Alive to God

“The atoning death of Christ, and that alone, has presented sinners as righteous in God’s sight; the Lord Jesus has paid the full penalty of their sins, and clothed them with His perfect righteousness before the judgment seat of God.
But Christ has done for Christians even far more than that. He has given to them not only a new and right relation to God, but a new life in God’s presence for evermore. He has saved them from the power as well as from the guilt of sin.
The New Testament does not end with the death of Christ; it does not end with the triumphant words of Jesus on the Cross, ‘It is finished.’ The death was followed by the resurrection, and the resurrection like the death was for our sakes.
Jesus rose from the dead into a new life of glory and power, and into that life He brings those for whom He died. The Christian, on the basis of Christ’s redeeming work, not only has died unto sin, but also lives unto God.

— J. Gresham Machen

Bursting With Thanksgiving

“To be bursting with thanksgiving is a true witness of the Spirit within us. For the voice of thanksgiving speaks without ceasing of the goodness of God. It claims nothing. It sees no merit in man’s receiving but only in God’s giving. It marvels at his mercy. It is the language of joy because it need look no longer to its own resources.
The Christian rejoicing in this blessing of a thankful heart will have his eyes fixed upon the right person and the right place, Christ at God’s right hand. He cannot be taken up with himself without being immediately reminded that everything he possesses is the gift of God.

— R. C. Lucas

Without Trust We Have Nothing

Was awakened in the middle of the night again last night.  I got some good stuff from Papa.

Thank you, Father, for the wonderful life-giving truth that You are willing to share with me, at the time that my mind seems uncluttered enough to get it.

It's no wonder You work so hard to show Your trustworthiness to me.  Last night I heard it said that "intimacy is impossible without trust."  The same holds true in human relationships.

I sense that You are consistently proving to me how I can trust You, in every circumstance.  So far they've almost all been good.  But, I can hope that the day in which my circumstance turns bad, that the trust I am learning will hold me strong.

You are helping me to gain an understanding that life, and my relationships, is not all about me… at all.    Even those relationships closest to me.  I believe You are showing me, a glimpse-at-a time, the bigger picture to which I belong.  My, how it changes my perspective to know that I am not here just for my own comfort and enjoyment.  And yet, most will spend their entire life down here pursuing just that.

It's not about my comfort level… never has been.

You supplied ultimate satisfaction in the Garden of Eden, and it included walking with You daily.  Interaction with You.  From the moment we sinned, our shame has led us to try to provide for ourselves at every turn.  We try to find or provide our own satisfaction and fulfillment in every way possible, except in You.

Once the trust was broken, we turned from You.  Not vice versa.  We as a people have lived under the shameful assumption that You were angry with us.  The relationship was broken.  The trust was broken.  And, we've been trying to do it on our own ever since.  We haven't known You.  We've been too busy hiding in our shame.

When love isn't about me, it's amazing how freed up it can allow me to become… to love those who are still enslaved to their shame.  I was reminded of the recent love lesson taught me, using the scenario with my cat who scratched me, only to have me turn around and kiss and love on him.  That's the kind of love I know You're producing in me.  It's the ability to sincerely love those who emotionally claw at me.

Lastly, I was made aware that not only did Jesus live his earthly life that way (loving those who were unlovely toward Him), but that, indeed, YOU have been living with your children treating You that way, too.  And, still You have loved.  It has not swayed You.  It has very much been a one-way street with us.  Even during those times when our heart is toward You, we often have still had eyes on self.

It amazes me, on any given day, how much I can be preoccupied with me… when the picture is sooo much bigger.

Wish I could write more, but that's the gist of the thoughts that kept me awake during the night.  It was beautiful!  For now, I have to get ready to receive some of those relationships here in my home tomorrow.

Thank you, Father, for not giving up on me.

- Under the Waterfall

Brennan Manning - What He said I'll Never Forget

I just heard the sad news that Brennan Manning transitioned from this earth yesterday. You’ll find two of his books on my Best 100 Christian Books Ever Written List. If you don’t have them, you should.

I had the privilege of spending time with Manning in 2007. We both spoke at a conference along with N.T. Wright.

In one of the sessions, we all spent time in a living room together. I had time to talk with Manning one-on-one and I asked him a few questions about writing . . . seeing that he’s a remarkable author whom I wanted to glean from.
He said to me, “If you write something and it doesn’t move you, then throw it in the trash. It’s not going to move anyone else.”

I kept these words firmly in mind when I wrote God’s Favorite Place on Earth. A good bit of that book is in delete-land. I hope that what remained moves others.

During the course of our conversation, I also asked Manning about his photographic memory. It was a gift. He said all he had to do was read something once or twice and he could recite it.
Amazing! I saw him do just that when I heard him speak in his two sessions during that conference.

I found Manning to be a very humble man with a large heart, an incredible story that magnifies God’s grace in the midst of human frailty and fallenness (which we all share), and an amazing gift for writing and speaking.

Brennan Manning knew grace, he lived grace, and he taught grace . . . even in his last day of blindness and weakness.

I’m privileged to have met this giant in the faith. And I shall never forget him.

The Unbroken Christian

Jesus talked a lot about losing, taking up our cross, denying ourselves, and laying down our lives.
These are the fruits of brokenness before God.

It’s not hard to spot a Christian in ministry who isn’t broken. Unbroken people don’t know how to lay their lives down and lose. They only know how to try to win.

If they’re criticized, they retaliate.

If they’re attacked, they return fire. If misunderstood, they defend in anger.
They are capable of doing all sorts of damage to others in order to save their own ministries and keep their reputations.

On the contrary, people who have been broken by the hand of God know how to turn the other cheek. They know how to go the second mile. They know how to give their coats when asked for their shirts. They know how to speak well of those who misrepresent them. They know how to return good for evil.

They know how to lose.

And in so doing, they exhibit the Spirit of the Lamb and allow God to win.

In the words of E. Stanley Jones, “The God I find in Christ is a God who overcomes evil with good, hate by love, and the world by a cross.”

Again, it is through the wounding and the breaking we experience that the life of Christ can be released through us.

And that is where the secret of fruit bearing lies.

How to Respond to Rejection and Unjust Criticism

There are two ways to respond to rejection. One is to react in the flesh and become bitter and angry and to retaliate against those who have hurt us. The other is to react in the Spirit, which is the way Jesus responded to those who rejected Him.

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ~ Peter

Jesus Christ refused to allow bitterness to take root in His heart. After standing under a hail of criticism from the Jews, the Lord stood before Pilate and was silent. When the Romans pierced His hands with six-inch nails, He prayed that God would forgive them. And when He rose again from the dead, He wasn’t spewing venom over those who crucified Him. Jesus didn’t seek vengeance against those who misunderstood Him, nor did He justify Himself, setting the record straight in light of the lies that were told about Him.

While the death of Jesus is immortal, the unjust and indescribable pain that He suffered at the hands of sinful men was not upon His lips when He broke free from the grave. No, He was utterly silent about the entire ordeal. He acted as though it never happened.

 

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. ~ Paul

Many Christians cannot get over rejection, let alone misunderstanding. And that is why there is no resurrection in their lives. In our own natural power, we are incapable of responding to pain the way Jesus did. But the good news of the gospel is that He lives inside of us, giving us both the power and the will to do His good pleasure.

