Fallen Pastor by Ray Carroll

While writing my book, I was interviewing a fallen pastor. He shared this with me:

“I heard about a pastor who committed adultery in August then killed himself in December. I wondered, ‘Did anyone reach out to him? Did anyone love him? Did anyone seek to restore him?’ It brought back so many memories of when I wanted to die.”

That story has haunted me. In fact, it has come to fruition many times since then. In the past week, I got an email from a man who told me that a pastor who fell killed himself after committing adultery.

I recall a long time ago a story about a youth pastor who hadn’t committed any kind of serious sin, but felt all kinds of anxiety and pressure. He was a seminary student. He called his insurance company and asked if his plan covered suicide. They told him it did. The next day, he wrapped himself in carpet in his car and pulled the trigger.

Ministry is very intensive. Extremely intensive. Whether you have committed a huge sin or not. In my book, I list the pressures ministers face on a daily basis.

Here’s what I want to convey to you today: Pastors are under a huge amount of pressure. They may put on a front that their lives are wonderful. I know I did.

Why do pastors commit suicide? For many of the same reasons other people do. Pressure, stress, depression, anxiety, feeling like they can’t talk to anyone, hopelessness . . .

And for the pastor, many of those feelings get ramped up. They have the added pressure of taking on the pains and hurt of others. Often times, there’s no outlet. They don’t have many close friends to talk to. For a lot of pastors, their marriage has been difficult for many years. Unfortunately for some, suicide becomes a real option.

I’ve learned is that many pastors and their wives have learned to hide their sorrows and pains of their marriages very well.

Friends, isn’t about time that in the church, we started being real with each other? Especially in our church leadership? I hid the failures of my own marriage from myself. What if I had gotten help earlier? What if the church leaders, members, and people actually started being real with each other?

When I talked to the fallen pastors in my book, they lamented that they couldn’t be real with the people in their churches. Unfortunately, I see story after story about pastors who commit suicide because they see no end but to kill themselves. They can’t be real with anyone. Is it an excuse? No. But they have no one to reach out to.

Maybe you are the one to reach out to them. Maybe your pastor has fallen. Maybe you are disappointed in them. Maybe you have lost faith in them. But let me tell you this – God has never given up on them. And neither should you. Don’t ever give up on another human being, regardless of how you feel about them.

Pursue them. Love them. Remember the father of the prodigal son. Never let another person feel alone, regardless of their sin. Don’t abandon anyone. Ever.

Remember the mission of Christ. He never gave up on any of us. He went to the cross for us. Bleeding, weeping, when all was lost. And he made it count.

Even if your pastor committed adultery, embezzled money, lied to you – you don’t have to agree with his sin. But gracious me. You still have to show compassion. There is still some Christ in you to forgive. To show friendship. To say, “I may not understand why you did what you did – but the Christ in me still loves me for who you are.”

Even if your pastor hasn’t done anything wrong – maybe you think he hung the moon – guess what? He may have a smile on every week, but he may be the most emotionally conflicted person you’ve ever come into contact with.

Pastors, don’t wait until you get to the brink. Get help. Reach out. We are here. Church members, look for signs in your pastor. Let him have a break. Reach out to him and his wife before problems start.

The Great Evangelist

Have you ever seen a Rube Goldberg machine? Picture one of those contraptions that starts with a Ping-Pong ball sliding through a pipe. The ball hits a toy car, which then launches onto a race track, which pulls a string, which ignites a match, which pops a balloon, which—well, you get the idea. The final stage might be hundreds of steps away from the ball in the pipe, but you could trace the whole system one link at a time. A long, complicated chain of cause-and-effect: that’s basically a Rube Goldberg machine.
Now imagine that same machine. This time the Ping-Pong ball starts not one race car, but ten of them—and each car pulls ten strings, and ten matches for each of those strings, and ten balloons for each of those matches…and yet, at the end, those thousands of links prove to have all been working towards one glorious, spectacular result.

That’s our universe, in a nutshell, multiplied a couple of trillion times over, and with organic, living links instead of inanimate objects—and with God fashioning every link: “He works all things according to the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11). What’s the starting action? The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). What’s the end result? “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14). What’s the power behind every link? Nothing less than the Holy Spirit—the Spirit who brings life (Ezek. 37:14), glorifies Christ (John 16:14), and empowers believers like us to speak boldly of Jesus (Acts 4:31).

Notice where you fit in. Not the designer of the whole organism (that’s the Father), not the starting point (that’s the Son), and not the power behind it (that’s the Spirit). Just a part. But a significant, meaningful part.

Do you see what all this means for evangelism? The burden doesn’t lie on us! God, in his triune glory, is the great Evangelist. For the glory of his name and the good of his people, God is at work to spread the gospel around the world. He uses everything to accomplish his purposes. Everything. Every single thing. Weather patterns. Wars. The clash of empires and the explosion of technology—and a warm greeting in the checkout line, a hot meal waiting when the neighbors return from the hospital.

Do you see what all this means for evangelism? Every moment is bursting with eternal significance! Oh, there’s mystery here, to be sure. We choose. God controls. And yet our choices matter. And yet God is not subordinate to our choices. That’s a mystery, but a precious mystery—a mystery that changes how you view the guy lifting weights beside you at the gym and the elderly lady who just moved in next door. The conversation you strike up or the moving help you offer all fit into the cosmic, eternal, glorious plan of God. “There are no ordinary people,” C.S. Lewis said. And, we might add, no ordinary moments.


For the next three weeks, we’re going to consider encouragement to evangelize. Here’s where we must begin: God is the great Evangelist. Through the work of his Son, in the power of the Spirit, God is creating a people for himself. He is always at work. And we have a part. So let’s open our eyes. Let’s exult in the precious mystery of his plan. And let’s go join him in his work!

Chosen in Christ

Every promise of God finds its completion In Christ. God chose me to be holy and blameless in Him before the foundation of the world and before I had done a single thing to earn it but rather through his glorious grace in which he makes me acceptable to himself. It was predestined that Christ would be the cause of my adoption.


God predestined me to relate to him by his righteousness and not my own. Before time God chose me. In time he justified me. After time he will glorify me. Neither my adoption, justification nor my glorification has anything to do with me. Only God can qualify me. The only thing I am called to do is have faith in Jesus and that faith is a gift given to me by God. Faith is just my positive response to all God has provided for me by grace.

God called me to him because I was incapable of qualifying myself to respond by faith, it was all His ability to qualify me. Because he called me in Christ and He justified me In Christ, I will be glorified because I am In Christ. Likewise, those people who trust in their own self-efforts to be qualified will be lost for eternity.


I am now filled with the sunlight of God’s grace. God delights in me  because he sees Christ in me, I am the apple of my fathers eye and the joy of his heart. As a chosen child of God I have all the riches and glory of heaven living now inside of me. The overflowing waterfall of all heavens grace flows and cascades over every part of my life.

The Fullness of Christ in Us

Matthew 26:28  “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”


The amazing, wonderful reality of the New Covenant  is that God has now come to live inside man. We have access to God through Christ every second we live. As long as we breathe we can touch and know the presence of God.

Jesus will never leave us, by the Holy Spirit he is interwoven into our Spirit and Christ in all his fullness dwells within us.

We are never alone, we are never separated, the only barrier to living in the fullness of Christ is us. It is all there for us to receive and live in but it is limited by our response to his grace. God will not force himself upon us the more we enjoy, revel and depend upon his grace the more it will overflow out of our lives.
As Andrew Wommack explains the New Covenant is all about what God has done for us and made available to us.

The principle of the Old Covenant was “do” and you shall live. The principle of the New Covenant is “it is done,” and includes redemption, reconciliation, righteousness, and sanctification. The work is finished! We are complete in Him!

If the Old Covenant had no defects, there would have been no attempt to institute another (Heb. 8:7). In the Old Covenant, men found themselves unable to abide in its agreement, for it was based upon a man’s performance.

The new agreement, however, is based totally upon God’s grace. Under the Old Covenant, men approached God through a priest, while under the New Covenant, we have direct access to the Father through Jesus Christ. Under the Old Covenant, a man’s sin led to his death while under the New Covenant, God is merciful to our unrighteousness. Under the Old Covenant, man could not be cleansed of a consciousness of sin while under the New Covenant, our sins and iniquities are remembered no more, and our guilty consciences are cleansed.

