is nothing less than consenting to your own death.

We all want to skip to the stage where we share in the glory of our risen Lord. James and John said that part out loud when they asked Jesus to grant that they be seated on His right and left in the coming kingdom.

Repentance is always radical because it escorts us to that question: can you choose to die to your old self?

There is no transformation in life more radical than death. You can’t be a little bit dead, or even mostly dead. Dead is all the way dead, or it’s still alive. That’s true of your sinful nature every bit as much as your physical body. Paul wrote in Romans 6:

To claim that new life, we must believe this and then follow in His footsteps. Late nineteenth century preacher Andrew Murray put it like this in his book “Abide in Christ:”

“There is no path to true life, to abiding in Christ, than that on which our Lord went before us — through death. At the first commencement of the Christian life, very few see this … They don’t yet know that nothing but death, the absolute surrender to death of all that is of nature, will suffice if the life of God is to be manifested in them with power.” Andrew Murray

Platitudes are stripped of this power because they attempt to steer us around the threshold we must all approach: the cross. The invitation — the command — that Jesus gave his disciples to follow Him did not end at Calvary.

If He had not paid the price for our sin that day, then their journey certainly would have ended. But His death and resurrection opened the door onward through which we must all follow.

The unimaginably good news is that when we consent to die with Him, then the process of putting to death our old self becomes work that the Holy Spirit completes in us. Our contribution is faith and the total surrender of any self-effort. Our part is to yield and to say “Yes!” Then what is dead is replaced by Christ himself living within us. In Galatians chapter 2 Paul wrote:

But nothing about that is soft or easy or automatic. Drinking the cup that Jesus drank is the essence of radical repentance. It’s a solemn choice, a daily choice, to surrender our old self to death on the cross and then to keep it there by abiding in Christ in every moment.

There is so much more to say about this! Come back and let’s keep talking. Share this dispatch and leave a comment so your voice can be included in the conversation.

May God bless you and keep you as you learn to abide in Him!

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Summary

In this episode of Dispatches from the Spiritual Front, Alan Wartes discusses the urgent need for believers to recognize the pervasive evil and deception in the world. He emphasizes the importance of coming out from the world’s corrupt systems and institutions, including the church, which has conformed to worldly ways. Wartes calls for radical repentance and a deeper understanding of the biblical prophecy regarding the end times, urging listeners to abandon their attachments to the world and embrace the truth of God’s word.

Chapters

00:00 The Wake-Up Call for Believers

04:33 The Process of Refinement and Revelation

11:01 The Urgency of Radical Repentance

Transcript

Welcome to Dispatches from the Spiritual Front. I’m Alan Wartes.

I hadn’t intended to continue last week’s Dispatch in a part two. I called that episode No Middle Ground and pointed out that the evil depicted in the recently released Epstein Files is a wakeup call to believers to get serious about what it means to follow Jesus. I discussed just how deeply the world is saturated with deception and evil.

There’s always a fine line to walk between being aware of what’s going on in the world and giving it so much attention that it breeds fear rather than leading to greater understanding about how to abide in Christ.

But every day now the spiritual front lines seem to come closer to home. That’s no accident. It’s happening now because time is growing short for believers to see the world for what it is and come out of it. So long as you think the world is kind of a mess, maybe, but with a lot of good stuff worth fighting for too, then you will not understand verses like this:

To gather the courage needed to truly come out, you must be able to answer the questions: “Come out of what? Why?”

All the evidence of chaos in the world is pointing the followers of Jesus to a conclusion that we should have reached already, because it is clearly spelled out in the Bible. That is that this world is a total write off. That’s a blunt way to put it, I know, but no more so than when Peter wrote:

What’s clear in the story, from Eden to the New Jerusalem, is that this world was not intended to last. God knew from the beginning what the wicked would do and that Satan would have rulership over the earth until the very end because of human rebellion. What we see all around us today is not failure, it’s fulfillment.

All of history has been a crucible meant to contain the heat necessary to refine the precious metal of God’s chosen. As it says in Psalm 66:

Jesus brought us to the Great Refiner by securing forgiveness for any who would believe. But it’s what happens next, when He places us in the fire, that truly makes us ready to share in the glory of Christ and reign with Him in the kingdom to come.

When we surrender to it, the heat of discipline and hardship for His sake drives evil from all its hiding places within our hearts and minds to it can be seen and rejected.

This feels like death, because it is. It is the death of that version of yourself that belonged to Satan. From the point of view of your old self, it is a catastrophe. It is, quite literally, the apocalypse. The Greek word apokalupsis means “revealing” or “unveiling” or “disclosure of hidden knowledge.” That’s not something I had ever heard until recently.

How many Christians realize that when we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are asking for an apocalypse, the end of the world as we know it so that another can begin? The end of that world begins with the stark revelation of what it really is: thoroughly evil. John said so when he wrote:

Understanding that, we have a chance to see that we, even as believers, have participated in creating and sustaining that evil world by believing the lies upon which it is built. The whopper that launched everything is that it is possible for us to make our own way in the world without God and that we might even be better off. That’s what Satan sold to Eve in the garden.

But the lie that binds most Christians to collusion with the enemy is that we must all compromise in some way or another and feed at Satan’s table to survive in this world. That’s very convenient for our sinful nature which wants to do so, even after we have believed.

Furthermore, we tell ourselves that this is the world God made, so we must make the most of it and get along the best we can.

That is not what the Bible says.

No. This is Satan’s world. Someone might argue with that by quoting Psalm 24: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.” I struggled with that apparent contradiction myself until I found a way to see it in which both things are true.

Imagine we are looking at a magnificent Manhattan skyscraper, and we know that it belongs to God. He conceived it and built it. Everything about it exists because of Him, all its artistry and marvelous workings.

Now we look again at the tenants of the building. They don’t own it, but God has given them the freedom to use it in any way they choose. Satan, because of what he achieved in Eden, owns the master lease and he oversees everything that happens there. Jesus cancelled that lease forever in His death and resurrection, but the final eviction is yet to come.

For now, though God owns the heavens and the earth, the human world within it is utterly lost. Not all the people, of course. Grace has made a way out for anyone who believes. But all the systems, institutions, industries and governments of the world are thoroughly corrupted by deception and evil.

Someone might say, surely you don’t include the church in that. How I wish that were true. The revelation of evil in the world today is not sparing the church. I don’t mean the sanctified body of Christ, which is an invisible work of the Holy Spirit.

I’m talking about the church infrastructure, material and philosophical, that seemingly exists now to serve and perpetuate itself. To be blunt, it has inherited the woes of the Pharisees by conforming itself to this world’s way of doing business.

And if the church can be shown to be corrupted, and it can, then what hope is there for the rest of society? Satan is a deceiver who rules everything that happens on earth. We have no reason to assume that his reach or his zeal for chaos is limited. The present apocalypse points to the opposite conclusion: his hand is in everything.

A lot of courageous followers of Jesus have begun unpacking that by questioning the pillars holding up everything we think we know, in science, history and what the Bible really says about where we are in the prophetic timeline and what is yet to come. It is apocalyptic, catastrophic work that must be done to propel us forcefully into radical repentance.

That’s the point of all this, that we finally see why we are called to come out of this world and cry out to the Holy Spirit for help doing it. The command to come out has never been more urgent or more plain.

Why? Because the Bible says that God intends to demolish the building he created and replace it with another. Not gradually remodel it. Destroy it. Listen to Revelation 21:

If the phone were to ring right now, wherever you are, and it was the police department telling you the have reliable information that a bomb is about to go off at your location, what would you do? I’m confident you wouldn’t hesitate to leave everything behind and flee. If you didn’t and insisted on clinging to all the stuff around you, we’d call that insane.

And yet, Satan’s deception is so powerful, so persuasive that he’s convinced us that the crazy ones are those who take God at His word and abandon everything in order to live.

The truth is we have received that phone call. God’s word plainly tells us how the story ends and what we must do to be saved. The hardest hearts among us just refuse to believe it and hang up. That’s heartbreaking. But far worse is what many Christians do: they believe, but then put the Lord on hold so they can finish up whatever they were doing when the call came.

