Can You Answer These Questions?

Isaiah 7:14; St. Matthew 1:23 - If Jesus is not God Almighty, then who is Immanuel?

Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:14 - 17 - If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, who created the heavens, and the earth Jesus or God?

Genesis 49:10; Hebrews 7:14 - If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, when will our Lord spring out of the Tribe of Juda?

I Kings 22:19; Revelations 4:12 - If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, how many is sitting on the throne? / Psalms 45:6; Philippians 2:11

Numbers 24:16 - 17 - If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, when will Balaam's prophesy come to pass?

Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:1If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty1 - If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, then who shall we bow to ? Jesus or God?

Isaiah 45:15 - 21; Titus 2:13 - If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, then who is our savior? 

Isaiah 9:6 - If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, then when will Isaiah's prophecy come?

If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, why when the devil was tempting Jesus," "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God?" St. Matthew 4:17

If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, when will the Lord God of Israel visit His people to redeem them? St. Luke 1:68

If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, when did Stephen call God by His name and said "Lord Jesus"?  Acts 7:59

 If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, then who is the True God? I John 5:20.

Deuteronomy 32:4; I Corinthians 10:4 - If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, then who is The Rock? God or Christ?

If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, then Thomas must have told a lie in St. John 20:28, when he said to Jesus, "My Lord and My God". Did Thomas lie?

I Timothy 3:16 - If Jesus Christ is not God, when did God come in the flesh?

I John 3:16 - If Jesus Christ is not God, when did God lay down his life? St. John 3:16; I Peter 3:18.

St. John 14:9 - If Jesus Christ is not God Almighty, why did He say to Philip, "When you see me, you see The Father", and there's only One Father? Malachi 2:10

Did God tell a lie when he told Saul that He is Jesus in Acts 9:5?

If Jesus Christ is not God, then we must say that He's not Good. St. Mark 1018; St. John 10:14.

Psalms 90:2; Revelations 1:18 - If Jesus Christ is not God, then who is He that liveth, and was dead; and is alive for evermore, (everlasting)?

Forgiven, reconciled, and saved?

Reconciliation, unlike forgiveness, is a two-player game. Both sides need to play. Consider the husband who wishes to be reconciled with his estranged wife. He loves her with an unconditional love that keeps no record of wrongs. In his mind there is no hurt or offense that has not been forgiven and forgotten. So in his love he has come to the table of reconciliation declaring that all is well from his side. Would you say they have been reconciled? Well that depends on the wife. Unless she chooses to be reconciled, there is no reconciliation.

Now let’s imagine that the wife is so damaged by an unhappy childhood that she unfairly projects her brokenness onto him. Even though he is a perfect gentleman and beyond reproach, in her mind her husband is an angry and violent man. This is how fallen humanity relates to our loving Father in heaven. Even though God has been unfailingly good to us, in our fallen state we think the worst of Him. We imagine Him to be angry and violent.

For as long as we are separated from the life and love of God by our imagined offenses, are we reconciled? Of course not. If the man in our story went around telling others that he and his wife were reconciled – even as she continued living with another man – they would think he was nuts. Yet this is exactly the message that many are preaching.

Has the world been reconciled to God? Paul’s answer was “Yes and no.” From God’s side, reconciliation is an historical event. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ…” (2 Cor 5:18). God has come to us with open arms. He holds nothing against us – not our sins, not our past, not anything. “While we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). Glory to God!

However, there is no reconciliation in fact unless we respond to His overtures. Hence Paul’s exhortation, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). God loves the world so much that He came and died for us. His heart yearns for the lost and broken. He does not want an historical reconciliation that is not presently true. He wants His kids!

Those who preach historical reconciliation argue that fallen man’s estrangement is based on a lie. Men fear God needlessly and I agree. God is not angry with us. He really does love us. And it is certainly not wrong to preach that God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ since this is what Paul preached. But with equal passion we must also preach the other side, as Paul also did: We implore you – be reconciled to God.

- Paul Ellis

First and Last Adam

 

Roger writes:

 New Life in Christ    (versions quoted, KJV,  ESV)

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.   KJV

To extrapolate some meaning out of this verse, we need to build a foundation from which to launch from.   That foundation is the finished work of Christ on His cross.  Why is the cross such a stumbling block?  It is because it calls each of us to consider our fallen sinful ways on the one hand, ‘which severed our relationship with Heavenly Father’, and on the other hand, it reveals what Heavenly Father has done through Christ to fix that issue for us, resulting in our ‘restored relationship’ with Him.  Through the ‘finished work of the cross’ God has removed all impediments that separated us relationally. 

2Cor 5:19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.   ESV

When we speak of the ‘finished’ work of the cross what are we saying?  We are responding to the final words that the Lord Jesus spoke as He gave up His spirit to Heavenly Father.

John 19:30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

So, now we ask ourselves, what is finished, and what impediments has Christ’s death on the cross removed, in order for us to have a restored relationship with God?  

First, His death was that we might have the forgiveness of sins, (past – present – future). The Apostle Paul writes……….

1Cor 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

Gal 1:4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

In order for humanity to fellowship with God we need to be on the same page righteously.  That is, because God who is perfect in every way, sinful fallen humanity isn’t able to relate relationally with Him.  Something had to be done to deal to that issue, to reconcile God with this world.  He did in Christ.  So the impediment of sin has been removed.

1Pet 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Second, the cross deals to the requirements of God’s law.  God’s law is perfect and reveals His nature and righteousness.  And in regards to having a relationship with God one must keep the law perfectly, not one error.  One must keep the whole law, but here is the difficulty.  No-one has or can keep the law.  Only the Lord Jesus Himself could and did.  The cross deals to the requirements of the law in order to have right standing with Heavenly Father.  What we couldn’t do He has done on our behalf.

Christ lived a perfect life keeping all the law on our behalf, and therefore He alone qualified through the cross to meet God’s righteous and holy demands.  It is faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross, not our efforts at keeping the law, that puts us in right standing with God.

The following verses from the Apostle Paul shed a lot of light on the law issue.

Rom 10:5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

Gal 3:10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

Gal 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Rom 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Gal 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Third, Christ in His finished work on the cross destroyed the power of death and the devil.

Heb 2:14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

To summarize thus far, Jesus Christ’s death on the cross dealt to all the impediments that separated us relationally from God.  He paid the price for our sins, meet the requirements of God’s law and destroyed the power of death and the devil.  We are reconciled.  It is faith in that finished work on the cross of Jesus that redeems us and gives us a new identity, ‘adopted sons’. Gal 2:16, Gal 4:4-5 (see above)

Considering all the above, how are you now viewed by Heavenly Father?

Col 1:22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Now that is amazing…….  That’s God’s view of you, your new identity. 

Lets go back to the original text we started with and seek to see how we should now live and what might be the challenging issues we might face.

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.   KJV

You see there is one further result of Christ’s death on the cross.  According to this verse, I have been crucified with Christ.  In a moment we will answer who is the “I” that was crucified, and who is the “I” that now lives in this verse?  But first, the Apostle Paul elsewhere in his writings makes mention of our union (co death) in Christ’s death.

Rom 6:6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Col 2:12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Eph 2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

According to these verses my old self, that is my old fallen Adamic nature has been put to death (crucified) in my union with Christ.  I was also buried with Him, raised with Him and seated with Him in heavenly places, at the right hand of God.  Hence I am a new creation, a never before existing being.  A son of God!  I’m born again!

2Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Paul says I’m crucified and yet he lives!   He that now lives is the raised new creation, the union of your new spirit and Christ.  It is Christ who lives in us.  He is our life now.

