“Live in My Spirit.”

            I am calling you to leave behind the reasoning of this world, the opinions and traditions of men, and come into true life with Me. You have lived in your mind; now live in My Spirit. The realm of the Holy Spirit is opened by My grace so that you can know me not in your mind but with your spirit. My Spirit will give to you gifts, fruit, wisdom, and power. Live in My Spirit, and you will find your true destiny.

            The table of fellowship has been prepared. Come and dine with Me and enter into a greater joy, the joy of communion of the Holy Spirit. The highest joys and the best path for you will be found by living in My Spirit.

            Feed your spirit with My Life, and you will be transformed from the inside out. The new reality I am calling you to is the reality of life in Me. The ways of man cannot bring you the joys of heaven.

            If you ask Me, I will come and bring you deeper understanding of My ways. If you ask Me for life, I will not bring you confusion. If you ask Me for living bread, I will not give you anything less than My best.

            You can trust Me, so ask, and you will receive the fullness of My Spirit. Live in My Spirit, and you will discover who I have made you to be.

 LUKE 11:11–13

            “Do you know of any father who would give his son a snake on a plate when he asked for a serving of fish? Of course not! Do you know of any father who would give his daughter a spider when she had asked for an egg? Of course not! If imperfect parents know how to lovingly take care of their children and give them what they need, how much more will the perfect heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit’s fullness when his children ask him.”

            When have you experienced the fullness of His Spirit in the past? In what areas do you need Him to fill you today? Write a few examples of each, and allow the joy of His past filling to boost your appetite for His Spirit today.

"Move Forward"

             The time has come for you to advance. You have remained in the place you are for long enough. You have crossed over a bridge and found the pleasant path that leads deeper into My heart. Move forward, My child.

            As I promised Joshua, I promise you—every place that you set your foot upon will be yours. New territory is waiting. A calling pulls you onward. Move forward, My child, and you will see the works of your God. Faith never remains in one place; it is a movement, a dynamo that propels you forward. Nothing can stop you when I am with you and I call you forward.

            The fullness of My plan is ahead of you. The sweet taste of joy has filled your heart, but there is more for you as you leave the predictable and move forward, My child. It is waiting for you. Step into all that I have chosen to bring to pass in your life.

            Faith will not hesitate when My cloud has moved. I will direct you with My cloud and with My presence. Never be afraid to step out, and you will find more of Me. I have gone before you to prepare the way, and I will be your peace. I delight in you and will never leave you, for you are Mine.

 PHILIPPIANS 3:12–14

            I run with passion into his abundance so that I may reach the destiny that Jesus Christ has called me to fulfill and wants me to discover. I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. I run straight for the divine invitation of reaching the heavenly goal and gaining the victory-prize through the anointing of Jesus.

            Where is He calling you to move forward today? Write a declaration of faith and believe that He will meet you as you step out into new territory.

Joy Will Get You Through

            The time of unhindered joy is here. I am exposing the treachery of the enemy. He has come more than once to your door to entice you away from the joy of the Lord. Accusations have come, bad news has been proclaimed, disappointment has tried to enter your family, but I say to you: My joy will get you through. No longer will you allow discouragement to win the day, for I am the God of joyous breakthrough! Have you not found gladness as you have served Me and prayed to Me? This is only a foretaste of the bliss I have reserved and stored up for you. The future will be nothing like your past, so leap for joy, shout for joy, and dance with joy!

            Have no fear of anything, for nothing can take from you the presence of My Spirit. Joy is your portion, your inheritance, and the fruit of My Spirit. Taste the delicious fruit of joy, and sweetness will enter your inner being. The ecstasy of knowing Me must triumph in this hour.

            Did I not say to My disciples in the midst of their storm, “Be of good cheer. It is I, be not afraid”? These are the same words I say to you today. Sing for joy. Do all that I have called you to do with sacred delight, for I bless you beyond measure, more than hundredfold. Let your joyous laughter be heard in your home, and watch what I will do to change your environment. Hold nothing back, for the enemy is threatened when you taste of My joy and enter into My gladness. Rejoice, and rejoice, and rejoice! Joy will get you through into the new place I’m calling you to. Today is the day made for you, so rejoice and be filled with gladness, for I am your God!

 PSALM 100:4–5 

            Come right into his presence with thanksgiving.

            Come bring your thank-offering to him

            And affectionately bless his beautiful name!

            For the Lord is always good

            And ready to receive you.

            He’s so loving that it will amaze you;

            So kind that it will astound you!

            And he is famous for his faithfulness toward all.

            Everyone knows our God can be trusted,

            For he keeps his promises to every generation!

            List the ways God has kept His promises to you and your family. Then express your gratitude to Him extravagantly. Proclaim that “he is famous for his faithfulness toward all”!

How to be Transformed

We are transformed as we gaze upon the beauty and glory of God. Paul put it this way, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

This occurs as we cease from our striving and rest in the unconditional love of Christ and as a result our soul begins to be nourished and restored. It is only then that we can experience a worth that attaches God’s acceptance of us as we are that genuine growth “from the inside out” can occur.

What our souls need more than anything else is rest. Maybe you are wounded because of our sin, weary because you have been too busy, or hungry because you have been trying to find your source of life in other things than God. Our own efforts to make ourselves better will be of no help. In fact our own efforts actually reinforce the problem.

The primary way this pattern is broken is by resting in truth. The primary way the hunger of our soul is satisfied is by feasting on spiritual food it was created to enjoy. The primary way the sickness of the soul is cured is by resting in the health and life of its Creator. We grow healthy as we rest, in the midst of all our sickness and wounds, in the unconditional love and acceptance of Christ.

This requires faith in God’s grace. Resting in God does not take work, but it does take faith to trust that your standing before God is not based on works, nice appearance, or hard effort. If you view your “doing” as establishing your right to be in his presence, then you will never rest and you’ll fall short of his glory.

When we rest in Christ with total honesty, we give him a chance to prove to us that he loves us amidst all our sin. We give him a chance to prove to us that he loves us, our eternal souls, not because of our behavior, but in spite of it. And the experience of this unconditional love is the very thing that eventually empowers us and motivates us to get out of our sin. Only when we can rest and experience God’s love as we are can we ever be empowered to genuinely become better than we presently are.

Here are some basic steps that will help you enter God’s rest:

1.      Find a place of solitude and quiet. This time of rest must be our time with Jesus alone. Carve out a time (maybe 20-30 minutes) and place (where you won’t be interrupted). Some find that setting the atmosphere is helpful, using things like music, dimmed lights or candles.

2.      Find Your “Inner Sanctuary.” This follows a practice of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Go to a private space in your mind where you can meet with the Lord. For beginners this place is easiest to locate by recalling a place in your memory that is pleasant, serene, and easy to recall vividly. Employ all five of your sense in imagining that place. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel? What do you smell? Spend as much time as necessary entering into the scene and feeling its serenity.