Don’t do that. Open your eyes to the apocalypse of evil happening all around you. Drop everything and come out.

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Keywords

spirituality, Jeffrey Epstein, Satan, Christian faith, truth, repentance, evil, spiritual battle, following Jesus, darkness

Summary

In this episode of Dispatches from the Spiritual Front, Alan Wartes discusses the recent revelations surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and the implications of these events on our understanding of evil in the world. He emphasizes the importance of discerning truth amidst the noise and recognizing the pervasive influence of Satan in society. Wartes calls for a radical repentance and a commitment to follow Jesus, highlighting the spiritual battle that Christians face against evil forces.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Spiritual Front

01:13 Facing Disturbing Truths

02:43 Understanding Satan’s Rule

05:03 The Nature of Our Struggle

06:47 The Call to Radical Repentance

Transcript

Hi. I’m Alan Wartes. Welcome to Dispatches from the Spiritual Front.

I must admit it has been more difficult than usual to discern what to speak about in this week’s Dispatch. I think the main reason for that is all the noise created by the recent release of information related to Jeffrey Epstein. In times like these it’s more important than ever to be still and be sure that our thoughts are truly guided by the Holy Spirit and not tainted by our own understanding.

It’s very tempting to contribute to the noise and miss God’s wisdom that leads us, under any circumstances, deeper into abiding in Christ as new creations. That’s our target, no matter what is going on around us.

That said, I think there is understanding to be gained from these events, but only if we face them truthfully. So, please forgive the following blunt summary.

The federal government this week made public millions of digital files, emails and so forth, that appear to reveal a very disturbing fact. That people in the very top echelons of every sector of our society routinely engage in the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children in overtly satanic rituals. These possibly include torture, human sacrifice and even cannibalism.

So far, the identities of these people have mostly been withheld. That’s where much of the noise comes from in the news and social media spheres. There is a clamor for justice.

It’s impossible to overstate the evil all this describes.

As shocking as this may sound, I think who these particular people are doesn’t really matter in the big picture. Stay with me. I’m not minimizing the horror in these revelations or suggesting anyone should get a free pass.

We are promised that one day all the evil in the world will end and all the wicked will be punished, severely and forever.

But we must not forget that vengeance and judgment belong to God alone, especially for crimes like these.

That, paradoxically, sets us free to focus on the real truth being revealed in all this. It’s something we’ve heard before but have never really taken seriously.

What the Epstein files reveal, along with many other events in recent years, is that everything in our world is ruled by Satan and his followers. Everything.

The Christian church gives lip service to that idea but very few of us live like we actually believe it. There is much more to say about that, but for now just let it sink in.

Everything in our world is ruled by Satan and his followers.

Until you understand this fact, the call to come out of Babylon and live your life as a stranger and a foreigner in this world can seem a little over the top. You’ll misunderstand what’s at stake and go on making bargains with the devil in the name of getting along.

Once you grasp it, you’ll see that no earthy tools can threaten Satan’s rulership. So long as he is loose in the world there will never be a shortage of people who will say yes to the offer he made to our Lord in the wilderness, as it says in Matthew chapter four:

That’s right. That wasn’t just for Jesus. He said no, but many do not. This is why Paul wrote that we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood.

Because the wicked are like grass. No matter how hard you try to pull them up by the roots on your own they will just grow back. While Satan rules the world, there will always be someone else ready to love the darkness and hate the light.

We’ve heard what Paul wrote, but let’s remind ourselves anyway:

Our struggle is not against people, but against Satan himself and all his hierarchy of evil.

Do we put on the armor of God to win political battles? To reform society with better laws? Stronger enforcement? Military victories?

No. That is precisely what the people of Israel expected Jesus to do as Messiah. Our Lord explicitly rejected that way of thinking and living because he understood where the fight really lay.

So where is the front line in our spiritual battle with evil? Put another way, what is Satan fighting to achieve that the armor of God prepares us to resist?

The easy, cliché answer is that he wants to stop people from believing that Jesus is the Son of God. But even the demons believe that and testify to it. Matthew chapter 8 tells the story of two demon-possessed men who came out from tombs where they lived when Jesus approached.

No, Satan is not threatened when someone simply professes to believe. Words are cheap.

He is desperate, however, to prevent us from hearing and acting on the invitation Jesus gives to all who genuinely believe:

“Follow me.”

We take up the fight when we follow him.

If we take that phrase literally, it means we walk in his footsteps where they lead. And they lead us inevitably to the cross. That is not simply where his death counted against our debt. Thank God for that, but the cross is a gate we must follow him through in our own choice to die to all that belongs to the life we lived in Satan’s world.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:

This is radical repentance.

If there is a lesson to be learned in the unmasking of deep darkness and evil in our world, it is this: there is no middle ground in this fight. There is no gray area. Jesus was not kidding when he said it’s impossible to serve both God and Mammon — and yet most Christians attempt to do exactly that.

The Epstein files are a wakeup call.

Wake up and follow.

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Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a man like me

I was lost and now I’m found, I was blind but now I see

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Now I … I can see.

Verse 1

We don’t have to walk this road lost and on our own

Our Father made a way for us to come home

Jesus gave us living proof of what we’re meant to be

We can be like Him if we will believe

Chorus

Verse 2

Now I know I’m not alone when I feel afraid

When I can’t forget mistakes I have made

Jesus took away my sin and make my life brand new

There was only one thing I had to do … just believe!

Solo

Verse 3

Maybe there will come a time when I understand

We He’s chose me as part of His plan

For now it’s good enough to see I can just let go

Amazing Grace is all I need to know

Chorus

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a man like me

I was lost and now I’m found, I was blind but now I see

Jesus saved us, now we … we are free

Summary

In this episode of Dispatches from the Spiritual Front, Alan Wartes addresses the pervasive fear stemming from the current state of the world. He emphasizes the importance of discerning which news to engage with and the power of prayer as a response to fear. Wartes discusses the biblical perspective on fear, encouraging listeners to find courage in their faith and to understand that turmoil is a response to God’s plan, not a victory for evil. He concludes with a powerful prayer aimed at fostering hope and courage in troubling times.

Takeaways

The state of the world causes widespread fear.

Prayer is essential for overcoming fear.

Believers are called to discern news wisely.

Faith is the foundation for courage in fear.

Turmoil reflects a response to God’s plan.

Satan’s power is ultimately defeated.

Courage comes from understanding God’s sovereignty.

The Bible encourages us to not be afraid.

We should be beacons of peace and fearlessness.

God’s purpose will be fulfilled in these times.

Chapters

00:00 Facing the Fear of the World

03:07 The Power of Prayer in Troubling Times

08:31 Understanding God’s Sovereignty Over Evil

Transcript

Hi and welcome to Dispatches from the Spiritual Front. I’m Alan Wartes.

Here’s something I imagine is on just about everyone’s mind these days — everyone with an internet connection, at least. I’m talking about the scary state of the world. We can’t deny there are signs of severe distress in every direction.

And people are really afraid.

Jesus told us to expect wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines in diverse places. We’re used to thinking of those things in the traditional, literal sense — and that is surely included in what the Lord meant.

But what’s harder to deal with is that the foundations are also shaking under the institutions and systems we depend on. The reliable landmarks we’ve steered by in worldly affairs are teetering and shifting around all at once.

No wonder people are afraid, including many followers of Jesus. Here’s a text message I received last week from someone very close to me. She wrote:

“I was just scrolling through email, reading headline after headline that caused fear to rise up in me. I stopped in horror, realizing I was the victim of fear mongering. But what should I do? Stop reading the headlines? I concluded that I need to discern which stories I should ignore and which ones I need to pray earnestly about. The most important thing is to stop being afraid.”

Her message came at exactly the right moment, because I had recently been struggling with the same thing. Most of us can probably say that. Maybe we’re frightened by different headlines, but the effect is the same — the state of the world scares us.

The temptation, as she wrote, is to just look away. Stop paying attention in order to stop feeling afraid.

But I can never get that to feel quite right. In Hebrews, the Bible says that faith is the “evidence of things not seen,” not the denial of things that we do see and must live with every day.

