Who is your enemy?

I have long fought battles that I was not meant to fight.  There have been things and people, places and persons I felt to be my enemy that I had to either conquer, subjugate, or avoid.  God help me.  The war is over; the last enemy has been defeated and I am at rest from conflict.  God has become peace and I don't need to stand toe to toe with anything or anyone.  I have no enemies.  So, why do I keep on fighting?
Jesus Christ has in one act destroyed the conflicts of the believer's mind, heart, soul, and world.  He has changed everything, coming in and defeating what needed to be in our lives.  He, through His sacrifice ceased the enmity between God and man so that there is no war between humans and God.  We have seen recently in the rebirth of Greek mythology in Hollywood a theme of brutal tension between the gods and humans.  That is not so in the realm of Christianity.  God is not angry nor is He against you, He is highly invested in your success.  He has come to bring an end to war in you, if you will accept what He has done.
If God has made peace with man then why do I make war even with those who make war with us?  Is there war between Jesus and God?  Then why do we make war with other believers?  When we do fight amongst ourselves we make Jesus fight against Himself.  What about the unbeliever when we fight against them, we fight against the ones that God wants to make a covenant of peace with.  Therefore there is just no one we should be fighting.  It doesn't matter how others treat us; it is how we choose to live ourlives.  I don't have to answer for how others live their lives before God.  My life is God's and mine own; I have to be true to Him and myself.  If others fight let them fight.  Let them choose peace or not.  What will you choose?
Tomorrow I will go further this theme.

Easter every day

Because Christ is risen we are continually celebrating His resurrection.  We must be careful not to let religion confine such an awesome treasure to once a week, once a year.  The present risenness of Christ is immediate and continuous, immeasurable and uncontainable.  And because we reduce it to time slots in our weekly schedule we are missing out on knowing the power of the resurrection.  Today, Christ is Risen! Tomorrow Christ is Risen and Forevermore Christ is Risen!
We can celebrate the risen Christ in every thing we do from our rising in the morning to the closing of our day.  It is applied in our times of weakness and in our time of strength.  The risenness of Christ is relevent when we are sick and in health, in poverty and in wealth.  We can have the same affection every moment for Easter as we do once a year.  The power of the risen Christ will never grow old and it won't become routine.  The more I learn of it and the more it consumes sin, sorrow, and fear the more I love hearing the mention of the very word. Resurrection! (shudder, awe, Bam I love it)
When the Church realizes that the Risen Christ is the answer and cure for society, sin, and the brokenness of people, then we can see the "holiday" manifest into the streets.  My heart is heavy and burdened that the love and power that eminates from holiday is not an every moment of our lives experience. It is like how I felt after watching the Passion of the Christ; that emotion, love, and fullness is mine for the taking.  The power of the Resurrection is my wealth; the overwhelming victory that changes everything every day.
Oh, that I may know Him and the Power of His Resurrection!!!!!! Christ is Risen, now and forever!!

The Kingdom has gone Public!