3.      Encounter Jesus. This is the goal of resting in Christ. When we rest, we are opening ourselves up to the Spirit who will lead us into the presence of the living Lord who desires to love us, embrace us, and speak with us in a very personal way. This will look different each time. Sometimes I just sit with Jesus. Sometimes he simply reminds me of all the things that are true about me because of what he’s done for me by dying on the cross. Jesus might tell me of his everlasting love for me. Or he expresses the great joy and delight he has over me. Other times he expresses how at peace he is with me.

Sometimes as I rest in the Lord he will say something unexpected like, “Are you ready for more of my freedom?” And then I find myself with Jesus in a particularly harmful memory of my past. In these times, Jesus wants to set me free from a part of me that has been kept in bondage by a memory. These times can be the most beautiful and transforming.

We are transformed by the “renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2). This requires not only true information about who you are in Christ, but also routinely experiencing yourself living in this truth. This is what happens when we rest in Jesus.

—Adapted from Seeing is Believing, pages 97-114

Your Prayers Matter

My conviction is that many Christians do not pray as passionately as they could because they don’t see how it could make any significant difference. They pray, but they often do so out of sheer obligation and without the sense of urgency that Scripture consistently attaches to prayer.

The problem, I believe, is that many Christians have an understanding of divine sovereignty in which the urgency of prayer simply doesn’t make much sense. They believe that God’s plans cannot truly be changed; the future is exhaustively settled. They interpret the cliché “God is in control” to mean that “God controls everything.” So the obvious question is, what real difference could prayer possibly make?

The common saying that “prayer changes us, not God” simply doesn’t reflect the purpose or the urgency that Scripture gives to petitionary prayer.

Because the future is not entirely settled and God’s plans can change, the open view of the future is able to render the purpose and urgency of prayer intelligible in a way that neither classical Arminianism nor classical Calvinism can. The open view is able to declare, without qualification or inconsistency, that some of the future genuinely depends upon prayer. On a practical level, this translates into people who are more inclined to pray with passion and urgency.

God’s goal of creation is the participation of humans in the loving triune relationship that God is throughout eternity. This required a creation that consisted of personal, morally responsible, free agents. He thus ordained that we have “say-so” in how things transpire. He doesn’t want to relate to robots; he wants to interact with real persons. There can be no authentic personhood without some element of say-so, some degree of self-determination, some authentic power to influence things.

Because God wants us to be empowered, because he desires for us to communicate with him, and because he wants us to learn dependency on him, he graciously grants us the ability to significantly affect him. He enlists our input, not because he needs it, but because he desires to have an authentic, dynamic relationship with us as real empowered persons.

The open view teaches that God sovereignly ordained that prayer be one of our central means of influencing what transpires in history. It is our means of influencing God’s decisions about the future. The Lord does not play with words when he teaches and illustrates throughout Scripture that much of what will happen in the future depends upon prayer: “If my people … humble themselves [and] pray … then will I hear from heaven … and heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14).

Think of it this way: Before creation, God possessed 100 percent of all power and thereby all the say-so. When the Triune God decided to express love by bringing forth a creation, each creature was invested with a part of that say-so. The say-so of the triune God was at the point of creation no longer the only one who determined how things would go.

Human say-so is designed to be spent on both the physical and spiritual realm. We can choose to either work with or against God in terms of how we live and affect other people physically. We can also choose to work either for or against God spiritually by “cashing in” on our say-so through prayer.

We are morally responsible for how we use or don’t use both. Aspects of the future truly depend on us.


—adapted from God of the Possible, pages 95-98 Greg Boyd

“I am enough.”

I am enough for you. When you face difficulties and limitations, I will whisper into your heart, “I am enough.” I will not shield you from every hardship, but I am enough as you walk through them with your eyes set on Me. I am enough. I will be your wraparound shield in the midst of your difficulty.

            When you are lonely and seek companionship, I am enough. When your heart is troubled over many things, you must bring your soul before Me, for I am enough. When the lies men have spoken bring disturbance into your mind, I will wash them away, for My Word is enough.

            Your thoughts cannot contain the love I have for you. And you will never be able to comprehend with your mind the plans that I have for you. Yet I am enough, and all you need to know is that I am here for you.

            My Spirit longs to satisfy every part of you: your mind, your soul, your desires, your longings. When darkness comes, I am enough to see you through the night. Many have found that, even in the deepest pain, I am still enough. Come and learn the secrets of satisfying grace.

            I am about to bring you into a place where you have never been before. A place of contentment and peace that the world cannot impart. You will see how I have prepared you all your life for this day of destiny. The coming season will be extraordinary and filled with delight. Answers to your prayers that were prayed long ago will be soon in coming. What looked like delay after delay will make sense to you as the clouds part and the light of glory shines through.

            You must know, My child, that I am enough. I am greater than your dreams, greater than your plans, and greater than your thoughts could ever be. Come and learn the secret that all My lovers learn: I am enough for you.

 JOHN 14:5–7

            Thomas said to him, “Master, we don’t know where you’re going, so how could we know the way there?” Jesus explained, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with me. To know me is to know my Father too. And from now on you will realize that you have seen him and experienced him.”

            Reflect on the idea that He is enough. In what areas of your life do you especially need to hear Him whisper this today? List them out and allow His satisfying grace to cover them.

“Come and rest with Me.”

            I care deeply for you, My child. There is nothing that you feel or experience that I don’t also experience as I carry you through life. My hand is upon you, and nothing will take you away from My love. Quietly wait on Me, and you will feel my nearness. You will hear Me whisper into your soul, and My peace will descend upon you.

            My little one, there is a hiding place you can find in Me. The shadow you see over you is the shadow of My wings. It is not a shadow of confusion, but a shadow of My hiding place where I will place you next to My heart. For I have taken you from troubled waters and brought you up on high to rest in My presence. No matter how dark the night and how fierce the trial, My kiss of mercy will keep and protect you.

            No one says in My presence, “I am afraid.” It is never heard in My glory, “I am poor.” For I have given you all things that will strengthen your life and prepare you for eternity. In My presence all cry, “Glory.” Come into the shelter of My shadow, where all My lovers are washed, robed, crowned, and seated with Me. I care deeply for you, and nothing can disturb you in the hiding place of My glory. Come and rest with Me.

 PSALM 91:1–4

            When you sit enthroned under the shadow of Shaddai,

            You are hidden in the strength of God Most High.

            Here’s how I describe him:

            He’s the hope that holds me, and the Stronghold to shelter me,

            The only God for me, and my great Confidence.

            And he will rescue you from every hidden trap of the enemy,

            And he will protect you from false accusation

            And any deadly curse.

            His massive arms are wrapped around you, protecting you.

            You can run under his covering of majesty and hide.

            His arms of faithfulness are a shield keeping you from harm.

            Is your soul troubled today? Take a moment to envision yourself under the shield of His arms or in the shadow of His wings. How does His shelter feel over you?