1Cor 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

But here is the challenge as we begin to live out that new life in our present reality, moment by moment, day by day.

To move into this new reality of the finished work of Christ’s cross, we must first agree with what God says in His word about Christ, the finished work of the cross and us the new creation, with our new identity.

If we don’t take on board what God has done on our behalf through Christ, and agree to what He’s revealing in Scripture because of Christ’s finished work, the temptation is to attempt to live by our own efforts the new life which Paul quite clearly condemns.

Gal 3:1-3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

As we have seen, by ‘the works of the law’ no-one can be justified, (Christ’s Cross) has done that, and by the works of the law by our self effort we can’t live for God either.  Paul says, Christ IS his life now.

All that the law does now is shine a light on our sin.  

1Cor 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

The good news is that God knows that we can’t keep the law, and has therefore removed all impediments that separated us relationally with Him, and provided Christ by His Spirit to be our life, who alone CAN enable us to live in union with Father and produce Spirit fruit.  It’s the fruit of the Spirit, not my fruit that I produce through self effort.  For I was crucified, buried, raised and Christ is my life NOW.

Gal 5:22-25 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

The More we Drink, the More we Thirst

What does your heart hunger for? What does your spirit thirst for? What is that thing that if you had it, that dream that if you achieved it, that reward that if you gained it, you’re sure you would now be satisfied, you’re sure your restless heart would finally be at peace?

There are many things we hunger for, but only one so very good that Jesus promises to satisfy it: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” he says, “for they shall be satisfied.” Here is a hunger so good that it should take preeminence above all others; here is a hunger so right that it should subsume all others; here is the one hunger that is so close to the heart of God that he promises it will be satisfied.

But what is this “righteousness” that we are to long for? The root word is used about 600 times in the Bible so it’s obviously quite important. Like so many other words, it can be translated in different ways—sometimes as “righteous” or “righteousness,” and other times as “justice” or “justified.”

The word is associated with salvation so that in God’s sight we are either righteous or unrighteous—either saved or unsaved. It’s associated with sanctification so that behavior can be righteous or unrighteous—either consistent or inconsistent with God’s will. It’s associated with justice so that society itself can be righteous or unrighteous—either promoting peace and equality or partiality and favoritism. And it’s associated with the future, the fullness of the kingdom of heaven when righteousness will permanently conquer unrighteousness.

So the question is, when Jesus says “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” what kind of righteousness does he mean? I think it’s best to see him as including all of these dimensions because they are so closely linked to one another. While personal holiness may have been foremost in his mind, surely he would not wish for us to disentangle that dimension from the others. After all, it’s impossible to long to be saved but not sanctified; it’s unnatural to long for holiness but not heaven. And so there is a hunger within the Christian soul that is very deep and very wide: A hunger for righteousness expressed in salvation, in holiness, in justice, and in heaven.

And what is God’s promise toward those who have such a hunger? “They shall be satisfied.” The hungry shall be made full. The thirsty shall be quenched. But here’s the thing: Of these four hungers, only the hunger for salvation is completely satisfied here and now. In the moment we are saved, we are fully justified. We can never be more righteous in God’s eyes than we are right now, and never less righteous. And that’s because when God looks at us, he sees the perfect righteousness of his perfectly righteous Son.

But we can be more holy than we are right now; we can see more justice than we do right now; we can have a deeper longing for heaven than we have right now. And so we need to observe something interesting about these appetites. As God begins to meet them, he also increases them. The fuller we get, the hungrier we get. The more we drink, the more we thirst. Our longing for righteousness doesn’t diminish over the course of our Christian lives, but grows all the more! Our growth in holiness makes us crave even more holiness. We are glad to see advances in justice, but it increases our longing for perfect justice. We have a deep longing for heaven, but the closer we get the more we yearn for it.

We will long and yearn and hunger and thirst until the day God finally fulfills the great promise he makes in the book of Revelation. In that day…

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;

the sun shall not strike them,

nor any scorching heat.

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,

and he will guide them to springs of living water,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

All those tears we’ve shed over the sins that made our salvation necessary, God will wipe them away. All the hunger we have to be holy even as God himself is holy: God will satisfy it. All the thirst we have to see justice extend from sea to sea, from pole to pole: God will quench it. All the craving we have to live in a world where there is only ever righteousness forever: God will grant this most precious desire. We will eat, we will drink, we will feast, and our hearts will be at perfect peace. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Prayer for the Unconverted

 Buried deep in an old, mostly-forgotten anthology of poetry, I found this little gem from Newman Hall—a poem that expresses in rhyme and meter the longing of many a Christian heart. May it give you words to pray for “those who do not pray, who waste away salvation’s day.”

We pray for those who do not pray!

Who waste away salvation’s day;

For those we love who love not Thee—

Our grief, their danger, pitying see.

Those for whom many tears are shed

And blessings breathed upon their head,

The children of thy people save

From godless life and hopeless grave.

Hear fathers, mothers, as they pray

For sons, for daughters, far away—

Brother for brother, friend for friend—

Hear all our prayers that upward blend.

We pray for those who long have heard

But still neglect Thy gracious Word;

Soften the hearts obdurate made

By calls unheeded; vows delayed.

Release the drunkard from his chain,

Bare those beguiled by pleasure vain,

Set free the slaves of lust, and bring

Back to their home the wandering.

The hopeless cheer; guide those who doubt;

Restore the lost; cast no one out;

For all that are far off we pray,

Since we were once far off as they.

Reflection on Death - Part 5

           Each of us, as we come into this world and continue along our path, unless OUR SPIRIT has been quickened and renewed by HIS SPIRIT, are in some such condition as one of these three. There are some who are young and tender; they are still in their mother’s home; their faces are fair and their cheeks are flushed; they are the adorable objects of their parent’s love; the world is before them and yet they are dead. They are dead in trespasses and in sins; dead to God, dead to truth; dead to reality; for this is how they have been born into this world. Though physically, intellectually, and emotionally alive, they are dead spiritually. They are unconscious of, and unresponsive to, the spiritual life and the spiritual world of reality. They have not had time for sin to run its course and to effect its devastating changes. Like Jarius’ daughter, they still look alive — why she looks as though she sleepeth! Her eyes are simply closed in sleep. And yet she is dead!

             And there are those like the son of the widow of Nain who have left their father’s home and are now out in public. Some years have passed and already the flush has left the cheek and the results of sin are beginning to make themselves seen. Our land is filled with these today! Unlike Jarius’ daughter, their sins are no more secret, a matter kept at home, but now they are out in public and known to many. Without shame they expose their sins willfully, flaunting them before all the world to see; they call it “coming out of their closets;” they have no sense of guilt or shame because their sin and death has proceeded thus far. And yet they are still accepted by society. They are glorified by the media. Some are even active in the churches. They are not like Lazarus, who has been put away, where death has come to such a state that the corruption has progressed to such a degree that now he stinketh and none can bear to be in his presence. And so there comes a time in some men’s lives when even their loved ones can say, “Put away my beloved from out of my sight. Bury him in some jail or in some hospital or in some gutter of depravity.”

            The corruption of sin and death can reach to such a marked degree that it is seen in the person, in his acts, in his words, his dress, his face, and he becomes an outcast, the dregs of society. There are more, I am sure, like the widow’s son. The revelation of the death in them is only beginning to show. There are still many like Jarius’ daughter where it is not seen at all, except by those with spiritual eyes and discernment. They are so lovely. “Isn’t she sweet?” “Isn’t he handsome?” “Oh, he is such a nice person.” “They are such good neighbors, they would do anything for you.” And yet, each and every one of them — the girl on the bed, the young man on the bier, and Lazarus in his tomb — were equally dead! Dead one, dead all!