Prior to salvation we are incomplete and there is a constant striving in every person to satisfy their hunger. Through the new birth we are complete in Christ and our hunger now should only be for more revelation of what we already have in Christ.

In the same way that Jesus had the fullness of God in Him, we also have the fullness of Christ in us. That makes us complete or perfect in Him,  that is speaking of our spiritual man. Our born-again spirit is identical in righteousness, authority, and power to Christ’s spirit, because our born-again spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). It has been sent into our hearts crying “Abba Father” (Gal. 4:6).

Even If......

In the book of Daniel, three young men stand face to face with the emperor and dare him to carry out his threat and throw them into a furnace. He has said that unless they worship his idol of gold, they will be burned alive. They declare that God is able to save them from the fire, but even if God chooses to let them die, they will still be faithful to worship God and God alone.
This strikes to the heart of my feeble faith and at the core of the American prosperity gospel. Even if. Even if he does not save us from physical pain and even death? Even if he does not do what we want him to do, what seems good for him to do, what makes sense for him to do? Even if he doesn’t demonstrate his power and his favor over our lives or reward our faith right now?
Of course we will pray for the power and mercy of God to be on display in generous provision and miraculous protection. We pray that God will reveal himself in keeping us from the fire of trial and suffering. But…even if he does not, by the power of his grace, we will still worship the Lord and will only bow before him.
Consider a few “even ifs” that bring the magnitude of this faith home to our ordinary lives.

• Even if my marriage doesn’t improve…
• Even if my children do not turn to the Lord…
• Even if my son turns toward sexual sin…
• Even if my daughter won’t reconcile with me…
• Even if my boss fires me…
• Even if my car breaks down…
• Even if my pastor lets me down…
• Even if my friend betrays me…
• Even if my health fails…
• Even if I see hypocrisy in Christians…
• Even if my society becomes anti-Christian…
• Even if my enemy prospers…

Dear Lord, please provide and protect and preserve and deliver, as a testimony to your infinite kindness. But even if there is no fruit on the vines, even if there is drought in my soul, even if the way of the cross looms before me, even if wickedness prospers in the land…yet I will hope in you by the power of your Spirit. Receive the glory as I lay down every “even if…” at the foot of your cross and find that by trusting your goodness and sovereign wisdom I find true peace. 

The Gospel and the Bible

Without the Gospel there would be no Bible...BUT....Without the Bible there still would be the Gospel...THEREFORE...That which makes the Bible the written word of God is its witness to Christ and His Gospel because if there was no Gospel there would be no Bible!

If the Bible is abused and misused to prop up “another gospel” which according to Paul is not the Gospel at all, it fails in being a witness to Christ therefore, we have wrenched it from being the written word of God by misinterpreting it, and rendered it to a mere written word of man.

If we are Spirit lead in our reaction to the truth in the Bible, we without a doubt be drawn to Christ and our image of God will be as He presents Him for He is God as a man expressing Himself to man.

We need to be led and taught by His Spirit, who lives in the gospel, and then judge all things by His Spirit...even the letter of Scripture.

If we do not allow the Bible...the written word of God...to point us to...Christ the Living Word of God ( the Gospel Giver) the Bible is not used in the service of the gospel nor the service of Christ and the people misusing it will either find people mad (in their opinion) or make them mad in order for them to accept that the Gospel is presented.

Jesus and Paul both declared that apart from the Spirit it is impossible to understand truth (John 16:13; I Cor. 2:14). This means that unless we are Spirit led and Spirit fed we open ourselves up to “another gospel” and we cannot understand or use the Bible correctly. Apart from the Gospel the Bible is just written letters(gramma), not Spirit (pneuma). "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (II Cor. 3:6,17).

The Elusiveness of Contentment in Living Life

Some people tie contentment to the stuff that can be accomplished or attained as they climb the ladder of success. The more success is attained the more stuff that can be attained. If I had that vocation...I would be content, if I could make 100,000 dollars a year...I would be content, if I could have that woman or that man...I would be content, if I could live in the influential part of town...I would be content, and the “if I's” go on and on. Even though the pursuit of contentment, peace and happiness is God given and is not wrong, the object of acquiring that contentment can be wrong depending on how and what we do to gain that contentment. Contentment eludes us because we search for wrong stuff to bring contentment as well we search for it in the wrong places, thus we become disillusioned with life.

Contentment in life is not found in things and nothing will bring contentment unless it is first found in our relationship with God. God wants people to be content, happy and full of joy, but the reality of contentment is found in the good news of God's grace that is found in Jesus Christ. When our contentment is found in Him we will be content in whatever situation we may find ourselves in.

The gospel is good news, not bad news, not threatening news, It is not punishment news, it is not fear-mongering news, it is not you live under a curse news, it is not hellfire-and brimstone news! It is good news, exhilarating news, it is not disappointing news, it is freedom from bondage news. It is a contentment bringing news!

True contentment is not in our doing things to make us happy, contentment is found in the knowledge and understanding of the grace gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a contented and happy person.

Have you ever wondered why religion paints Jesus looking so somber and smile-less. Why is he captured as a stressed out, spaced out joyless person, when He is nothing like that. Do you think that kids would have been attracted to and want to hang around with Jesus if He was a unsmiling, grumpy and expressionless man. Is that the kind of person that care-free happy, playful and fun loving kids want to be around. Off course not! I mean, there were so many kids wanting to hang around with Jesus that His disciples felt they had to put a stop to it.

Jesus was a happy, smiling, laughing, joyful and contented person. Just read what Hebrews 1:9 says of Him. “...God your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.” Jesus was the happiest guy around.

Contentment is a natural result of of knowing God and experiencing His love and grace and being in relationship with Him through Jesus' accomplishment and finished work of the cross.

Beholding the Glory of Christ

“It is by beholding the glory of Christ by faith that we are spiritually edified and built up in this world, for as we behold his glory, the life and power of faith grow stronger and stronger. It is by faith that we grow to love Christ. So if we desire strong faith and powerful love, which give us rest, peace and satisfaction, we must seek them diligently beholding the glory of Christ by faith. In this duty I desire to live and to die.
On Christ’s glory I would fix all my thoughts and desires, and the more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes and I will be more and more crucified to this world. It will become to me like something dead and putrid, impossible for me to enjoy.”

— John Owen

What Were We Created For

What were we made for?
To be a servant or employee in God's business?
To further God's vast purpose of world domination?
To be a pawn on the chessboard in a cosmic match between God and Satan?
To give God a good return for His money, or else be discarded as useless?
NO!

We were made to be loved!
We were made to be the cherished children in Papa's family!
We were made for hugs and kisses!
We were made for long walks in the garden with God!
We were made for love songs, smiles and laughter!
We were made for friendship, companionship, and mutual sharing!
We were made for intimacy with our God!

Intimacy
Jonathan David Helser

These hands you made to hold yours, my love

These feet you shaped to walk with you in our garden

These eyes you placed to gaze upon your face

These lips you formed to kiss my beloved

I was made, I was made for intimacy

These ears you made to hear your rhythm of love

This voice you placed to sing songs of grace

This hair you wove, you numbered every strand

This gaze you love, it captures you with a glance

I was made, I was made for intimacy 

Swept Away in God's Mighty Flood

Water is one of creation’s most powerful forces. When a river rises and floods its banks, nothing is safe. Concrete pilings and roadways, cliff faces and forests are all vulnerable to being swept away in a moment by the relentless rush of the current. As the waters carve their way through any obstacles, all manner of strange objects can be seen bouncing along in the surface of the flood, yanked from their former homes and swept away to places unknown.

Now consider that image for a moment. Have you ever felt like that’s your life? Circumstances have overwhelmed you, and you’re just one of the helpless objects caught bobbing in the surface of a torrential flood. Plans are pointless, goals or dreams are completely out of your control, and you’re simply being carried, against your wishes, toward a destination you don’t even know. It’s a painful feeling, but it’s a universal one. Sometimes it comes from momentary conditions that, given a day’s time, will pass. Sometimes the floodwaters seem as though they’ll never end. But regardless, you’ve probably felt that same “flood feeling.”

