The Crags Or The Cages

     Pictured above we see that eagles can either be free on a crag (a high rock) or confined to a comfortable cage. The bible says christians are like eagles. Isaiah 40:31 says But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. And according to Psalm 103:5 a christian's youth is renewed like the eagles.

Like eagles christians must choose between a crag or a comfortable cage

I'd rather be a lean bird in the woods

Than a fat bird in a cage

I was born in a field 

Don't put me in a flowerpot

     A caged eagle beating his bars with his wings in a cage is a sad sight. But sadder still is a fat old eagle who has given up dreaming about the mountain crags and has resigned himself to the captivity of a comfortable cage. Eagles were never meant for an imprisoned life; They belong to the heights and the wild freedom of lonely peaks and solitary outlooks. Eagles are safer in zoos, but eagles are made to fly free by the mountain peaks. Ships are safer in harbors, but ships are made to sail on the oceans.

     Like eagles, many christians and churches don't want their comfortable nests stirred up with a revival. These saints need to mount up on wings of faith to breathe the mountain air of victorious living instead of smothering in the cages of conformity. Christians need to beat their wings in protest against the bars of this world longing for the blessed heights of the crags.

     Take time to meditate on the following two scriptures telling christians to leave comfortable cages in this world and launch out for Jesus up to the blessed high crags. Galatians 5:1 says Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 2 Timothy 2:3 says Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

     Today, preachers have to choose whether to be a powerful saint on a crag or a powerless catholic priest in a comfortable cage. I don't have to confess my sins through a knothole to a latin speaking, bead counting, robe wearing priest that calls himself a father and the bird ain't even married and to top it off he dresses like mama. And I ain't waitin for some cardinals to blow some black smoke out of a chimney to find a pope; I'm waiting for the Lord Jesus to descend from heaven and blow a shout and get caught up to the clouds to find a Saviour. 

     Unfortunately the trend in most churches today is from the crags down to comfortable cages. Many christians today are prisoners in cages behind the bars of habit, fear, doubt and sin. These saints need to wait on the Lord and mount up to blessed high crags with wings as eagles. As pilgrims and strangers in this world, saints are a different breed and birds of another feather. Christians are on a migration to the kingdom of God and should not settle down in this fading world. Don't feather your nest and get too comfortable in this world and not be able to fly for Jesus up to the crags.

     Today, too many preachers have sold their liberty for a comfortable cage in some ecclesiastical menagerie. Afraid to be lean and lone, unwilling to face the storms and brave the heights to win souls for Jesus, many comfortable caged saints become fat and foul in their cages of conformity to this world. Better to be a free preacher who can walk into a pulpit responsible only unto God than to be somebody's ventriloquist dummy. God grant us a stirring revival that will get rid of the nests of our complacency and open the doors of our cages and send us up to the crags of high and holy living.

     Pictured above we see Esau, choosing to be a comfortable caged bird by selling his birthright for some pottage food. Many saints like Esau choose to pile up worldly possessions without and become paupers within. Instead of being blessed eagles on high peaks, these saints like Esau choose to be fat old birds in gilded cages living in sinful and smug ease. Friends unlike Esau, risk security to win liberty instead of selling liberty to win security. Mark 8:36 tells us For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

      Launch out for Jesus and get out of your comfort zone, willing to go the extra mile anywhere Jesus sends you to win the lost all over this earth to the Lord Jesus. Tell people everywhere to get saved,  repent, decide to stop sinning, and make Jesus their God while they daily look to the cross. Tell the devil daily I am crucified with Christ and covered by the blood of Jesus that overcame you devil, cleansed me of all my sins, and evil must pass over me.

     Next notice in the picture above a mother eagle and her baby. Deuteronomy 32:11 tells us how this mother eagle trains her baby to fly saying As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. Mother eagles push their babies out of their comfortable nests and teach them to learn how to fly up to blessed crags on wings of faith.

     The early church was like blessed baby eagles leaving their comfortable nests in the world to witness Jesus everywhere around this earth. Acts 8:4 says Therefore, they that were scattered abroad (the early church) went everywhere preaching the word. Today, instead of sitting (only on Sunday morning for an hour) in a fancy comfortable church nest that costs several million dollars, scatter out like baby eagles by witnessing Jesus everywhere on this earth all week.

     Saints, like the eagles, let's travel to blessed high mountain crags and spend time with our Lord Jesus away from the comfortable cages of this troubled world so we can see the whole picture and vision of God's plan for our lives. Pictured above, Habakkuk got up into this watchtower away from the crowds to hear what God had to say. Habakkuk 2:1 says I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it; For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 

     Like Habbakuk, choose to be a lone eagle taking time to hear from our Lord Jesus instead of being a parrot mimicking the lost people of this world. The best way to avoid a comfortable cage is to find a crag. Elijah, Amos, John the Baptist, and Jesus found crags to worship the Lord in the desert, wilderness, and on mountainsides. Elijah could stand up against Ahab and Jezebel because he had first taken time at a blessed crag before the Lord Jesus. Ahab was small potatos after this. Jesus rose up a great while before it was day and went to a solitary place (a blessed crag) to pray. Like Jesus, we all need to take time daily at a blessed crag alone with God away from the maddening crowds and strife of this troubled world.  