God's Self Revelation

There is a Person, and His name is Jesus Christ. There is a Person and His name is the Father. There is a person and His name is the Holy Spirit. There are three persons in the Divine Monarxia (God-head) who in their threeness and interpenetrating inner-relating shape the oneness of the one being of God. The one being (ousia) is not what it is without the three persons (hypostatses), and the three persons are not who they are without the one being. As Epiphanius has written:

God is one, the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit . . . true enhypostatic Father, and true enhypostatic Son, and true enhypostatic Holy Spirit, three Persons, one Godhead, one being, one glory, one God. In thinking of God you conceive of the Trinity, but without confusing in your mind the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, but there is no deviation in the Trinity from oneness and identity.[1]

Without God’s economic Self-revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ there can be no genuine particularist or objective knowledge of God. Who God is is wholly contingent without remainder upon His Self-exhaustion for us in His Self-exegesis in Jesus Christ (see Jn. 1.18). Muslims, from within the framework of their “revelation” (i.e. the Qur’an, Hadith, Mohammed, etc.) have no access to this conception of God. The only way we could argue, as Volf does, that Muslims do have access to the same God that Christians have access to through Christ would be to posit a dualist conception of God wherein “there is a God behind the back of Jesus.” But there is no God behind the back of Jesus; there is only one prosopon, one face of God, Jesus Christ. By this reality all by itself it is not possible to conceive of God as non-Trinity; God must be conceived of as Triune, necessarily so, since His own Self-professed Self-revelation, is the Second Person in His Godselfed life. The Son, Jesus Christ, through His broken body tore the veil asunder between humanity and God as He entered into humanity in the Christmas reality of Incarnation (Logos ensarkos); Divinity and humanity are now eternally joined of God’s own free election to not be God without us, but Immanuel, with us. In this reconciliation between humanity and Divinity is genuine revelation. There is no more holy ground than this, and Muslims, without the Holy Spirit, without the Son, cannot have any conception of the only true and living God.

Jesus stands at the door and knocks, those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will hear God speak; they will hear Him speak through the vocal cords of Jesus Christ provided breath by the Holy Spirit. They will not hear Him speak through Abraham (because before Abraham was Jesus was Jn. 8); they will not hear Him speak through Mohammed; they will not hear Him speak through the Qur’an or Hadith; they will hear Him speak through the melodious and powerful voice of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ—thankfully many of them are!

The Cross in the Manger

There has been a strand within the Western theological tradition—one that is especially prevalent in contemporary American Evangelicalism—that construes the significance of the cross in strictly soteriological terms. The cross is central, in this view, but only in the sense that the reason Jesus came to earth was to pay the price for our sin by dying, thereby allowing God the Father to vent his wrath on him in our place. This myopic focus, combined with this “penal substitutionary” understanding of the atonement, tends to relegate everything else Jesus said and did leading up to his passion to a secondary status. Hence, far from providing the thematic center of Jesus’ identity and mission, this perspective tends to divorce the cross from every other aspect of Jesus’ identity and mission.

The union of God and man in Jesus is “one dynamic event from the incarnation to ascension,” as T. F. Torrance wrote. God did not unite himself to a man and then, as a secondary thing, act. Instead, in Jesus, his personhood, his words and his acts are inseparable.

If this is true, then we can never separate who Jesus is as the God-man from what he did. We can also no more separate Jesus’ atoning work on the cross from the Incarnation and/or any other aspect of his life and ministry. Torrance writes, “we must think of [Christ’s] incarnate life and his redeeming activity as completely interwoven from his conception and birth to his crucifixion and resurrection.” And again, “Incarnation and atonement intrinsically locked into one another constitute the one continuous movement of God’s saving love for the world.”

Moltmann makes a similar point, when he asserts:

The incarnation of the Logos is completed on the cross. Jesus is born to face his passion. His mission is fulfilled once he has been abandoned on the cross. So it is impossible to speak of an incarnation of God without keeping this conclusion in view. There can be no theology of the incarnation which does not become a theology of the cross. As soon as you say “incarnation,” you say “cross.”

We cannot separate his death out from his life. The cross is the quintessential expression of who Jesus was and everything he was about. The indivisible and perfectly integrated wholeness of the one in whom God became human is oriented, from manger to ascension, around the cross. We could say the same thing by claiming that Jesus’ mission centered on sacrificially reconciling humanity to God, or by claiming that Jesus’ mission centered on revealing God’s true, self-sacrificial, loving nature to humanity. The atonement and revelation are two sides of the same coin. God reconciles humanity to himself by revealing his true loving character, and God reveals his true loving character by reconciling humanity to himself. And this revelation-that-is-reconciliation and reconciliation-that-is-revelation takes place in the Word made flesh, understood as “one dynamic event from incarnation to ascension”.

If it is the whole unity of the person and work of Jesus that reveals God to us, then this unity must be centered on the love of God that was supremely revealed on the cross. Hence, while the common, myopic, Evangelical understanding of the cross tends to isolate the cross from other aspects of Jesus’ identity and mission, this view centralizes the cross as the thread that weaves together every aspect of Jesus’ life, from the incarnation first displayed in the manger to his ascension.

- Greg Boyd

"Planned Pregnancy"

By Anabel Gillham

"All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)." Isaiah 7:14 (NLT)

Mary is large with the child in her womb. Her first child . . . and the baby is due just any time now. She watches out the window as Joseph is making preparations for the trip to Bethlehem.

Oh why must we go to Bethlehem now? I’m so big and uncomfortable. Lord God, I want to be here at home when I have my baby, with my family and friends around to help and encourage me. I don’t know anyone at all in Bethlehem. Just to be in my own bedroom. Please, God, let me have my baby here in Nazareth. Its such a little thing to ask of You, and the trip is going to be so long and wearisome and painful for me. Would it matter terribly much where the baby is born?

Mary might have prayed that way. But then, Mary didn’t know that her baby had to be born in Bethlehem. You see, the conception took place at the right time for the baby to come when they were in Bethlehem — that was nine months in advance: The shepherds had been chosen; the weather was planned; the star was in the right place; the wise men were on their way; other events in Herod’s life had brought his jealousy to the boiling point; every person had carried out his part of the program, even renting all of the available rooms! Everything was ready in Bethlehem for the long-awaited prophecy to be fulfilled.

God had made His plans.

Dear, dear Mary. You didn’t know all of those things, did you? And it did seem like such a small favor to ask. . . . O Lord, the prayers I utter are spoken in ignorance of Your plans for my life and Your plans for my beloved family, just like Mary. And sometimes it seems to me that it would be such an easy thing for you to answer my prayer in the way I want You to. To me it isn’t an earthshaking decision, and Ive thought it out so carefully.

Please, Father, follow through on Your plans. I retract my petition. I didn’t realize that You had everything ready.

"This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours! For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours." (Isaiah 55:8,9 TLB)

It is Finished

There was once a celebration of such a watershed event on God’s time line, only it focused on a spiritual bench mark, not a chronological milestone.

This wasn’t a mere once-in-a-lifetime event; it was a once-in-eternity event: “Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18). No more sin offerings! Jesus was the perfect offering for sin.

Man, there was dancing in the street when spiritually hungry, hurting people who had labored under the Law all of their lives realized what God had done through Jesus Christ on the day of His atonement! They had felt under condemnation for so long. Now God, through His Son, had made a new covenant with man. He revealed the reality that had been prophesied.