God has not been hiding in the shadows for about 2000 years now.  He opened the door in the Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of His Son.  At one time only a select, holy, few could even get close to the curtain He dwelt behind, but now the curtain has been torn and open access granted.  He took His Kingdom and made it public; what was once privately owned is now offered to all.  Yes, all the trade secrets, blessings, and profits are open to whomever will come to Him.  Jesus said, "Don't fear little flock for it has pleased the Father to give you His Kingdom.
There are no longer private shares and public shares; whatever is His is now yours, believer.  This is what John wrote about in his first letter, "our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ."  Fellowship is more than "hanging out" eating food.  It is about sharing all things in common with everyone else in the fellowship.  Christ invites us into His fellowship; He gives us all of what He has and is. 
This Kingdom life is all about faith.  We have to come and make our lives public to Him there can be no private ownership of anything.  Whatever we withhold from His touch will never be what it could be with His life infused to it.  It is truly unfortunate that there are areas of our life where we actually believe we have the ability outside Him to control.  I am learning that absolutely everything must be turned over in trust as He has turned over everything in trust over to me.
 Jesus said it this way, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom."  The ones who appropriate the Kingdom are the ones who don't think they can; they are bankrupt in themselves relying fully on the provision of God for every part and parcel of their existence.  What they discover is that when they are weak He is strong.  They don't believe in themselves alone, privately; they believe in what Christ can do through them.
Are you believeing for health?  Praise God.  You are convinced that is out of your control and you are putting full reliance upon Christ to keep you free from sickness and disease.  After all you have the scriptures and promises of God, right?  What about financial freedom?  Are you trusting that God can multiple your seed for sowing?  But if this is all your believeing for your coming up short.  Why not also surrender your fight against sin; there is only one way to defeat sin and that has already been done on the Cross.  Why are we not trusting God to lead us through a sinless day as we are believing for a sick-free, poverty-free day?  Did not Paul teach that we are to "reckon ourselves to be dead to sin; but alive unto God?"  You may say impossible.  But what difference is there?  It is the same redemptive work that by His stripes we are healed and He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.  Why do we have more faith in healing than in righteousness.  The New Covenant speaks more of righteousness and holiness than it does healing. 
Sin remains because we continue to believe it is our responsibilty to overcome it.  We don't feel that way about healing; but we don't come in poverty of spirit in regard to sin.  Remember there are no private parts; what you withhold from His power is what you have to face on your own.  It is time to take your health, wealth, and righteousness public.  Living by faith in the Finished work of Christ.  Claiming every day what you claim about your health, finance, the curse and the devil.  "I claim a sinless day today because of the Finished Work of Christ."

Harbor

      The life in Christ is to be a harbor; a safe haven from the sin, death, and destruction of this present age.  We are with Christ hidden in God.  Not just insulated from the world but rather victorious over it.  You may think, "well, I don't feel like I am victorious!" Or, "it doesn't look like I am winning over my circumstances."  Yet remember God has not called us to walk by feeling or even by sight; we are to live by faith in the revealed reality of our hiddenness and risenness in Christ in God. 
     Our life in Christ is meant to be a life of rest and confident expectancy.  Too much of our consciousness is invaded by past hurts, present offenses, and the fear of what could be.  Most people will not engage fully in relationships because they have been hurt, are being hurt, and fear it happening again.  The problem with any avoidance of life is also to neglect the life that Christ gives so freely.  To enjoy what He has bestowed upon us is to take risk; to reach out without seeing but knowing that He has done it already is not always easy.  Paul says that if God gave His own Son without caution will He not also with the Son freely give us all things?  And when we take harbor in this reality we can fully enjoy and see all those things He has done. 
    It is when we harbor ill feelings, grudges, fears, and prejudices that the good things He has given begin to blur.  Oh, they are still there; they are always there.  Our sight of them is obscured by nursing our pains and past struggles; we can't see the all things because our focus is on the pain.  For years we have had a hard time bringing suffering into a consistent theology.  Some have a conviction that we suffer because we have sinned; others are convinced it is to make us into stronger Christians.  I have come to realize that our focus is never the how's and why's of suffering but that our eyes are always fixed upon Jesus. 
    What if we didn't allow our hearts and minds to be weighted down with controversy? Would suffering be different if I didn't take the attitudes and opinions of others more important than the truth of God's word?  What if I didn't sit around trying to figure out "what the hell I did to get this pain," but instead realize that God has worked on my behalf and I will see His goodness in the land of the living.  What if I came to the understanding that God is not mad at me and I should not let anger keep me from fellowshipping with neighbor and loved one?  What we if refused to harbor unforgiveness, anger, malice, greed, and prejudice; but rather sailed into the harbor of the Son and rest, rest, rest?