            This is the description of the land of the dead in which the whole world lives by nature. The land of trespasses and sins in which there walk the dead. “Wherein,” Paul says to the quickened ones, “in time past ye walked” (Eph. 2:2). Is that not amazing? We were dead and yet we walked; we were the walking dead, a land filled with spiritual zombies, walking, as though they live, yet dead! Did you ever stop to think that when Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God, came into this world HE WAS THE ONLY LIVING MAN IN A WORLD OF DEAD PEOPLE? The whole world lies in the hands of the wicked one and death reigns over all the earth realm, the world of carnal-minded men! “To be carnally minded is death” (Rom. 8:6). No wonder the scripture says that men are a stench in the nostrils of God because spiritual death sends forth its reek and stench. How the pure soul of Jesus must have recoiled at the state of death that was rampant over the earth. We, the walking dead, walked according to the course of THIS WORLD, we are told (Eph. 2:2).

            When Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, came into this world to reveal the LIFE OF GOD, which is true spiritual life, He came outside the existing religious system. He spoke the words of God and did the works of God and manifested the nature of God. What an appalling shock to the established religious order to have this strange man speaking as one with authority suddenly appear in their midst not as a Pharisee, Sadducee, or a priest of the order of Aaron, but in the power of the Spirit of God. What a bolt out of heaven it must have been to the hypocritical priests of Levi, so accustomed to strutting about in long robes and broad phylacteries, wearing their miters, loving to be called Rabbi and teacher as they received the homage of the people about them, binding burdens that they would not touch with the tips of their fingers on others, robbing widow’s houses and for a pretense making long prayers as they increased condemnation upon their own unforgiven sins. What a stunning dismay it must have been for these lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God to hear this mighty Son of God proclaiming to publicans and sinners, soldiers and priests alike, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Reflection on Death - Part 4

            Jesus raised three people from the dead during His years of ministry, and each of these stands as a picture of the condition of those who are raised out of the death of the carnal mind into the life of the Son of God. First, there was Jarius’ daughter. Do you remember the story? Jesus came into the house and she was still upon her bed. She had just died. She still wore the garments of sleep. Her mother was still holding her hand and moistening her brow with kisses. Her father looked upon her lovingly but she was dead. And Jesus raised her with these simple words, “Talitha cumi.” Her eyes opened! She sat up and was alive again!

            Then there was the funeral procession that took place in the town of Nain where a widow of Nain had lost her only son. He was no longer in the home; he no longer wore the clothes of sleep but was wrapped in the cerements of the cemetery. He was already laid out upon his bier and was being conveyed to his tomb. Jesus did what He always did. He stopped the funeral — because that is why He came — and He said, “Young man, I say unto thee, arise!” He sat up and Christ returned him to his mother.

            Then there was that notable instance of Lazarus of Bethany. When Jesus arrived, Lazarus was no longer in his home; he was no longer in procession; he was already in his tomb. Neither the bed nor the bier but the tomb now contained him and Jesus said, “Roll away the stone.” Martha said, “Lord, he has been dead four days and now he stinketh.” Jesus said to her, “Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” And so they rolled away the stone. No doubt there issued forth from that open cavern those noxious smells of the grave. Jesus having lifted up His eyes to God in prayer, cried, “Lazarus, come forth!” and life pulsated through his body again. Still wrapped in the grave clothes he shuffled out of the darkness into the light. Jesus said, “Loose him, and let him go.”

Reflection on Death - Part 3

            I know many people who are quite intelligent, some highly educated, accomplished in their fields, civil, polite, personable, courteous, and caring in an earthly kind of way; and yet, when the subject of spiritual life, spiritual realities, and heavenly things is introduced into the conversation, suddenly the true nature emerges and the true antipathy the person has toward the living God and His Christ will come forth. They are dead to God, and in truth an enemy of God! The condition of a man outside of God is a condition of complete and utter helplessness, and, insofar as his ability to help himself or lift himself out of the world of darkness he dwells in is concerned, his condition is also one of utter hopelessness. That which is dead is both helpless and hopeless! Such a one stupidly stumbles through this mortal existence working, playing, sleeping, without ever knowing or caring what life is really about, why he is here, or where he is going.

            The portrait of spiritual death is physical death. God gave us physical death merely as a type to convey something of the awfulness of the true death of which all men have been made partakers. Speaking of physical death, Charles Spurgeon once said, “The time will come, ere long, when these shining orbs by which I look out upon you and through which you look into my very soul, will become a carnival for worms; that this body of mine will be inhabited by loathsome things, the brother of corruption, the sister of decay. These cheeks now flushed with life will soon be sunken in death. Beneath the skin there will be going on such activity that, could we look upon it, we too would recoil in horror. The same death of the body is the condition of our soul and our spiritual life as we come into this world.”

Reflection on Death - Part 2

            Imagine this headline in today’s newspaper: Cure Found for Death! Newspapers would soon be sold out. Every television and computer would be tuned to the news channels. Everyone would be scrambling to find out what this fantastic announcement had to say. But suppose the article or news report under the headline reported that a traveling teacher has announced that he personally is the cure for death — he has not made a scientific discovery, nor a new medical breakthrough, nor found some secret fountain of youth — but by revelation he has proclaimed himself as the source of life and immortality! We might begin to suspect that he’s just another religious teacher who has gotten carried away with delusions of self-importance, even if he has raised a few dead people back to life. And when we read about his claim that the only way to escape death is to believe in him, we’d say, “How preposterous!” Perhaps its not surprising that relatively few people take Jesus’ bold statement seriously — “He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (Jn. 11:25-26). After all, it’s probably the most startling claim that anyone has ever made! Why should anyone believe it? We should believe it, not because Jesus raised Lazarus after he had been dead for four days, but because Jesus Himself arose after He died for us — and because He still lives today! The Lamb that was slain is in the midst of the throne, and He has sent forth from the throne the very spirit of His life into us by the power of the Holy Ghost! It is a glorious fact, for we have received it! Christ alone has the credentials to claim that He can give life and immortality to men!

            Death takes in this whole dreadful realm of sin, weakness, fear, sorrow, pain, heartache, rebellion, strife, war, sickness, sadness, torment, and trouble in which men walk without the peace and joy and transforming power of God in their lives. Men need to know that they are dead even while they walk about in a body that appears to be alive; a Christless death in which they are dead to God, dead to Christ, dead to virtue, dead to truth, dead to purity, dead to righteousness, dead to peace, dead to joy, dead to reality, dead to promise, dead to hope, dead to the bright world of the spirit. A man abides in this death throughout all the decades, centuries, or millenniums of his existence until he is awakened by the voice of the Son of God. It was this very truth that Jesus was making clear to us when He said, “He that hath the Son hath life, but he that hath not the Son of God hath not life…” Though such a one should live in the extreme fullness of earth’s pleasures, yet HE IS DEAD while he lives, a stranger to Christ, a stranger to the realm of eternal realities, a stranger to that higher world of spiritual things, and an enemy of God.

Reflection on Death - Part 1

             “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful” (Rev. 21:4-5).