Now let’s consider that thought from another angle. Do you realize that, if you’re a Christian, the flood imagery is one way to describe what’s happened to you? You are awash in a river of grace, swept away by a torrent of mercy, adrift on the mighty current of God’s good purposes.
Consider what the gospel says about the whole direction of your life. You have been saved. Rescued. Ransomed. Redeemed. At a point in time, your life took an unimaginable plot twist. Once you were going astray, rebelling against God, hating and being hated. Then God the Father saved you through the work of Jesus the Son applied to your heart in the power of the Spirit. You have been saved.

But there’s more. You are being saved. The Spirit in you wars against your flesh. Old desires are being slowly strangled, replaced with new affections. You are a living renovation project, and God will not rest satisfied until you match the blueprint in every detail. The work will not be complete until you love God more than all created things and love all created things for his sake. Until you love your neighbor and spouse and infant son; your Type-A businessman neighbor and his teenage, tattooed, Gothic daughter; your Starbucks barista and the grease-stained mechanic who changes your oil; as you do yourself—indeed, as God himself loves them. The work won’t be complete until you experience the joy of the Trinity throbbing in the core of your being, until you talk and think and act and love like Jesus would, in your shoes and in your life. That’s what God is after. Unlike a human contractor, he will not go over budget or skimp on quality. He is committed to this project. You are being saved.

And finally, you will be saved. Life is not an endless cycle of same old, same old. A finale is coming, the ultimate denouement when all mankind will stand before the judgment seat of God and give an account for every injustice, every broken law, every moment of rebellion. Creation groans for that day, as does everyone who has ever suffered unjustly. And yet you know, as does every guilty conscience, that you have no hope of standing on your own merits on that day. But here is the final good news. When the floodwaters of judgment reach their zenith, you will be brought safely through them. When the judge of all mankind finally calls every human being to account, you will find that the judge is also your defender, your advocate, Jesus the Righteous One. He will plead for you. You will be saved.

This is what it means to be adrift on God’s redemptive river. You have been saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved. Yes, you can and must participate in this process. And your participation affects how well you float. Your folly can cause you to become stuck in a whirlpool, your sin can make you drift aimlessly into stagnant water, your willful ignorance can leave you bound in the mud. You must never act as though you can float any old way you want. But never forget: if you’re in the flood, the current doesn’t depend on you. Someone else put you there. Someone else carved the riverbed. Someone else let loose the floodgates. Someone else will pluck you from the waters at the other end. This much you can count on.

Hold fast. Enjoy the ride. You’re going somewhere—and nothing can stop God’s mighty flood.

A Meaningful Life

Solomon was a pleasure and a happiness seeker and he had the wealth to be able to pursue his dream through power, fame and pleasure. He bought into the philosophy that if a good thing brought pleasure and happiness then more of that good thing would bring more pleasure and happiness and give meaning to life. I am sure that most of us would question as to why this man wasn't happy as we view systematically his failure no matter what he tries to do to gain happiness. With each attempt at a potential source of happiness, he notices that time, circumstances and death trump his efforts.

Listen to the the opening of his chronicle; “these are the words of the teacher, King David's son, who ruled in Jerusalem. 'Everything is meaningless', says the teacher, 'completely meaningless.'”

Solomon targets things that pleasure seekers seek today to find happiness to find that the attaining of such does not bring happiness.

In verse 18 of chapter one he singles out intelligence...2:10-11, pleasure...2:14-16, wisdom...2:21-23, work...4:16-17, power...8:14, self-righteousness...9:11, talent...12:12, education none of which brings happiness.

Solomon, a man whom the Bible reports to be the wisest man to ever live, sums up his pleasure seeking endeavors that brought temporary happiness at the end of his book; “Fear God and keep His commandants, for this is man's all”, (Solomon 12:13)

There is a large contingent within the religious world teaching and preaching that people should fear (be afraid of) God and strive to keep His commandants or else God will pour out His wrath. All kinds of atrocities have been attributed to God as punishment for personal and/or corporate sins.... heart attacks...cancer....typhoons...hurricanes...tsunamis...even acts of terrorism such as the destruction of the twin towers has been attributed to the sin of a nation and the breaking of God's laws.

It is sad that such misinterpretation and misuse of the written word is so readily accepted by people by taking the context of the record out-of-context to present such a distorted view of God that goes directly against the picture that Jesus...the express image of God...gives to us.

The worldly view that the meaning of life is found in this life is accepted by most of the religious world even to a lot of people in the christian religions. This is borne out by the “bless this ministry with your money and God will send his blessings to you but, if you do not pay your tithes and offerings you are robbing God and you are under a curse.”

When Solomon stated. “fear God and keep His commandments,” he did not mean to be in terror of God. Rather he was saying that the meaning of life is not about being happy in the worldly sense. Life is about God and focusing on God brings meaning to life and if we are in Christ and Christ is in us we are content no matter our lot in life.

To fear God does not mean to be in terror of God, it means to be in total awe and respect of Him. In that reality we are in relationship with Him, trust Him and respond to His love for people by loving people the way He loves people.

We have a lot of people striving to keep God's commandments without understanding His love for them. They believe that God will only love them if the keep His commandants. They are bound by rules, regulations and religious duty. If they understood the awesomeness of God's love and grace, they would see his glory and goodness and rule keeping would lose its value as a means to maintain relationship with Him.

When we see God as Jesus reveals Him we will understand His preeminence, His love and grace, we discover the meaning of life.

Life makes more sense when we make it about God and people rather that ourselves and our happiness.

Now that is not to say that “stuff” is important-less, but it is not what is important in order to have a meaningful and happy life. Stuff is fine in its rightful place but, stuff will not outlast death our relationship with God and people will. God and His love will outlast death, He is the ultimate meaning for life in the here and now and for life hereafter.

Once God is the focal point...once he is the culmination of life and the apex of our living...everything else makes sense. Life will not be about our doing for Him, it will be about our living in Him and priorities will fall into place.

Lets heed the words of Jesus, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened down with care and I will give you rest.

Let's make Jesus the focal point of our living to make life meaningful.

Fully Divine and Fully Human

Jesus is fully human

If we had seen Jesus as a man, we would have seen a normal guy carrying his lunch box in one hand and a tool box in the other, heading off to work. He did the normal things that actual people do: eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom, and blowing his nose. I say none of this to be disrespectful of Jesus, but to simply state that these are the kinds of things that we experience as humans, and Jesus Christ was not only fully God but also fully human during his Incarnation on the earth.
Jesus looked like a normal, average guy. Or, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa. 53:2). Indeed, when we examine the life of Jesus as told in Scripture, we see a man who does not appear at first glance to be God. Conversely, Jesus appears as a radically normal and average human being experiencing normal life events like the rest of us:

• Born of a woman (Gal. 4:4)
• Had a normal body of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39)
• Grew up as a boy (Luke 2:52)
• Had a family (Matt. 13:54–58; Mark 6:3; 1 Cor. 9:5)
• Obeyed his parents (Luke 2:51)
• Worshiped God (Luke 4:16) and prayed (Mark 1:35; 6:46)
• Worked as a carpenter (Mark 6:3)
• Got hungry (Matt. 4:2; 21:18) and thirsty (John 4:7; 19:28)
• Asked for information (Mark 9:16–21; John 11:34; 18:34)
• Was stressed (John 13:21)
• Was astonished (Mark 6:6; Luke 7:9)
• Was happy (Luke 10:21-24; John 15:11; 17:13; Heb.12:2, 22)
• Told jokes (Matt. 7:6; 23:24; Mark 4:21)
• Had compassion (Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13)
• Had male and female friends he loved (John 11:3-5)
• Gave encouraging compliments (Mark 12:41–44)
• Loved children (Mat. 19:13–15)
• Celebrated holidays (Luke 2:41)
• Went to parties (Matt. 11:19)
• Loved his mom (John 19:26–27)

God does not get tired or hungry. He does not take naps. He does not need a diaper change. He does not grow or add to his knowledge. Taken together, these are clearly the ways we speak of human beings, and Jesus did all of these things during his life on earth because Jesus was a human being. The importance of this fact is found in 1 John 4:2–3:

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

The idea of God “in the flesh” is another significant concept referred to as the “Incarnation.”

God's Will For Your Wait

Sometimes God calls us to wait, and that is hard. But waiting for God is not passive; it is active, purposeful, and spiritual.