To Fulfill All Righteousness

    Jesus comes to John the Baptist in the 3rd chapter of Matthew and the 1st in John, to be baptized by John.  Now we know that Jesus was without sin and really did not need to be baptized in the rationale of the New Testament process of baptism.  Some have erroneously suggested that because of the nature of Baptism that Jesus was cleansed at this point.  Or on the other hand it has been suggested that Jesus was merely going through an exercise he intended for his followers later to enact.  Baptism, then would be a symbol of what Jesus went through and the new birth of the believer.  The phrase, "to fulfill all righteousness" then means that we do this because Jesus commanded us to.
    All scripture is a testimony of Jesus Christ.  This event in scripture has more to do with the Finished Work than it does baptism (of which I mean not to diminish but look deeper in this passage).  In the Old Covenant a man would bring his sacrifice for repentance to the Priest, the priest would examine the sacrifice to see if it were acceptable, sins would be confessed, and then the lamb would be slain.  If the sacrifice were not acceptable the man would be turned away still in his sins.  The sins of the sinner would be transferred to the animal and the perfection of the animal to the sinner.  Then the lamb would be the sin; the man righteous.  Thus to fulfill all righteousness.
     Jesus came to the river with his people.  The bible tells us that all of Jerusalem was coming out to be baptized by John and his baptism was a baptism of repentance.  Jesus identified himself with man who came broken to be wash; He Himself clean like the spotless lamb.  In fact when John saw Jesus coming he declared, "behold the lamb of God which takes away the sins of the WORLD."  He was approaching the priest with the repentant people of God.  See, John was of the Levitical priesthood lineage. 
     John declared that the sacrifice was acceptable.  He told Jesus that he should not be baptizing Jesus but that He should be baptizing the baptizer.  John declared that Jesus was of higher rank than himself.  The Lamb was perfect not needing baptism nor repentance.  Yet, Jesus says do this to fulfill all righteousness; He had to be slain as man so that man could be righteous as He was.
   Earth declared the lamb to be acceptable but so did heaven.  When Jesus was baptized the Father says, "This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."  God accepted what came with man and was approved by His Priesthood and the deal was done.  What remained was that the Lamb had to be killed and his blood shed for the sins to be eradicated.  The body that God had prepared not to stop sacrifice but to complete it was acceptable for the task it was sent to accomplish.  And all righteousness was fulfilled in one act. 

Redemption in Your Lives

I met a man today on my journey who was a sex offender looking for a job.  I can not tell you whether he is guilty or not even though he claims he was wrongfully accused.  Nor will I take occasion to debate the severity or depravity of this man.  All I can say is I saw a depth of pain in his eyes and a sense of hopelessness in his present circumstance changing.  He was honest and open about his status and I couldn't help feel a sense of compassion stirring notwithstanding or validating any pain he has caused others.  And as he walked away I was overwhelmed with a sheer impression that mankind is in deep, dark pain. 
What has happened to the current of redemption amongst men?  Why aren't the fresh breezes of grace and mercy blowing over the tired, huddled masses on this earth?  I mean hasn't redemption reigned in this world for over two thousand years, why isn't it the common tongue of men?  It seems in reality that the message of wrath, judgment and condemnation rest upon the lips of people today rather than the dulce rhythms of God's tender salvation.  The tones rising to meet the weathered ears of sin broken people in desperate need of hope.
What "good news" is the message of modern "gospel" of turn or burn?  Men say God hates "gays" and they will perish forever in hell. Yet, is it not the love of God that is the hope to redeem them from the sin and the hell that comes after?  Or what of the young woman who in hopelessness has an abortion?  She is given the title "baby killer" and yet what were you called before redemption?  Was it not the grace of God who change your name?  What was it exactly; the severity of God that changed your purpose and destiny or was it the redemption paid in blood that set your soul free and entitled you to Kingdom?
It is time we cast off these scarlet and black letters upon the chests of men and give them the message of truth.  There is only one communication of redemption in this age; it is how you communicate it.  We must rewrite this curriculum that has been circulated amongst the "sinners" and "saints" of this age.  Men have too long sat in the throes of this "condemnation generation" without relief from its blasts pinning them to their despair and brokenness.  They need the old, old message of forgiveness, freedom, and hope. These do not need our contempt, pride, and arrogance; but the redemption that we once saw in the Saviour's eyes and heart and Word.
You may be thinking if we are not tough on sin; how will men be aware how dangerous sin is.  I have one answer for you.  The man I met today needs no new lesson on the dangers of sin; he needs to know how to beat it.  He doesn't need the correction of the Church to make him feel the sting of his error; but he does need the message of Redemption to recover from it.  Let us let redemption ring!