If nothing else, I think that being blissfully ignorant makes me less available to others who are terrified and in need of comfort. As I said, that’s just about everyone.

In any case, getting this person’s message was good timing, because God had just led me to an answer to that question, “What do we do in response to all this upheaval and the fear we feel?”

It’s no surprise, really, that this answer came in the form of a powerful prayer. Prayer is the superpower God gave us for facing all of life’s scary challenges.

This is what Paul wrote to the Philippians:

Yes! That’s what we’re looking for. Not just the absence of fear but transcendent peace.

I’ll share the specific prayer God showed me in a moment, because I believe it will help overcome our reluctance to pray just because we don’t know what to pray.

But before that, here’s an idea I think can also shed some light. It helped me, at least.

First, I asked myself, “As followers of Jesus, why are we afraid of world events?” Surely, we haven’t forgotten the 365 times the Bible encourages us to “fear not” and “don’t be afraid.”

In speaking about scary world events at the end of the age, Jesus himself said:

So why is it so hard to read headlines without feeling afraid?

Part of the answer to that seems almost too simple at first glance but is in fact very powerful. It involves how I think and what I believe.

I feel afraid because I still believe that evil is evidence that Satan has a plan and that it’s working. Even more, I believe the lie that I am still vulnerable to that plan. That is a lie and if you doubt that, read Psalm 91:

Read the whole thing to find a real shot of courage!

Here’s the truth: Turmoil in the world is not Satan’s plan. It is his desperate response — to God’s plan. To God’s already completed plan.

Can you see the difference? It’s an important foundation to lay beneath the prayer I’ll share in a moment.

If I believe that Satan has a “plan” to somehow compete with God, that credits him with power and sovereignty that don’t belong to him. He lost everything when our savior died and rose again. It’s true that God, according to the wisdom of his plan, left Satan free in the world to sew chaos and deception for a time. But that changes nothing about the total defeat he suffered.

Satan is the one with reason to fear — and the rampage of evil we see around us is evidence that he knows it. As it’s written in Revelation 12:

Yes, we live in the world of his fury, but that is no cause for fear.

Listen to Isaiah 35:

The Most High God is the only God. There is only one plan. Courage and confidence in scary times like these must rest on a foundation of immovable faith in that.

So, here is the prayer I want to share with you. It has made a huge difference for me as I face my fear in these end times.

Our Father in heaven, in all the world’s upheaval, may your will be done and your purpose be fulfilled. May these times spark a hunger in those who are called but have not yet believed and in believers who have not yet come out of Babylon to fully abide in you.

May all these things prepare the ground for the coming Day of the Lord, a day of judgment and punishment for the wicked and glorious redemption for the righteous who are hidden in Christ Jesus.

Father, lead us to wait and watch for his coming with patience, courage, wisdom, discernment, faith and hope. In these times make us a beacon of fearlessness and peace that draws people to you.

May God bless you and keep you — and give you courage.

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Keywords

salvation, lukewarm teaching, Holy Spirit, new covenant, intimacy with God, spiritual growth, faith, forgiveness, Christian teaching, relationship with God

Summary

In this episode of Dispatches from the Spiritual Front, Alan Wartes explores the deeper meaning of salvation beyond mere forgiveness, emphasizing the importance of recognizing lukewarm teaching in the Christian faith. He discusses the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding believers and the necessity of cultivating a personal relationship with God to discern true teachings from distorted ones. The conversation encourages listeners to seek intimacy with God and to be vigilant against teachings that do not lead to spiritual growth.

Takeaways

God’s goal in providing salvation goes beyond what we think.

Forgiveness is just the starting place for believers.

Jesus aims to transform us into new creations.

Lukewarm teaching often relies on intellectual arguments.

Ask God for discernment in recognizing teachings.

The Holy Spirit empowers us to understand God’s will.

Lukewarm teaching can lead to a life of complacency.

Regular Bible reading helps confront distorted teachings.

The New Covenant offers a direct relationship with God.

Intimacy with God is essential for spiritual growth.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

01:10 Understanding Salvation Beyond Forgiveness

02:52 Recognizing Lukewarm Teaching

06:04 The Role of the Holy Spirit in Teaching

08:48 Confronting Lukewarm Teaching and Cultivating Relationship with God

Transcript

Hi! I’m Alan Wartes and this is Dispatches from the Spiritual Front. Welcome.

I especially want to welcome and thank all the new subscribers who have joined Dispatches in the past month. Your support and your presence are extremely valuable, thank you.

I encourage you to leave a comment when you have something to add or ask so we can include your voice in the conversation. Also, please share these dispatches with anyone you think would welcome them.

This week, I’d like to address a question posed by a subscriber after hearing last week’s episode called Phase Change.

In it, I shared that God’s goal in providing salvation in Jesus goes way beyond what most people think. We get easily entangled in the idea that the whole point is to rescue us from the judgment and death we deserve because of rebellion and sin.

We do need that, I said, but only as a starting place. Forgiveness had to be accomplished to pave the way for what happens next — our complete rebirth as new creations in Christ.

Jesus didn’t spring us from jail on death row and then leave us standing on the street with nothing but a pardon and best wishes for a better future.

It is God’s plan to take you home from there; clean you up and treasure you as his child. He desires to set you completely free from everything that landed you in prison in the first place.

To make that possible — because we cannot do it ourselves — he offers to live within you and do all that needs to be done by you, for you. That’s the new covenant.

Your part is to simply to believe and surrender to this wholeheartedly, with nothing held back.

Hang in there, I’m getting to the question, I promise.

In making that argument I said it’s time for us to get to the bottom of why, then, so many believers seem stuck in a sort of half-life. We’re forgiven, but don’t yet experience the promised rivers of living water flowing through our lives if we believe.

It’s time, I said, to stop listening to teaching that leads us into this kind of lukewarm fugue state as believers.

That’s what prompted one viewer to ask, “How do we recognize lukewarm, status quo teaching when we see it?”

It’s a really important question.

But I want to repeat something I said in my very first dispatch: I don’t have any big-brain credentials or special claim to authority. I’m not a psychologist, sociologist or theologist.

I’m just a follower of Jesus, like you, with a lot of years in the trenches trying to work out my faith in the real world.

But I am a writer. That means I can boil things down into bullet lists of key points like a boss.

So, in response to this question, that’s what I did.

I came up with seven telltale characteristics of lukewarm teaching and how to spot them. They’re not bad, if I do say so myself.

Then, I leaned into the next step, which is to put some meat on the bones of each point.

I wrote out the question again: How do we recognize lukewarm teaching when we see it?

Number one: It is overly intellectual, relying too much on cerebral arguments.

I jotted down Proverbs 3:5-6:

Then I looked at that. I looked at the cursor blinking at me for more. And I suddenly realized that this advice applied to all six of my other points.

It was as if the Holy Spirit said, “Hmm, you may be on to something there.”

As my wife Issa likes to say, God’s funny. He and I had a good laugh, I can tell you.

So, there may come a time when it’s right to share those bullet point ideas with you, but for now, this is me backing up and starting over. There is a perfect answer that actually contains all possible answers

How do we recognize lukewarm teaching when we see it?

Ask God.

After all, my whole premise has been that this is what Jesus’ death and resurrection purchased for us — unhindered access to our Father as his children. Reborn, restored, full of power and knowledge.

Don’t take my word for it, read what God promised in Jeremiah 31:

The bottom line is, if you have placed your faith in Jesus as your savior and king, then you don’t need anyone to teach you anything.

At the moment Jesus died, the veil separating people from the Most Holy Place in the temple in Jerusalem was torn in two, by God’s own hand. That didn’t happen so that a select few special people could go in and bring back God’s wisdom to the rest of us.

That’s the old way! And it didn’t work.

The veil was torn for you. Jesus died so that by the Holy Spirit he himself could live within in you. You are the new temple of the living God and Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant God has made directly with you.

Jesus is our high priest now, and we need no other.

I’m not saying we should never listen to each other. I’m not contradicting Paul who said that some are gifted by the Holy Spirit to teach others.

What I’m saying is that Jesus set us free from bondage to any teaching that does not lead to “life, in abundance.” That doesn’t lead us deeper into the paradoxical freedom of complete surrender to God’s will.