In ministry there are often moments when you are propelled by a biblical vision, but called by God to wait.
Waiting can be discouraging and hard. So what does it look like to wait in a way that makes you a participant in what God is doing rather than someone who struggles against the wait? Let me suggest seven things.

1. Remind Yourself You Are Not Alone

As you wait, tell yourself again and again that you have not been singled out. Remind yourself that you are part of a vast company of people who are being called to wait.
Reflect on the biblical story. Abraham waited many years for his promised son. Israel waited 420 years for deliverance from Egypt, then another 40 years before they could enter the land God had promised them. God’s people waited generation after generation for the Messiah, and the church now waits for his return. The whole world groans as it waits for the final renewal of all things that God has promised.
In ministry, it is vital to understand that waiting is not an interruption of God’s plan. It is his plan. And you can know this as well: the Lord who has called you to wait is with you in your wait. He hasn’t gone off to do something else, like the doctor you’re waiting to see. No, God is near, and he provides for you all you need to be able to wait.

2. Realize Waiting Is Active

Usually our view of waiting is the doctor’s office. We see it as a meaningless waste of time, like a man stuck in the reception area until he has nothing left to do but scan recipes in a two-year-old copy of Ladies’ Home Journal.
Our waiting on God must not be understood this way. The sort of waiting to which we are called is not inactivity. It is very positive, purposeful, and spiritual. To be called to wait is to be called to the activity of remembering: remembering who I am and who God is. To be called to wait is to be called to the activity of worship: worshiping God for his presence, wisdom, power, love, and grace.

You are part of a vast company of people who are being called to wait.

To be called to wait is to be called to the activity of serving: looking for ways to lovingly assist and encourage others who are also being called to wait. To be called to wait is to be called to the activity of praying: confessing the struggles of my heart and seeking the grace of the God who has called me to wait.
We must rethink waiting and remind ourselves that waiting is itself a call to action.

3. Celebrate How Little Control You Have

Because the constant striving in ministry to be a little god over some corner of creation is draining and futile, waiting should actually be a relief. It’s a reminder that I don’t have as much power and control as I thought I had. When I am required to wait, I realize again that I do not have to load my church onto my shoulders. I may have God-given responsibilities in a number of areas, but that is vastly different from pretending I have sovereignty in any area.

In ministry, it is vital to understand that waiting is not an interruption of God’s plan. It is his plan.

The church is being carried on the capable shoulders of the Savior Shepherd, King of kings. All I am responsible for is the job description of character and behavior that this King has called me to in his Word. The remainder I am free to entrust to him, and for that I am very, very thankful! He really does have the whole world in his hands.

4. Celebrate God’s Commitment to His Work of Grace

As you are waiting, reflect on how deeply broken the world that you live in actually is. Reflect on how pervasive your own struggle with sin really is. Then celebrate the fact that God is committed to the countless ways, large and small, in which his grace is at work to accomplish his purposes in you and in those to whom you minister.
When it comes to the ongoing work of grace, he is a dissatisfied Redeemer. He will not forsake the work of his hands until all has been fully restored. He will exercise his power in whatever way is necessary so that we can finally be fully redeemed from this broken world and delivered from the sin that has held us fast.

To be called to wait is to be called to the activity of remembering: remembering who I am and who God is.

Celebrate the fact that God will not forsake that process of grace in your life and ministry in order to deliver to you the momentary comfort, pleasure, and ease that you would rather have in your time of exhaustion, discouragement, and weakness. He simply loves you too much to exchange temporary gratification for eternal glory!

5. Let Your Waiting Strengthen Your Faith

As I think about waiting, I often remember what is said of Abraham in Romans 4:18–21. The passage tells us that as he waited, Abraham was strengthened in his faith. That’s not what we would expect, is it? We tend to think that, having been given a promise from God, a person might well begin to wait with vibrant faith. But as the wait drags on, it seems like that faith would gradually weaken.
So why did Abraham’s faith on the whole grow stronger and stronger? Because of what he did as he waited. During his wait, Abraham became a student of the character and power of God, and the more he saw God for who he is, the stronger his faith became. He meditated on the glory of God, not on the difficulty of his situation.

God is a dissatisfied Redeemer. He will not forsake the work of his hands until all has been fully restored.

There are three ways in which, like Abraham, you can let your waiting strengthen your faith:

1. You can recognize that waiting is an opportunity to know God better through spending time in his Word, thus developing a deeper sense of his character, wisdom, power, and plan.
   
2. You can recognize that waiting is an opportunity to know yourself better. As you wait, and as your heart is revealed, you have the precious opportunity to become a student of your own heart. What sins, weaknesses, and struggles has God revealed during the wait? Where has waiting exposed the lies and false gods that make waiting difficult?
   
3. You can recognize that waiting is an opportunity to know others better, as their hearts are similarly revealed. This can offer you precious opportunities for even more effective ministry to those in your care.

Determine to grow stronger, more effective, and more full of faith as you wait. It is, after all, a key part of God’s intention.

6. Count Your Blessings

Vital to productive waiting is a commitment to resist the grumbling and complaining that often kidnap us all. To fight this tendency, learn to number your blessings as you wait.
I once heard a missionary leader tell a story of how he was dreading an extremely long road trip. Then the thought came to him that this time of being imprisoned behind the wheel of his car was in fact an opportunity. He decided that as he drove he would thank God for every little detail of blessing and grace he could recall, beginning with his earliest memory. As he drove hour after hour, he recounted to God year after year and decade after decade of blessing upon blessing.

The church is being carried on the capable shoulders of the Savior Shepherd, King of kings.

By the end of his journey, he still had not come up to the present day. As a result, rather than ending his trip exhausted and bored, he ended it excited and changed. He saw his life through new eyes, with the presence and provision of God in his life taking on a clarity and comprehensiveness he had never before glimpsed.
Waiting often becomes for us an exercise in reminding ourselves of what we don’t have. How much better, how much more fruitful, how much more joyful, to take waiting as an opportunity to recount the many, many good things in our lives that we have been given—things we could have never earned, achieved, or deserved.

7. Long for Eternity

There is one other thing waiting is meant to do: God intends that waiting would make me long for home.
When I consider this, I am often reminded of camping. I suspect the whole purpose of camping is to make you thankful for home. When you camp, everything is more difficult than it would be at home. In the beginning, that can be fun. But three or four days in, you begin to get tired of having to make a fire, having to hunt for drinkable water, and having to fish for supper. You quietly (or not so quietly) begin to long for home.
Waiting is meant to remind you that you live “between the already and the not yet.” Yes, there are many, many things for which to be thankful in this life, but this place is not your final home. You are in a temporary dwelling in a temporary location.

Determine to grow stronger, more effective, and more full of faith as you wait.

In the life and ministry you experience here, there is one aspect or another that can remind you this is not home. The hardships of your present life and ministry speak clearly: this is not the final destination. Waiting is meant to produce in you a God-honoring dissatisfaction with the status quo. Waiting is meant to make you hungry, to produce in you a longing. For what? To be home—home with your Lord forever, home where sin is no more, home in a world that has been made completely new. As you wait, keep telling yourself, This is not my final destination.

How You Will Wait?

Right now, right here, in your personal life or ministry, there is some way, perhaps many ways, in which God is calling you to wait. How well are you waiting?
Has your waiting produced in you a faith that is stronger? Or weaker? Has the manner of your waiting drawn you closer to God? Or further away? Has your approach to waiting helped remind you of all the blessings you have been showered with? Or has it tempted you to continually rehearse your list of unmet wants?

Waiting is meant to make you hungry, to produce in you a longing.

Has your waiting served to teach you truths about yourself? Or has it only made you more blind about yourself and angry about your circumstances? Has the way you wait enabled you to reach out and minister to others better, or has it simply drawn you deeper into the claustrophobic drama of your own waiting?
In each case, it’s your choice. Take hold of the grace that God makes available. All of these outcomes are contingent on whether you choose God or self; fruitfulness or futility; his powerful grace or your own feeble will. Always remember that God is never separate from your wait. He is the Lord of waiting. He is the liberal giver of grace for the wait.

Because your wait is not outside of his plan, but a vital and necessary part of it, he is with you in your wait. And remember God is not so much after the success of your ministry, he’s after you. So as you wait, tell yourself again and again: Waiting is not just about what I get at the end of the wait; it’s about who I become as I wait.