            Even though we sometimes speak casually about mortality, we are never ready to meet death face to face. Death is a cold thief. A preacher may say that a young boy now sings in heaven’s choir, but his parents are grief stricken, angry, and perplexed, and they feel cheated. All their joy has been stripped from them. An elderly woman may be tired of her husband’s nagging and quirks, but she’d rather have that than the lonely life of a widow. Death takes us to the moment of greatest struggle. Like Job, we are torn up inside and tempted to point an accusing finger at God: “Why have you made me your target” (Job. 7:20)? No matter how we try to dress it up and stress the positive side of it, we sense somehow that death is not normal. We know that we were created to enjoy life! Just as Job did, we turn our hearts and thoughts to heaven, demanding an adequate answer.

            Death and tears and crying are all inextricably related. Human hands are poor at drying tears. Neighbors may help, friends may sympathize, and ministers may seek to console with words of comfort and wisdom, but in the end only God can heal the heart and stop the fount of tears. And God will not trust this task to either men or angels, for God Himself “shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” And then, “…no more death.” What words are these! What blessed anticipation! Death has had a fearful reign. Almost every home has its vacant chair; every village has its cemetery; every small newspaper carries its obituary list; while countless tons of earth’s bronze and marble are fashioned into gravestones. Death has blasted hopes and broken hearts; turned loving wives into weeping widows, and helpless children into homeless orphans. Death is harsh and cold and heartless. But death has met defeat; a tomb has been opened from the inside, and death itself in that first victorious life has ceased to exist. The last enemy to be destroyed is death! And the Christ Himself is the guarantee!

Crucified means..........

 

Talk about the Lord

 

Through Death

 

Best Place for Me

 

The Tale of the Pig and the Sheep

 As I followed a country trail that winds its way across the vast expanse of Southern Ontario, I came to a river crossing and sat in the shade for a time to rest and to catch my bearings. A man soon happened by and, after we exchanged polite greetings, he told a curious tale.

He explained that he owns a nearby farm and that one of his sheep and one of his pigs had recently escaped. Together they had found a weak rail in the fence and had pressed upon it until it broken under their weight. Seeing their opportunity, they quickly bolted from the field and began to explore their new and unfamiliar surroundings.

It did not take long for the farmer to notice that two of his animals were missing and to set out to find them. He came across the broken-down section of fence and launched his search efforts from that area. But the animals had wandered far and had not left much of a trail behind them. Day soon turned to night and after resting fitfully, he resumed his search in the morning. The animals had now been gone for more than 24 hours and he began to wonder what could possibly have happened to them.

It was in the afternoon of the second day that he began to hear a distant bleating, the sound of his sheep crying out. He listened carefully, then began to follow the sound as it led toward a nearby bog. And it was there that he found his missing sheep and his missing pig. Both had fallen into a deep ditch, both had become coated in muck, both were unable to scramble out. But where the pig had been content to wallow in the mud, the sheep had known to bleat pathetically until the farmer had come to rescue it, to lift it out, and to cleanse it.

Then, said the farmer, “If you are ever deceived into a sin and overtaken by a weakness, don’t lose heart. Go at once to your compassionate Savior. Tell Him in the simplest words the story of your fall and the sorrow you feel. Ask Him to wash you at once and to restore your soul, and, while you are asking, believe that it is done. For if a sheep and a sow fall into a ditch, the sow wallows in it, but the sheep bleats pathetically until she is cleansed by her master. Be the sheep, my friend, and not the pig.”

Leaders Should Listen More

 

A challenging Reflection

 The Great Amnesia

"Abide in me."     John 15:4

Here is simplicity. When considering the words of Christ, we hear this simple invitation. "Abide in me." This is the rest the weary self has sought in an external world of experiences. This external world is the product of a body encasing a mind on the great adventure known as a human life.

It is this self which goes forth into time, who buds from a seed and an egg, into physical being. It separates from divine Union into a discrete "human being." What is in truth a portion of the Spirit of God adopts a separate self by "being human." It does this through physical incarnation, born of humans like itself.

During its great adventure into matter, space and time it leaves behind its memory of where it came from, and what it was before, and what it forever is and will be. A type of amnesia descends upon it. This is what Yeshua the Christ said to the Pharisees and Sadducees: "My testimony is valid because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one." (John 8:14-15)

What did Yeshua mean? He remembered "where he came from." He came from Spirit, from the eternal, immutable. Where was he going? He was after a brief instant "in matter and time" going right back into Spirit. In this, he contrasted his awareness of who he was and is with that of the Jewish teachers, who believed they had begun in matter, with bodies existing in space and time. They had in actuality descended from Spirit, forgotten their Source of origin, and entered the amnesia of the flesh.

Christ said here, "I judge no one." What he meant was that he continued to see all, despite their seeming physical, mental and moral differences, as Spirit. Because he did not forget who he was and where he came from and was going, he remembered for them, too. He saw no difference in the sons of men who plotted to kill him and those who embraced him. All were Spirit, acting out the roles they had adopted in their amnesia play.

His appeal was to those who had become weary. The suffering sought him out. The ones burdened by the despair of their amnesia, who had accepted the accusations of moral failure, and the ones afflicted by physical pain and illness; these were the ones who sought him out in crowds that nearly overwhelmed him. These were the ones whose amnesia had overwhelmed them, and they sought release. The forms of their amnesia varied, from physical illness, birth defects, emotional torment, guilt, fear, and even physical death. It was these who called out his name.

Later, when he had himself transcended physical death to show that none were bound by the limitations imposed by their amnesia, he returned for a brief period of visitation. He showed some his wounds, that they might see the invulnerability of the Spirit, something all share. He teleported from place to place, defying the laws of physicality, all the while being seemingly physical. When he disappeared into the clouds, all the while still in bodily form, he again showed that the Spirit overcomes all amnesia of true Being.

His invitation to "Abide in Me" is simply achieved. He never forgot he was Spirit and asks us to allow our awareness to embrace our own eternal Spiritedness. "The Father and I are One," he said. When we abide in Christ, we are joining him in rolling back the stone in front of our tomb of physicality. Physicality is not only the body but the brain-based mind that has believed it is matter, separated off into space and time. 

Glory of the Raised Soul

 

What Can God Do with Broken Hearts

 God has a special place in his heart for the weak, the weary, the downtrodden, the broken. “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden,” he says, and “bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” His special blessing is upon those who are poor in spirit, who are meek and mournful, who are reviled and persecuted. The faith that honors him is the faith of a child, and his power is made perfect in weakness more than in strength. He deliberately chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise and what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Where we tend to dispose of what has been broken, God treasures it. Where the human instinct is toward those who are confident, assertive, and self-sufficient, the divine eye is drawn to those who are humble, who are contrite in spirit, and who tremble at God’s Word. Where the world looks to those who are whole and strong, God looks to those who are weak and broken, for his specialty is bringing much from little, beauty from ashes, strength from weakness.

God does much with broken things. It was with broken leaves of sweet spices that the priests mixed the incense for the tabernacle, with broken clay jars that Gideon won his great victory over the armies of Midian, with the broken jawbone of a donkey that Samson triumphed over 1,000 Philistines, and with broken loaves and fishes that Jesus fed a crowd of 5,000. It was toward bodies broken by disease that the Lord displayed his miraculous power, and with a broken alabaster flask that Mary anointed him for his burial. It was through the breaking of bread that Jesus prophesied his suffering and death, for his body had to be broken for God to save the souls of his people. It was God’s will that the eternal Son would take on mortal flesh and his head be broken by sharp thorns, his back by brutal whips, his hands and feet by cruel nails, his side by a savage spear. His broken body was laid dead in a tomb, but through the shattering of rocks and tearing of a curtain God declared he had accepted the sacrifice. There would be no redemption, no salvation, without the broken body of the great Savior.