Perhaps, lukewarm teaching is best defined by what it doesn’t call forth in your life.

Now, here are a couple of things to keep in mind as we all try to make this work in daily life.

First, your sinful nature — that part of you that still believes Satan’s lies — wants to hear lukewarm teaching. It craves it, in fact. That’s because it’s not demanding. It provides cover every time you cling to sinful thoughts and behavior. Only the Holy Spirit within you can overcome that as you surrender to his guidance.

How? Start by listening to what Paul wrote to the Colossians:

Second, the one thing all lukewarm teaching has in common is that it cherry-picks, distorts or outright ignores God’s Word. We must confront that the same way Jesus did by saying, “It is written….”

Here’s the key: You’ll have an easier time doing that if you are regularly reading the Bible yourself and seeking understanding directly from God.

The new covenant didn’t just deliver you from hell — it delivered you into a new life in which you confidently approach God as his child.

Cultivating this relationship and surrendering your whole self to it is not only how to recognize teaching that leads in a different direction — but also how to avoid being deceived by it.

May God bless you and keep you — and guide you into this intimacy with him.

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Summary

In this episode of “Dispatches from the Spiritual Front,” Alan Wartes explores the struggle many Christians face between living in the world and embracing a new life in Christ. He emphasizes that faith in the gospel should not leave believers feeling stranded between two worlds, but rather empower them to live fully in the freedom that Christ offers. Wartes discusses the concept of divided living, referencing biblical passages that highlight the importance of choosing to serve God over worldly systems. He encourages listeners to reject lukewarm teachings and embrace their identity as new creations in Christ, emphasizing that this transformation is not just a one-time event but an ongoing process of conversion.

Wartes uses the metaphor of ice melting into water to illustrate the transformation believers undergo when they accept their new life in Christ. He stresses the importance of believing in this new identity and surrendering to the Holy Spirit to fully experience the freedom and power that comes with it. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to open the door to new life and fully embrace the promises of God, encouraging them to let go of their old selves and step into the flow of eternal life.

Takeaways

Living half a life of faith is not okay.

We can’t serve both God and mammon; it’s impossible.

The new creation has come; the old has gone.

Titles

Embracing New Life: The Transformation in Christ

From Ice to Water: The Journey of Spiritual Conversion

Sound bites

“A house divided against itself can’t stand.”

“The new is here. Present tense, ours for the taking.”

“To be water requires you to cease being ice entirely.”

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Spiritual Living

00:56 The Struggle Between Two Worlds

04:44 Understanding Spiritual Conversion

08:24 Embracing New Life in Christ

09:59 Call to Action: Entering New Life

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Dispatches from the Spiritual Front. I’m Alan Wartes.

If you’ve found your way to this podcast, then you’re probably ready, as I am, to stop pretending that the average common way of Christian living in this world is all there is. You feel it in your bones, that faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ was never meant to leave us stranded and flailing in no-man’s land between two worlds.

And yet we have to admit it, that is how most Christians live today.

On one hand, we still live as if we’re subject to the rules of this world, set by the ruler of this world, Satan. And on the other, we know we are called to a new way of life, a holy way, but it’s on a very high shelf and we can’t reach it.

Paul described this as a warning in Galatians 5:

Those who try to live a severed, burdened life will always fail to some degree at both halves because a house divided against itself can’t stand. Jesus said, we can’t serve both God and mammon, meaning the whole world system. We have to pick.

He didn’t say it’s tricky to serve both. He said it’s impossible. And when we see life as a tug of war between these two that we have to fight, guess which side wins? Inch by inch or maybe in a moment of crisis, we fall back on what we know best, the world’s way.

And then we read, where Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 8:

It’s really tragic that these words meant to be the greatest pep talk of all time can sound and feel like an indictment, like an accusation.

Because in divided living, I don’t feel much like a conqueror. I feel separate from the love of God most of the time. Verses like these can make us want to run and hide from God because we feel as naked as Adam in the garden.

It’s past time for us to get to the bottom of this. It’s time to reject the status quo lukewarm teaching we’ve heard from so-called leaders who are also desperate, in desperate need of the truth. They just don’t know it.

Living half a life of faith is not okay, and it’s not what God intends for us.

Here is the truth that few have yet to fully grasp. Paul left no room for conditions or caveats in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 when he said:

In my NIV translation, there’s even an exclamation point there. The new is here! Present tense, hours for the taking. Hallelujah.

Now, God is faithful beyond all description in keeping His part of the promise of the New Covenant. So if we struggle, if we’re stuck still looking at the promise of new life as if from the outside in, then the reason why must lie in our own persistent confusion.

I think it would help if we could better visualize what it means to become something completely new and yet still be ourselves. I mean, what does that even look like?

A perfect picture of this is found in nature, or in your kitchen for that matter. I’m talking about what happens when ice becomes water. Physicists call it phase change, and they define it as the conversion of matter from one state into another.

I mean, we’ve all seen it. When ice has absorbed enough heat, it becomes something totally different, completely new. It’s chemically unchanged, but you wouldn’t know that by how it looks or feels or behaves.

I live in Colorado, so I’m very familiar with this wonderful image of a frozen stream melting in spring, releasing water to flow away and join the awakening life of the earth.

It’s no accident that we use the word conversion in both cases to describe ice becoming water and a person becoming a new creation. This is what being in Christ is meant to do. Not just to cancel the debt, but to literally convert anyone who believes from a state of frozen bondage to sin and death into something new, free and full of power in Him.

Now, we need to stop there and clear up some common confusion. Most people think the conversion we’re talking about happens all at once, when a person first confesses their sins and believes they are forgiven through the power of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection.

Now to be sure, that is the essential door we must all come to and walk through for any of this to be available to us. But what I’m talking about is what happens next.

Because it is quite possible to believe your sins are forgiven and washed clean by the blood of Jesus and still not believe that that very same sacrifice secured for you the right to be made into something entirely new.

That is what leaves us stuck and torn between two worlds. That is why so many believers today live in frustration and defeat. I mean, what would it look like if ice had the power to choose, despite the freely given heat of the sun, to stay teetering between frozen bondage and liquid freedom? In that state, it really could be neither.

So here’s what we must do to break this impasse and fully embrace the conversion into new life that Jesus bought for us.

First, believe it. Accept that new life is yours in the power of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant. The Bible is absolutely filled with promises to bolster that belief. Find them, claim them.

Second, surrender to this with all your heart. Let go of your old self. Let the Holy Spirit take over.

To be water requires you to cease being ice entirely. There is no middle way.

When you let go, you will enter the flow of eternal life, carried along by God’s will toward his kingdom as he promised. Jesus invited us to this very thing when he spoke to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3. Now don’t miss that point. He was talking to believers who had found the door of redemption but stopped short of walking all the way through it into new life.

Kind of a no-brainer, really, when you put it like that. Why wouldn’t we do it?

May God bless you and keep you and lead you into new life. See you next time.

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Keywords

belief, identity, New Covenant, transformation, spiritual growth, faith, forgiveness, living water, children of God, radical repentance

Summary

In this episode of Dispatches from the Spiritual Front, Alan Wartes explores the profound significance of belief in the Christian faith. He emphasizes that belief is not just a label but a transformative identity that connects believers to God’s promises. Wartes discusses the New Covenant, highlighting how it empowers believers through the Holy Spirit, enabling them to live out their faith fully. The conversation encourages listeners to embrace their identity as children of God and to understand the depth of what it means to believe in Jesus.

Takeaways

Belief is the key to becoming children of God.

Our identity as believers transcends labels like ‘Christian’.

The New Covenant offers transformative power through the Holy Spirit.

Radical repentance involves complete surrender to God.

Forgiveness is just the beginning of what Jesus secured for us.

Every promise God made is accessible to believers.

We are called to be fountains of living water in Christ.

True belief requires faith and obedience.

God’s grace completes both sides of the covenant.

To believe is to see the glory of God.