The secret is in letting go.
Chesterton rightly said, “One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”
A disciple in the school of Christ often learns more by suffering than by studying. Spiritual growth picks up its pace whenever you’re looking down from a cross, and brokenness is a prerequisite for usefulness.

If you are a Christian, then, expect to follow in the footsteps of your Lord. You will know the scalding pain and heartbreaking disillusionment of rejection.
How you respond, however, will determine if you become broken or bitter.
If you view such things from a natural plane, you may get so depressed that your eyes cross, feeling that you have to climb up just to reach the bottom. These are the typical emotions that provoke grudges.

Someone once said that you don’t hold a grudge. It holds you. Holding a grudge is self-inflicted pain. Consequently, bitterness doesn’t imprison those who hurt you. It imprisons you.
Again, we do not have the strength to forgive others who wound us. But we have One who indwells us whose name is Forgiveness. And He is able and willing to forgive through us, releasing us and others.

You’d be wise, therefore, to seek to get behind the eyes of our Lord and see things from His vantage point. You have a God who knows what it feels like to be rejected. But He also knows the preciousness of having a Bethany. A place where He is completely received, honored, and appreciated.

The Sins that Christains Condemn and Excuse

“Christians get very angry toward other Christians who sin differently than they do.” 
~ Philip Yancey

I grew up in a denomination that made homosexuality the gravest of all sins, trumping every other transgression (except murder, maybe).
Many of the people in that church were dutifully self-righteous when it came to certain sins. Those who didn’t commit the sins they deemed the worse (externally, that is) saw themselves as more “pure” than their fellow brethren who may have stumbled in those areas.
I regret to say that in my early years as a Christian, I adopted this same attitude. Ironically, these same people winked at the sins of gossip, slander, outbursts of rage, judging the motives of others, and lying. Excuses were routinely made in an attempt to justify these “lesser” sins (so the thinking went). In addition, most of us were monumentally disinterested and unmoved by things like poverty, racism, sexism, genocide, and homelessness.

Later in my journey, I started to give attention to these other problems. And I became friends with a group of Christians who viewed the worst kinds of sins as being societal. These people regarded failure to try and alleviate poverty, stop genocide, and curb homelessness to be the worst kinds of sins, while (unfortunately) sexual sins were almost winked at. Their view on sin was the exact opposite of the first group I mentioned.

In this regard, James makes an eye-opening statement: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). In the same vein, Jesus turns the conversation on its head when He says, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment . . . and anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:21-22).
And again: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

Then there’s Paul, who places sexual sins in the same list as “fits of rage,” “discord,” “dissensions,” “selfish ambition,” and “slander” – all of which bar one from inheriting the kingdom of God if not repented of (Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). In these texts, James, Jesus, and Paul level the playing field on sin, showing that every believer is guilty of so-called “dirt” (1 John 1:8).
For Jesus, lust and adultery are on the same par. The same with rage and murder. For Paul, slander and outbursts of rage are no less serious than fornication.

One of my favorite stories underscores this point with clever wit. Allegedly, Charles Spurgeon invited D.L. Moody to speak at an event he hosted. Moody accepted and preached the entire time about the evils of tobacco, and why the Lord doesn’t want Christians to smoke.
Spurgeon, a cigar smoker, was surprised at what seemed to be a cheap shot leveled by Moody, using the pulpit to condemn a fellow minister.
When Moody finished preaching, Spurgeon walked up to the podium and said, “Mr. Moody, I’ll put down my cigars when you put down your fork.”
Moody was overweight.
This story makes the point brilliantly.

George MacDonald famously said, “I understand God’s patience with the wicked, but I do wonder how He can be so patient with the pious.”
Let me close by saying that if we’re going to play the “your sins are worse than mine” game, we shouldn’t be remiss in looking at what made Jesus’ blood boil when He walked this earth. Who was He the angriest at? The answer is a lead-pipe cinch for any student of Scripture. It was the self-righteous, pious, condemning, judgmental Pharisees. The self-appointed monitors of other people’s righteousness.

Who was Jesus the most patient with? The very people whom my first denomination looked down their noses at as being the worst “sinners.” In Jesus, the pyramid is inverted yet again. The person who is adept at calling “dirt” in others, but fails to see the dirt in himself/herself, is in a very dangerous place. Such is the nature of a Pharisee. Those sins which blind a person from seeing the weight of their own transgressions against that of others are treated as more serious by God.
In short, every sin comes off the same tree. All sin is serious. All sin put Jesus on the cross. Therefore, we are deluded whenever we lessen the sins we’ve committed and magnify the sin of others … whatever they might be.

Thank God that Jesus has paid the price for all our sins and given us the power to walk free from their dominion. Let us, therefore, be harsh with ourselves in the matter of sin and compassionate to everyone else.

When it comes to the issue of sin, the New Testament puts the emphasis on a person’s present walk. Is a person continuing in a certain sin? This is where the issue of repentance comes in. (To repent means to stop doing it. It means to “Go and sin no more,” as Jesus put it.)  So if we know a brother or sister who has been “overtaken in a fault” presently, let us seek to restore them in Christ.
But it is paramount that as we do, we treat them the same way we would want to be treated if we were standing in their shoes, knowing that we are just as sinful as they are, “taking heed, therefore, lest we fall into the same thing or worse.”

Sin - What is it? Part 2

There are two words translated "sin" in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament the word is chataah, from the root word chata, meaning, "to miss the right point". In the New Testament the word is hamartia, meaning, "to miss the goal". Now, if we know whose point and whose goal is being missed, we might know what sin is. the meaning of chataah and hamartia have to do with God’s point and His goal therefore sin is missing God's goal for us, not missing religion's goal.

So, what should we conclude from this? The things we do that violate God’s point of view, His purpose, and His goal for us must define sin. Our religious training has taught us to identify what we have decided is sin in others and resort to judgment and condemnation by condemning them to Hell's torcher chamber. And, instead of leaving it up to God to conform us to the image of His Son, we have taken that responsibility upon ourselves and have decided to change one another by identifying what we don’t like in them, calling it sin, then pressuring them into conforming to our preferences and standards. It’s religious arrogance, against God, and it is wrong.

There is a difference between God’s viewpoint of sin and man’s. There was a seeming discrepancy between what I knew about David from my religious point of view and what God said about him. David’s seeming personal faults are well recorded in Scripture. My religious, moral perspective told me he was a miserable failure as a leader, husband and father. Yet, in the midst of all this moral failing, God was very gracious and complimentary of Him (I Samuel 13:14, Psalms 89:19-37, Acts 13:22).

Why God didn’t condemn David for the things I knew were wrong in his life and for what my religious morality told me was sin. It wasn’t up to me to decide what was right or wrong with David. He wasn’t accountable to me. I wasn’t his judge. Only God knew how to deal with David and what needed to be dealt with to accomplish his deliverance. It was the unchanging character of God and His eternal purpose that determined what was sin in David’s life and it was none of my business. Who am I to question what God does or doesn’t do in someone else’s life?

When we screw up...and we all do...there is no sense in trying to deny who or what we are. We can’t run; there’s no place to hide. And when we experience times like this, David is our hero and an example to follow. For me, my old judgmental, moralistic self is near dead and my new self is being resurrected in the image of Christ allowing me to see David in a different way. And, I appreciate his determination to allow God to examine his heart and test him (Psalms 26:2, 139:23-24). Faults and weaknesses aside (both his and mine), the way I see it, having a heart like David’s is foundational in my own personal relationship with God.