Freed from all law

1 Corinthians 6:12  -New International Version (©1984)
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:13  -New American Standard Bible (©1995)
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything

I know it is hard sometimes to wrap your head around the full scope of God 's Grace.  It seems like it just goes too far in it's gratuitious nature.  Paul says it was for freedom that Christ has made us free.  But the religious among our family believe that man cannot be fully trusted with such freedom.  They maintain that he needs boundaries and posted laws to remind him the serious infractions sin and failure procure.  If he is not reminded he will surely backslide into depravity and fall short of God's glory.  And because we have been taught and enforced by our religious leaders we have a hard time trusting the full extent of God's unmerited favor. 
The truth of the matter is that the work Christ has done in us has freed us from the need of law.  A righteous man does not need law to instruct him on what is right and wrong; he already possesses the ability.  What Christ did for us is like the man so entrenched in debt and up to his eyeballs in bills.  Someone comes along and pays off his debt, and uploads millions into his account.  He no longer has bills.  No one is sending him payment booklets to remind him monthly to give his debtors their due.  It is like the man born lame in need of crutches all his life, only to be miraculously healed of his affliction; he no longer needs the crutches. 
You were unwashed, unsanctified, unjustified a person under the law; needing the law to keep you in line.  A line you would always cross. But now you are washed, sanctified and justified in the name of Jesus and in the Spirit.  There has been a miracle done in your soul to change your nature.  You no longer need a law to direct your life; you yourself can under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit in you live a lawful life.  For you are not lawless but rather lawful.  See the law has been fulfilled and there is no longer any bills to be paid, nothing to overcome. 
There may be a concern here to say all things are to me lawful; we are not sure we can be trusted with such knowledge.  If I tell a man he that all things are lawful for him will  he not go out and sin like crazy declaring that all things are lawful for him.  Paul is telling the Corinthians that no man can judge him in the food he eats or the days he observes or not.  He is saying that there is no law hanging over his head constantly bearing judgment, scrutiny, and condemnation for every little thing.  (Like smoking, drinking, and watching too much t.v.)
I am not suggesting that all sin is now become legal.  Paul goes on to say that not all things are profitable.  Even though I have great freedom there are things that magnify and maximize that freedom and there are things that are a detriment to my freedom and can master my life.  For freedom means freedom from a law that chokes out life and brings condemnation; freedom from sin and its destructive tendencies.  I shall not be master by either.  In Christ both law and sin become irrelevent to the Christian together.  We have been made lawful; so sin and law have become obsolete as crutches to a lame man made whole; or the man of debt forgiven no longer concerned about bills. 

Is Grace enough or does it need help?

I think that the core problem with man and his understanding of grace is how he examines it.  What I mean is that he examines grace in light of man's behavior and character.  He evaluates grace according to the way mankind acts and thinks.  His argument is, "how can I be holy and righteous and yet think the thoughts I think, say the things I say, or do the things I do."  He looks at the declaration of God's word (which he affirms is truth) and then witnesses the inconsistency between the two.  There in his mind is a contradiction.  If he were truly holy and righteous standing in God's continual favor then why does he continue to fail?
Further more he knows humanity's tendency to abuse lenient authority.  If man is allowed to be in God's grace without condition how will he learn to be holy?  Not only do we judge the validity of Grace on the merits or demerits of our own character but also on that of our neighbors.  We are afraid of a gratuitous measure of God's grace because we believe that men will only take advantage of it and continue in sin. 
We don't trust in God's unmerited favor as it is, therefore we seek to make it a little tougher.  We take scripture where we can and weave a strange creature that is part law and part grace.  It strikes me interesting that we seem not to trust the law fully either or we would abandon grace totally.  As it is we  can't fully trust either and so we mix the two to come up with a stronger thing.  However the concoction we derive violates the Heart of God and His New Covenant. 
If only we would abandon ourselves to the Grace of Christ trusting that whatever is His is strong enough on its own to bring men to holiness and true righteousness.  God doesn't need our help.  I think He believes in Grace enough to unleash it upon a people who might abuse it.  Could it be that the Word of Grace that departs from His mouth WILL accomplish what it was sent out to accomplish.  I believe; do you?