The history of the Christian church continues to display that God delights to use broken things. It was on broken pieces of a ship that Paul and his companions escaped to land and with a body broken by a “thorn” that Paul was saved from conceit. It was through persecution breaking a man from his congregation that the church was given Pilgrim’s Progress, through a shipwreck breaking parents from their children that worshippers were gifted with “It Is Well,” and through spears breaking men on an Ecuadorian beach that a generation of missionaries was rallied to the cause. It was through the ravaging of Helen Roseveare’s body, the paralyzing of Joni Eareckson Tada’s, the blinding of Fanny Crosby’s, the imprisoning of Marie Durand’s, the crippling of Amy Carmichael’s, the slaughtering of Betty Stam’s that countless Christians have received strength to sustain them through sorrow and suffering. The bones of Wycliffe were crushed to powder and thrown into the river Swift, but his translation lived on. The neck of Tyndale was crushed at the stake, but God answered his final prayer and soon even the lowly plowboy was reading God’s Word. The bodies of Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer were broken and burned, but the flames that consumed them lit a fire for the gospel that has never been quenched.

And so it seems that God often prefers to use what has been broken over what has only ever been whole. He breaks our wills so we will turn away from ourselves and come to him in repentance and faith. He breaks our plans to redirect our ways and ensure that his much greater plan will go on not just around us, but through us. He breaks our bodies to display that his power is made perfect in weakness. And yes, he breaks our hearts. He breaks our hearts by loss to prove to us that the gospel truly is gain. He breaks our hearts by grief so he can increase our longing for the place where every tear will be dried. He breaks our hearts by disappointment to prove that this world can never truly satisfy. He breaks our hearts by bereavement to pry our fingers off a world that could otherwise allure and entrap us with its charms. No wonder, then, that so few of us make our way through life without some great trial, some great adversity, some circumstance in which we cry out “I am undone. I am broken.”

What can God do with broken hearts? Perhaps the better question is what can God do with unbroken hearts?, for God delights to use what has been broken. He delights to display his power through what is weak, to display his strength through what is small, to display his glory through what has been shattered. His breaking is never pointless, for he is neither arbitrary nor cruel. His breaking is never purposeless, for he is too wise to ever be wrong and too kind to ever be heartless. He breaks us to shape us. He breaks us to mold us. He breaks us to use us. It is through the breaking that he makes us suitable for his purposes. It is through the breaking that he makes us a blessing. It is through the breaking that he makes us whole.

I'm not that awesome

 It must be difficult to live out the gospel of self-esteem, the “gospel” that insists I’m nothing short of awesome. It is, however, delightful to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ that insists that I’m not all that awesome and don’t need to be. Here’s a short quote from Adam Ramsey that explains.

The gospel means that I’m not all that awesome. But I am loved. And that’s awesome. The gospel frees me to be honest about the ways I fall short instead of being crushed by them, because it reminds me that Jesus was crushed for me. The gospel means I don’t have to hide, because the good news of what the holy and all-knowing Savior on the cross is true for me too. The gospel means I don’t need to impress, because Christ has eternally secured for me the smile of my Maker. If that’s true, then let’s burn those useless fig leaves of our self-justifying excuses and lean wholly into the justification of God. As my friend Alex Early has written, “Jesus is not in love with some future version of you or what you used to be. He loves you right where you are, sitting in that chair.”

Do you hate your sin? Do you find yourself turning to Jesus again and again with cries of confession and desires for change? Then take heart, beloved struggler. You are undoubtedly a child of God. The fact that you are fighting sin is the evidence of spiritual life. Dead things don’t fight, only living things do. So press onward into the light of holiness.

God will not despise our honesty; he meets us in it with renewing tenderness; he rushes to us there and smothers our confessions with kisses of acceptance. We often think that honesty makes us poorer. But judging from the Father’s reaction to his prodigal son’s return, we could not be more wrong. He dignifies our repentance with the family ring, reminding us of our true identity. Honesty means exchanging the pig food of our sins for the banquet of God’s grace; the tattered clothes of our foolish decisions for the clean suit of Christ’s sinlessness; the cold loneliness of the mud, for the warm embrace of the Father. It is the way back home.

Drawn from Truth on Fire.

Attitude

 

Is God's Forgiveness Conditional

 REPENT ! ! !

Is God's forgiveness 

   conditioned on 

      our repentance? 

The moment BEFORE we repent, do They look towards us with fury, ready to destroy us should we not beg for forgiveness?

That's what I've always believed about God.

Or . . . do They see us as loved but lost sheep/coins, and They are willing to give everything, including Jesus’ very life, to rescue us from our darkness and distortion? 

Perhaps, They no longer count our sins against us, knowing that "sins" have their own consequences in our lives?

This is what Jesus seemed to show us about God, a reframe for me like it was for the first century religious leaders.

"God was in Christ, reconciling the whole world to Himself, NOT COUNTING men's sins against them." 2 Cor 5

The Prodigal Father also illustrates well that he wasn't holding the wayward son's sins against him, only longing for him to recognize his standing as a beloved son. In fact, he cut the son off in the middle of his rehearsed speech to hug him, welcome him, bless him and tell him about plans for the party. The son, hoping at best for servant status, found himself in the middle of LOVE's Wild Embrace.

It's God's kindness that leads us to change our mind about Them, and about ourselves.

When we finally come to trust Their Goodness, and rest inside Their Unconditional Love (with NO FEAR of Divine Punishment, I Jn 4), we might discover within us a sustaining, overcoming power over the deceptions leading us towards shame, insecurity, confusion and sin.

The Prodigal Father, Devan Jensen

How To Choose A Religion

"First, don't choose a religion because your friends like it, or the music is cool, or the ritual is moving, or the people are friendly, or the building is impressive, or the leader is charismatic. 

Rather, choose a religion because its teachings point beyond themselves toward the Truth no religion can own; 

because it's worldview rejects the dualism of saved and damned, chosen and not chosen, true believer and infidel, high caste and low; 

because it rises above tribe, caste, clan, race, ethnicity and nationalism; 

because it embraces rational thought and scientific inquiry without sacrificing poetry, imagination, and contemplative practice; 

because it celebrates equality among and between men and women; 

because it demonizes no one; because it honors nature and respects all life; 

because it works to heal this world rather than escape to some other; 

because it upholds the dignity of all beings, human and otherwise; 

because its clergy empower you rather than themselves; 

because it offers you practices that open your heart, unclench your fists, and uncloud your mind; 

and because its fundamental aim is to free you from isms and ideologies rather than stuff you into one. 

If you find such a religion, let me know."

By Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Sin or Son Conscious

 

Relentless Pursuit

 

God is With You

 

The Lords’ Prayer (Aramaic version)

Beloved Father, who fills all realms,

   may You be honoured in me.

      Let your divine rule come now,

         let Your will come true 

            in all the universe,

               in the heavens, 

                  and on earth.

Give us all that we need for each day, and

   untangle the knots of unforgiveness 

      that bind us within,

         as we also let go of 

            the guilt of others.

Let us not be lost in superficial things,

   but let us be free from that 

      which keeps us from our true purpose.

From You comes all rule, 

   the strength to act, and 

      the song that beautifies all.

   From Age to Age.

Amen.

The Seed and Dirt

 

Grace Statement

 

Making the Christian Life more complicated than it needs to be

We sometimes make the Christian life more complicated than it needs to be and more complicated than it ought to be. For when it comes right down to it, God calls us to nothing more, and nothing less, than to obey. The only thing that really matters in any context or any circumstance is obedience to God’s will as it is revealed in God’s Word. Thus it is always necessary, and never superfluous, to search the Bible to know the mind of God. Thus it is always right, and never wrong, to pray, “Lord, teach me to obey you in this.”