What about Peter and His denial of Christ? Peter did not run to a "Church" to repent and get right with Christ again...In Christ's eyes Peter was already right with Him..."Go and tell my disciples and especially Peter". Christ did not withdraw His Love for or forsake Him because of His denial and cursing.

It’s not up to us to decide what is right or wrong for others. Let's keep our nose out of other people's business. The vicious cycle of interfering in each other’s life is leading to hurt, disappointment, confusion and broken relationships, this is not what God is about therefore neither should we be about it.

Religious people think they have a real talent for spotting other people’s wrongs. But the question is, how good are they at spotting their own wrongs? We are not to try to ‘help’ others by identifying their sin, while we ignore our own. That kind of super-spiritual elitism is useless, both for the community of the redeemed and the community of humanity. True righteousness comes when people learn to face their own faults and weaknesses with God in acknowledgement and repentance. And only then can they understand how to help others by encouraging them to do the same.

What we may decide is right or wrong in the lives of others will not help us; it will not change us. It will, in fact, only hurt us, and others. Religion has trained us to judge people (with the facade of being concerned about their eternal destiny so we can get the credit for ministering "in love" and another notch in our witnessing belt. But, for every child of God, there must come a time when we determine to make a concerted effort to learn how to mind our own business and understand that sin is not what we think it is in the lives of others, but what God says it is in our own.

Being sin conscious is the reason we judge people for what we think is sin in their lives...being God conscious will lead us to deal with sin in our own lives and realize that He has already forgiven that sin and desires a loving relationship with us.

Please don't be so naive as to think that I am condoning living a loose lifestyle that harms people and godliness. But don't judge others because they may sin differently that what you as a Christian do or judge them on what you have deemed to be sin.

Sin - What is it? Part 1

Growing up in a religious denominational environment, I learned at an young age what sin was...or so I thought. What I accepted as sin was what I was told was sin by the denomination I was in. I found this denominational sin defining to be somewhat confusing in that different denomination's opinions as to what sin was varied. What some denominations said was sin was accepted by other denominations as not being sin.

The denomination I found my self in was the "no preparing food for the Sunday meal, that was a Saturday task so as to avoid working on the "Sabbath" because it was a sin to work on the Sabbath...yet, Sunday was not and never will be the Sabbath. Then there was the no going to the restaurant on Sunday...no riding of the bike...no playing hopscotch...no smoking...no drinking...no dancing...no going to the movies...no going our with "bad" girls, avoid the baccy chew and no running around with those who do.

Yet other people who claimed to be "Christians" could do these things without condemnation.

Because of my NOT doing the "bad stuff" it provided a breeding ground of false egotistic pride in thinking I was morally superior in that I did not partake in such activities or run around with the crowd that did.

Well, to my amazement I now see how spiritual egotistic, judgmental, un-understanding, condemning and unlike God it was. When Jesus was on earth He spent His time with whom the religious elite of the day deemed sinners, while having little to do with the religious crowd of His day, except make known they were making people more a child of the "devil" than they were themselves.

What religion regards as sin has to do more with men's opinions, religious standards and the breaking of such than it does with God. It is more about not doing the things they deem sin to maintain a upright relationship with the denomination of choice in order to be a card caring member. Whereas spiritual reality has to do with a experiential and intimate relationship with God where He is personally involved and working through your living life to accomplish His purpose in the community of humanity.

Evil as viewed by the religious establishment is different than how God's view of evil.

Lying is evil by religious standards...but the coverup of lies is the religious camp seems to be accepted until the lies is found out...as is a lot of other things they consider bad.

Telling the truth is not evil...or so they believe.

Yet in God's eyes telling the truth could be evil!

I guess by now you are demanding Bible evidence.

Remember your reading of the twelve men who were sent to spy out the promise land. Two came back with a good report and ten cam back with a evil report. The ten brought back a honest report of what they saw...why was their report considered evil? Because it did not agree with what God said.

Gluttony, greed. covetousness, segregation, shunning, disunity, calling building's "Churches", manipulation, control and deceitfulness are things which God calls sin but the religious world practices with no awareness that they are committing sin.

Why does the Bible say that the harlots and sinners were more a part of His Kingdom than the religious self righteous. Because the harlots and sinners agree with God, while the self-righteous go against God and His plan for the community of the humanity and the community of His redeemed. Religion has taken away Jesus as Head of His community and His leading of His community. They have replaced the plan of God with man-made leaders and man-made agendas...that my friend is EVIL!

When we sin God's Grace does much more abound because at the cross that sin was forgiven and all we have to do is repent, not by saying a bible-less sinner's prayer" but by forsaking that sin and get back to following Jesus.

When we sin by breaking the rules of religion we come under their judgement and condemnation. Paul then tells us in Romans 3:20 that the purpose of the Law was to make men recognize their sin (and thus recognize their need for God). To disobey a direct command of God was sin. On the other hand, the Jews then added their own rules to what God had given them and the result was a man-made religion called Judaism. And, Religion is nothing more than and religion is nothing more than a cary over of Judaism philosophy with a sprinkle of Grace thrown in.

In both Judaism and Religion, men took it upon themselves to define what constituted sin; then came up with their own way to deal with it. Again, there is in man that deep-seated desire to handle the God, sin, and judgment thing in his own way. And so, sin came to be defined by what men thought, instead of what God says.

Love is How He Always Acts Toward Us

Not only is God loving, but actually God IS Love...Love is who He is, Love defines Him, Love is His nature, He is Love in a Personal Being!  It is such a relief to me that God is Love!  God being Love means that God is ALWAYS Love and He is ONLY Love - He just doesn't ever act any other way than Love!

I started thinking about the different verses on love in the Bible, and it helped me so much to think about them in relation to how God treats us:

Love keeps no record of wrongs, so God, being Love, is never keeping track of the wrongs we do!  Our sin never enters His mind, for He promised to remember our sins NO MORE!  His thoughts concerning us are never about sin but always and only about how good and perfect and righteous and beloved we are.

Love is patient, so God, being Love, will never lose patience with us but will instead endlessly and untiringly teach, help and encourage us, no matter how many times we mess up, and He will consistently support and accept us, even if we never improve, change, get the victory, or 'overcome.'

Love does no harm, so God, being Love, will never harm us!  He will never hurt us, and He will never send anything our way that would be damaging, hurtful or painful to us..He will never send sickness, depression, pain or suffering on us!

Love thinks no evil, so God, being Love, never has a bad thought about us, never plans anything negative for us!  God's plans for us are only good, and His thoughts about us are only positive!

Love gives up one's life for his friends, and God, being Love, was willing to become a man and die for us even while we were yet sinners!  Love reconciles the world to himself.  We were calling ourselves God's enemies, but He was calling us His friends and dying for us!  He didn't demand that we change, straighten up, or believe right first, He just went ahead and gave up His life for us before we ever made a move in His direction!  In fact, we were running from God in many ways, and He chased after us and caught us up in His loving embrace! 

Love believes all things, and God, being Love, will never give up on you, never stop supporting you, never stop believing in you!  He is your biggest supporter and encourager and will always stick up for you, believe in you, and be proud of you!

Love endures all things, and God, being Love, will endure everything in relationship with you.  You can't make Him leave, He will never reject you.  You can't drive Him away by anything you do or don't do. You can't fail, doubt or rebel your way out of His arms.  He is in this relationship for keeps. He's got you and He's never letting go!