They came to understand that “Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). Romans 10:4—now there’s the ultimate “10-4” that radio buffs quote to signal that their “work” is finished. Christ finished His work! It’s not half-finished or almost finished, it’s finished. “Righteousness to everyone who believes.” W. E. Vine defines righteousness in this instance as “the gracious gift of God to men whereby all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are brought into right relationship with God.”4 That means we’re OK with God.

God explains the process by which the watershed transition from Law to grace took place in Galatians 3. “Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed” (verse 23). This describes the condition of the Old Testament believers and today’s sinner-man. “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith” (verse 24).

The Holy Spirit uses the valid guilt that the Law produces to make the unregenerate man’s heart sensitive to his need to be rescued. This produces an openness to the gospel. Law has “tutored” him to place his faith in Christ. “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor” (verse 25). Once this step of faith in Christ is taken, a person becomes born again and no longer needs the Law to “tutor” him to Christ. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (verse 26).

- Bill Gillham

Why Believe the Virgin Birth Accounts?

Some skeptics claim that the story of the virgin birth of Jesus is derived from similar stories from pagan literature. While I won’t address here the details of the various parallels that some use to argue this point—as it has been demonstrated by many scholars that they simply don’t hold up to scrutiny—I will offer four reasons why I trust that the Bible’s account of the virgin birth is trustworthy and thereby reject this pagan-origin theory as bogus.

It’s extremely unlikely that the early Christians who were largely first century, orthodox, Palestinian Jews would borrow material from pagan stories. All the historical evidence indicates that Palestinian Jews were strongly resistant to pagan stories and practices.

Unlike the pagan stories, the accounts that are included in the Gospel were not about someone who lived “once upon a time,” but someone who lived in the very recent past and in the region where the story was originally being told. Even if the earliest Jewish Christians would have been capable of incorporating pagan legends into their proclamation, it’s hard to see how they could have plausibly done this while Jesus’ brother and mother along with others who knew him were still alive. (I would argue that both Matthew and Luke were written prior to 70 AD, but even if one accepts a later dating of 70 to 90 AD this is still very close to the event by historical standards. Plus, we must remember that the Gospel material was passed on and protected orally before being written. On the importance of oral traditions in non-literate cultures, see Eddy, Boyd, The Jesus Legend).

Unlike any other literature that contains alleged supernatural conceptions, Matthew and especially Luke give us many historical reasons for accepting their general historicity (here too, see The Jesus Legend). The infancy narratives of Jesus in particular bear all the marks of reports that go back to the earliest witnesses.

The alleged parallels of these pagan stories to the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ conception are simply not very impressive. There are, of course, numerous accounts of gods having sex with each other to produce a divine mythic hero and even some accounts of a male god having intercourse with a woman to produce a partly divine hero. But these supposed parallels actually lack one key thing: virginal conception. The divine or human females had sex! So far as I know, there are three possible exceptions to this (Krishna, Buddha and the son of Zoroaster), but even in these accounts it’s a stretch to say they parallel the Gospel accounts of a seed being created ex nihilo and planted in the womb of a woman who had never had sex. In addition, we have absolutely no historical reasons for thinking any of these accounts is at all rooted in history or that the earliest Christians knew about them – let alone borrowed from them.

Of course, none of this proves that Mary supernaturally conceived Jesus while remaining a virgin. The nature of the subject is that it’s impossible to prove (true or false). And, I should add that my faith in Christ doesn’t hang or fall on the historicity of this particular story. At the same time, I find I have many compelling historical (as well as existential and philosophical) reasons for accepting the general portrait of Jesus in the Gospels, and since the story of Jesus’ virginal conception is part of this broader story, I believe it to be true.

Where the “Rest” Begins

Jesus taught His disciples many truths during their last supper together, including the watershed between God’s old covenant and new covenant, which was about to be put in place through Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. He said, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant [diatheke] in My blood” (Luke 22:20). Jesus is identifying the point where the New Covenant, or New Testament, would become available to man. Up until the glorious event of the atonement, the radical change which occurred through the advent of the New Testament was not anticipated by any of these folks because its mystery had yet to be fully revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. All spiritual truth comes by revelation, not by human intelligence: “No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11, text rearranged for clarification).

Jesus’ statement indicates that the New Covenant (Testament) begins at the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Let me rephrase this to emphasize the powerful truth it contains. Jesus’ statement means that the New Testament does not begin with Matthew chapter 1, but with His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, along with the coming of the Holy Spirit—Acts chapter 2! This not only makes spiritual sense, but logical sense in that Jesus’ entire ministry was carried out under the Law. Matthew 1:1 falls 33 years short of the beginning of the New Covenant in His blood. Although it’s obvious that the New Testament couldn’t have had a beginning unless Jesus had been born, there was no Covenant (Testament) resulting from Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem!

Jesus’ goal was to use the Law to reveal man’s shortcomings and his need for a Savior (God’s grace). We must differentiate between Jesus’ Law teachings and His grace teachings in order to avoid theological quicksand. Many, though certainly not all, Scriptures in the four Gospels become perfect fits only when viewed as the Law teaching they are. Law reigned during Jesus’ entire earthly ministry (Galatians 4:4-5), but grace now reigns from His heavenly ministry. The “crossover” occurred at His death on the cross, His burial, resurrection, ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

"So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His." Hebrews 4:9-10

- Bill Gillham

Oneness, Yet Twoness - the Beautiful Mystery of Our Union With God

Wonderful to think of being one with God yet still unique persons who can have relationship with God..the same substance as God and yet children of God found in our Father always..from Him and through Him and to Him are all things..we exist in Him and are part of Him..our whole existence is wrapped up in Him, our beings contained by and one in substance with Him..what a safe life!  What a wonder to know we're always at home and are so connected with Him and so much a part of Him that there is no difference between us in substance and nature!  Wow!  God is my nature, I have the mind of Christ, we are His body..wow!  Oneness and all the safety and joy that entails..and yet Twoness, all the joys of a real relationship of two beings! Two united as one, One with offspring growing forth from Him and so relating as Two!  Like branches on the Vine, Children in the Womb, Drops in the Ocean!  Operating as two in some way, yet One within, where we are ONE SPIRIT!  One, not two!

I love this quote from a Richard Rohr devotional that celebrates our connectedness with God:

"Dame Julian of Norwich (c. 1342-1416) has this deep sense of the organic union between the soul and God. Hers is still an optimistic worldview. In Chapter 54 of Revelations of Divine Love, Julian writes, "So greatly ought we to rejoice that God dwells within us, and more greatly ought we to rejoice that our soul dwells in God. . . . In fact I saw no difference between God and my substance. [Wow!] But as it were we were all one. And still my understanding accepted that our substance is in God." That is to say, God is God, and our substance is a creature in that God. This is why she's still considered orthodox. Julian is fascinated with that absolute unity, and yet she maintains the I-Thou relationship of the two. [3] We are one and not two, and yet we are two and not one! Think about that."  (Richard Rohr)

We see this oneness and just know it's true, our natural state of being, our "indigenous nature," as Rohr says, as we "pray from within," that is, from the Spirit!!  Seeing with our true Spirit eyes, we see we are part of Him and can't be separated..that would be like trying to separate our DNA from "us"..it is just part of our makeup and can't be separated out..wow!  We are part of God, He is our very substance, we are made of Him...we came forth from Him and return to Him, exist in Him as part of Him always.  We are found in God and in God alone can we be found.  Where can we go from His presence?  Nowhere, for He is in us, as us!  He is the deepest part of us, making us who we are!