God is appeased Forever in Christ

Christianity is becoming a faith that tries to appease a god that cannot be appeased.  He has become much like the Greek gods, capricious and fickle.  One time He is happy because you are acting in a manner consistent with His law; and other times He is full of rage, hell-fire, and brimstone because you have missed the mark.  If this were the case He would be happy in the morning and then raging mad in the afternoon.  His moods would rise and fall on the behavior of His follows.  God would not even be in charge of His own emotions; who then would be the god?  We often justify this notion with the "just" God argument; declaring that because God is just He must punish sin. 
Actually Jesus became the Just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in God.  There is only one way to appease God and that is by blood.  Not the fickle and temporal blood of bulls and sheep but of the eternal blood of His Son.  Hebrews says that, "by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified."  That means that Jesus' blood appeases God forever.  FOREVER.  Therefore God is not angry with you anymore based upon the blood of Jesus. 
There is a five dollar word that describes this total appeasing and it is propitiation.  This word literally means the satisfying or appeasing the demands of God and the law.  "He himself IS the propitiation for our sins; and not of ours only, but also for those of the whole world." (1 John 2:2 NASB)  Sometimes we stress the first part of this verse; he himself is the propitiation for our sins.  And yet we fail to recognize the second and third clause; and not ours ONLY, but of those of the whole world.  Christ has paid the full price for all of the world.  Every man can now stand before a God who is not angry with them.  All we need to do is believe. We don't have to do anything to appease God; He has been appeased in the doing of His Son.  Our simple response is faith. 
God is looking for people who will trust in Him and His provision totally.  It is not dependent upon us to make God happy by our deeds; we are called to believe in the deeds of Christ. 

HIs Righteousness on Your Record

I do background checks and drug screenings as a part of my job.  God chose to use this as a teaching point for "imputed righteousness."  See I take the information of a candidate and input it into the screening program of a system that tracks all kinds of records for citizens.  It tracks criminal, driving, and financial activity that could be detremental to a company's welfare and provides it to them.  All the records are available you punch in the name and up comes the information about the person.
When we confess and believe God deletes the record we have collected, and then "uploads" the information of His Son onto our account.  So that when He or anyone else accesses our record they will only see the record of His Son.  Marvelous, simply marvelous. That means there is no longer anything to be ashamed of; the past has been erased, the present righteous, and the future only goodness, faithfulness, and joy.  Paul tells the Romans, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."  If you do a background check on me, all you see is Him. 

Faith is the Victory

You cannot fight sin.  It's true.  A man can't defeat, beat, or overcome his own sin.  God told Cain when he brought the sacrifice that wasn't as acceptable as his brother Abel, "sin is crouching at your door, but you must master it."  We know from the scriptures that he could not master it; it mastered him and he killed his brother Abel.  God also commented on humanity as he was speaking to Noah about the rainbow, saying they were only capable of evil from their childhood.  We cannot therefore, defeat sin by will-power, intestinal fortitude, self-abasement, or posting of law.  What then is the hope?
Paul told the Romans, "What the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did sending His own...comdemning sin in His flesh."  Jesus defeated sin tor us.  The victory is not by something we do to try and defeat something we can't; it is all in trusting the provision of Christ.  The manifestation of the victory is realized when we believe.  That is it all. 

Affliction working out what's inside

I was reading 2 Corinthians 4:16-17, and I realized that afflictions are producing anything, they are bringing out what is already present.  Let me explain from the word.  Paul begins the text by saying that our outward man is decaying but the inward man is being renewed day by day.  Then he says that the "lightness of momentary afflictions,"work out for us.  He is saying that the "light" afflictions are working out what is already in us.  It is not us working out, it is being worked out in and through us.
He uses a literary device that ironically compares what we think is heavy to what really has weight.  Our temporary light afflictions can't compare with the more and more surpassing "eternal" weight of glory.  He is comparing what we think to be such a long duration of suffering to what is really eternal.  Our afflictions will end but what is brought forth is eternal and is heavy.  What the apostle is doing is tearing down one paradigm and constructing another.  He wants us to look past the pain and see the coming forth of glory.
We have pushed the result to an after-life reward beyond death as a reward for our patient endurance.  But eternal is not automatically defined by an after-life application.  It is just defining the everlasting results and not passing it off to a future age.  But rather the afflictions are uncovering more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory.  That means that what is brought forth in the affliction will not only last for eternity but will also be weighty with the glory of God in the present.  It is much like when Paul says that God's grace was sufficient; power is perfected in weakness.  When we are in the midst of afflictions it is the weight of His glory that guides us and empowers us through.  It is a now and later glory that never ends. 
Don't worry when the outward man weakens; there is an eternal weight of glory being worked out for us as each new day dawns. 