Love never fails, and God, being Love, will never fail you.  He will carry you through anything and everything, whether you always trust right, think right or act right OR NOT!  His love will hold you. His love will sustain you.  His love will be there for you, no matter what, and He will be faithful to carry you all the way home to heaven.  You are so safe and secure in this unconditional love.  For truly, you can't extinguish or ever get to the end of this infinite Love that is God Himself!  He has intertwined Himself with you forever!

Thank You, Papa, for being such Perfect Love!

- Under the Waterfall

The Bible is Not a Rule-Book

Imagine it’s your wedding day. You’ve had the ceremony, and you’re starting to relax when the minister hands you a gift, a thick book of Marriage Rules. “Read this,” he says. “The secret to a happy marriage is found within.”

You open the book with interest. Inside you discover many rules and guidelines: “Be honest, be kind, always tell the truth, listen well, keep your promises, say ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ freely forgive, don’t covet your neighbour’s wife,” and that sort of thing. Initially you think, This is gold! I want a successful marriage, so I will do everything this book says. 
You keep reading and find there are more rules for marriage than you could possibly have imagined. There are rules for special days and different seasons, rules on what to eat and what to wear, rules on property rights, rules regarding intimacy, rules on family planning, and hundreds more. Phew! I never knew marriage was such hard work. But I want a blessed marriage, so I’ll follow the rules. I’ll even take this book on our honeymoon.
But then you turn to the last page and find a surprising message written in large letters:

If you love your spouse, disregard this book. You don’t need it. If you love your spouse, you will keep all the rules effortlessly.

This should be good news. What relief! I can leave the book at home and enjoy my spouse.

Yet there are some who won’t do it. They’ll keep the book just in case. But there is no just in case. There is no conceivable situation where the rules could replace true love.

Do you see?

If you love your spouse, you don’t need the book, and if you don’t love your spouse, all the rules in the world aren’t going to help.

Some treat the Bible as though it were a book of rules for how to be married to Jesus. They think they will have a happy marriage if they do everything the Bible says, or at least everything Jesus says.

But love doesn’t work that way.

If you love Jesus, you don’t need the rules, and if you don’t love Jesus, the rules aren’t going to help. Love comes from the heart, not a book.

What Day is It?

 

Just a reminder that "Today is the day, now is the time..." Breath in and out, take in this moment, enjoy the one you are with, feast your eyes on the beauty in... front of you and within you and around you and know that He is here, He is with you, He is for you, He is in you. Your appreciation can turn a simple meal into a feast, a wife or husband into a lover, an enemy into a friend, a disappointment into an appointment, a moment of fear into an opportunity to love. Don't let a dualistic mindset rob you of the One who fills all in all and is ready to overwhelm you now with the beauty that is all around you.

Waiting to Be Lifted Up With Christ

Waiting for Christ's second coming and waiting for the resurrection are one and the same.  The second coming is the coming of the risen Christ, raising our mortal bodies with him in the glory of God.  Jesus' resurrection and ours are central to our faith.  Our resurrection is as intimately related to the resurrection of Jesus as our belovedness is related to the belovedness of Jesus.  Paul is very adamant on this point.  He says:  "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ cannot have been raised either, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is without substance, and so is your faith"  (1 Corinthians 15:13-14).

 

Indeed, our waiting is for the risen Christ to lift us up with him in the eternal life with God.  It is from the perspective of Jesus' resurrection and our own that his life and ours derive their full significance.  "If our hope in Christ has been for this life only," Paul says, "we are of all people the most pitiable" (1 Corinthians 15:18).  We don't need to be pitied, because as followers of Jesus we can look far beyond the limits of our short life on earth and trust that nothing we are living now in our body will go to waste.

   

David's Wilderness Experience

God, You are my God; I seek earnestly for You;

My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1

The opening statements in my Bible tell me that David wrote this Psalm when he was in the wilderness of Judah and from the intense words he uses in the picture he paints, you perceive that David was at the point of despair. He says I earnestly seek. Earnestly means seriously, intensely, with determination–sincere, meaningful. He says my soul thirsts. Thirst would be a very real threat in this wilderness. David uses that metaphor deliberately to tell us of his dire need. My flesh faints. Webster tells us that means feeble, weak, a state of semi-consciousness. Then David places himself in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Put yourself there with David. Can you see the bleak, barren wilderness stretching before you–the “dry and weary land”? Lick your lips. Are you thirsty? Let him put the words in your mouth. Use your imagination and make it as real for you as it was for him.

But something unusual happens at this point as David writes his song. He doesn’t get in his chariot and race madly toward Jerusalem leaving it all behind. He doesn’t mount his mighty steed and thunder away from that wilderness that is like a “dry and weary land where there is no water”. No. What does he do? He stops those dreadful thoughts and begins thinking about the times he has been with his God in the sanctuary–sweet times, poignant memories, wonderful experiences. And he is a different man! He changes miraculously! Why? Because in his thought-life he goes back and meditates on how precious those times with “my God” were.

“I see Your power; I sense Your lovingkindness; I praise You, God, with my hands lifted up to You; my soul is satisfied and I no longer thirst” (vv. 3-5)! “I think about being with You, precious God in Your sanctuary, how You have been there like a stronghold for me every time I have needed You, and I sing with joy as I rest in the shadow of Your “wings”

Treasure Worth Finding

Inside every person there is a TREASURE waiting to be found.

The treasure within a person is far more valuable than a person looks. The inner treasure of a person cannot be possessed by another person for personal gratification of the flesh. To understand the inner treasure of a person requires an intimacy and an emotional closeness that outer beauty does not provide. A person should see their value by the way you look at and talk to them.

A person’s inner treasure is seen with the eyes of the heart while outer beauty is seen with the eyes on your face.

Until a person is CHERISHED, APPRECIATED and LOVED that TREASURE remains hidden. Some people go through a lifetime without that TREASURE inside of them being found.

Seeing the beauty of a person's soul is far more rewarding than seeing the beauty of a person's face whose soul is ugly.

Religion or Grace

Religion...I am saved by grace but I maintain my salvation by my doing and the way I live.
Grace... My salvation is entirely God's doing and nothing of my doing. Salvation is of the LORD!" (Eph. 2:8-9; Jonah 2:9).

Religion is a DO-DO endeavour...man trying to DO things to please God and earn His favour.
Grace is summed up in one word DONE...Christ dying on the cross to save sinful and religious people (John 19:30).

Religious people are busy "working" for God to maintain salvation and gain God's favour.
Grace people are "not religious work-a-holics" (Rom. 4:5) but is RESTING upon the finished work of Jesus as they work with Him.

Religion is all about TRYING and DYING right.
Grace is all about TRUSTING and LIVING right. (Acts 16:31)

Religion is about being sin conscious.
Grace is about being God conscious.

Religion is about a work to Do which never gets Done because it can't be Done.
Grace is about believing and trusting. (1 Pet. 1:25) in a Work that is already completely Done (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

Religion is man's way of working to save himself
Grace is God's way of working to save hopeless man (1 Tim. 1:15)

Religion is performance based religious ritualizing.
Grace is relation based intimate relationship with God and man. (John 17:3)

Religion is about doing something to look good
Grace is about knowing someone and makes that someone look good. (John 17:3)

Religion is about man trying to please God in the wrong way (Rom. 8:8..."So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God").
Grace is man truly pleasing God in the right way (Hebrews 11:6..."But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him").