Love Based Repentance

“In fear-based repentance, we don’t learn to hate the sin for itself, and it doesn’t lose its attractive power. We learn only to refrain from it for our own sake.
But when we rejoice over God’s sacrificial, suffering love for us — seeing what it cost him to save us from sin — we learn to hate the sin for what it is. We see what the sin cost God.
What most assures us of God’s unconditional love (Jesus’s costly death) is what most convicts us of the evil of sin. Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin.”

— Tim Keller

The Pathway to Perfect Peace

“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3).
There is a strong correlation between the mind and the heart. The mind’s contemplations and the heart’s affections are revealed to be interwoven throughout the pages of Scripture.
In this passage in Isaiah, we see that to trust in God involves keeping our minds fixed on God. The one whose mind is stayed on the LORD is shown to be the one whose heart trusts in the LORD, and that trust leads to perfect peace.
The Apostle Paul speaks in a similar fashion in Colossians when he writes,

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1–3)

The mind and the heart, then, are inseparable. What we believe in our minds determines how we live in our actions, which flows from what we set our hearts on.
What a promise we have here in Isaiah!

There is a potential for perfect peace

Perfect peace is promised in this passage to those who keep their minds stayed on the LORD, because the keeping of the mind on the LORD is an expression, a sign, an indicator that one’s trust is in the LORD.
How can we grow in trusting God today? By filling our minds with the truths of God, his sovereignty, his holiness, his wisdom, his power, his immutability, his omniscience, his omnipotence, and most importantly, his great love for us in Christ.
In keeping our minds stayed, fixed, settled on Who God Is, we will enjoy peace within our souls. Our hearts will trust in Him and we will enjoy the promise of perfect peace.

God, in Christ, is the pathway to perfect peace.

The Rudder of Your Life

As a rudder controls the course of a ship, your tongue controls the course of your life by the words that come out of your mouth. Let the wagging of your tongue be controlled by LOVE and your words seasoned with GRACE, so that your lips are CONSTANTLY and GRACEFULLY ENCOURAGING others and expressing THANKFULNESS.

In the ship of relationships the tongue is the rudder that glues and holds it together. A tongue that is seasoned with LOVE and GRACE is the music that soothes the soul and brings harmony and stability to the relationship, and the oil that reduces any friction that may arise in the relationship.

- Glenn Regular

Put Your Roots Into God's Love

A few years ago I faced a challenge of monumental proportions. On the surface it seemed that this challenge would be a two minute job, just a little exertion on a sunny Saturday afternoon.  But a small insignificant Bramble Bush became an evil, back breaking plant that would not be removed.

This Bramble Bush had taken residence in our front garden and had grown to become a little problem with its thorny tentacles causing trouble and destruction.  I thought it would only take a few goes with my secateurs, but after two hours of pushing, pulling, cutting, chopping, I had to call in the cavalry to get rid of the plant. My father-in-law arrived and with his industrial strength chopper’s, the evil Bramble Bush was defeated and victory was achieved.

When we looked at the remnants of the bush, it was obvious that the roots of the plant were greater than the plant.  Its strength was in its roots, the hidden, unseen source of all its glory and just as that bush’s roots provided life, stability and nourishment for the bush, so also a revelation of God’s love is the foundation on which everything on our life in Christ is built.

We receive God’s love and grace in and by our roots which reach deep into the vast heart of God. His life is our life, his power is our power, his faith is our faith, and his glory is our glory.

As we understand and are grounded in our Fathers love we comprehend all that God’s has freely given us by His grace.

Steadfast Love of the Lord

Last night I heard my son crying and upset in his room. He had been asleep for hours and wasn’t really awake even as I tried to comfort him. I thought he might be having a nightmare, facing some pain or difficulty or scary event, unaware that his daddy was close by and that he was perfectly safe and loved. Our experience in life is often like night troubles; we feel scared and vulnerable and alone. Sometimes we even decide that feeling unloved means we are unloved—just like a nightmare. But there is a difference.

A Christian may feel unloved, alone, vulnerable, weak, and scared. Most of the lives of believers recorded in the Bible and in history trace some season of feeling that God was distant and unloving. In other words, their emotions did not register the strong feeling of peace and joy and happiness and security that comes when you feel loved. Yet feelings do not describe reality.
My son was fully loved, protected, even cherished and adored as he cried his way back to sleep last night. He felt one way, but his objective reality was the opposite. I was close by, watching, ensuring his safety, comforting him with my voice.

God’s love for Christians never wavers, never wanes. His watchful gaze never blinks. He never forgets our needs and is always aware of our vulnerabilities. He always protects and cares and comforts, and his voice is always speaking grace and assurance to us through his Word. We may feel unloved, but we are always actually loved more than we can imagine.
So, brother or sister in Christ, the next time you feel unloved, be at peace, and remind your feelings that they cannot dictate reality to God. Your emotions will one day be forced to comply with reality; the feeling of being loved will return and match the reality of God’s steadfast love for us. You are loved, whatever you are feeling right now.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end" (Lamentations 3:22).

The Practice of Repentance

Most of us don’t naturally enjoy repenting when we’re wrong, but for leaders especially, repentance is a powerful, essential, and liberating practice.

Sometimes, you are wrong. It is possibly the most difficult and sanctifying moment we all face on a regular basis throughout our lives.
If we are honest, these moments are a deep struggle, and repentance is not something most of us naturally get excited about. But if we are going to have healthy community and not quit every relationship we have when something goes wrong, we have to make a choice to be men and women who embrace and grow at learning to repent and forgive.
“Repent” is often heard in our minds as a condemning, impersonal, and at times shaming experience. We fail to grasp that the call to repent is a sweet invitation to have more grace, more mercy, and ultimately more happiness than if we remain in our sin. Leaving our sin behind does not lessen us, but restores us and empowers us to be who God has made us to be.

Repentance is not something most of us naturally get excited about.

For most, practicing repentance will not come easy, but it will also be one of the surest signs that we are gospel-centered. Repentance shows we believe that we continually need grace and that Jesus is not done with us.

Trusting the gospel

I have read many leadership books over the years, and none addresses how important repentance is to leading people well. For the Christian who is leading, we must have enough trust in the gospel to not abandon the power of repenting to those we lead.
If you are a husband, some of the most powerful leadership moments you will have are in repenting to your wife. If you are a parent, it will often be in repenting to your kids that the gospel of Jesus becomes most clear. And repenting to your community group—especially if you are the leader—might end up being your most powerful and impactful moments.

The call to repent is a sweet invitation to have more grace, more mercy, and ultimately more happiness.

Repentance does not equal weakness. Rather, it shows to all around us how much we love Jesus more than our sin. The quickest way to change a culture, a church, an organization, a family, a friendship, or a community is through repentance.

Repentance liberates

We often don’t want to confess because we are afraid of the damage it will do to us (1 John 1:9). Yet if we are dead to sin and all of our life is in Christ, repenting will never harm us. We are free to be exactly who God is making us to be.
We are new creations because of the finished work of Jesus (Gal. 2:20). And as new creations we are not defined or condemned by what we have done or what has been done to us. We can put away the fig leaves and enjoy the intimacy with God and each other that we are made for.

Repentance shows to all around us how much we love Jesus more than our sin.

For the Christian, repentance is not something I have to quietly bristle against and avoid, but something I can actively seek out and embrace. It is through repentance that everything changes, and because of this, repentance is not a punishment, but a deep reward of God’s grace.

So who is it that you need to be reconciled to? How can you lead in enriching your community by going first—jumping into the deep end and showing others that it is safe to come clean and not have it all together? It’s not only safe; it’s liberating.

An Accusations Against 'Christians' is that they are Fakers

An accusation against, "christians"  is that they are fakers. The truth of the matter is, in many cases the accusation is valid!

To many Christians put on a pious spiritual front around other people to where their entire demeanour changes and they become a different person than they are in life living. This turns unbelievers off because they sense the facade of authenticity that takes place.  

Christians need to live in the real world and realize that people have good built-in crap detectors. The one thing these detectors sniff out faster than anything else is fake authenticity.