And yet in all the oneness there is a distinct set of beings who are in relationship!  We look out from His eyes yet look through our eyes, whether blue or brown or hazel green..we feel with His heart yet it's our heart that beats within our chest, in calm beats or rapid thumps!  We speak from the Spirit within who prays in and through and for us, yet it is our words that go to the Father's ears!  We are one with Him yet we can relate to Him, talk to Him and hear His response..we are one with Love and ARE Love in the deepest sense, yet we can still BE loved, feel His love for us and respond back in love to Him!  

Isn't it wonderful how we are in union with Him, isn't it wonderful, this mystery of being, of just being a human, a body somehow in union with God, His Spirit in our flesh and bones!  And what a Grace Moment when God reveals Christ in us - IN US!  Not outside us, wanting to get in, but inside, wanting us to just let Him on out!  Haha!  Isn't it wonderful?  He was there all along, we just needed to see.  Faith is simply the seeing of this reality with our Spirit eyes.

What a wonderful thing this oneness with God really is!! 

- Under the Waterfall

TRUST YOUR SELF-LOVE TO GOD

            IHAVE NO DOUBT THAT GOD TREATS YOU AS ONE OF HIS friends by giving you the cross. God’s way accomplishes His purpose quicker than anything you could think of. God is able to seek out and destroy the roots of self-love. You, on your own, could never find those hidden roots. God can see the entire path of self-love within your heart. Let Him attack self-love at its strongest point.

            Pray for strength and faith enough to trust yourself completely to God. Follow Him simply wherever He may lead you and you will not have to think up big plans to bring about your perfection. Your new life will begin to grow naturally.

            I know you want to see the road ahead rather than trusting God. If you continue this way, the road will get longer and your spiritual progress will slow down. Give yourself as completely as you can to God. Do so until your final breath, and He will never desert you. 

- Fenelon

A Good Prayer

LORD,

you know better than I know myself

that I am growing older and one day will be old.

Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must

say something on every subject

and on every occasion.

Release me from craving to

straighten out everybodys affairs.

Make me thoughtful but not moody;

helpful but not bossy.

With my vast store of wisdom

it seems a pity not to use it all;

but you know, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details,

give me wings to get to the point.

Seal my lips on my aches and pains,

they are increasing and love of rehearsing them

is becoming sweeter as the years go by.

I dare not ask for grace enough

to enjoy the tales of others' pains,

but help me to endure them with patience.

I dare not ask for improved memory,

but for growing humility and a lessening cocksureness

when my memory seems to clash

with the memories of others.

Teach me the glorious lesson

that occasionally I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet;

I do not want to be a saint,

some of them are so hard to live with,

but a sour old person is one of the

crowning works of the devil.

Give me the ability to see good things

in unexpected places

and talent in unexpected people,

and give me 0 Lord the grace to tell them so.

AMEN.

Attributed to a 17th century nun

HOW CAN I TALK TO MY NON-CHRISTIAN FRIENDS

HOW CAN I TALK TO MY NON-CHRISTIAN FRIENDS/ROOMMATES ABOUT JESUS WITHOUT SCARING THEM OFF?

​

What a fantastic question! I love talking about my faith with non-believers, it used to scare me a lot. I didn’t know any tools, or techniques or anything (still don’t actually). But as my faith began to become part of who I am, I come to relish opportunities to talk about the most important thing in my life. I don't have any programmatic, 5 guaranteed ways to talk to your friends about Jesus without scaring them, but I do have some things we need to consider.

The first thing that you need is to just know why and what you believe. It’s not enough to just know facts about something, but why do you actually believe it. Why do you believe it? How does it change you, or does it change you? These are important questions to sit with.

The other major part is you need Holy Spirit help. A close relationship with the Holy Spirit (it’s His work anyhow), is important. He is the one who opens up doors, He plants seeds, He waters, we just get to join in on the work. When you wake up, pray for an opportunity. Look for them, be vigilant, in a non-creepy way.

We need to love our neighbours (family, friends, roommates) unconditionally and with a lot of grace. Especially your roommates. Your roommates are going to get to know you in ways that no one else will. Be quick to forgive, quick to serve, find ways to love, and bless them, often. Could be that you know they are coming home late and won’t have energy to cook supper, leave them a plate from what you have made. Even if they aren’t thankful.

Be sure that you do not put on airs. Be open and honest with your questions, difficulties, but show how you work through them. Being a follower of Jesus is not going to guarantee that you have no problems like no financial problems. But leaning into who God is (a good Dad who takes care of His children), trusting in His provision, and watching how He provides is proof! It is how we go through difficulty, how we deal with life situations as they come up firm in our identity in Christ, is what will make people ask questions.

I think also, listen to their stories. We use a term called “Gospel fluency” which is essentially, listening to other people’s stories and learning to hear how people are already seeking God. Then the next step would be to connect it to how the gospel answers how they are seeking God. In other words, what do people seek to provide them comfort, security, peace, and identity.

​

I don’t think there is any “method” that works necessarily. But to summarize, pray and fast often for opportunities, listen to the Holy Spirit, bless often, and listen to their stories. Hold back their hair when they puke, clean up after them, and expect no thanks in return.

His Sufficiency

The time that we live here on this earth is the only opportunity we'll have to walk in trust and obedience to the Father. If He automatically erased the learning opportunities that we have (stemming from having to deal with our old, fleshly ways), we would have no chance to grow in the character and likeness of Jesus Christ. We must face these challenges in order to recognize the Lord Jesus' sufficiency in our lives.

Although there are many reasons that you could be experiencing frustration at every turn, perhaps the primary point that should be focused on is this: Your loving heavenly Father may be trying to break your self-sufficiency, strength, and independence so that you can adequately and willfully cry out to Him as your sufficiency. Unless the Father helps you to realize your insufficiency, you might never recognize His sufficiency. This is often a difficult lesson to learn.

Now that you have come to recognize your fleshly patterns, you should be looking for specific ways in which God is choreographing circumstances, challenging you to deal with these areas of fleshly disobedience. He could be doing this in a variety of ways, from something you have read in His Word to a specific circumstance that is causing your flesh stress and pointing you to Christ as the answer.

- Bill Gillham

Lifetime Guarantee,

Faith or Magic

Many Christians today treat faith like magic. While the content of what Christians believe is obviously different from pagan practitioners of magic, the way they believe and the motive they have for believing, seems to be very similar. Magic is generally understood to involve people engaging in special behaviors that empower them to gain favor with, or to otherwise influence, the spiritual realm in order to get it to work to their advantage.

For instance, when praying for someone who is sick, it is often assumed that if we engage in a certain behavior—namely, making ourselves sufficiently certain that the person will be healed—then we could influence the spiritual realm and God would act in a way that would benefit that person. While this might on the surface appear very similar to how a person with a biblical understanding of faith might pray, the assumption about what is going on is much closer to magic.