Chapters

00:00 The Power of Belief

03:03 Identity Beyond Labels

06:09 The New Covenant and Transformation

Transcript

Welcome, I’m Alan Wartes and this is Dispatches from the Spiritual Front. We begin today’s episode with a pair of verses from the Gospel of John, the first one from chapter one.

Then in chapter seven, Jesus says:

You probably noticed that those two verses have a key word in common. It’s a word that’s also become very common in everyday Christian use, to the point where we’re in danger of forgetting the truth it represents.

As words go, it’s rather humble and easy to overlook, but that’s deceptive because this one word expresses and defines the whole object of God’s infinitely patient plan: to restore us to all that we lost in Eden. It is the center around which all our Father’s promises and all his judgments pivot.

The word? To believe.

“To those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” And for all who believe, “rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

I mean, wow, right?

The writer Robert Fulghum once shared in an essay his frustration at having to label himself. We’ve all experienced when someone we’ve just met asked the question, “So what do you do?” And whatever you answer sort of collapses your marvelous complexity as a person into single dimension.

Fulghum had done a lot of things in his life and he bristled at the idea of having to pick just one thing to define himself. He wanted an answer that was broader and more fundamental.

He finally came up with a solution by asking, what is it that we all do from the moment we arrive here? Well, we breathe, he decided. So he took to introducing himself as a breather. He even had business cards made with that title.

Now that’s a funny story, but I really think he’s onto something.

I’d like to suggest that for those who trust in Jesus, there is also an overarching word that describes what we do and who we are:

Believer. One who believes.

When you say that about yourself, it doesn’t collapse your identity. It explodes it beyond anything we can ask or imagine.

We also refer to ourselves as Christians collectively, but honestly, that word can mean just about anything these days. It covers so many denominations and doctrines and creeds — whose members are sadly often at each other’s throats over the differences between them — that calling yourself a Christian when meeting someone new is no guarantee of common ground. We’ve all experienced that, and it’s sad but true.

The Bible doesn’t say to those who belong to a religious affinity group, he gives the right to become sons of God. No, it says to those who received him, those who believe in his name.

First, we believe that Jesus paid for our sins, something that we could never do for ourselves. Old Testament law made that very clear, as Paul repeatedly wrote.

But if you stop there, you might as well continue calling yourself a “breather” or whatever else you like. Yeah, salvation is yours, but until, by surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit within you, you have believed the rest of what Jesus purchased for us, then you’ll remain with one foot in the Old Covenant and one foot in the New.

With this in mind, James wrote that such a person is “double-minded and unstable in all they do,” and furthermore, shouldn’t expect to receive what they ask for from God, for lack of faith.

So what is the rest of what Jesus secured for us in His death and resurrection?

It’s just as huge as the forgiveness of sin!

What follows that is the fulfillment of every promise God ever made to those who believe in Him by faith. Think about that for a minute.

This is exactly what Ezekiel foresaw when he wrote in chapter 36:

How can that be? I mean, we all know good and well that we’re still weak and susceptible to sin.

Well, here’s how. Under the terms of the New Covenant, Jesus delivers God’s part of the deal — the promised redemption — and our part — faith and obedience — by transforming us from within by the work of the Holy Spirit.

The mind-blowing good news in the Gospel is not just that we’re forgiven, though that would be enough! The scandalous grace of the New Covenant is that God, through Jesus as our High Priest and Mediator, does our part too. Both sides of the deal are now completed, unlocking for us every promise God ever made to us in His great love.

Here and now.

To truly be a “believer” — not just a redeemed breather — is to believe that and surrender to it without holding anything back.

That is radical repentance.

That is the essence of coming out of Babylon, of being transported as a new creature into a new kingdom.

This is what it means to become a child of God, “not of natural descent or human decision or a husband’s will.” In other words, not by our own power or understanding, but by His. This is how to become a fountain of living water in Christ.

It’s all summed up in this word: believe.

Believe it. Believe it all, believe it all the way.

I want to leave you with a quote from a book called “The Two Covenants” by Andrew Murray.

Until next time …

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It may be a serious party foul to start the New Year by sharing a short story about addiction and the toll it takes on everyone it touches. After all, last night’s confetti is still on the streets.

Well, like it or not, the people on my mind this morning are those who stand to suffer most from a holiday so saturated in soul-stealing substances: addicts and those who love them. I promise you, their new year is not off to a “happy” start.

I believe no amount of frenzied celebration will hide the truth that this way of living is utterly bankrupt. Our investments in Babylon will never yield anything but pain and slavery. All that it promises is a lie, and all our hope that we’ll finally be able to “fix” it is foolish and wasted.

Time to sober up and come out.

God’s way is the only way out. Hope in Him is the only true hope.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.

He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.

Praise the Lord.

Psalm 146

Hope lives somewhere else

by Alan Wartes

“I’ve got a shift, Donnie, you want it?”

I haven’t said no to extra work in months, but Sheila still makes it a question when she calls on my days off. She runs dispatch and I drive delivery for a produce wholesaler in Denver. She doesn’t ask why I’m so eager for hours, and I never volunteer that drug rehab programs cost real money—whether they work or not.

“Sure,” I say. “Who’s out?”

“Greg. Stomach crud, or something.”

I say nothing. Greg drives my old route. Downtown.

“Still there?”

“Yeah. I’ll take it.”

“You sure? I can call—”

“See you in a bit,” I say and hang up.

I pour my coffee back into the pot and go to find a clean uniform.

***

Other drivers would pay for the chance to work downtown, because it means less time in traffic. Once you make the alleys behind 16^th Street you can hit a dozen restaurants in a row and barely shift out of first gear. But, as far as I know, those guys aren’t likely to see a ghost on every corner. A glimpse of faded red Converse All-Stars shuffling down the sidewalk would mean nothing to them. Their stomachs don’t clench when an overheard voice has a familiar rhythm, or when the childlike way a person’s hand curls under their chin as they sleep on park grass could mean it’s his hand.

***

I push a loaded dolly through the alley door of an upscale bistro, and two Hispanic prep cooks are the only ones who take notice. Reassured, they go on sorting, washing, and slicing in a tense hurry. The lunch rush has come early today, and the back of the house is on full combat footing.

“You’re late!” the sous chef snaps at me. “Where’s Greg?”

He’s right. I am late, and I know that fact ties a knot in his day. But being downtown again chokes off my willingness to care about things like that.

“Puking,” I answer.

He stares. Maybe he doesn’t have time to put me in my place, or is basically a nice guy who can see I’ve got troubles of my own. Whatever, he lets it go.

“Tomatoes by the sink, everything else over there.”

That done, I hand him the invoice. He signs and shouts, “Hey morons, who’s watching the potatoes?”

Before leaving, I look around at the taut faces laboring over ovens and grills and blue-flame burners. I reflexively touch my shirt pocket where a photograph rides. Chances are, at least one of these people sleeps at the shelter on Park Avenue—or under an overpass on nights when bodies outnumber beds. I can usually discern which ones, tuned as I am to ghost frequencies.

Today, I approach the man with tattoos. It’s hard to peg his age, but he’s a lot closer to young than I am. He’s busy assembling three dozen house salads, now that the tomatoes have arrived.

“Wow,” I say. “New chef’s a piece of work, right?”

He gives no sign he’s noticed I exist; but I’ve come this far. I pull out the photo.

“Say, you ever seen this guy around? That’s him. His daughter’s birthday, last year.”

He glances at the picture, then fixes receding eyes on me. He’s about to speak when—

“You!” It’s the sous chef, looking my way. “Out!”

Tattoos turns his back on me.

***

The truck is empty now, and I know I should make the right on Colfax and drive away. Instead, I remember a spot near the art museum where I can leave the rig undisturbed for a while. From there it’s an easy walk around Civic Center Park between city hall and the capitol.

I go slow and scan every heap of man in every transient encampment for what I hope not to find. This is what you do, I think, when there’s no toll-free hotline for you; no posters anywhere with your kid’s smiling face and a plea for information; no overworked detectives you can burden with another remembered detail that might be useful. What else is left when your grown son abducts himself—and with one impaired choice after another unstitches tomorrow?

“Hey. This ain’t no tourist attraction.”

The woman’s voice startles me. She sits on a nearby bench with a cigarette and a pink smoothie.

