The Nice People

In my recent post: Satan’s Useful Idiot, I made two statements, one with a question; God is not interested in being nice. Where in the gospels does one see Jesus being nice?  A couple of people were offended.  I don’t know what their beliefs are or whether they’re Christians or non-Christians, but it’s not the first time I’ve mentioned this truth, nor is it the first time I’ve had such responses, particularly when having conversations  with people.  It’s an interesting word, “nice.”  It’s also interesting to observe people working hard to be so … that is, until their will gets crossed.  When it does, the opposite can show up pretty quickly.

The dictionary defines “nice” as: pleasing; agreeable; delightful; amiably pleasant; kind.  So someone asks, isn’t the Lord some of those things?  Most certainly He is, and much more, but these attributes are to be discovered, experienced and spoken of by us on His terms, not ours.  In other words, God is not interested in being nice to you or me simply so, ‘we will think well of Him’ or for the sake of ‘keeping the peace’ ‘political correctness’ ‘letting sleeping dogs lie’ or ‘not wishing to upset the apple-cart in any way.’  That’s the way of human nature but it is not the way of Divine Nature.  God will have no part of it.

How sad it is to see the church caving in to secular society’s viewpoint on what it means to be nice.  Let’s take all these new Bible translations on the market today.  It may have been at one time that the motive for a new translation was to help readers understand the language better (although that’s questionable, why haven’t they done that with Shakespeare?), but since then with each new translation the Scriptures have been watered down to such an extent that what was once not nice to read within them has now become nice and acceptable for this post-modern generation.  Amazing really … all these new translations yet such an apostate church!

In most cases where a fellow Christian has responded, “that’s not nice” to something I have quoted from the Bible, theirs has been one of those new translations.  Although I’m not a King James-only Christian I would not want to be living in the coming days of severe persecution without one – or similar.  Most of those new translations are deceptive in my opinion and if it not be for the mercy and grace of God they will send people from Christ rather than to Him.  Added to this, I care not how nice the preacher is who chooses one of them for his/her sole teaching and preaching, he/she will be answerable to God and may find out just how nice He really is by way of reward loss 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. 

Without God in our lives in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, what a lie nice really is.  Why?  Because when faced with something or someone not nice all too often neither are we.  It’s simply a mask that’s put on to present one’s self in a good light.  That’s the way of the world.  That’s how people go into relationships, marriages, jobs and careers, voluntary, community and public service; that’s how politicians get elected … until something shows up to be not nice, then all hell breaks loose.  That’s how far too many people go into churches too.  The prospective pastor – how does he/she present self before the elders?  In my experience they’ve been the same as the others.

If he/she gets the job, nice comes with the deal and that’s how everybody expects it to be.  Go into any church today for the most part, and nice is the impression given, nice is the impression taken.  Is it real?  Don’t care – it’s nice … that’s the important thing.  As said earlier, it’s sad to see the church caving in to this.  The world has demanded it and the church has submitted to it.  Instead of the church exercising its “authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy” Luke 10:19, the snakes and scorpions have been invited in and it’s them doing all the trampling, exercising all the power – all happening within, not without.

Should the Lord not return for His church as some expect Him to do soon, then each of us who are part of the church are going to have to be prepared to face some tough times which will come upon us from nice people.  Whilst the majority of people in the world have never turned to God in any generation and simply remained a law unto themselves, more and more do we see the people of this generation being law less.  This is a great concern to the authorities everywhere.  They’re scratching their heads, asking themselves, “How did we get this way?” But, they don’t want God’s answers … which means neither do they want God’s people unless we are prepared to be nice to them.

Just as they do today, some Christians will not hesitate to be nice to them, but it will come at the cost of Biblical compromise which will put them at odds with the Lord.  What about the rest of us?  There is only one Solution to lawlessness and that is Jesus Christ, but since they will not want Him, what are we going to do?  We need to know because they’re going to leave us out in the cold.  I was mightily blessed recently to properly study the seven redemptive and covenant names of God – redemptive and covenant names that wonderfully and powerfully reveal what our redemption in Christ includes.  I’ve heard sermons on a couple of these names, but in twenty-four years that has been the extent of it.

