Dr. C. S. Lovett's
MARANATHA FAMILY NEWSLETTER
AUGUST 2024
Copyright © L. Lovett
Listening With Your Heart
"Wow! Look at that!" My brother was pointing to the dash panel on the two-place glider we were flying. The rate of climb indicator showed we were being thrust upward at the rate of 6,000 feet a minute! Any moment we knew we would be spit out the top of this powerful thermal that was flinging us skyward! Then it happened. Suddenly, we were motionless in the sky. I looked at the altimeter...10,800 feet! It was only seconds ago that the tow plane jerked us off the desert floor. No wonder people become addicted to glider flying.
To what can I compare this thrill? Some skyscrapers have express elevators that make rapid ascents, but not with this kind of thrill. Maybe the wilder roller coasters with their steep dives come as close as anything. However, there is an experience that surpasses being hurled thousands of feet into the sky and left to float on a cushion of air. That is the thrill of being caught up in Christ! Finding yourself in the arms of the One Who made you and hear Him say, "I love you and will never leave you nor forsake you!" That will make your spirit soar!
WHERE'S THAT THRILL TODAY?
Many claim to be close to Christ, but when you see them after church—LUNCH is more real than Jesus! Where is the electricity? Where is the fire that comes from intimacy with Christ? Where is the excitement that gets a person "hooked" on Jesus? Where is the joy that makes your heart sing all day? You don't see that, do you?
A LORD WE CANNOT SEE!
We worship a God we cannot see, feel, or hear. The problem is best defined in the saying: "OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND!" You know how that is. Unless things are kept before us, our minds quickly go to something else. And this applies to Jesus as well. How come we have this problem? We live in the age of the Holy Spirit.
Do you know about this age? When Jesus was on earth in a body, there was no way He could transfer His life to others. If you were to take it from Him, it would be murder. For Him to give His life to another would be suicide. No, the only way for a person to HAVE Jesus' life, is to HAVE Him in their hearts. The apostle John says... "AMEN!"
"He that has the Son HAS life and he that has not the Son of God, has NOT life" (1 John 5:12). One must have the Son to have His life. There is no other way.
BUT HOW CAN PEOPLE HAVE JESUS?
A person cannot experience this thrill unless the Lord is REAL TO HIM. Yes, he can hear about Jesus and ask the Lord into his heart and be saved. He might even get involved in a church and serve in some kind of a job for the Lord. Beyond that, he might even be part of a Bible study group. But where is the thrill? Look around your church next Sunday. Study the faces. Is the excitement there? Does the thrill of Christ radiate from within?
In a body, Jesus wasn't available to anyone. You can't stuff one body inside another. If you could, then only one person could have Jesus. Therefore, Jesus needed to shift from operating in a body to operating as a spirit. As the omnipresent Spirit of God, He is AVAILABLE to all who want Him. This is precisely what happened. On the day of Pentecost, the Lord returned to the Spirit to live inside all who would open their hearts to Him (John 14: 20). And this program will continue until the Lord appears in the sky (1 Thess. 4:17). Then the program will shift from faith to sight (Rev. 1:7).
For now, we live by faith. With Christ in us, we are indwelt by our unseen God. Therefore we are faced with the problem of trying to live for a God we cannot see and trying to please Him with our lives (John 4:24).
MAKING CHRIST REAL
Here's the challenge: How can we, who are locked into a physical world, know and enjoy the unseen Lord Who lives inside us? We have to find a way, or we'll never live the kind of life that pleases Him. As long as family and financial problems are more real to us than He is, we will be plagued with fears, worries, and doubts. But who wants to live like that? Jesus wants us to live above those things, but that will never happen until He becomes more real to us than our problems. When He becomes that real, our problems no longer disturb us.
So the big question is: How do we make Christ more real? The answer: God has provided the very means for doing this. There is only one thing in all the world that can make Jesus real: The Word of God. He is NOT REVEALED ANY PLACE ELSE. Neither the majesty of the mountains nor the wisdom of scholars can do this for us. Only the Bible reveals Jesus. All we have in this world is the Word of God on the outside and the Holy Spirit on the inside and that's it.
BUT NOT OVERNIGHT
A person cannot sit down and say, "I'm going to make Christ real." It takes time to build the reality of Christ in a person's life. If the Bible, with the New Testament in particular, is the only tool that can make Christ real, it follows a person must spend time in the Word. How much time? You will laugh at this, but FIVE MINUTES A DAY will do it if you read with the eyes of your heart. You see you can read for days with the eyes of your head and not get much. Why? Christianity is more caught than taught. We catch spiritual things with our hearts.