“Excuse me?”

“I seen you make the loop, looking hard, like you at the zoo.”

“It’s not like that,” I say, suddenly tired. I sit and take the photo from my pocket.

“Oh,” she says. “You checking the lost and found.”

I look at her more closely. A name tag and apron say she works at the smoothie shop. Her eyes declare she speaks from experience. I hold out the photo.

“My son. His name is Gary.”

She leans in for a look, then shakes her head. “Not down here, it ain’t,” she says. “I promise you that.”

“You know him?”

“Sure. He’s that guy and that guy and—”

“Okay,” I say and rise to leave.

“Want my advice?” she says.

I really don’t.

“Go home. Put a steak on the grill. Have a happy life.” She seems to truly want that for me.

I stare. A happy life?

“See, ‘cause Pretty Boy gonna run till he ready to stop. No such thing as magic rescue powers downtown.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and rise to go. Maybe she can see what it costs me to lift the tough love she has handed me.

“Hold up,” she says, more softly. “I’ll pray for you and for Gary. That’s the only place where hope lives. It’s just no good thinking otherwise, that’s all.”

***

That night I take a photo album off the closet shelf. I lay it on my kitchen table and open it to the page with an empty spot in the middle, surrounded by more pictures of the birthday party: cake, streamers, family. I take the missing photo from my pocket and notice something I hadn’t seen before: My son already wears the hooded eyes and hungry skin of a downtown ghost. I’m there too, already powerless. Hope lives somewhere else.

“God, please…”

I slowly peel back the laminated page cover and—the phone rings.

“Greg’s out again tomorrow,” Sheila says when I answer. “You want it?”

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Christmas often makes me sad.

There, I said it out loud. If I’m really honest, it can even make me mad.

I know that officially makes me “that guy.” As in, “Who invited that guy?”

So be it. Don’t invite me back to dinner, but I hope you’ll at least listen to my reasons while we’re here.

I didn’t always feel this way. Far from it! I grew up on “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “Frosty the Snowman.” I loved the lights, the decorations, the tree, the music, the food — all of it. I also grew up going to church, so I could recite the “reason for the season” as well as anyone.

But it was the spectacle — and the presents — that kept me enthralled, just like everyone else. When I became a parent, I was excited to pass all of that along to my kids.

Then the spell started to fray.

First, I experienced the toxic pressure to provide all those glittery things — that keep the glamour of Christmas in full force — at a time of real financial uncertainty in my life. Satan is a master accuser, but it really doesn’t take much skill to convince a young father he’s a failure if he can’t fill the gaping space under his own tree to make it look like those in TV commercials.

But what really rubbed the shiny paint off occurred the year when my son, Paul, was six.

That Christmas, some toy had caught his eye, and he simply had to have it. We didn’t watch much television in our house, so I’m not sure how he even knew this thing existed. He absorbed it out of the atmosphere, I guess.

By the time you become a parent, chances are you’ve got a pretty good sense of what things are likely to be a disappointment. But it was certain he’d be disappointed if that toy wasn’t there on Christmas. So we bought it.

On the morning, he ripped the paper away and his face came alive with joy. Real joy. His dream came true! His happiness was complete.

For about a day and a half. Being plastic and made to sell, not to use, it broke.

My son brought it to me, heartbroken. He wanted me to “fix it,” which is nearly always impossible with such things.

It fell to me to explain to him “the way things are.” I dutifully told him disappointment is “just a part of life.”

To this day I feel the weight of the expression on his face as he took it all in. Disappointment is one thing, but what I saw in his eyes was betrayal. My betrayal.

What defense could I offer? What would he understand about the evil at work in people who get rich marketing garbage to children? How could I explain that without implicating myself as a participant? No amount of deflection would save me.

So, on Jesus’ birthday I taught my son that the world is cruel and full of empty promises. On our Savior’s birthday I played my part in initiating my children into how things are done in Satan’s brutal kingdom — all because I was captured by “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” as a child and couldn’t figure out how to back up.

Facing this was one of the most desolate moments of my life. I’ve rarely felt more stained or more in need of redemption. Because, the truth is, everything this world has to offer — sex, money, fame, power, false security — is exactly like that toy: broken by design before we even pick it up.

In how many other ways have I “passed on” the lie to the people I love by my participation?

Every time we believe and behave in step with this lie, we sin — missing the mark and the truth of how we are meant to live as new creatures in Christ.

I know this story is not the whole truth of how our culture celebrates Christmas, and the good that can be found in it. I know “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

And yet it does no good to pretend that the darkness isn’t trying to overcome it, even on Christmas. Especially on Christmas. It can’t hurt to confess the ways in which we cooperate with that.

The “great light” seen by people walking in darkness (Isaiah 9:2) is meant to overthrow wickedness, not provide a mythologized excuse to celebrate and collaborate with it.

How have we let Christmas, of all things, become something for which we need to repent?

POSTSCRIPT: Five years ago, my son Paul died of an accidental drug overdose. He spent most of his life seemingly unable to be content with where he was and what he had — exactly as the world intends for all of us.

If you have discovered ways to make your celebration of Christmas more Christ-centered, please share them in the comments.

Read the transcript below

Keywords

faith, Christianity, Yoido Full Gospel Church, personal transformation, spiritual journey, radical repentance, divine encounter, church experience, South Korea, Alan Wartes

Summary

In this episode of Dispatches from the Spiritual Front, Alan Wartes recounts his transformative experience at the Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea in 1983. Initially reluctant to attend, he describes how the vibrant worship and sense of community led to a profound personal encounter with God, reigniting his faith and reshaping his spiritual journey. Wartes emphasizes the dual nature of faith: the call to repentance and the invitation to belong in God’s kingdom.

Takeaways

The Yoido Full Gospel Church symbolizes the surge of Christianity in post-war Korea.

Alan’s journey reflects a struggle between faith and worldly influences.

A personal encounter with God can transform one’s life.

The experience at church was more than just a service; it was a divine encounter.

Faith can be reignited in unexpected places and moments.

The importance of community in spiritual experiences is highlighted.

Alan’s story illustrates the journey from lukewarm faith to passionate belief.

The duality of faith: the call to come out and the invitation to come in.

Worship can create a powerful atmosphere for personal transformation.

The significance of personal stories in understanding faith journeys.

Sound bites

“I burst into tears.”

“I was home.”

“All my irritation melted away.”

Chapters

00:00 A Reluctant Journey to Faith

05:00 The Experience at Yoido Full Gospel Church

08:45 A Transformative Encounter with the Divine

09:46 The Invitation to Belong

Transcript

Welcome. I’m Alan Wartes and this is Dispatches from the Spiritual Front.

In this episode I’ll tell you the story of the day I reluctantly visited the largest, and most famous, church in the world at the time. The year was 1983, but I remember the experience like it was yesterday.

Many American Christians back then had heard of this church, even though it was 8,000 miles across the Pacific in South Korea.

The real story wasn’t just about this one church, but about the surge of Christianity in the post-war years in Korea.

When I arrived there as a member of the U.S. Army, I was astonished at the number of bright red crosses I could see at night across the dense urban landscape in Seoul.

But the Yoido Full Gospel Church became the symbol of that movement for believers in the West.

Long before the term mega-church was coined, Yoido boasted a membership of 400,000 people.

The sanctuary seated 12,000, with room for another 8,000 spread around the church campus to watch on closed circuit TV. Every Sunday, the church held seven services, and still had to turn people away.

You can see why all that might seem legendary to Christians in America.

But, I’m getting ahead of the story, because it’s important to understand who I was as that 23-year-old version of myself.

I grew up in Texas. My family attended a Southern Baptist church for most of my childhood.

But I didn’t just tag along. I was a true believer — at least to the extent of my adolescent understanding of what it meant to believe.

I remember being taken at age 7 to a revival meeting held by a traveling evangelist named Bob Harrington. I think both of those terms “revival meeting” and “traveling evangelist” probably show my age.

This was long before TV evangelism took off — we actually had an LP record of his sermons at home that I remember listening to on the turntable. From Louisiana, he was known as the “chaplain of Bourbon Street.”