If God calls us to possess great wealth, then he calls us to live with great generosity toward others and great care toward the state of our own souls, knowing that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It falls to us to pray that we would be obediently and faithfully rich.

If God calls us to possess scant wealth, then he calls us to live obediently with reliance upon him and trust in his provision, knowing that the God who clothes the grasses of the fields will much more certainly clothe those whom he loves. It falls to us to pray that we would be obediently and faithfully poor.

If God calls us to experience times of great joy, he calls us to enjoy them, to rejoice in them, to acknowledge them as a blessing from his hand, to eat and drink and take pleasure in the good things of this world and the good times in life, knowing that each is a gift from God. It falls to us to pray that we would be obediently and faithfully joyful.

If God calls us to undergo times of sore loss, we are to acquiesce, to raise hands of worship rather than fists of rebellion, to lament our sorrows but to never charge God with the least wrong. We are to pray our longings and fears, our sorrows and griefs but ultimately, like Jesus, to say “not my will but thine be done.” It falls to us to pray that we would be obediently and faithfully sorrowful.

If God calls us to experience great physical strength, we are to use that strength to love and support others, to bear their burdens, to use our strength to support them in their frailty. It falls to us to pray that we would be obediently and faithfully strong.

If God calls us to suffer weakness, then we are to undertake the kinds of ministry that weakness permits and invites—prayer, encouragement, love, support. We are not to see our weakness as the end of our usefulness to God but as the gateway to a whole new kind of usefulness. It falls to us to pray that we would be obediently and faithfully weak.

There is no circumstance in which God has nothing for us to do, no situation in which we cannot be faithful to his calling on our lives. He calls none of us to uselessness and calls none of us to another man’s life or ministry. He calls each of us to be obedient in the context he has ordained for us. For the end of the matter, when all else has been heard, is that we are to simply fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the sacred duty of every man, the kind expectation of a loving God.

When God seems deaf to our cries

 Joseph died a young man, his eyes hollow, his body gaunt, his stomach distended. He suffered deeply in those final days before he finally succumbed to the great hunger that had already claimed so many members of his family, so many of the people of his land and the ones surrounding it. As his breathing slowed, as his eyes closed, he thought back to a day not too long before.

He remembered pleading and praying as his brothers, made mad with anger and envy, had lowered him into a pit. He remembered crying out to them, asking them to show mercy, to show kindness, to show compassion. He remembered crying out to God, begging that his life would be preserved, that he would be rescued from the pit, that he would be restored to his father’s side. He remembered the despondency that overcame him as the shadows lengthened, as evening fell, as hope waned. He remembered that it was just then that God finally answered his prayers, for he heard a muted voice, he saw the form of Reuben high above, he clasped an outstretched arm, he was drawn out of his pit. “Run,” said Reuben in an urgent whisper. And run he did. He ran as though his life depended upon it, he ran until his body ached, he ran until he was safely home.

But then, just a few short years later, a great famine had struck the land. Old Jacob was the first to go, his weakened body quickly succumbing to starvation. Several of the brothers and their families were gone now as well. A few of those who remained had set out on a long journey to find food, but though they had searched through Moab, Midian, and Egypt, they had returned home empty-handed. The family’s burying ground, the cave at Machpelah, was full to overflowing. And now young Joseph’s time had come as well. He closed his eyes, he breathed his last, and he slipped into darkness.

None of this is true, of course. None of this except for the praying, for surely a man as blameless as Joseph would have cried out to God to deliver him from the wrath of his brothers. Surely he would have begged God to rescue him through means ordinary or miraculous. Surely he would have been disappointed when God seemed deaf to his cries, when he was sold to Midianite traders for a mere handful of silver, when he was hauled off to a life of captivity in Egypt. Surely it would have been agonizing to be forced to serve as a household servant, to be falsely accused, to be unjustly imprisoned. Surely he must have wondered if God had turned his back on him when he realized he had been forgotten and left to languish in an Egyptian jail.

It was only much later that it all began to make sense, only much later that he began to see the great story God had been writing. For a great famine did strike the region and the family did begin to starve. But when they traveled to Egypt, they found that the country was overflowing with grain. It had enough not only for its own needs but also plenty to sell to them and to anyone else. Egypt had this abundance only because of Joseph, only because he had been taken to that land, only because he had risen to a place of great honor, only because he had been diligent in his responsibilities. Egypt had all this only because God had not answered Joseph’s prayers in the ways he had longed for.

When Joseph was in the pit he must have cried out for God to deliver him then and there, to return him to his father that very day. But if God had answered that prayer, he would have preserved Joseph’s life only for it to end in starvation. He would have preserved Joseph’s life for a time, but cut off the promises he had made to Abraham as the family succumbed to the great famine. God knew better than to answer the prayers in the way that seemed so good and so necessary to that young man.

Many years later Joseph pondered all that God had done and he could only marvel. Standing before the brothers who had treated him so cruelly, he said, “It was not you who sent me here, but God.” Their hands had cast him into the pit, their hands had received the pieces of silver, their hands had dipped a robe in blood to deceive their father, but behind the hands of men was the hand of God. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” God had worked his purposes. God had fulfilled his promises. God had redeemed evil intentions and evil actions. God had triumphed.

The story of Joseph closes with these words: “Joseph lived 110 years. And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation.” He lived until he was 110 years old, he saw his children’s children’s children, he died in peace and at a ripe old age, only because God had known better than to grant the most immediate answer to his most urgent prayers.

Preacher Business

 

Whatever is Not Christ

 It is said of Michelangelo that when he was carving his best-known masterpiece he began with a block of marble and simply removed whatever was not David. This is the task of any sculptor—to begin with raw material and to work with it until nothing is left but the subject itself. Under the hand of a skilled artist, each rough blow of mallet on pitching tool, each gentle tap of hammer on chisel, each precise stroke of rasp and riffler, each careful sweep of paper and polish steadily transforms an unformed block of marble to a stunning work of art.

When we come to Christ in repentance and faith, we surrender ourselves to the purpose of God and submit ourselves to the hand of God. We are the block of marble and he the artist, we the medium and he the one who must remove from it whatever is not Christ. From the moment of our salvation he begins to conform us to the image of his Son, to pare away whatever is earthly until there is nothing left but that which is heavenly.

His work, though always purposeful, does not always feel gentle. If a block of marble had a voice it might cry out at the actions of the artist, it might object to having piece after piece chipped away. But surely it would be comforted by the sculptor’s reminders of what it is becoming and his assurances of what it will soon be. And as God carries out his work on us, as he removes what is sinful and idolatrous, what distracts and diverts, what keeps our feet planted on earth and hearts fixed on what is present, we, too, sometimes cry out in pain. But as rust must be scoured from a blade to make it glisten, as grime must be polished from glass to make it transparent, as pieces must be carved from a block of marble to make it a work of art, so God must sanctify us to make us like Christ. And if it was only through suffering that Christ himself was made perfect as our Savior, it should be no surprise that it is only through suffering that we are made perfect as his imitators.

Of course all illustrations grow weak at some point and this one is no exception, for it may cause us to think there is something unblemished within, some glimmer of goodness, some spark of divinity, that God looks for and finds and perfects. But this is not the case, for God assures us there is no one righteous, no one who understands, no one who seeks after God, no one who does good. There is not even one. But through God’s work of salvation, he transforms us from coal to marble, from what is worthless to what is precious, what from is darkened with our depravity to what glistens with his goodness. Then through his work of salvation he steadily sculpts that new material to resemble the image of Christ. He removes the old to display the new.