Religion is man seeking to earn God's favour by works.
Grace is receiving God's favour by grace through faith because of His work (Eph. 2:8 and see Eph. 1:6).

Religion is the TRUSTING of SELF (Luke 18:9)
Grace is TRUSTING CHRIST (Eph. 1:12-13)

Religion is BOASTING IN SELF (Luke 18:11-12)
Grace is BOASTING IN Christ (1 Cor. 1:29-31; Eph. 2:9)

Religion is about keeping the religious laws! I have done that which God has required" (Matthew 19:16-20).
Grace realizes I have broken the law but I am trusting the One who came into this world to save guilty lawbreakers" (1 Tim. 1:15).

The Religious man is seeking to establish his own righteousness (Rom. 10:3).
The Grace man is satisfied with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

Religion says, Good works are those things that a person does to be saved and maintain that salvation.
Grace says, Good works are those things that a saved person does because of God's grace and love" (James 2:14-26).

Religion claims that a building called church is the house of God.
Grace claims that people are God's dwelling place and NOT segregated man-made denominational buildings.

Religion is about Sunday-go-meetings and man-made event-driven programs.
Grace is about living life daily as the community of the redeemed to inspiring the community of humanity by God working through

Jesus is the Saviour. Trust Him and only Him to save. (Luke 23:40-43).

To All Doubters

“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other! (Isaiah 45:22)

But thou sayest sin will not let thee look. I tell thee, sin will be removed the moment thou dost look. ‘But I dare not; He will condemn me; I fear to look.’ He will condemn thee more, if thou dost not look. Fear, then, and look; but do not let thy fearing keep thee from looking. ‘But He will cast me out.’ Try Him. ’ But I cannot see Him.’ I tell you, it is not seeing, but looking. ‘But my eyes are so fixed on the earth, so earthly, so worldly.’ Ah! but, poor soul, He giveth power to look and live. He saith — ‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’

— Charles Spurgeon

Just 37 Seconds

It will take JUST 37 SECONDS to read this and change your way of thinking.

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end.

 
They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon, when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and colour of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every colour and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite details, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine this picturesque scene. One warm afternoon, the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man could not hear the band - he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days, weeks and months passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window besides the bed. It faced a blank wall.

The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, 'Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.'

Epilogue:

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations.

Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.

If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can't buy.

'Today is a gift, that is why it is called The Present.'

- Author Unknown

Waiting For Christ to Come

If we do not wait patiently in expectation for God's coming in glory, we start wandering around, going from one little sensation to another.  Our lives get stuffed with newspaper items, television stories, and gossip.  Then our minds lose the discipline of discerning between what leads us closer to God and what doesn't, and our hearts gradually lose their spiritual sensitivity.

 

Without waiting for the second coming of Christ, we will stagnate quickly and become tempted to indulge in whatever gives us a moment of pleasure.  When Paul asks us to wake from sleep, he says:  "Let us live decently, as in the light of day; with no orgies or drunkenness, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy.  Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop worrying about how your disordered natural inclinations may be fulfilled"  (Romans 13:13-14).  When we have the Lord to look forward to, we can already experience him in the waiting.

  

 

Our Sins Sink Like Lead in the Mighty Waters of the Redeemers Blood

“God the Father takes the pen, dips it in the blood of his Son, crosses off the sinner’s accounts, and blots them out of his debt-book.

The sinner outside of Christ is bound over to the wrath of God; he is under an obligation in law to go to the prison of hell, and there to lie until he has paid the utmost farthing.  But now, being united to Christ, God says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom!’ (Job 33:24). The sentence of condemnation is reversed, the believer is absolved, and set beyond the reach of the condemning law. His sins, which were set before the Lord (Psalm 90:8), so that they could not be hidden—God now takes and casts them all behind his back (Isaiah 38:17).

Yes, he casts them into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19). What falls into a brook may be retrieved—but what is cast into the sea cannot be recovered. But there are some shallow places in the sea; true—but their sins are not cast in there—but into the depths of the sea; and the depths of the sea are devouring depths, from whence they shall never come forth again. But what if they do not sink? He will cast them in with force, so that they shall go to the bottom, and sink as lead in the mighty waters of the Redeemer’s blood.

— Thomas Boston

The Challenge of Ageing

Waiting patiently in expectation does not necessarily get easier as we become older.  On the contrary, as we grow in age we are tempted to settle down in a routine way of living and say:  "Well, I have seen it all. ... There is nothing new under the sun. ... I am just going to take it easy and take the days as they come."  But in this way our lives lose their creative tension.  We no longer expect something really new to happen.  We become cynical or self-satisfied or simply bored.   

The challenge of aging is waiting with an ever-greater patience and an ever- stronger expectation.  It is living with an eager hope.  It is trusting that through Christ "we have been admitted into God's favour ... and look forward exultantly to God's glory" (Romans 5:2).

Sin Management Does Not a Believer Make

Sin Management does not a Believer Make.

The idea that most believers hold to in order to be a believer is primary behavior modification...Stop the bad doing and do the good doing. This concept reveals what it "looks like" to be a believer, and a lot of believers are dressed in such religious garb. Looking like a believer because of behavior modification, is nothing less or nothing more than sin management. What people who advocate sin management fail to understand is that Jesus has already dealt with the sin issue thoroughly and completely.

Being a believer is not about behavior modification...it is about the revelation of that God has made His dwelling place in us and we are led by His Spirit that lives INSIDE us.

Being a believer is not about trying to manage our sin. I subscribed to the gospel of behavior modification for most of my life and I never succeeded. The way we have been taught to study the Bible was an attempt to find out what we could and couldn’t do.

Rather than reading the Bible as an avenue to Jesus, we read it as a User’s Manual. I am sure most believers know this acronym for the Bible:

B.asic
I.nstructions
B.efore
L.eaving
E.arth

That take on the Bible is nothing other than using it as an instruction manual and is contrary to it’s contents and leads to misunderstanding and misapplication if its content. The Bible is the history of creation, the dispensing of the law, the redemption of mankind the fulfillment of the law and the Grace Gospel that came by Jesus revealed. It’s truth is of a God that does everything for the creation He loves.

It is a love story that points to Jesus and the Good News that many believers have never fully grasp. And so we look to trying to manage sin...an impossibility.

In fact a lot of believers don't know what Bible sin is. When they talk about sin they refer to the obvious...lying, cheating, murdering, etc., but are unaware of the sin of serving religion, the sin of denominational segregation, the sin of self righteousness, the sin of spiritual elitism and so on. So the more we know about sin, the more we think we can control it. The problem is that all our efforts can never manage sin.

Sin is not to be managed, because our sin is forgiven and God doesn't remember them. Not only does He not remember our past sin, He does not remember our present or future sin because through His blood He has forgiven our past, present and future sin..."never to be remembered against us any more".

Throughout the Bible we see God leading men, not managing them. He constantly appeals to hearts. Sin is a by product of our humanity, it is only through the power of His love and grace that we keep sin at bay.

A true believer knows that willful obedience can only be sustained when our hearts are in love and in alignment with the heart and plan of God.

Romans 8:14 says “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Then in Galatians 5:18 it says “if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law“. Sons and daughters are not managed with a list of rules. They are led with freedom within boundaries.