Harrington had a big, booming voice and a no-nonsense country delivery that appealed to my step-father. So, when he came to town, we were there.

I couldn’t tell you what Harrington said that night, but during the altar call, something stirred in my heart and I knew that what he was offering was for me.

My mother told me years later I was a different kid before and after that night.

All through school, I tried my best to live by that new faith. I was the nerdy 8th-grade kid who wore a “Praise the Lord!” pin to school every day — and suffered for it..

Then, inevitably, I went off to college, where other ideas about how to live were for sale, and I started to try them on.

That was nothing compared to joining the army at age 20. I went into basic training as a wobbling Christian and came out more or less indistinguishable in my values and habits from everyone else.

It took about 8 weeks.

By the time I was assigned to Korea in 1983, I doubt any of my fellow soldiers would have pegged me as anything but one of their tribe.

I never renounced anything, I just shelved it. I was the definition of lukewarm, and trending toward the cold side.

I can’t recall how the subject came up, but one day the First Sergeant of my unit let on that he and his wife were Christian and had just visited an amazing church. Maybe I’d heard of it, he said. Somehow he seemed to sense that there was more to me than met the eye.

I had heard of it, and my mother kept reminding me what a shame it would be to live in the same city and not check it out.

Well alright then, the man said. They’d be happy to take me.

I wasn’t enthusiastic. By that time in my life, I had pretty low expectations of any church, no matter how famous. But I eventually ran out of excuses and agreed to go.

The day came and we battled the legendary Seoul traffic across town to Yoido Island in the Han River.

My first thought was that, from the outside, the sanctuary looked more like a sports arena than a church. The sight of hundreds of people pressing against a row of barricades outside the entrance added to that impression. A line of security guards barely held them at bay.

“The sanctuary is already full,” my friend told me. “But they’ll let us in because we are foreigners.”

With that he lowered his shoulder and started driving a wedge through the tight mob.

I was already irritated by the frantic drive through the city and long walk from the distant parking lot. That turned into outright anger when three Koreans grabbed handfuls of my coat and started shoving me toward the barricades.

As we approached, one of the guards opened a gap in the barrier just wide enough for us to squeeze through — along with the hitchhikers I’d picked up and several others who boltedfor the entrance.

“What is wrong with these people?” I grumbled.

Once we were inside, my guides led the way upstairs. We were heading for a section of seats reserved for foreigners where we could listen to translators through headphones.

As we neared the doors onto the upper mezzanine, I expected a scene similar to what I was used to at home 10 minutes before a church service was about to begin: a loud babble of voices and hurried motion as people found their seats.

Not here. The doors swung open and I was engulfed by the sound of every voice in the place singing together. No, they were praising together. I recognized the tune of a familiar hymn — “How Great Thou Art” — but the words were Korean.

The service hadn’t officially begun, but no one was out of their seats. Everyone was settled in, focused and present.

I stopped in my tracks. Carried on the music, the Holy Spirit seemed to enter every atom in my body, like high-voltage light from heaven.

I burst into tears. I had no time to form a thought or a prayer, I just buckled in a quantum leap of recognition in my soul. Eight thousand miles from my family, in the company of more than 12,000 total strangers, I had arrived home.

It had nothing to do with the size of the building or the number of people clamoring to get in it. Behind all that I had encountered the kingdom of heaven within myself.

I can’t tell you how I found my seat that day. I honestly don’t remember much past my first contact with God’s presence in the worship. I imagine my friends led me like a blind man, like Saul just knocked off his horse.

I do know that when the service ended, the young man who headed down the stairs and back out through the doors onto the city streets was not the same one who had entered. All my irritation and lukewarm reluctance to have anything to do with God had melted away.

My long journey of faith and learning resumed, and it has taken many twists and turns since then.

Here’s the point of this long story. Before that morning, Babylon — Satan’s world — had seized a lot of ground in my life. My thoughts, my words and my habits were becoming enemy strongholds.

The friends who invited me to church that day might have smacked me and said, “Snap out of it! Come out! Repent, before it’s too late!”

And they’d have been absolutely right. That is what we are commanded to do. There have been plenty of times in my life when that was exactly the message I needed.

But it’s only one side of the coin. On that morning, the Lord himself showed me the other side.

“Come in!” he said. “This is what is possible in my kingdom. This is where you belong!”

In Revelation 3:20, Jesus said the same thing:

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

So, in future posts, as we explore the path of radical repentance together, I plan to remember that the command to “Come out!” is also the infinitely priceless invitation to “Come in!”

I’m so glad to have you along for the journey.

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If you’re reading this hoping to find expert words of advice from someone who has “figured it all out,” then I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. Someone, somewhere may be able to claim that title, but it isn’t me.

True, it’s been a momentous week for me, launching Dispatches from the Spiritual Front. That’s the culmination of weeks of dreaming and work. I’ve done my best to strive for excellence, because you deserve professionalism in exchange for your attention and participation.

But just because these pages are kind of shiny, doesn’t mean they’re evidence that I’m anything other than exactly like you — a child of God trying to keep my fears and failings from swamping my faith, all day, every day. I have no secret knowledge to transmit, only a longing to seek the truth and to live by it like I mean it. To be honest, what I seek from you is company for the journey and the benefit of your experience as we piece together what it means to live as a true follower of Jesus in these end times.

With that in mind, this blog may, more often than not, reveal my struggles alongside my God-given insights. Starting today! Putting Dispatches into the world for all to see has opened the gates on an all-too-familiar torrent of taunting doubt. I expect these kinds of thoughts are familiar to you as well:

“Who do you think you are?”

“As if you have any right to speak to God’s people, considering your past mistakes!”

“What can a nobody like you say that those real writers with millions of subscribers aren’t already saying, and much better?”

I could definitely go on, but you get the idea. I’m vulnerable on all these points — and many more. One minute I believe that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13), and the very next I’m sure I deserve all those accusations

But I can’t simultaneously be both “more than a conqueror through him who loves me” (Romans 8) and a worm with no right to exist, much less speak.

Right?

Fortunately, that question answers itself if you listen closely to the voice behind each message. One is filled with grace and peace, the other drips with guilt and shame. Redemption and restoration versus condemnation and death. The voice of the Most High God against the prince of evil and all lies.

Seems so easy to keep it all straight when I put it like that. So why is it sometimes so hard to remember put it like that? Why does the vision of myself as an unworthy worm so often take hold and cast a shadow of doubt over my life?

I don’t know for sure, but perhaps there is benefit in the struggle. Just this morning I read in Romans 5:3-4:

“We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Satan is a button-pusher par excellence. He knows where my weakness is. But so what? Let him push away, so long as I can meet him with the truth — that his poison has been turned into blessing by my Father, who uses it to train me. The joke’s on the evil one, always. What he means as a weapon against me is transformed into hope by the Holy Spirit.

So, here’s a one-size-fits-all answer we can give to any accusation flung at us by the enemy:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1).

In other words, “My hope is in God. If you have a problem with me, take it up with Him.”

Keywords

spirituality, repentance, faith, end times, Jesus, transformation, Babylon, spiritual warfare, awakening, Christian teachings

Summary

In this conversation, Alan Wartes introduces the concept of radical repentance as a transformative journey for believers in the context of the end times. He emphasizes the urgency of awakening from spiritual complacency and the need to actively disengage from the influences of the world, referred to as Babylon. Wartes invites listeners to join him in seeking deeper understanding and answers to these pressing spiritual questions.

Takeaways

Radical repentance demands a complete transformation of life.

Confession is the first step, but repentance leads to transformation.

Many believers are spiritually asleep and need to awaken.

The church often teaches a diluted version of repentance.

We must actively come out of the world’s ways to be ready for Jesus’ return.

The battle against spiritual complacency is crucial in these times.

Babylon symbolizes the kingdom of Satan and its influence.

Jesus calls us to be either hot or cold, not lukewarm.

Our faith is a battlefield against the enemy’s influence.