Diamonds need to be polished to display their brightness, spices need to be crushed to release their fragrance, trees need to be shaken to relinquish their fruit. And as marble needs to be carved to bring forth the image within, we oftentimes need to endure sorrows to bring forth the character of Christ. But we have the assurance that our Artist is kind and good, that he only ever acts lovingly and purposefully, that he only ever does what is for our good and his glory. And as he goes about his work, he always holds before us Christ as our model, God’s Son as our prototype, so that when we feel the blow of the hammer, when we feel the pierce of the chisel, we can keep our eyes fixed on the beauty of what we are becoming. For it is God’s will to do his work in us and upon us until we have been perfectly conformed to the perfect image of our perfect Savior.

But Unless!!!!

 

Something Broken in Us

 

Faith is..............

Faith is simply your positive response to what God has already provided by grace. If what you’re calling “faith” is not a response to what God has already done, then it’s not true faith. Faith doesn’t try to get God to positively respond to you. True faith is your positive response to what God has already done by grace.

Faith only appropriates what God has already provided by grace. If you’re trying to make God do something new, then it’s not faith.

True faith only receives—reaches out and takes—what God has already done

Definition of Grace (Rob Rufus)

        Grace is the divine characteristic that enables, furnishes and equips human beings to live in a supernatural dimension.

       Grace carries the refreshing reality of God’s ongoing acceptance of us – an acceptance not dependent on our failures or successes.

       Grace is God’s desire to bless us – not on the basis of our performance, but on the basis of Jesus’ performance on our behalf.

       Grace rescues us from the syndrome of rejection and insecurity, the tyranny of performance orientated living and the endless anxiety associated with trying to achieve and earn acceptance by keeping laws and regulations.

       Grace reveals that we are loved, valued and accepted by God as we are. Grace means that God’s correction and rebuke does not involve a withdrawal of his acceptance but, rather, a proof of his love for us.

       Grace delivers us from self-effort and the heresy of the self-made person. Grace is not about what we do for God, but what God does for us.

       Grace – true grace – turns disappointment into divine appointment, and failure into a stepping stone to success.

       Grace brings the sunshine of heaven into our hearts; it releases us from the oppression of people’s opinions, it nullifies Satan’s accusations and it evaporates guilt and regret.

       Grace sets us free to be what God created us to be – an enthusiastic, joyful, spontaneous, unpredictable, risk-taking and secure people.

  Thank God for grace!

A Good Reminder

 

As a Born-Again Believer

As a born-again believer, you are now more than a conqueror through Christ. (Rom. 8:37.) You have already been transformed from sinful, unrighteous, and unholy to righteous and holy in Him. (2 Cor. 5:17, 21; Eph. 4:24.) You were delivered out of the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’sown dear Son. (Col. 1:13.) The same power (Eph. 1:19, 20), life (Gal. 2:20), wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30), victory (1 Cor. 15:57), anointing (1 John 2:20), and faith (Gal. 2:20) that Jesus had now resides in you. You don’t need more of anything!

You just need a revelation of what you already have! That’s what Paul was praying: That the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened; that you would know what is the hope of His calling; that you would have a full revelation of your potential in Christ; that you would see what the riches of the glory of His inheritance are in you—a saint!

Why Should We Remember What God Forgets?

 We serve a forgetful God. This forgetfulness reflects no fault in him, no weakness of his mind or memory. Rather, it reflects the strength of his mercy and grace, for he forgets only what would separate us from him, only what would alienate sinful humans from a holy God. It is our sinfulness that he puts out of his mind, our wickedness that he remembers no more. Though he has seen all the evil we have done and all the good we have left undone, still he has banished it all from his mind. He regards us as if we had never sinned, relates to us as if we had only ever been as righteous as Christ.

Such forgetfulness is intentional, not inadvertent, a decision, not a mistake. It is evidence of God’s character, a manifestation of his mercy. And it challenges us all with a question: Why should we remember what God forgets?

Why should we dwell upon the sins we have committed that God himself has forgotten? Why should we live in a shameful past that God has already put out of his faultless mind? No matter the object of our sin, no matter the gravity of our transgressions, each one has ultimately been directed at God. Against him, him only have we sinned and done what is evil in his sight, even when we’ve afflicted our own conscience or violated our fellow man. In each, God has stood as victim and as witness, but also as advocate and judge. In each, he has declared us not guilty, for he has counted those sins against Christ and counted Christ’s righteousness toward us. He has sunk those sins in the depths of the ocean, thrown them behind his back, put them away as far as east is from west. He has forgotten them all. And if we are to be holy as God is holy, then surely we ought to imitate our Father in his forgetfulness. Surely we ought to receive his forgiveness, to forget what we’ve done, to go forward in his mercy, and to sin no more.

And then why should we bring to mind the offenses others have committed against us when God has forgotten the offenses we have committed against him? He who has been forgiven much, loves much, and he who loves much, forgets much. If God keeps no record of wrongs, why should we? What right has a husband to keep an accounting of his wife’s sins and offenses, or a wife her husband’s flaws and failures, when God has gazed into the deepest depths of their hearts, when God has witnessed the hidden motives behind every one of their actions, and when he has forgotten all the depravity he has seen there? What benefit is there in a pastor storing up a list of a church member’s shortcomings when pastor and parishioner alike have sinned deeply and been forgiven freely? How could we who have received the sweet mercy of forgetfulness fail to grant it to another? Wouldn’t harboring the sins of another and counting them against him be asking God to remember our sins and count them against us? It is the glory of a man to overlook any offense because it is the glory of God to forget every trespass.

God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. And God continues to demonstrate his love for us by matching our sinning with his forgetting. As we turn away from our sins, he forgets our sins. His forgetfulness is inseparable from his forgiveness, it is proof of his pardon. And if we are called to be imitators of God as dearly beloved children, then we must forget what lies behind—all the sins we’ve committed, all the offenses we’ve suffered—and strain forward always and only to what lies ahead. We must learn to forget just like God forgets.

“What’s Wrong With This Picture?”

This church had just sung those songs about how “desperate” and “hungry” they were. “O God, we need a move. Touch us. Please, Lord, do something new!” I stood up to speak and asked, “How many of you are hungry for God? How desperate for Him are you?” They all clapped and cheered loudly.

Continuing, I said, “John 6:35 declares: ‘And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.’”

I asked them, “What’s wrong with this picture? All of you just stood and acknowledged that you’re hungry and thirsty. Yet this says that you’ll never hunger or thirst again. Jesus told the woman at the well the same thing: ‘But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life’” (John 4:14). 

They immediately became so quiet you could’ve heard a pin drop!

Death of Sin

 

Spirit vs. Flesh (Part 3)

 (Rom. 6:23). Biblically speaking, any result of sin is a form of death. Depression, discouragement, anger, bitterness, fear, worry, sickness, poverty, loneliness, etc. are all death. If you live after the flesh, you’ll—be sick, impoverished, depressed, angry, etc.—die. 

Your fl esh is Satan’s inroad to bring death into your life. 

As a born-again believer, your fl esh is made up of your soulish and physical realms. However, before you were saved, it also included your fallen human spirit. 

My study of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV) has shown me that it almost always substitutes the phrase 

“sinful nature” for what the King James Version (KJV) translates 

“flesh.” This interpretation may work to a certain degree, but I’ve found it misleading in many places. For instance, in Romans, the flesh basically refers to either someone who isn’t born again or a born-again believer who isn’t living under the control of the Holy Spirit. The phrase “sinful nature” does not accurately convey this truth. 