Another example is the common view of salvation. The prevailing understanding is that for a person to be “saved,” they must believe those doctrines that are “essential to salvation.” And for most Christians, to “believe” means that a person has become sufficiently certain that a doctrine is true. If they believe the right things then they are in.

Along similar lines, many assume that, while all Christians sin, there are certain “deal-breaker” sins that, if not repented of, will cause a person to lose their salvation. For example, I’ve never heard anyone say that greed, gluttony, or gossip that is not repented of will keep a person from being “saved.” But I’ve frequently heard Christians say that homosexuality will certainly do this.
Is this way of thinking about beliefs and behaviors reflecting a biblical or a magical understanding of faith? It seems to me, quite frankly, that it’s much closer to the latter.

One of the key differences between “magic” and biblical faith is that magic is about engaging in behaviors that ultimately benefit the practitioner, while biblical faith is about cultivating a covenantal relationship with God that is built on mutual trust. And while the God-human relationship, like all trusting human-to-human relationships, benefits both God and the person of faith, it is not entered into as a means to some other end. We might say that magical faith is utilitarian while biblical faith is simply faithful.

With all sincerity, people often try to believe the right things to pray the right way. They try to attain a sufficient level of certainty about particular doctrines so that they can be sure that they are saved. Or they work to avoid the “deal-breaker” sins in order to get God to “save” them. But how is this significantly different from those who engage in magic by performing certain behaviors to get the spiritual realm to benefit them?

Faith is not primarily about getting our behaviors and our beliefs right—as if God is some kind of heavenly evaluator who is obsessive about whether your actions don’t cross any lines and you arrive at the right intellectual conclusions. Rather, faith is about trusting in the beautiful character of Christ, about being transformed from the inside out by the power of his unending love, and about learning how to live in the power of the Spirit as you increasingly reflect his love and his will “on earth as it is in heaven.”


—Adapted from Benefit of the Doubt, pages 38-40, 120-121  Greg Boyd

God Carries Us

God carries us!

God carries me! 

God carries you!

That's the message of grace to my ears..that whatever you do or have done, wherever you go or have been, whoever you are or have become, it doesn't matter, because no matter what, God carries you..

God carries you along..He carries you in sickness and in pain..He carries you in hurt and confusion..He carries you in doubt and anxiety..He carries you in terror and loneliness..He carries you in rage and bitterness..

No matter what, you are never too 'bad' for Him..He carries you no matter what you do or think or believe!

He carries you through it all..He carries you in want and need..He carries you in happiness and in calamity, in peace and in turmoil..in good times and bad..He carries you, takes care of you, won't drop you..He continues working out His very good love plan, no matter how rotten or crappy you act sometimes..no matter whether you talk to Him or turn your back on Him, no matter whether you are acting like a saint or royally messing up..

No matter what, He's got you, He's carrying you, He's taking care of everything, He won't let go of you!

No matter what, He's carrying you..that means the destination is assured..you will arrive safely home no matter what (after all, grace a says you're already there inside, in spirit, and in fact you never left)!  Grace says God carries you, through all of life, through all the trials, through all the suffering, through all the tears, through all the joys and sorrows, through it all, God carries you, and He won't let you down, won't leave, won't desert or abandon you..

He carries you and He will get you through anything, He will make it all work out right in the end, He will bring you to a happy ending, for sure, guaranteed, easy-peasy, without a doubt..

God carries you..He has started your life, He maintains and moves along your life, He will bring your life right where He wants it to go, to a good end..a happy ending! 

You never did have to carry yourself or your life..this life was never 'all up to you,' was never in your hands to 'make or break.'  That's law, anyways, and HE has always been Grace!  He has always had your life in His hand, always had the end safely wrapped up from the beginning. You could never have messed this up!  You have never been in any real danger.  You have always been SAFE in His arms.  This God has been our Home for all eternity, from all eternity TO all eternity!  From everlasting to everlasting He is our God, the God who carries us, who daily bears our burdens, who believes all good things about us, who never lets us down, who is faithful and true even if we are not, who never fails even when we fail! 

So what if we fail!  When we fall, we fall right into His strong arms, for underneath us are the everlasting arms, holding us up no matter what!  It's like falling on an escalator - whether you stand or fall, you still keep on going up, up, up!  It was never up to us to fail or succeed, or even believe or doubt - it was always up to God, who shows mercy, compassion, heartfelt love and kindness that never ends but is new every morning, surer than sunrise!  It was always all about Him, and HE never quits, never gives in, never fails..He is the Love that lasts forever, goes on without end!  If it were up to us, things would be in doubt..but since it is up to God, it's DONE!  Love never fails!  Love is always there to catch us, hold us, bring us through anything..Love always will always carry us through!

Mr. Love ALWAYS carried you, and He ALWAYS WILL!

Papa carries us, no matter what!  That is real security..that is true Grace!

Seeing Him Within

by Miguel de Molinos

  

First you should know that your spirit is the very center, the habitation, of the kingdom of God (Your center IS the kingdom of God). Your Lord reigns upon His throne, with rest, in that place. Whatever the Lord sends into your life, there is no disturbance in that place. For your good and for the profit of your spirit He will allow an envious enemy to trouble this city of rest, this throne of peace. Troubles will come to your in the form of temptations, tribulation, subtle suggestions. Anything and everything of God's creation may become involved in troubling you.

How are you to deal with such things? How can you be constant, and cheered in your heart in the midst of all these tribulations? Enter into that inmost realm, for it's there you may overcome outward surroundings. Within you is a Divine fortress, and that Divine fortress defends, protects and fights for you. Observe, please, a man who has as his house a great fortress; that man is not upset though his enemies pursue him and surround him. He need only retreat into the great citadel. YOU have a strong castle (deep within you) that will make you triumphant over all enemies. Yes, those which are visible and those which are invisible. That castle dwells within you NOW, regardless of all snares and tribulations, IT IS THERE! Within it dwells the Divine Comforter. Retreat there, for THERE all is quiet, peaceful, secure and calm.

Why seek the Lord by means of straining the brain, in searching for some place to go to pray, in selecting points to discuss, and in straining to find a God without. . . when you have Him within you? We simply shall not find our God without. Nor shall we find Him by means of reasoning and logic and surface information. Each of us has Him present within us. There seems to be a blindness in those believers who always seek God, cry for Him, long for Him, invoke His name, pray to Him daily, while never discovering that they themselves are a living Temple and His one TRUE habitation. Their own spirit is the seat and throne of a God who continually rests within them.

Actually, it is a good thing when you find yourself deprived of the pleasure of the senses and therefore find you must journey by the help of faith alone, yes, even to journey to the dark, deserted paths that lead to. . . where? You are not certain. Without such an experience it would be very difficult for you to reach certain places in your spiritual walk. A painful way of arriving, yes, but a CERTAIN one. Do not fall back, even though Divine discourse has left you and there is nothing for you to say in prayer. Yes, it is true in such times, your five senses have been deprived and all OUTWARD progress of OUTWARD piety ends. But know this: in such times you WILL be driven to a comfort which has nothing to do with the outward senses. Any external efforts of piety, or religion, or even of self denial will NOT work. Rather, such things will aid in shining light upon you, a light that says, "You can do nothing. ALL THINGS are in My hands and not in yours."

taken from The Spiritual Guide by Miguel de Molinos

Are You Sure THIS Is The Christian Life?