     Leaving a comfortable cage to go to a blessed crag with God requires denial of self. Jesus said at Luke 9:23 If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. A high soul will take the high road;  A low soul will take the low road; And in between on the dusty flats the rest drift to and fro. Some saints take the low road and end in disgrace; others take the plateau because it's comfortable; But here and there a few make up their minds to reach higher ground on the blessed high road. 

     The air's fresher and the view's better up on the high road with Jesus. Don't stop halfway on your way up to a blessed crag to take a distracting look at a trivial matter in this troubled world. Don't allow your hobbies to become hobbles. Not many people are up on this high road, but Jesus and the company that's up there is mighty good. People in the valleys of this world might ridicule the saints in the high crags, but the difference is worth the distance. 

     Be like Paul, and be a lone eagle on a crag with Jesus getting a vision to lead the people. Remember you can see more territory when you are alone with God on a high crag. You can't see the forest for the trees when you are in a comfortable cage of conformity in this world. Don't say I've changed my convictions because the climate has changed. We don't change our convictions by the climate of this world; Our convictions ought to be governed by our conscience enlightened by the scripture and the Holy Ghost.

     God usually gives visions to one man and the implementation of the vision to many men. Visions usually don't come in committee meetings or discussion groups. Notice that Acts 16:10 says And after he (Paul) had seen the vision, immediately we (the church) endeavored to go into Macedonia assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Also note that Proverbs 29:18 says Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

     Now for a story about the man pictured above worshipping Jesus on a high crag. Originally three men planned to travel to this high crag from a valley. Their leader waited in the valley for them to return with a report of their observations. The first man came back with a little sprig of pine in his hand saying he couldn't get any farther; I got as far as the pines. Later in the afternoon, the second man came back with a little sprig of fir in his hand saying I almost made it but I gave out. I dared not try to go any farther; This is all I bring back. Finally, late in the afternoon, the third man pictured above came back and he didn't have anything. The leader said what do you mean bringing nothing back. The third man replied Well you told us if we made it to the high crag, we'd see the blessing of God. I didn't bring back anything, but I got to see the blessing of God and the difference was worth the distance. 

     The apostle Paul, like this man on the high crag, came down to the end of his journey and didn't have much to show for it so far as this world is concerned; He didn't have any worldly stocks or bonds. The only stocks and bonds Paul had were stocks for his feet and bonds for his wrists; The only thing Paul had to claim from this old world at the end of his journey was an old overcoat and two books proven by 2 Timothy 4:13 where Paul said The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus when thou comest bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.

     Like Paul, saints might end their journey for Jesus on this earth with nothing in their hands, no fame, no money, and no honors of this earth. But friend reading this anywhere, you are a success if you've scaled the utmost heights and caught a gleam of glory bright. Remember don't ever get caught in a cage on your way up to a crag.

     To end today's bible study let's look at some saints in the bible that were lean birds in the woods that got thrown into cages. Even though these saints were caged by man, they continued to be eagles on high crags that blessed and saved multitudes by their testimonies for Jesus. Pictured above Paul was placed into Nero's prison, but he wasn't Nero's prisoner. Paul said in the book of Philemon that he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Paul was a lone eagle at large who tried out his wings in the desert of Arabia. Paul wasn't a captive in anybody's zoo.

     Also pictured above Micaiah was a lean bird in the woods. I know they fed him on bread and water while 400 fat birds told Ahab to Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper. These 400 fat false prophets were all in a cage and didn't know it.  And Daniel refused to be a fat bird in a cage when he turned down that rich food on Nebuchadnezzars's table; when he continued his devotions as usual though it meant a lion's den' when he stood at Belshazzars's feast and interpreted the handwriting on the wall; He didn't belong to the soothsayers and the smoothsayers. Daniel chose to be a lean bird in the woods.

       Amos was a lone eagle that rebuked Jeroboam for forcing the people to worship idols at Dan and Bethel. Dr. Amaziah was a fat bird in a cage that mocked and resisted Amos telling him to leave Bethel. When Amos preached at Bethel he didn't submit his manuscript to some office to a little fella in a swivel chair to go through it with a red pencil to make sure it wouldn't offend anybody. Amos didn't take the teeth out of his sermons at Tekoa and gum it at Bethel. Amos said I'm not a preacher by profession, I'm not a preacher by parentage, I'm a preacher by providence. And I didn't come to make my preaching acceptable, I came to make my preaching available. And it's not my business that you like the gospel, it's my business that you get the gospel.

     And finally history tells us Martin Luther was a free bird in the woods but Erasmus the catholic priest was a caged eagle refusing to accept reform from catholic traditions and heresy of worshipping a pope. When Bernard of Cluny wrote his scathing denunciation of the evils of his time; when Savonarola blasted the sins of Florence; when Wesley preached outdoors; and when Spurgeon rebuked the fellowship of the Baptists in the Down-Grade controversy, they were all lone eagles. The mountain air of their sermons was too breezy for some of their caged contemporaries. Remember, be like these blessed saints and refuse to be an eagle with clipped wings caught in a cage on your way up to the blessed crags.

     As always it is a blessing to write these bible studies that I pray in Jesus name bless multitudes all over this earth. Feel free to email Brother Bob anytime at rz9tlm@gmail.com or write to Brother Bob Malkin, 2233 Pinetree Lane, Apt. N., Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068. (614) 604-7133. Till we all meet again soon to lift up our Lord Jesus, everyone have a blessed day.