We no longer need to use the law to manage our sin. We simply need to submit to His Spirit. Under Holy Spirit’s leadership, we will thrive in freedom from the guilt of sin.

On Humility

Is it just me, or did someone speed up this globe's revolution?  'Cuz I'm having a challenge simply coming up for air these days, as noted by my lack of attention to this blog.  But, already I digress, and I haven't even started yet…

While I hope to come back to the subject of prospering and what the bible has to say about it.  Today, I'm choosing to write about another matter which Father seems to continue to bring to the forefront of my mind.  That being, humility.  I don't even recall if I've written about it before.

I guess it goes hand-in-hand with the nature of what Father accomplishes in the life of one who is learning to live in and by His love.  As one's desire for more of Him and less of self takes root, humility seems to be a natural by-product.  Like all other character traits, it can't be attained by human effort, try as one might.  True humility is really something supernaturally produced from the inside out.

A phrase that has come to mind more than once, as Papa is kneading this into my person, like a chef massaging dough, is this: "It's hard to argue with humility."  While this can have a few different meanings, the way I understand it is that when one comes into a confrontation against sincere humility, there's just not really any need to progress to arguing.  It simply disarms defensiveness.  For, what would get accomplished in an argument?

Come to think of it, I can't remember one instance in scripture when Jesus argued… about anything!  Truth has a peace about it's presence that simply never requires argument.  It just is.  You can like it or not, live it or not, believe it or not, but it really has no need of defense.  And, I'm supposing that's where Papa is taking me.  To enjoy the beautiful fruit of humility, that, of course, I neither need to, nor do I, get any credit for.

I guess you can't out-stubborn Truth.  It doesn't move.  Nor does it make apology or excuse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Papa, please continue what You've begun here, in me.  I give You the green light.
I want to experience the humility that Jesus is/was.

"Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: 'He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us?' "  James 4:5

"But He gives a greater grace.  Therefore it says, 'God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' "   James 4:6

"Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."  James 4:10

How Should We Read the Words of Jesus

Jesus is the greatest preacher of all time. He told stories and preached sermons the whole world needs to hear. The genius of Jesus is that he often preached one message with two punchlines. If you were confident of your own righteousness, you got law, but if you were not, you got grace.

 

Consider Jesus’ story of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9–14). Both men went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself. His prayer was a résumé. He thanked God that he was not like other men and bragged about his fasting and tithing. But the tax collector stood at a distance and prayed just seven words: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus ends the story with a bombshell: “The tax collector went home justified before God.”

How does this parable make you feel? Does it fill you with joy or resentment?

Your response to the story is your response to the gospel. If you identify with the sinful tax collector, then this story is good news. Really? He went home justified? That’s the scandal of grace right there. God justifies sinners (Romans 4:5). Search the parable for evidence of the tax collector’s good works or merit, and you’ll find nothing. Grace is for the undeserving. It’s for those without résumés.

But if you are confident of your self-righteousness, this story is not good news at all. “Wait a second. I fast. I tithe. I am better than other people. Jesus, what are you saying?” Jesus doesn’t mince his words. “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled” (Luke 18:14). That’s a hard word for a hard heart. It’s a word that condemns the self-righteous and silences the boastful. It’s a word of law for those who don’t see their need for grace.

 

Jesus is brilliant at giving people exactly what they need. Consider the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). Some people love this story, others hate it. I’ve had people tell me, “I feel bad for the older brother. He worked so hard.” They say this because they are working hard. They are good and decent and can’t understand why Jesus would throw a party for prodigals and not for them. It troubles them that we are inside whooping it up while they’re outside working on their résumés.

The story is real. Every one of us is in it and everyone is invited to the party. Grace is for all. But you’re going to have trouble receiving it if you think of your heavenly Father as an employer. And that’s the whole point. You’re going to have to change your mind about God or you will never enjoy his love.

 

Words mean different things to different people. If you identify with the tax collector or the prodigal, the words of Jesus are packed with radical grace. You’ll read them with praise and thanksgiving and whoops of joy. But if you identify with the Pharisee or the older brother, his words are extremely unsettling. They are serious words, not fun at all.

Yet if you allow them, the words of Jesus will change you. They will strip you of your religion and reveal your need for grace.

Our Response to Satan's Accusations

“Satan accuses Christians day and night. It is not just that he will work on our conscience to make us feel as dirty, guilty, defeated, destroyed, weak, and ugly as he possibly can; it is something worse: his entire play in the past is to accuse us before God day and night, bringing charges against us that we know we can never answer before  the majesty of God’s holiness.

What can we say in response? Will our defense be, ‘Oh, I’m not that bad?’ You will never beat Satan that way. Never. What you must say is, ‘Satan, I’m even worse than you think, but God loves me anyway. He has accepted me because of the blood of the Lamb.’

— D. A. Carson

Conscience Quieted By a Completed Work

“If we have sinned, it is wonderful consciously to say, ‘Thank you for a completed work,’ after we have brought that specific sin under the finished work of Christ. The conscious giving of thanks brings assurance and peace. We say, ‘Thank you’ for work completed upon the cross, which is sufficient for a completely restored relationship.

This isn’t on the basis of my emotions, any more than in my justification. The basis is the finished work of Christ in history and the objective promises of God in the written Word. If I believe Him, and if I believe what He has taught me about the sufficiency of the work of Christ for restoration, I can have assurance, no matter how black the blot has been. This is the Christian reality of salvation from one’s conscience.

For myself, through the thirty years or so since I began to struggle with this in my own life, I picture my conscience as a big black dog with enormous paws which leaps upon me, threatening to cover me with mud and devour me. But as this conscience of mine jumps upon me, after a specific sin has been dealt with on basis of Christ’s finished work, then I should turn to my conscience and say, in effect, ‘Down! Be still!’ I am to believe God and be quiet.

— Francis Schaeffer

Grace is For You Even When Your At Your Worst

Grace means you don't have to have it all together to be loved, accepted, included and safe in His family circle..you can fail mightily, and still be IN..you can even struggle, rant and rave, doubt and get confused, and He will still hold onto you..you can get distracted, lose hope, get stuck in addictions, and still have blessings come pouring over your life..you can be at the lowest point you can go and be as 'far' from Him as you could imagine, and find Him right there beside you, hugging you, loving you, understanding you, helping you..because grace is love that is FREE, given with no strings attached, therefore everyone - no matter what their lives may look like, no matter what their track record may be - 'qualifies' for grace because you don't have to be 'qualified' to receive it! It just comes freely, with no stipulations, no requirements, no obligations..what wonderful grace!

Even after our very worst sin, when we've sunk lower than we ever thought possible, even then, ESPECIALLY then, He is telling us: NOTHING has changed in our relationship! We are just as close as ever, and I am just as committed to you - and to us - as ever! Our sins and failures don't sway God's opinion, resolve, commitment or stance toward us - how can they, when Christ already took them AWAY and God has promised NEVER to remember them!?!

His forever stance toward us, no matter what, is the stance of the Perfect Father, the stance of the Perfect Husband, the stance of the Perfect Friend! Through Jesus He showed us just how strong and committed He is to us, sending His Son to die for us at our very WORST moment, so lost in sin! He came down, tied Himself to us, reaching down and picking us up from the gutter, and pulled us up to the heavenly places where He reigns! If He went through all that to get us back when we were at our WORST, do you think He is ever going to give up on us now that He has transformed us into His BEST, into a complete and beautiful Bride for His Son? No way! His love, His loyalty to be there for us, in relationship with us, is here to stay, and nothing we do could change that! For Love never gives up on you, no matter what..