Law will cause a person to say, "Lord, help me to do the things you want me to do." In other words, "Help me keep your rules." Grace will cause a person to say, "Lord Jesus, I am abiding in You and You in me. Express Your Life through me in any way You desire." It isn't uncommon for Christians to think that God has a long list of things He wants His children to do. But in 1 Thessalonians 5:24 we read, "He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it." Not only does Christ call us to the Christian life, but He will also live it for us.

When God determines to bring us to brokenness so that Christ can live His life through us and we keep trying to live it ourselves, things will keep getting harder. When does it stop? When we reach the end of our self-sufficiency and have given up all hope in our own resources. Peter Lord has said, "Wouldn't it be awful to spend all your life trying to make God an apple pie, only to die and discover He never liked apple pie?" To ask God to help us live for Him is to request some sort of divine blessing on our effort to "do what He wants us to do." But that isn't what God desires. Being preoccupied with serving Christ more than with Jesus Himself is a subtle threat to every Christian. Self-effort is the essence of legalism. It is pointless to pray to God to help you to live for Him. That may be your goal, but it isn't His.

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are

heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from

Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For My yoke is easy and My burden is

light."

- Steve McVey

Mystery of Union

Paul's teaching to believers focused on a great mystery. To the church in Colossae he wrote of

"...the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:25-27)

Christ in us. That is our only expectation of experiencing and expressing the glory of God. Elsewhere, Paul expressed the mystery in another way:

"But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him." (I Cor. 6:17)

Actually, the words with Him aren't even in the original Greek. The translators added them for clarification. So:

"The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit."

He or she, a spiritual being, who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit. There are two... they are one. You and He are one.

We are one spirit with God. We function as one. We are not absorbed into the Lord, however. There is an I and there is a He, but we are joined to Him and we function as one. It is a function of cooperation, like a union of gears that mesh together. Our union with God doesn't mean that we are so swallowed up in God that we lose our identity. But neither is there a separation. Rather, the two function as one for the purposes of the greater one, God.

He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. That is a mystery. One plus one equals one. How can that be? The divine and the human are one.

Until we know and live out of our union with Christ, we will never fully manifest the life of God within us. Some of it will inevitably shine through now and then, despite us. But for the most part we will manifest our own merely human life.

Until we know union, we are constantly confronted by the illusion of separation. "God is up there; I am down here. How do I draw close to God? Give me a plan. Give me a program." Plenty of people are ready with the answers. "Read your Bible. Pray. Study. Witness. Tithe. Take communion. Here are the plans. Here are the programs."

But once you know your union with God, there's nothing left for you to do. Oh, you may still do some of the outer things. But you aren't doing them to get close to God. You and God are one. There is no more separation.

When you begin living out of your union with Jesus Christ, you move beyond Christ plus anything, no matter how good it might be. ...We live and move and have our being in God, who is our life. We are saved by His life. He is our life.

Christ lives out His life in us ­ funny old you, funny old me. We have all kinds of different shapes, forms, and fashions, all kinds of interests, all kinds of diversity, all kinds of uniqueness. Praise the Lord. We don't have to look like, act like, talk like, or be like anybody else again. We are free to be ourselves. People see us, but we know it's Jesus living through us.

by Dan Stone

In Your Time of Need

There comes a time in life when we have to let go and trust all we are and can be to the Giver of life. There is a time of hurt that only God can understand, a time of deepest need that cannot be ministered to by a human friend. There is an anxiety that cannot be resolved, a pain that cannot be relieved, a feeling that cannot be healed by anything another may say or do.

It is only as we give up our desperate efforts and give God total control that we can experience true healing. This healing may not be as we expect, but entrusting our life to the Good Shepherd will ultimately be the best choice that can be made. For in giving your life to Him, He will take your burdens and hold you in His comforting arms. He is the only one who can truly understand. You are upheld in love and in prayer.

by Unknown

The Storms before the Calm

by Michael Daniel

We've all heard of the "calm before the storm" and so it is true, but how often do we reflect on what happens after the storm has passed?

The lightening flashes and the thunder rolls and the rains pelt down in raging torrents while winds howl and tear at the sky. We are so exceedingly fearful while the storm continues it's fury but then, almost in the blink of an eye, the storm has ceased its fierce frenzy and there is almost a ghost-like stillness and silence. Instinctively we lift our heads and breathe the deepest breath as our eyes are turned upward. The sky is continually clearing and there is the unmistakable crystal scent of clean.

The purifying storm has passed and the dreaded anticipation of the storms wrath is no more. The peace and comfort and ease that can only be experienced in the calm AFTER the storm is now manifest reality and our souls rest once again.

As we enter times of uncertainty and sufferings as we most assuredly will from time to time, we would all do well to anticipate the storms that ultimately befall us as being God's cleaning agents. It may be that we have to experience some pretty powerful storms to shake us and wake us and turn us totally and completely to the One and Only One Who can solve any and every problem. If that is how it must be then let us welcome the "Storms before the Calm" with great certainty that God IS in control and He will bring those who put total trust and faith in Him shining forth through His "Refining Fire".

“Through many trials and much tribulation we enter the Kingdom of God!”

Not when the body passes, but right here; right now for:

“The Kingdom of God is within you!”

Let us become humble and know that God created us for His eternal purpose, NOT man's. Let us remember that God formed and fashioned us for Himself, not for the whims and fancies and fleeting folly of man's imaginings. Let us cry out along with our blessed Savior; "THY WILL BE DONE" and lay in our Father's arms as nursing infants. Let us never again depend on anyone or anything but the Almighty God Who is our ALL!

Amen and amen!

Written October 29, 2008

Deceiving Spirits

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4:1).

             

Today, the civilized world is facing a revival of the satanic cult of hypnotism and all other cultic practices. They are continuously promoted by television and the popular press, with bizarre ads appearing frequently in a variety of occult-slanted advertising, to raise the goose pimples of the dabblers in the unknown.

It ought to shock us to realize that our generation is spending millions of dollars seeking thrills and “truth” from soothsayers, fortune tellers, crystal gazers, clairvoyance, hypnotists, and mediums. In our social life, we are spending millions of dollars for anything that promises to tell us the future. America is on the brink of the pit of disaster into which the nation Israel fell when King Saul consulted a witch for advice. When man refuses to hear or obey the voice of God, inevitably, he is forced to seek some other voice to guide him. That other voice is the voice of the devil!

Your mind must not be clouded by fear and phobia. It must not be confused by conflicting ideas. It must not be yielded up to strange, psychic powers. At all costs, your mind must not be destroyed, because it is the seat of your will; the place where you must make all the proper decisions about how you should live, and prepare yourself to meet with God at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I urge you never to have your fortune told, never consult an astrologer about your future, never offer your mind to anyone who wishes to hypnotize you, never attend a meeting of oriental cults, but keep yourself pure and clean before God.

- Lester Sumrall

God Wishes Christians Knew ...