For those who are not already doing so, we’re going to need to experience the reality of all seven names in the coming days.  By experience I mean, it will be more than simply doctrinal truth that all too presently gets thrown around in the Western world as we go through our, “what do you believe?” / “I believe.”  This will be God Almighty Himself in our midst like we’ve never experienced Him before.  I’m not talking about a last-days-revival either.  I don’t believe there will be one – except a last-days “revival” in apostasy, false Christs, false signs and wonders etc. Luke 18:8. 

The seven redemptive and covenant names of God:  Jehovah-Shalom – is translated ‘the Lord is our Peace.’  Philippians 4:6-7 gets quoted a lot in the church but it’s amazing the amount of Christians who don’t have it twenty minutes after having heard the sermon.  We must be at peace with God before we can have the peace of God, so now is the time to put away being nice and embrace the Lord for who He really is.  Jehovah-Ra-ah – is translated ‘the Lord is my Shepherd’ Psalm 23:1.  Too many Christians are putting too much faith in their earthly shepherd/s and not enough faith in their heavenly Shepherd.  This will come back to bite them if they don’t now start to re-prioritize.

Jehovah-Shammah – is translated ‘the Lord is present.’  It’s true, but do we know it?  Often there’s a religious spirit present in a person or church masquerading as the Holy Spirit, so it’s important to know-that-we-know we have the presence of the Lord within and in our midst Matthew 28:20; Ephesians 2:13; Hebrews 13:5.  Jehovah-Jireh – is translated ‘the Lord will provide a sacrifice.’  That means we are to engage in no other sacrificial practices for the salvation of our soul.  It also means God will provide for our every spiritual, mental, emotional, moral, physical, material and financial need.  That’s great.  Nice people are not able to top that.

Jehovah-Nissi – is translated ‘the Lord our banner.’  What the Lord accomplished for Moses against the Amalekites He accomplishes for us against the lusts of the flesh Galatians 5:17.  This is what separates God’s people from nice people.  That’s why they want nothing to do with us as solutions to today’s lawlessness.  Jehovah-Tsidkenu – is translated ‘the Lord our righteousness.’  Herein lies the answer to the question, “What do you mean God is not interested in being nice?” Nice people only think in terms of what’s nice, good, respectable and moral.  But it’s always subjective, never objective.  Not so the Christian.  Ours is always objective – our righteousness in Christ 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9.

Jehovah-Rapha – is translated ‘I am the Lord who heals you.’  Physical healing?  Yes, certainly.  Someone asks, why is it that we don’t see and testify to divine healing on a much greater scale in our churches?  I don’t know the total answer but as a church member for over twenty years the greatest emphasis by far has always been placed on spiritual healing, not physical.  In addition, whenever I’ve heard a leader or mature Christian pray for physical healing they’ve added, “If it be Thy will Lord.”  Once again, this is yet another example whereby I had to leave the church system before God could get through to me His truth about this.

I am appalled at the level of deception I allowed to come my way based on, “if, but or maybe” healing theology.  When God began to open my eyes to the reality of physical healing being an equal part of His redemption and covenant promise I dropped to the floor, deeply repented, then renounced and rejected all theology that differs from His biblical revelations on the matter.  No doubt there will be someone reading this post with lots of questions based on extremely sad and sorry experiences.  There are over twenty reasons why people don’t get healed, but none of them point to God. He has not changed Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8.

The number SEVEN is one of the most significant numbers in the Bible.  It expresses completeness.  Should we learn nothing else about that number, we as the Lord’s people must let it sink deep within us that our God is our complete provider.  Those seven names tell it all.  Therefore, we need never rely on any person for our spiritual and physical needs, now or ever – nice or not.  Based on what I’ve learned from this study, it would be an affront to God for me to believe and act otherwise and I pray daily for His grace that I never do.  I will pray for people, love, bless and help them where I can, but I will not rely on them for anything.

In some ways I look forward to facing the tough times up ahead with a body of true believers totally God-reliant for our needs.  As it is, we’re too self-sufficient and other-reliant in our churches in the Western world.  It’s questionable as to how much authentic reliance we’re presently placing upon God when we have the best of homes, jobs, food, clothing, health, amenities, doctors, medicines etc.  It’s easy to pay lip service to the Lord with all this stuff going on – easy to talk about Him but keep Him to one side in practice – especially when we’re wanting to be seen by the nice people as nice people ourselves. “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” Psalm 119: 89. “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” Psalm 145:18.