Seeking God together is essential for understanding our spiritual journey.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Spiritual Dispatches

02:37 Understanding Radical Repentance

05:50 The Call to Wakefulness

08:18 The Battle Against Babylon

11:01 Seeking Answers Together

Transcript

Welcome to Dispatches from the Spiritual Front. After weeks of preparation, I’m finally ready to go for launch! I’m excited to write and speak out about the breathtaking — Scandalous! — grace, peace and love God has offered us in Jesus. Truly, it’s the best news anyone can utter.

But there is more to the call to believe and follow Jesus than receiving the Father’s infinite love. There is also the part we are called on to play as the story reaches its long-awaited climax in these end times.

In these dialogues, I’ll refer to that as “radical repentance.” I’ll say that again: radical repentance.

It’s radical because it leaves nothing untouched in our lives. It goes beyond how we behave and demands we surrender to a whole new way of thinking and being. That we submit to death and rebirth as something entirely new.

The word repentance means to “turn around” and “go the other way.” The church today mostly teaches a watered-down version of that. We’ve been taught that repentance is when you sin, as we all do, and then you tell God how bad you feel about it and ask for forgiveness.

The problem with that is that it’s a pattern that can repeated endlessly for a whole lifetime — and for many it does exactly that. I read recently where a writer described that as like sitting in a rocking chair — lots of motion, but no movement.

Also, that version confuses confession with repentance. Confession is step one. Repentance is what comes next. It’s meant to lead to the kind of, well, radical transformation that is spoken of on nearly every page of the Bible.

To truly turn around and walk in exactly the opposite direction from the way the world has trained us to go — not just once in a while, or in certain parts of your life, but as a way of life — is what it means to “take up your cross” and follow.

I’ll tell you right up front, I’m not a theologian. I’m a writer and musician. I don’t have any degrees that might matter in this work. Until recently I was the owner and publisher of a small town newspaper in Colorado. Trust me when I say that profession is very much on the front line. Maybe I’ll share more about that as we go.

Technically, I’m retired from that, but here I am, prepared to devote my time and energy to this conversation with you about the end times we live in and how believers must respond to that with radical repentance. Now. Urgently, and with all our hearts.

Here’s the crux of why I’m here: I love Jesus. A friend of mine recently described my spiritual journey as lots of “zigs and zags.” He was right. I’ve looked for truth in a lot of far flung places. But that search has finally brought me back to where I began — to faith in Jesus as my Lord and savior.

Furthermore, I know — as so many of you do — that He is coming back, as promised, and soon. I believe it matters very much whether we are awake and ready.

The truth is, many who claim to follow Jesus have fallen asleep at the gate, tired of waiting. The evidence for that is plain to see in the world. We’ve made convenient bargains with our enemies, with God’s enemies. That’s true of whole congregations and denominations, not just individuals.

That way of living is all we’ve ever known. We’ve made a comfy home in the world instead of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness — and it shows!

Righteousness. We’ve become confused about what that word even means.

Neither hot nor cold

The Bible is very clear what happens to those who go on sleeping through our Lord’s arrival. I don’t want that for anyone. In Revelation 3:15-18, Jesus said of us:

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say ‘I am rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy gold from me refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”

Is that not the most heartbreaking thing you’ve ever heard? Do you not want to weep on hearing it, at the possibility he’s talking to you?

I do.

So, this is the very first installment in what I pray will be a long and fruitful conversation about these things. What it will not be is comfortable or easy and that’s as true for me as it is for anyone.

But, these are not normal times. We live in the midst of spiritual war like nothing the world has ever seen. I chose the title of this publication on purpose:

Dispatches from the Spiritual Front. Where the action is. Where the stakes are high and the battle is won or lost. This ancient war spanning heaven and earth is approaching its final and decisive battle.

Make no mistake, Jesus won this war on the cross and in His conquest of death. But scripture is clear that the enemy has not yet been driven from the earth or dethroned of his rulership of it. Only the Father knows why. It is for us to trust His purpose and His timing. Still, Jesus told us to watch the signs — and they could not be more obvious.

So here it is: The end approaches and there is work for us to do to be ready and girded for battle.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus called us to radical, unheard of, repentance. You could say He was putting meat on the bones of a command given through the prophet Jeremiah:

“Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives!

Run from the fierce anger of the Lord. Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.

For the time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be disgraced and her slain will lie fallen within her” (Jerimiah 51:45-47).

He was speaking of the kingdom of Satan in this world, foreshadowing Revelation 18:4-5, where John tells how he heard a voice cry out in heaven:

“Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.”

Let’s be clear: Babylon is not just a city, or a nation. It isn’t only historical or metaphorical. It is Satan’s kingdom. It is visible everywhere you look in the world we live in.

We make ourselves dressed ready not just by believing this, but by coming out of Satan’s twisted, inverted kingdom. Out of the world’s way of doing … everything.

Come out! Don’t walk, run!

We must run for our lives, because if we don’t, we are in danger of sharing in the sins and plagues and mighty judgment God has decreed against Satan’s kingdom, Babylon. We’re in danger of sleeping through the coming of our Lord because we are too comfortable in Satan’s world.

To come out of Babylon strikes a severe blow against the enemy. Why? Because we are the battlefield. Satan and his kind rejected God, even after having seen Him plainly in their former place in heaven.

By coming out, we declare our love for Him and praise Him by faith alone, even if it leads to our death. Every mortal person who believes and chooses to follow Jesus decisively condemns God’s enemies.

To come out is to claim the victory our Lord won!

Alright, but I know you want to bring up the elephant in the room (because so do I).

“How, exactly?”

I’m glad you asked. Finding every possible answer to that question is what Dispatches from the Spiritual Front is all about.

I’m on that journey too. I’m no expert, but God is. Let’s seek Him and figure it out together.

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Hi there and thanks for coming!

I think of our meeting like this as being very much like a blind date. You don’t know me (yet) and I don’t know you (but look forward to the possibility). It’s fair to say that each of us is hoping for an experience that’s out of the ordinary and worthwhile. We want something that’s real compared to the manufactured and manic semblance of “connection” that is most common these days.

As a writer, musician and podcaster, what I want most is the chance to be heard, to close the circuit between creation and reciprocation through your engagement. I expect what you want is to see yourself reflected in what you find here — your questions, struggles, hopes, beliefs, ideas and dreams — not just to be parroted, but to be affirmed and validated. To find common cause in the quest for Truth and the nuts and bolts knowledge of how to live in it.

I’ll tell you plainly that the Way, the Truth and the Life we seek has already been found — in Jesus Christ our Lord. But to me that’s not the intellectual cul de sac that many see it to be or the end of discovery and adventure. Just the opposite! In a world that’s as lost and confused as this one, what could be more exciting (and yes, sometimes harrowing) than following the One who has invited us into an entirely new way of being human? Of all the stories we tell, the tale of redemption is the most powerful. The path of faith is the hero’s journey on the grandest scale possible — and in the smallest, most intimate details of life as well.

What on earth could be better than that?

So, if you decide to stick around for more than one date, I promise an honest and open conversation in this space about the only question that matters (though it exists in infinite variations): How then shall we live?

I don’t know, but it sure is fun.

Storytelling wasn’t always like that and as writers we certainly don’t have to keep it alive now. It’s time to remember that the hero’s journey covers a lot of ground, not all of it crowded with demons. I’d like to enter into evidence a goofy short film I wrote and directed over a decade ago. One way to describe this story is that it’s corny and hopelessly naive. I prefer to call it innocent and really fun. When did we decide that’s not what we want from our stories?

Do yourself a favor and pay up 10 minutes of your time. And, as always, be grateful for the actors and other artists who invested their talent in the film.

In 2013, I wrote and directed a short film called “The Edge” that took up that question and others. Why do we accept some forms of violence as “just the way things are” while condemning others? Does violence have to involve physical assault, or does inflicting other kinds of harm qualify? Could it be that none of us can claim innocence, but rather “all have sinned (violently) and come short of the Glory of God?”

This isn’t an easy film to watch, partly because we join the characters in a moment of intense pain as a consequence of their choices. Mostly, though, we intuitively see ourselves in it and are called to repent of the violence still present in our own lives — in what we do, but also in what we allow and approve.

Many thanks to the actors and film artists who collaborated on this project. Please notice them when the credits roll.