You may think 5 MINUTES A DAY is scarcely any time at all. Granted, it may not seem like much to give someone Who has died for you but wait until you try it. Daily, those 5 minutes are hard to come by. Satan is on hand to see that you have other things to do. It is a fight but it is worth it, and you may even find yourself reading more and more minutes each day.
The more real Jesus is to you, the more exciting He becomes. The more real He is, the more you want to spend time with Him and the more thrilling His presence becomes. The more real He is the more FUN you can have with Him. From then on, the thrill of Christ will launch your spirit like a glider catapulted 2 miles above the earth and left to soar across the face of the sky.
WHY DID I WRITE THIS ARTICLE?
It is one thing to tell you what it is like when Jesus is REAL to you, quite another to tell you how to go about making Him real. You should find a daily devotional that, along with your Bible, helps the power of the Word to build in you. Not the "thought for the day" type, but one that is designed to bring you the reality of Christ. Your communication with the Lord may seem weak at first, but that is to be expected. It has to grow. In time, you will find the Lord becoming more and more real. By the end of a year, you will find your troubles bothering you less as the promises of God fortify you more. Then you will be able to cope with practically everything that comes your way when you. . .
LET YOUR SPIRIT SOAR!
C. S. Lovett
Copyright © 2024 Personal Christianity
SINCE YOU ASKED
Question: “Dr. Lovett, How can I know God’s will for my life?”
Answer: That is a great question! Has it ever crossed your mind? Of course. God’s will matters to us. The Lord was teaching His disciples how to pray when He said, “Thy will be done.”
There is a prophetic element to Jesus’ words, “Thy will be done on earth” when believers will be forced to do God’s will—with that awful “rod of iron.” But modern believers don’t focus on the prophetic meaning. Rather they are thinking of God’s will for their lives now and how they fit into it.
While we have a broad outline of God’s design, He gives us very few specifics. So what’s the answer? You don’t need to know God’s will in day-to-day situations. That is, you will not get verbal or visual instructions. Instead, He wants you to use the right method, which has several steps:
1. Make your heart willing to do His will, whatever it is.
2. Based on your current knowledge of God’s Word, make your own decision as to what action to take.
3. Commit your decision to God in prayer and see if your heart is peaceful about it. If not, choose another course of action and check your heart again. This is one of God’s best indicators for knowing His will. The Holy Spirit will grant peace when you are on target. You will feel uneasy until you are lined up with God's will.
TESTIMONIES
BIBLE STUDY: “I picked up a copy of LOVETT’S LIGHTS ON ROMANS at a used bookstore. I have always struggled with Romans 7 and 8 and this is the first time it has ever come into place for me. I use your book as a daily Bible study tool. I do want to follow the Lord and your insights help.” (D. G.—AR)
PEOPLE BLESSED: “I have two of your LIGHTS ON ACTS and JOHN and have been truly blessed by them. I’m teaching from JOHN first and the people are getting blessed and growing in the Lord, as I am also. Thank you in Him.” (J.N.—TN)
SAVED AND ORDAINED: “Your book, DEALING WITH THE DEVIL, saved the world of a young sinner in jail who was riding with the Hells Angels. He is now an ordained minister helping lost souls. His copy is very worn and starting to fall apart. Thank you and God bless you.” (D.F. Canada)
KNOW-HOW HELP: “I read your book, DEALING WITH THE DEVIL, and want to thank you for helping me understand HOW to resist him and his evil tricks. I’m a prisoner, but a Christian, and I want to be ready on the last days. Every Christian home needs to have a copy of this book. Thank you for it, Brother.” (M.R.—TX)
RESOURCES
LOVETT'S LIGHTS ON ROMANS (2024): 360 pages. Available on Amazon.com for $15.99 HERE.
LOVETT'S LIGHTS ON ACTS (2023): 407 pages. Available on Amazon.com for $15.99 HERE.
LOVETT'S LIGHTS ON THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT (2022): 372 pages. Available on Amazon.com for $15.99 HERE.
LOVETT'S LIGHTS ON JOHN (2021): 381 pages. Available on Amazon.com for $15.99 HERE.
WITNESSING MADE EASY (2019): 213 pages. Available on Amazon.com for $14.99 HERE.
DEALING WITH THE DEVIL (2018): 242 PAGES. Available on Amazon.com for $14.99 HERE.
THE PREPARED LIFE (2017): 159 pages. Available on Amazon.com for $13.99 and is also available in Kindle form for $7.99 HERE.
(You may also be able to purchase these books from your bookstore).
CONTACT US:
Personal Christianity
PO Box 918
Middleton, ID 83644
www.cslovettbooks.com
info@cslovettbooks.com
“Preparing for His appearing since 1951”