It is as if God were saying through Jesus: "I will NEVER leave you or forsake you! You can't change that! You can't change My love for you, My faithful commitment to you! You can't drive me away with your inconsistencies - they don't even EXIST in My mind! I have committed Myself to stick with you forever, to love you forevermore!"

We just can't get away from this Wonderful Love, this Wonderful Lover, that will not ever let us go!

Grace - the unconditional love and acceptance of God that pours over you at all times and that has given you everything through Christ, without you having to do a thing! Before we could do a thing, He loved us...He loved us as we were, in the midst of our sinfulness, and He plucked us out of our sinfulness into His marvelous light through Jesus' finished work! Oh, what wonderful grace! 

Why Did Jesus Die?

One reason why Jesus died was to forgive sins. To forgive whose sins...the sins of the world.

"For God so loved the world" ...(John 3:16)

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

World in the verses above does not mean the round ball of dirt and rock that make up the earth, for that is inanimate therefore, it must mean the people of the world.

Therefore, God forgave sinners...every sinner on earth has already been forgiven...their sins are no longer being recorded against them! WOW, such is the Grace of God!

All this is God's doing: who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. (2 Cor 5:18-19)

I can hear the oh's and aw's of the religious establishment followed by their charge of "he is teaching heresy." 

People are sinners, but God is neither counting or remembering their sins. You ask; "How can you teach such blasphemy, Sinners aren’t saved!" Did I say they were? 

I said they are forgiven: When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins… (Col 2:13)

When were people forgiven? When they were dead in trespasses and sin! They were forgiven before any repentance, before any confession, before being born again. The gospel teaches that people were forgiven before they were even born. How can that be, we didn’t do anything to gain His forgiveness. True! That’s the beauty of God's grace.

Does God need man's permission to do anything that He wants to do? Of course not. Therefore Why do the religious world believe He needs people's permission to forgive people's sins. Now if you do not accept the forgiveness He has provided for you...that is your doing, not His.

Therefore, don't believe the bad news and fear-mongering of the most of the religious establishment that God hates you because of your sins. God's forgiveness is wholly and solely based on Jesus' finished work on the cross. Those who maintain that we must do the do's of religion to be forgiven are saying that Jesus' work on the cross wasn't finished and now we have to complete His work..that is a lie of the devil. This is not the good news of the gospel...it is the bad news of religion and it’s not in the Bible. Jesus didn’t die fora few sins He died for all sin. His sacrifice for the sin of the world was once and for all and was perfectly perfect and completely complete and finishingly finished in every respect.

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)

Today I Have Crashed

After trying to keep up faith and stay sweet to all in my troubles, I have crashed this morning.

I'm totally crushed in my spirit.  I murmured "I can't go on" to the Lord.  Physically I feel so weak.

The following writing from Jessie Penn Lewis has helped me understand God's process.

She writes..........

I remember once hearing it put so clearly by one of God’s messengers. He drew a small circle to represent the heart, and this lay in the centre of a large circle representing the whole man. God first lays hold of the centre of the man, cleanses the heart, and takes the throne; then when the Holy Spirit is in possession of the heart He applies the death of Christ to the whole of the man, and makes room for His life from centre to circumference. If you go on yielding to His blessed working, saying ‘Yes’ to God in all the daily circumstances, your whole spirit, soul and body, will become God-possessed and under the control of the Holy Spirit dwelling in your spirit. No hindrance now to stop the flow of His life, and the fragrance of His presence ever reaching to all around, in love and peace and joy.

We are glad to have the grosser forms of self nailed to the Cross, but the Lord desires to get us where the whole of our personality is possessed of Him. We can know immediate deliverance from the power of sin, but it is only as we yield continuously to the Holy Spirit day by day that He can bring us into full conformity to Christ in His death and resurrection.

 
The last thing that we contend for is our spiritually-religious-self. We fight desperately hard to keep an experience, but to die means to let everything go, for in death we can hold on to nothing. It is then that we become pliable as Ezekiel was pliable, with no desires outside the will of God. We have nothing left to fight for. We die to our religious views, our old ways, and habits of thought, our certain methods of action, and even all the conscious experiences of the Presence of God, so that we possess God Himself rather than gifts from God. We surrender the ‘gift’ for the Giver.

But when we have surrendered all, He returns all purified and held in Himself for Himself. As long as we wanted to keep even a ‘blessed experience’, there was a mist between the soul and God. If we surrender even the manifested presence of God, we become rooted and fixed in GOD. Not that He wants to take all away, but He wants the surrender, that He might reveal Himself as an abiding reality. All is now stilled, all tossing over, and the soul calm in God. May He teach us what this means, and reveal Himself to the stilled soul! Yes, even the Bible may seem to be a sealed book for a time, and prayer becomes difficult, until we learn to sit silent at His feet and wait for Him to speak.

If God is taking any of us through this “valley of deep darkness” (Psa. 23 v4), let us trust Him in the dark (Isa. 1 v10). Do not try to understand, but say, “Lord, I trust Thee to reveal Thyself, to open the Scriptures to me, to teach me to pray”. Let everything pass from you that does not touch your personal need. Do not make any effort to grasp ‘truth’, and to take through your mind, but let God reveal to you all He wants you to know, and leave the rest.

Let us see, in the picture lesson, how God can meet the ‘dried-up’ souls that He Himself has been getting ready by bringing them into this condition.

The messenger, carried in the Spirit, prophesies, “O ye dry (souls) hear the word of the Lord”. Look over the valley, what a picture of helplessness, silence and death. Then there comes a “noise”, a shaking (v7), the living Word causes the movement. Ezekiel looked on and beheld “the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them”. He only gave the message, God did the work. This is a picture of real Spirit-service when God uses us; not we trying to ‘use’ God! When we know we have His message, we can stand and dare to give it, knowing that the Lord will confirm with ‘signs following’.

The Spirit-sent messenger at His inner command, now calls upon the Spirit. “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” (v9). Behold the wondrous scene, the blessed outcome. A resurrection army of souls brought out of death into life through union with the Risen Lord.

Now let us see the divine interpretation. We are not left to decide what this means. “Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel” (v11). “Dried”, “lost”, “cut off”. Primarily true of Israel after the flesh, how true about the spiritual Israel, the Christian Church; how true of individuals. God brings you to the place where you can say, “I cannot pray, I cannot take that class, I used to be such an active worker, but now I feel useless, stupid, helpless, with all my strength gone”. Do you get a glimpse of what God is doing with you? He has brought to nought the ‘creaturely activity’, that the energy of God may come into you in resurrection power and abundant life.

As God thus deals with you, you must take heed that you rely upon the blood sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat, to guard you from the oppression of the enemy; and that you do not give Satan any advantage by failing in your practical duties, and in the service of God. Maybe you are bewildered at what is happening to you. But see what Daniel was told of the promised Messiah. He was to be “cut off, but not for Himself” (Dan. 9 v26). God wants you to see yourself “cut off” with Christ in His death, “cut off” from the old life, the old strength and power (Ezek. 37 v1). Has He brought you to see the deep mystery of the Cross, that you have died in Him? “Cut off” in Christ’s death, “cut off” with Christ, from your friends, from your old work, “cut off” from that blessed experience even of the ‘Garden of Eden’; all the fruitfulness apparently gone, the beauty, and the power. He is leading you on to know the Lord.