Christians are projected as being all tarred with the same brush. They present themselves as being cloned from the same mould. There are differences between the different denominated moulds but, within each denominational mould all members are cloned alike. Their individuality is overshadowed by the spiritual mask that is so far removed from the reality of daily living that the facade is easily picked by people's built-in crap detectors.  

Behind these facade fronts we hide our quirks, our humanity, our mistakes and our failures. Because of the performance based mentality of attaining spiritual maturity and having the group acceptance, an hypocritical approach is maintained to look good spiritually in the eyes of the hierarchy "spiritual elites" within the denomination they are Christians under.

Believers, we need to own our quirks, they are what make us unique individuals, they also let nonbelievers know we are human and subject to the failures that is common to the human race, instead of presenting to them a lifestyle that unbelievers know they are unable to maintain, one which their crap detectors let them know that the believer's lifestyle is not the perfect one that it is fabricated to be.    

It is not a mark against believers to be honest and upfront about the struggles they face. In fact, it is a better way to authenticate their relationship with God who completely understands our humanity. 

Granted, we live in a society, secular and religious, in which the personality cult runs ramped and is accepted that perceived perfection and performance excellence profits to get the spiritual elite positions and the gaining of religious celebrity status.

This trend is dangerous...believers are human with the same flaws as other humans. When we openly share our flaws, other people see us as real people and will be less likely to elevate us to the pedestal of the super-duper, spiritual-elite faker!   

Believers do not have to live a double standard. We have no right to expect other people to lead a life that we ourselves are not complying with. It is time to end the facade that most people detect is hiding the trueness of who we are. 

Let's make an effort to be who we genuinely are. Our authenticity will attract people to the Gospel because being a believer does not negate our humanity, and out honesty in that matter will help confirm our trust in our Father God full of grace and love.

People, if as believers we walk around in a air of spiritual superiority by concealing our humanity, the possibility of falling flat on our face is more apt to happen. By being real and being ourselves we will become more than ourself because the greater one is in us and working through us, in-spite of our humanity.   

Death and Life With Christ

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)
You are dead. In and with Christ you are habitually, constantly, dead. You are dead, and this very death is, in truth, your life.

For who shall slay you now, seeing you are dead already? He who is already and always dead, what fear can he have of any farther death? Does the law again point against me the thunders of its deadly threatenings of wrath? I am dead, and against the dead no charge can be brought. I am dead, and over the dead no enemy has power. I am dead, and to the dead there is no more fear of death.

This is my safety. This alone is my liberty to be always, in myself, dead. It is only as one dead that I am freed from sin, from its terrors, its temptations, its triumphs; and the more I die with Christ, entering into the meaning of his cross, reckoning myself to be condemned with him, the more am I able to defy every attempt to subject me anew, in any other way, to condemnation.

To every challenge at any time which would require me now to answer for myself as a criminal or as a rebel doomed to death, my reply is that I am dead already. Or rather, it is Christ’s reply for me. “He is dead in me. My death is his.” And I, believing through grace, acquiesce: “Yes; Lord, I am dead in thee. I live no more myself. It is thou who art my life. I live; yet not I: thou livest in me.”

— Robert S. Candlish

Free Because of Christ

Being a believer is not about what I do or don't do, it is about what God has already done. It is not about being good, it is about relationship. It is not about law living, it is about grace living. It is not about being religious, it is about being in Christ and Christ being in us. Therefore, it is not about our trying to please God by doing good deeds and not doing bad deeds. Not only is striving to keep the law unnecessary, it is impossible. Until this truth is realized, to enter His rest will not be realized.

Jesus is the only one who could please God regarding our ability to rest in God and He has already done it, so we need to understand what it is that He has done and rest in the understanding of His finished work.

I am not advocating that holiness is not important in the life of a believer or that we care less about holiness. But if we cared as much about our relationship in Jesus as we do in striving to live holy, holiness would be much more realized because we would appropriate His righteousness rather than our self-righteousness which is as filthy rags. When we put our trust in Jesus and His Grace, we are made righteous. The only way to keep the law is to be in Jesus.

Doing good deeds is good except, when you do them to achieve righteousness and right standing with God...they then become sin! There is only one way man can be righteous and that is because God is righteous and man can only be righteous as He trusts God to make Him righteous. Working to make yourself righteousness is a futile endeavor.

God's first priority regarding people is not to fix our behavior...His first priority is the people themselves...loving people is His main concern. Living outwardly like the people we are inwardly because of Christ dwelling in us, good works is fitted in their right place.

Rivers of Living Water

Jesus referred to this experience as “rivers of living water” that can flow with force and favor inside the believer. Dr. Jowett said, “The river is the minister of quickening, and everything it touches lifts its head in an access of refreshing life.”¹⁵ In his book, The Key to Triumphant Living, Jack Taylor said:

            A river is involuntary; it doesn’t have to try.

            A river is unselfish and available to all wherever it goes.

            A river is the picture of confidence and power and doesn’t have to babble like a brook!

            A river is consistent and keeps on moving. You never have to prod it.

            A river is a picture of constant cleansing. Cast pollution in it, and it will sweep it away.

            A river is a symbol of courage. Put obstacles in front of it and it will overwhelm them.

            A river speaks of power. It runs factories and turns on lights all over the world.

            You don’t have to plead for a river to flow. You can’t “program” a river to stop its flow. 
            You don’t have to map its direction. It will make its own way.

Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead?

By Rich Richardson

You know the story. Jesus died a grizzly death on a cross. He was placed in a tomb sealed by a massive boulder. Then, early on Sunday morning, disciples found the stone rolled away and Jesus nowhere to be found. The Bible says that Jesus rose from the dead in all four gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Historically, Christians marked this event, calling it Easter, and have celebrated it annually for centuries. Christians believe that Jesus died on a cross like a thief, was entombed, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. The whole of Christianity is tied up with the events of Easter weekend. If Jesus did not die and rise again, there is nothing for anyone to trust in. When Christians talk of “trusting in Jesus” they mean believing that Jesus died as a substitute for their sins while they receive the righteousness for his perfect life. All of this hinges on Jesus’ resurrection. If Jesus was not raised, there is no eternal life and Christianity is entirely bankrupt. Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 15:14–17 when he points out,

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

In other words, if Christ is not alive, then there is no way for faith of any kind to be alive. Did Jesus really rise? Over the centuries, many voices have tried to cast a pall of doubt on the resurrection by bringing up a number of objections. What about it, does the resurrection stand up to the scrutiny of hard questions? Here are some of the more popular theories:

1. Twin theory

Some have said that someone who looked like Jesus could have died and then later the twin showed up and pretended to have risen from the dead. This theory does not pass the common sense test. There was never any report of Jesus being a twin. Furthermore, all the authorities had to do to prove that Jesus was still dead would be to produce his corpse and parade it in the streets. This never happened.

2. Swoon theory

Other voices contend that Jesus did not really die, but swooned, only appearing to die. They assert that Jesus went unconscious in the agony on the cross, but in the coolness of the tomb, he was revived. There are many problems with this theory. First, the centurions who crucified Jesus were experts at their craft. Their stock and trade was death. They were assigned to crucifixion duty, and their victims always died. There are no reports of any exceptions. To say that a victim only appeared to die, and deceive the death experts does not square with the facts. These Roman guards oversaw hundreds of crucifixions a month and knew when someone was dead. It is extremely unlikely that these merchants of death would assume that Jesus died when he was only passed out. Furthermore, using the accounts of the crucifixion, medical professionals have weighed in as well. Nearly universally, scientifically trained medical professionals—with no connection to Christianity—agree that Jesus really died. For example, a publication as prestigious as The Journal of the American Medical Society reports the following:

Interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge.

Additionally, if Jesus did not die, it is preposterous to think that an injured, beaten Jesus would have inspired such fervent, life-sacrificing devotion by his disciples. Dr. Alexander Metherell Ph.D. said,

…after suffering that horrible abuse, with all the catastrophic blood loss and trauma, he would have looked so pitiful that his disciples would never have hailed him as a victorious conqueror of death; they would have felt sorry for him and tried to nurse him back to health.

We can see, then, that the swoon theory has no basis in reality.