Spirit vs. Flesh (Part 2)

 As long as your flesh is contrary to your spirit, you’ll have conflict. “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” 

Gal. 5:16-18). “Contrary” means they’re “opposed, enemies, adversaries.” This conflict between spirit and flesh is your true spiritual warfare! 

Each and every day of your life, the battle lies in whether you’ll be dominated by your flesh or your spirit. Your flesh gravitates toward what it can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. 

Therefore, it leans toward the influence of Satan and his kingdom, which operates in the physical realm. The devil is flesh-oriented, working through carnal, natural things. He tempts you to not believe God by things you can see and feel. On the other hand, the Lord operates in the spirit realm, primarily through His Word. 

Due to the nature of this intense, continual, inner conflict, you can’t just do what you want to do. Either your spirit will dominate you or your flesh will instead! 

You cannot please God in your flesh. “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). It’s not just hard—it’s impossible. This means you must identify the flesh and deal with it! 

Not “Sinful Nature” 

Living after the flesh brings all forms of death. “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” 

(Rom. 8:12-13). This not only means ultimate physical death (when your spirit and soul separate from your body) but includes everything that leads up to it. “For the wages of sin is death” 

Spirit vs. Flesh (Part 1)

Once you’re born again, the rest of the Christian life is learning to walk in the spirit. It’s letting what God has done through the new birth dominate you more than your physical, emotional realm. 

That’s really how simple the Christian life is! 

It may be simple, but it’s not easy! One of the hardest things you’ll ever do is learn how to turn from your natural self-rule and let who you are in Christ dominate instead. Why is it so difficult? 

You must perceive your spirit by faith in God’s Word because you can’t see or feel it. Jesus’ words are spirit and life (John 6:63). 

When you look into God’s Word, you’re looking into a spiritual mirror (James 1:23-25). The only way to really know what is true about who you are in the spirit is by believing God’s Word. You must shift from walking by sight (sense knowledge) to walking by faith (revelation knowledge) (2 Cor. 5:7). All you have to do is start basing your thoughts, actions, and identity on who you are in Christ. 

Spiritual Mindedness

 When your thoughts are dominated by what the Word says, you’re spiritually minded.

“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

A. It doesn’t matter what your physical circumstances may be—God can keep you in perfect

peace.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” 

(Is. 26:3).

B. As your mind stays on Him, your soul agrees with your spirit, and God’s peace is released into your soul and body

Carnal Mindedness

 1. Carnal-mindedness is allowing your mind to be dominated by what you can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel.

“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6).

A. “Carnal” literally means “of the five senses,” or “sensual.”

B. Carnal-mindedness doesn’t necessarily mean “sinful”-mindedness.

C. You are carnally minded when your thoughts center primarily on the physical realm.

2. Spiritual-mindedness releases the flow of God’s life in you, but carnal-mindedness shuts it off.

A. Carnal-mindedness = death, and spiritual-mindedness = life and peace.

B. “Death” means “anything that’s a result of sin.”

C. In this fallen world, being dominated by your natural senses produces death.

Accepted

 If you’re born again, it doesn’t matter if you’ve rebelled or just aren’t everything you should be. God sees you as righteous and truly holy because He’s looking at your spirit! 

God is pleased with you! “Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved”  

(Eph. 1:5-6). “Accepted” means more than just mere toleration. 

He’s literally pleased with you! You might not be pleased with the shape your mind or body is in, but God sees you in the spirit. 

When you were born again, you became a brand-new creature, and He’s pleased with His workmanship! 

“Accepted” in Ephesians 1:6 is the same Greek word translated “highly favored” in Luke 1:28. “And the angel [Gabriel] came in unto her [Mary], and said, Hail, thou  that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women”  (brackets mine). These are the only two places in Scripture that this particular Greek word is found. Therefore, as the woman who bore Christ was accepted, so you are highly favored of the Lord! 

- Andrew Wommack

Sealed

 No human being could have dreamt up the new birth and all of the realities that took place in our born-again spirits. It’s just beyond our imagination that God would indwell us and that our spirits would be as He is in this world. 

If you’ve received the revelation thus far, you can say, “I see it! I’m a brand-new person in my spirit. Old things passed away, and all things have become new. As Jesus is right now, so am I in this world. My spirit, the real me, was created in righteousness and true holiness.” 

Many people who have seen these truths, who rejoiced over them, and who were immediately impacted have since sinned or gotten busy and forgotten. Something happened and they find themselves back in some of the same negative situations they were in before being born again (i.e., defeat, discouragement, etc.). Due to their own apparent failure, they feel, Maybe I was changed, but I’ve blown it … again.  Regarding everything we’ve discussed thus far about what happened at salvation, they argue, 

“That may have been so before, but I’ve blown it so much since then that it can’t possibly be true of me now!” 

 I have good news—what God does in the spirit always remains constant and unchanging regardless of fluctuations in your performance! 

- Andrew Wommack

Eternal Redemption

Past, Present & Future

You’ve been forgiven of your sins—past, present, and future! 

That’s what “eternal redemption” means. You might think, God can’t forgive me of a sin before I even commit it!  Well, you better pray that He can because Christ only died for your sins once. If Jesus can’t forgive a sin before you commit it, then you can’t be forgiven at all. Why? Jesus Christ hasn’t died for sin in over 2,000 years! 

Jesus paid for all sins—past, present, and future. Humans may not think this way, but God does. He’s Eternal—time, distance, and space aren’t problems for Him. Through His perfect sacrifice, God has already dealt with all sins! 

When Jesus died, He put a will into effect. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10). You were sanctified— separated, made holy—through the offering of Jesus Christ once for all time. 

Generally speaking, Pentecostals were the ones who came up with this doctrine of backsliding, that every time you sin, you lose your salvation, and if you don’t confess it before you die, you’ll go to hell despite the fact that you’ve been born again for twenty or thirty years. They erroneously interpret this verse to mean “one sacrifice for all people.” 

However, the context proves that Hebrews 10:10 means one sacrifice made you holy for all time. Notice all the words referring to time in the next four verses. “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man [Jesus], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified”  

- Andrew Wommack

God's Mirror (Part 04)

 Jesus purchased your glorified body through His death, burial, and resurrection. Although full payment has been made, you still have a corrupted body while you wait to receive your immortal, incorruptible one. At this moment, you don’t yet have the redemption of the purchased possession (Eph. 1:14).

 Your soul wasn’t saved either! This sounds strange to many people because they use terminology like “I’m a soul winner!”  and “I came to see a soul saved”  to describe an evangelist and evangelism. In reality, the New Testament only mentions “soul salvation” a few times—and none of them, in context, are talking about the born-again experience (Heb. 10:39; James 1:21, 5:20; 1 Pet. 1:9). Soul salvation happens when an emotionally discouraged and mentally defeated Christian starts believing God’s Word and then experiences victory, peace, and joy again.

However, when it comes to being born again, your soul wasn’t the part of you that completely changed!

If you were stupid before you were saved, you’re still stupid after being saved. If you didn’t know math before being born again, you won’t instantly know math afterwards either. In fact, if you were depressed before you got saved, you’ll stay depressed until you change the way your soul thinks by believing God’s Word.

Your soul can be transformed now to the degree you renew your mind, change your attitudes, and conform your values to the Word of God. This should happen, and it’s in the process of happening, but it didn’t automatically happen. In your soul, old things didn’t pass away, and all things haven’t yet become new.

The transformation of your soul won’t be completed until you go to be with Jesus!

- Andrew Wommack