When the Lord Jesus died on the Cross the Father hid His face from Him; it seemed as if He were “cut off” from God. Yes! it seemed so, and He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” One of the last and keenest things to surrender to God is His conscious presence. We are ready to go through fire and water with the manifestation of His presence; but when this is surrendered all seems dark.

“Bones dried”, “hope lost”, “cut off”, this is the scene before us! Remember how the disciples left all to follow Him, but they recoiled when He spoke of the path way of the Cross. They could let the Lord go to Calvary; they could not consent to lose the visible presence of their Friend. They could not understand His words, “I will see you again”. Do you not understand that when the soul reaches this point, there comes the Walk of Bare Faith? Cut off from yourself, from the old strength, from the old life, from old feelings, old companions, from dwelling in experiences, to dwell in God, this is God’s purpose for you (Col. 3 v3).

 
Israel had come to despair. How blessed the word of the Lord, “I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves” (37 v12-14). Turn to a few other passages to illustrate this. See Job 10 v6-21. See how David cried that he was ‘cut off’ in Psalm 88 v5-16. Then Jonah in Jonah 2 v1-6, and Isaiah also in Isaiah 6 v5, “I am cut off”.

- Roger

Samson's Hair Began to Grow

When Samson’s hair began to grow, what did it prophesy? Well, first, it prophesied hope for Samson. I will be bound to say that he put his hands to his head and felt that it was getting bristly. And then he put his hands to his beard and found it rough. Yes, yes, yes, it was coming and he thought within himself, “It will be all right soon. I shall not get my eyes back. They will not grow again. I am an awful loser by my sin, but I shall get my strength back again, for my hair is growing. I shall yet be able to strike a blow for my people and for my God.” So round the mill he went, grinding away, grinding away, but every now and then putting his hands to his head and thinking, “My hair is growing! Oh, it is growing again! My strength is returning to me.” The mill went round merrily to the tune of hope, for he felt that he would get his old strength back. When they loaded it and tightened it to make the work heavier, yet his hair was growing and so he found the burden lighter than it had been before—and his heart began to dance within him in prospect of being his former self again!

Now, if any of you have signs of God’s restoring Grace in your hearts and you are coming back to your God and Saviour, be glad, be thankful! Do not hesitate to let your renewed devotion to God be seen by those around you. Come along, Brother, come along—your Brethren wait to receive you! Come along, my wandering Sister, come along—all the people of God will welcome you! If the Grace of God is moving you at all, be hopeful and quicken your steps and come to Jesus! Come to Him just now even as you came at first. Yes, and if you never did come before, come now and throw yourselves at the foot of the Cross and look up to those five precious wounds! Look and live for there is life in a look at the Crucified One! There is life at this moment even for the chief of sinners!

What did this prophesy? Joy for Samson, but, also, hope for Israel. Oh, if any of the Israelites did get in to see him in prison, how they must have been cheered by the sight of his returning hair! Some ancient Israelite would say to his brother, “I have been to see poor Samson. You remember him. We had to put him out of the Church, you know. Sad case. I have been to see him.” “How did he look?” “Well,” he would say, “there was much to grieve me, but somewhat, also, to comfort me. He does not look as he did on the day when the Philistines shaved him. He looks quite hairy again.” “Oh!” the other would say, “then he will get strong again—and when he is strong, he will use his mighty arms against the oppressors of his people. I know he will fight for his country again. When he gets strong again, he will lift that brawny arm of his that smote the Philistines and he will let them know that he is yet an Israelite. I know he will, for his heart will return to the love of God and His chosen. Philistia shall not always triumph over us. There is hope for us.”

Lastly, what did it prophesy? Well, it prophesied mischief for the Philistines. They did not know it, but if they could have read the writing in Samson’s heart, they would have understood that he meant to shave their nation quite as closely as they had shaved him! There was a storm brewing for Philistia. He that tore the lion as though it had been a kid was getting back his strength! He that seized the jawbone of an ass and said, “Heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men,” will soon be scattering death among the oppressors of his people! Woe to you, lords of Philistia! Woe to you, princes of Gaza!

When a sinner who has gone astray is restored again, it means mischief to the kingdom of Satan. Oh, how he will serve his God! How he will try to bring back his fellow sinners! Having had much forgiven, this man will love much and will serve Jesus much! He will be one of your earnest Christian men, depend upon it! He will be much in prayer! He will be careful in his walk! He will be holy in his speech! He will contend earnestly for the Doctrines of Grace! He will be a leader among the host of God, even as he had been a ringleader in sin! He will invade the dark places and lead the chief of sinners captive to the Cross! Woe to you, Philistia, when Samson’s hair grows again! Woe to the hosts of evil when the backslider is restored!

There, I have put it all before you. I have tried to put the matter interestingly, but all the while my heart has been yearning over you that have gone aside. I am pining for the restoration of those who have turned like the dog to his vomit and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. I long for your restoration, or your true conversion. I want to see a different nature in you, that you may neither be dogs nor swine, but may become the real children of our God and Father! And then you will not return to your former ways. If you have defiled yourselves, may you at once be washed! If you have wandered, may you at once be restored to Jesus and His Church, to the praise and the glory of His Divine Grace wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved! Amen.

 

- Spurgeon

Who Do You Identify With?

A believers identity is to be in Christ.

Being religiously religious will suck the identity of Christ right out of you and will leave you with a religious identity where you will identify with denominated denominations and live in the deception that you are identifying with Christ.

Monkey Poem

Three monkeys sat on a coconut tree,
Discussing things as they're said to be.
Said one to the other,
"Now listen you two,
There's a certain rumour
That can't be true ...
That man descended from our noble race.
The very idea is sure to disgrace."
"No monkey ever deserted his wife,
Starved her babies and ruined her life.
And you've never known another monk,
To leave her babies with others to bunk,
Or pass them on from one to another."
"And another thing you will never see...
Is a monk build a fence around a coconut tree;
And let the coconuts go to waste,
Forbidding all the other monks to taste."
"Why, if I put a fence around this tree,
Starvation would force you to steal from me."
"And here's something else a monk won't do...
Go out at night and get on a stew;
Or use a gun or club or knife,
To take some other monkey's life."
"Yes, man descended ... ornery cuss, But, brother, ...
he didn't descend from us! ~
Author Unknown ~

Gospel Humility

“Humility agrees and is glad that everything we have is a free gift of God, and that this severs the root of boasting in our distinctives. Whatever talents, whatever intelligence, what ever skills, whatever gifts, whatever looks, whatever pedigree, whatever possessions, whatever wit, whatever influence you have, put away all pride because it is a gift, and put away all despair because it is a gift from God.

— John Piper

Safe in His Arms

It seems everybody loves a baby!

We love to dote on our babies, don't we, to just hold them against us and love on them. We love to snuggle them into our bosom and just cuddle them.

I can remember when my little baby daughter had open heart surgery at only 5 months of age, and how when I was finally allowed to hold her after the surgery, she just went to sleep in my arms right away! It was like she couldn't rest or be calm, but right when she was put in my arms, everything was okay for her and she slept!

This is how God is with us, He just holds us close and we realize that we are totally safe, totally taken care of, and that everything is okay, and we can rest!

We are loved, we are held, we are safe, we are just snuggled in His arms forever!