3. Body stolen

Still another group asserts that the disciples stole the body of Jesus and faked the whole resurrection. The challenge with this theory is the gospels make clear that Jesus’ followers had no expectation of the resurrection in the first place. When Jesus died, they responded with utter despondency and complete dejection. One of his disciples even refused to believe that Jesus rose from the dead even after his companions said they saw him. More than that, these men were scared to death of the Roman authorities, and they would never try and overpower the guards at the tomb, roll away the two-ton stone, and pretend that Jesus lived. If this story were true, the question would not be what happened to Jesus’ body, but what happened to the brains of the disciples? This story cracks under cross-examination as well.

4. Hallucination

Others allege that those who claimed to have seen Jesus merely hallucinated. The problem with that view is that people do not hallucinate in groups, all seeing the same thing. Jesus appeared to so many different people (to 500 at one time once) in so many different places that to believe everyone hallucinated pushes logic past the breaking point.

What is the alternative?

The only alternative is that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead. Just producing the body could have quashed any one of these theories, but no one could. There was no body to produce, because Jesus rose from the realm of the dead. History agrees. Eyewitness accounts agree. Do you?

Why is God Gracious

“For God is not gracious and merciful to sinners to the end that they might not keep his Law, nor that they should remain as they were before they received grace and mercy; but he condones and forgives both sin and death for the sake of Christ, who has fulfilled the whole Law in order thereby to make the heart sweet and through the Holy Spirit to kindle and move the heart to begin to love from day to day more and more.”

— Martin Luther

The Peace that Transforms Your Vision

Paul begins his discussion in Romans 5 with the following fine affirmation: Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand (5.1-2). This new peace with God, in light of the previous enmity and darkness of sin apart from the grace of God (cf. Rom 3.9ff.), offers an entirely new vantage point from which to live life.

For instance, Paul goes on to say that Christians rejoice and boast even in their sufferings (v. 3). How on earth could this be? In the first place, it seems empirically false -- after all, how many Christians do we know that do not rejoice but rather complain in their sufferings, even eventually abandon the faith altogether? Yet Paul seems to affirm rather confidently that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope (vv. 3-4).

I think it would be mistaken to understand Paul's language here as describing some kind of automatic process. The point is not that if you're a Christian, suffering and hardship will automatically produce hope, character, and endurance in you. We know that this is generally not true; the natural reaction to hardship, at least for many people, is despair and a kind of spiritual deflation. Presupposed is that the Christian voluntarily and freely engages in hopeful endurance, that the Christian makes use of suffering as an occasion for developing character.

My proposal is that Paul understands the Christian to do all this because of her new standing before God, thanks to Jesus Christ. Precisely because we have been justified by faith and now have peace with God, we can and ought to approach suffering and hardship differently than before. We find in hardship an occasion for soul-making, an opportunity to develop our characters differently than we had previously done.

And we don't have any trouble hoping in God, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (v. 5). We love God, we know that he has done something fantastic and great for us in Jesus Christ, and so we can trust him. Paul later poses the question: What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? (8.31) Indeed, if God is for us, then what can mere sufferings and earthly travails do to us? On the contrary, by the power of God we can turn them into occasions for making ourselves more like Jesus Christ.  

Word Became Flesh

The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.    John 1:14  NKJ

¹⁴ The Word became ·a human [flesh] and ·lived [made his home; pitched his tabernacle; God’s glorious presence dwelt in Israel’s tabernacle in the wilderness] among us. We saw his ·glory [majesty]—the glory that belongs to the ·only Son [one and only;only begotten] ·of [who came from] the Father—and he was full of ·grace and truth [God’s gracious love and faithfulness.   John 1:14 Expanded Bible

The Word became flesh! Jesus entered into my experience as a human being, with all its ups and downs, all its inconsistencies and confusion, all its struggles and suffering! He entered into my hell, came and joined me in my suffering – the suffering caused by others’ sin against me and the suffering from my own sin that I perpetrated. He understood me, He loved me, He took my side and was in solidarity with me there in the midst of my hurt and pain…He took my side as a victim of sin and lies and the enemy’s ploys, and He even took my side as a perpetrator of wrong actions toward others. He cared about me and understood me, had nothing but non-judgmental love for me there in my pain, frailty, weakness and humanity! I am not alone, He is beside me! I am not forgotten, He remembers me! I am not rejected, He accepts me! I am not judged, I am understood!

He judged and condemned sin in the flesh – He judged sin, not me! He came saying that there was something foreign that had caused havoc in my life, but that thing was not me and not part of my design or true make-up. Oh, what a relief to know that sin isn’t the deepest truth about me! He showed me what human life really is like, showed me what God really did when He made a human, showed me – in Himself – a mirror of my own self! And so in Him I find out that I am not a sinner with a sinful nature, that is not my identity, but that I am God’s child, special, valuable, truly priceless, and I am made in His image and therefore good and loving at the core. I may be sitting in a hell-hole, even one of my own creation, but He is there with me reminding me that I am truly royalty, truly beautiful, truly good deep down inside, truly God’s dear child. I may feel unlovable and unloved, rejected and alone, but He is there with me reminding me I am unconditionally loved, radically accepted, and will never be alone! He is there pointing to the fact that I belong. I belong to God. I am part of His family. I come from Him. I am made of Him. I am therefore good and beautiful and connected with Him always. I find my true self looking in Jesus’ eyes and seeing myself there. He displays for me who I truly am, what humanity really is – the expression of God Himself!

Then there is the cross and resurrection! There He delivers the death blow to sin, eradicating it and taking it away from me. He takes away that which was always foreign to me so that the real, true, authentic me can be revealed and expressed fully in my life! He frees me from the foreign oppressor of lies and legalistic/performance oriented ideas. He frees me to be my true self, my real self. And the resurrection vindicates that true self, that innocent self! He rises from the dead, proving my innocence! It is amazing! I always thought I was a shameful, dirty, rotten-at-the-core, worthless person. Yet through the cross He shows me I am loved just as I am in the mess of my life, I am worth dying for, and He shows me that sin isn’t the deepest part about me, but is actually not me at all. And the resurrection goes and proves that even more, for it vindicates me as innocent! I am revealed to be an innocent little child, pure and sweet, loving and good just like my Papa! Thank You, Jesus, for becoming flesh and taking on my condition, getting rid of the sin/lie was binding me and hurting me. And thank you for showing me, through Your incarnation, who I truly am – not a bad, rejected, rotten person but a good, innocent, loving child, God’s child, God’s beloved child!

The Rich Young Ruler

The rich ruler came to Christ looking for reassurance, he desired those words of affirmation, his question, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” was a open invitation to Jesus for him to confirm that all his good works and self-righteous law keeping would be enough for him to gain eternal life.

The ruler had fallen for the deception that there was some good he could do that could purchase him eternal life. The law was never given for the purpose of producing salvation, but rather the laws intent was to show mankind their exceeding sinfulness, so we would despair to trying to save ourselves and would trust in a savior.

Here is performance based salvation or in other words religion. The scenario that we often hear prayed at any prayer meeting in the land, “Lord, if I do my part, I will believe you will do your part.” NO, God’s blessings and grace to me is not based on my actions or performance, it is based on the finished work of Christ at the cross. All Christ won for me at the cross is a free gift to me and is independent of me ‘doing my part.”

I believe his grace and receive it by faith, which is my positive response to all he has provided. Faith is not a force, a work, an effort but a heart felt thank you. Just remember Christmas day as a child when you opened the best present you had ever been given and with joy and a bursting heart you said thank you to the best parents in the world. That is faith.

The rich young ruler wanted words of reassurance but he needed a savior. He wanted to achieve everything by effort but he needed to give everything up. Self effort and works lead to death, but believing and trusting in Christ leads to eternal life.

Beautiful Reverence

“It is not reverent to erect barriers of icy formality [with God] which Jesus died to tear down. Doing so is pious rebellion. There is no more beautiful reverence in the sight of God than the simple heartcry, ‘Abba! Father!’”

— Ray Ortlund, Jr.

Freely Forgive

Mark 11:25 “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses”.

All of my sin, every past, present and future sin was forgiven at the cross. The amazing fact is that before I was born, before I was conceived in my mother’s womb all my sin was forgiven. It is not sin that separates me from God but it is my unbelief in all that Christ accomplished for me on the cross. My eternal redemption was won for me, I just have to accept and receive it.

Likewise as a Christian, my good works do not earn any blessings from God and if I sin that sin does not separate me from God.