That We Are Not Fighting an Inner Civil War

(excerpt from Bill Gillham's "What God Wishes Christians Knew about Christianity")

Folks, the old you was crucified in Christ before the new you was reborn. Because of this fact, we can believe that:

• A dead man cannot wage war against the new man in Christ.

• A dead man cannot resurrect himself, as we hear some imply: “You’ve got to keep that old man on the cross.” Hey, since when do you have to keep a man on the cross?

• If the old man didn’t die, then Jesus didn’t die because they were both crucified on the same cross, and the Bible states categorically that they died simultaneously (see Romans 6:2-8).

• Satan does not have the power to bring the old man back to life.

• It would be theologically pointless for God to crucify the old man only to bring him back to life again. Why kill him if you’re going to bring him back?

• It makes perfect theological sense for God to crucify the old man in Christ’s death and then re-create the new man in Christ’s resurrection, which is precisely what the Bible says happened (Romans 7:4).

• The old man is history! Gone!

• I’ll use the dreaded e word which many theologians rail against—the sin nature is extinct!It’s a dinosaur for Christians! Write it in the sky in smoke! Shout it from the housetops! Hold a street dance! The “wicked old witch” is dead! Christians do not have a sinful nature!

• Christians have only one nature—a holy, righteous new nature. “He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). That’s us! That describes our nature!

Although, based upon our experience, our thought-life, and our feelings, it certainly seemsillogical to believe that the old man was literally crucified, God’s Word teaches that a new creature in Christ has no sin nature, due to our having been crucified in Christ (Romans 6:6, et al.). Please don’t write to me and quote the New International Version to “prove” me wrong. The well-meaning theologians who translated the NIV Bible took unbiblical liberty by translating the Greek word sarx as “sinful nature” (see Romans 7:18, et al., NIV). Folks, that’s not translation—that’s religious tradition; that’s human opinion. They made an honest mistake. One of them is a good friend of mine. I hasten to credit them for all of the good things about this translation. But I don’t recommend that you use it to exegete Romans 6–8 because you’ll see the old man portrayed as having the miraculous ability to survive the crucifixion. It’s absurd to believe that we must “keep him on the cross.” He’s deader than a hammer! That old man took one trip to the cross. Then God buried him! We regularly celebrate the reality of this truth via believer’s baptism—a one-act depiction of our death as the old man, our burial, and as we burst up out of the water, our new birth in Christ’s resurrection.

“But, Bill! I still sin, and you wouldn’t believe some of the thoughts that I have! I have a constant war going on inside me. How can you claim that I do not have a sinful nature?” Just because a Christian doesn’t have a sinful nature doesn’t mean that we don’t struggle in our war against sin. I agree that we all have a war going on inside us. The Bible documents this: “I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members “(Romans 7:23). But just as you can pick apples without having an apple-picking nature and eat pork without having a hog-eating nature, you can sin without having a sinful nature.Nature is defined as “a fundamental characteristic.” Sinners love sin. Saints hate it. Sinners plan ahead for more innovative ways to sin. Saints attend seminars to learn how to overcome it. Our fundamental characteristic is to avoid sinning. The Bible does not document that our battle is between the old man and the new man; the Bible describes our battle as the new man fighting against the power of sin (Romans 7:23). Gang, you and I are not warring against ourselves; we are not engaged in a civil war. Although it may seem like a civil war, we must believe the Bible. We’re engaged in a good-guys-against-the-bad- guys war, and we are the good guys—saints.

Point Number 2. Although Romans 7:15 is commonly cited to prove that saints have two natures—one good, the other evil—it actually proves the opposite—that we are good. Is Paul thrilled to be practicing evil things? Does he love to sin? Is even a tiny part of himdelighted that he has some mythical excuse for failing to carry out his good intentions (i.e., the old man came back to life)? Does part of him lie awake nights trying to figure out how he can sin and get away with it? Is his attitude, Oh well, God will forgive me if I sin, so what’s the big deal? No! No! No! A thousand times no to all of these absurdities! This man is miserable because he can’t get victory over his sins! This man longs to do good; he absolutely hates it after he has sinned, and he can’t figure out why he can’t quit it. If, on the other hand, this man had the mythical two natures that the Bible does not document, Romans 7:15 would read like this:

For I understand very well what I am doing; for I am practicing what I love to do. When I feel like sinning, I sin and love every moment of it; when I feel like obeying God, I do that, too. I do the very thing that I feel like at the moment and I am quite happy about it. Isn’t it fun to know that we’re on our way to heaven?

Paul would be similar to a southern California man in March who loves snow skiing and waterskiing equally well. His problem is choosing which he would rather do today. Folks, Paul has a flat spot on his forehead from hitting himself with the palm of his hand crying, “Aye, yi, yi, yi, yi, yi, yi! Why can’t I get my act together?” He’s miserable because he finds it impossible to carry out his good intentions! This man is holy, through and through. Enough of the devil’s nonsense that this verse depicts the mythical “evil you” fighting against the good you—the only you! It depicts the power of sin fighting against the good you! Verses 17 and 20 prove this. If you’re a new creature in Christ, you have been given a new godly nature. “By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

Satan deceives us and influences us to do evil or fail to follow through on our good intentions through the power of sin. Sin uses the pronouns I, I’m, me, my, myself, etc., when interacting with your mind. I believe sin triggers such thoughts through the old patterns for living which are still in your brain. I believe these are old memory traces. This way you’ll be vulnerable to accepting sin’s thoughts as if they were your own, especially if you’ve been taught that you’re mostly sinner and a teeny bit saint. Those sinful thoughts will seem as natural as the sunrise! As the power called “sin” bombards your mind with first-person-singular- pronoun thoughts, your resolve may weaken till you end up committing the sinful act. Even if you don’t actually commit the sinful act, those thoughts or images will continually assault your mind like a worrisome gnat as the Deceiver seeks to keep you from experiencing the peace of God.

W. E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words explains that the Greek wordhamartia (which translates to the English sin) is a noun, while hamartano (also translated to the English sin) is a verb. In Romans 6:14, where Paul writes, “Sin shall not be master over you,” sin is a noun; while in the very next verse (15), “Shall we sin . . . ?” it is a verb, an action word. In Romans chapters 5–8 the word sin appears 41 times, only once as a verb,40 times as a noun! Look at that! Only one time in these critically important chapters dealing with the key to victory over the power called “sin” does the word sin mean the actof committing a sin! But if you interpret the word sin in Romans 5–8 as a verb, you will never understand these chapters that are so critical for walking in victory. We have been conditioned to perceive the word sin as an action word. Thus, when we read it in the Bible, we think, Yep, that’s when I cheated on my taxes.

In Romans 5:21; 6:12,14,17; 7:11,14,17,20,23,25; 8:2; 1 Corinthians 15:56; Hebrews 3:13; 11:25; 12:4; James 1:15b, hamartia (sin as a noun) appears and, as Vine points out, “This governing principle is personified.” Sin controls (governs), and it is a persona. As such, sin presents thoughts to your mind for your consideration and deceives you by making them seem like they’re your own thoughts! Folks, the power of sin is Satan’s secret weapon!

- Bill Gillham