Sin does however cause a barrier in my heart, as it makes me more conscious of my ‘old man’ and causes my heart to harden to the grace of God.

Forgiving others and asking for forgiveness of others keeps our hearts free from the pollution of the world and the accusations of the Devil. We don’t ask for forgiveness to be right with God, we ask to be right with our fellow man and show the same reconciliation that God shows to us.

As Andrew Wommack explains keeping our hearts free from the pollution of sin helps us hear the quiet whisper of God’s voice and the awareness of the Spirit in our lives:-
There are qualifications for believing and receiving as well as restrictions for receiving answers to prayer. Unforgiveness in our hearts will keep our prayers from being answered.

We should forgive others as quickly as it takes to make the decision to pray. The Greek word for “when” means “whenever, as soon as, or while.” When we stand praying, we must forgive if we have ought (“anything at all, the least little part; whatsoever”) against anyone.
When we are offended or hurt, we often feel justified in holding a grudge.

The Old Testament law expressed this when it stated, “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Ex. 21:23-25). Until the offense was paid, we did not feel free to forgive. However, God dealt with all men’s offenses by placing sin upon the perfect Savior who was judged in place of every sinner of all time. To demand that others must earn our forgiveness is not Christlike. Jesus died for every man’s sins, extending forgiveness to us while we were yet sinners, and we should do the same.

It is doubtful that a person who refuses to forgive has ever experienced forgiveness himself. This is comparable to the servant that Jesus talked about in Matthew 18:23-35. He was forgiven a debt of over $3,000,000,000 and yet he refused to forgive his fellow servant who owed him $3,000. The forgiveness that we have received from the Lord is infinitely greater than any forgiveness we will ever be asked to extend to others. Freely forgive as you have been forgiven.

What to Do When You Fall

“Since even the just man, the holiest man, falls as often as seven times a day, indeed, seventy times seven, what are you to do in these slips and falls? If you fall, and you cannot avoid it, do not lie still, do not sleep there where you have fallen. It would be a shame to sleep, therefore rise again. And how are you to rise? By lifting your soul and running to the fountain of grace and mercy, by repairing to Christ Jesus, to obtain mercy for your soul, and to ask Him to send from Himself the needed peace to put your conscience to rest, and to restore your soul to health.”

— Robert Bruce

Free Sons and Daughters

“The Christian life is the life of sons and daughters; it is not the life of slaves. It is freedom, not bondage. Of course, we are slaves of God, of Christ, and of one another. We belong to God, to Christ, to one another, and we love to serve those to whom we belong. But this kind of service is freedom.
What the Christian life is not, is a bondage to the law, as if our salvation hung in the balance and depended on our meticulous and slavish obedience to the letter of the law.
As it is, our salvation rests upon the finished work of Christ, on His sin-bearing, curse-bearing death, embraced by faith.”

— John Stott

The Best Good of the Gospel

“When I say that God is the Gospel I mean that the highest, best, final, decisive good of the gospel, without which no other gifts would be good, is the glory of God in the face of Christ revealed for our everlasting enjoyment. The saving love of God is God’s commitment to do everything necessary to enthrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying, namely himself.

Since we are sinners and have no right and no desire to be enthralled with God, therefore God’s love enacted a plan of redemption to provide that right and that desire. The supreme demonstration of God’s love was the sending of his Son to die for our sins and to rise again so that sinners might have the right to approach God and might have the pleasure of his presence forever.”

— John Piper

Religion's Irony

The underlying irony of religion is that spiritual things are rooted in self and feeds the sin of pride. People can invest all their time in religious performance activities and be convinced they are godly. This spiritual deception is at work right from the pew-warmer to the superintendent charmer. Establishing titles to identify and set people in a spiritual elite class distinction is catering to the self importance of self. Religious activities such as being a special singer, being on the worship team, being the leader of some man-invented ministry, being the pastor, being a part of the hierarchy structure, if not submitted to God is breeding ground for SELF to feel important and to want the spot light. The snare of religion is that people get caught in the control of a Jezebel spirit where self is operating under the guise of spirituality.

We would do well to heed the words of Jesus... “What good is it for man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:25). The acquisition of titles, prestige or power in the religious world based on self-efforts through talents, education or our abilities hinder the work of God in the Community of Humanity. With regards to following Jesus He prefaced the question with a clarion call, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Being full of yourself and selfish desires is not the blueprint to follow Jesus. Self and Jesus does not mix. Self doesn't want to follow Jesus to crucifixion.

Deliverance from self is freedom from the tyranny of religion and its self-edifying dominance over God's people. When we satisfy on our wants and desires by feeding on the mishmash of religious hogwash we eventually dull our spiritual senses and accept religion's way as God's way.

When we are set free from the domination of religious control we see more clearly what true spirituality is and view our life from God's perspective rather than religion's distorted perspective. Only then will we see the folly of religion and settle for nothing less than God's best for our lives...to be free in Jesus Christ. 

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

All denominational fountains are dry when it comes to satisfying the spiritual thirst of man because there is only a illusion of spiritual substance within them. They look great to the self-righteous carnal nature, but intimate relationship with God...which brings spiritual satisfaction...is replaced by intimacy with religion which brings spiritual dissatisfaction.

Believers have to understand that they are built from the inside out because of God's Grace, not from the outside in because of religion. Religion wants to mould us to its image, Grace will mould us to the image of Christ. Religion satisfies the carnal nature, Grace satisfies the spirit of man. Once man surrenders to Grace the Christ-life that is within causes our struggling to cease and one rests in His Grace knowing that Christ is living through Him to accomplish His purpose within the Community of Humanity. Our struggle to die to self and religion is impossible because the focus is on our doing. The more we focus on Christ's doing the more of Christ is revealed in us and through us.

This is the “treasure we have in earthen vessels.”

Jesus is the Head of the Body ---- Really?

As the Head, Jesus Continues His Earthly Ministry
Luke began the book of Acts with this remark:
The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven. (1:1–2)

Notice the word began. The “first account” Luke was referring to is the gospel of Luke. The implication of this sentence is that Luke’s new volume, Acts, is a record of what Jesus continued to do and teach from His ascension onward. 

Consequently, the theme of Acts is Christ’s continuing presence, already found in the name Emmanuel (“God with us”), as a present reality.

No longer visibly present to the human eye, Jesus is still at work in His people by the Spirit. The story of Acts is the story of Christ’s work on earth through His servants as they are energized and directed by the Spirit of Christ.

When Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, He chose to express Himself through a body of believers to continue His life and ministry on earth. That ministry is spelled out in Luke 4:18–19 (NIV):
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

We meet it again in Acts 10:38 (NIV): “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and … he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”

Throughout His ministry, Jesus showed what the kingdom of God was all about by loving outcasts, befriending the oppressed, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, caring for the
poor, driving out demons, forgiving sins, and so forth. If you peel back His miracles, the common denominator underneath them all is that He was alleviating human suffering and showing what the future kingdom of God looks like.

When Jesus did His miracles, He was indicating that He was reversing the effects of the curse.
In Jesus’ ministry, a bit of the future had penetrated the present. Jesus embodied the future kingdom of God, where human suffering will be eradicated, and there will be peace, justice, freedom, and joy.
The church, which is His body in the world, carries on this ministry. It stands on the earth as a sign of the coming kingdom.

The church lives and acts in the reality that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the world today. It lives in the presence of the future—in the already-but-not-yet of the kingdom of God.
For this reason, the church is commissioned to proclaim and embody the kingdom now—to bring a bit of the new creation into the old creation, to bring a piece of heaven into the earth—demonstrating to the world what it will look like when God is calling the shots. In the life of the church, God’s future has already begun.
This dimension of the church’s mission has to do with how she displays the Christ who indwells her to those outside of her.

It has to do with how she expresses Christ to the world. Jesus fulfilled the mission of Israel in His earthly ministry (Gen. 18:18). But since His resurrection, He has commissioned the church to continue that mission. Hence, the church exists to fulfill Israel’s original calling to be a blessing to all the nations (Gen. 22:18), to bring good news (the gospel) to the poor (Isa. 52:7), and to be a light to the world (49:6).

The church stands in the earth as the new Israel (Gal. 6:16). And she shows forth that the Jesus who walked this earth is the same Christ who has taken up residence within her members.