Trust the Righteousness of Jesus!

Romans 5:19

Paul teaches that Adam's disobedience caused everyone born of him to be made sinners. His work was indeed a powerful one that had a long term result. His one act of disobedience instilled within man an unrighteous nature before God.  Everyone was affected by it.  We say confidently in the church that "everyone's a sinner." This teaching is correct but it is only part of the whole reality of the life of mankind.  We know that Adam's effect was immense, incompassing, and held men in slavery for years, but it was never eternal.
The Work of Jesus however, His one act of obedience brought many to righteousness.  He became our sin so that we could become His righteousness, and His righteousness cannot fail.  Think about how powerful His work is in making a man righteous before God by new birth.  Everyone born into Jesus is righteous as He is righteous.  Just like everybody born into Adam is a sinner.  Jesus tramsforms people out of the lineage of Adam and places them in the family of Christ: the chosen of God.
The disobedience of Adam took a righteous man and made into a sinner.  Right?  This work of Adam took the righteous nature of Adam and turned it into the flesh.  And we believe that no amount of good works can undo that nature of Adam.  It doesn't matter how much good you do you are still a sinner. (I am on the right track here?)  The "sinner" by his own power of moral goodness can change what he is; we would say it is not about his doing but his being.
However, the obedience of Jesus is not given its due.  See, the righteousness of Jesus took a sinner and made him into a righteous man; exactly opposite the work of Adam.  He took the sinful nature of Adam and turned it into spiritul nature.  And yet, many believe that bad acts can jeopardize that new nature.  I am not suggesting we do bad that good may come.  I merely am pointing out that our righteousness is not not based upon how much good we do; but by who we have been made to be in Christ Jesus. 
To say that we still possess a sinful nature is to suggest that Adam's work is more effective than Christ's.  Let me explain.  We believe that when Adam sinned he was no longer a righteous man but a sinner.  He was not some creature with a dual nature; on one hand a spirit and on the other carnal flesh, he was just flesh.  Yet, we often fight the concept that we are not a dual man in Christ Jesus.  Saying that we are part flesh and part spirit is to say that Jesus didn't finish the work.  He got us half way out of sin and half way into the spirit, and now we are subject to either side we give more power to. By this we suggest that Adam's was finished, we were righteous and now we are sinners; not half way out of righteousness and halfway into sin.  Shouldn't we give more credence to the power of Christ than to Adam? It was Jesus who said "It is Finished!"  He brought us completely out and absolutely in.
Last thought!  Do we trust righteousness of Jesus?  Is it to us more powerful and more permanent than what Adam first gave us?  The effect of Adam's work was temporal; the work of Jesus is forever.  "By one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified."  Out of one act of Adam's disobedience we were made effective sinners (we just couldn't help it).  Should we not be effectually righteous because of the Obedience of the GREATEST MAN Jesus? (We just can't help it?)

Pure Grace Preaching Keep People From Sinning?

There is a fear that when we teach pure, unadultered grace it will give people an excuse to sin.  They contend that if we say God is not angry with you, then they will not fear God.  There will be no way to stop men from sinning; we would be giving them license.  If God has forgiven us all our sin then people will think "I might as well sin, it is forgiven already!"  And because of these fears and simple logic men are leary of teaching an absolute grace.  Rather we combine the Old and New Covenant together believeing that if we present a Gracious God men will abuse His good grace.  They are quick to remind that God is a God of Wrath as well as love. (The bible does not say God is Wrath, but it does say God is love.)
Paul contended with this view in Romans the 6th chapter.  He was quoting an argument much like the one men use today, "Should we not continue to sin so that Grace may abound?"  Paul maintains that no we should not continue to sin that grace may abound, how can we who died to sin live any longer therein."  Grace doesn't encourage men to sin or give them an excuse to do it; it's plan is to eradicate sin.  Paul says that Grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires (Titus 2:11&12).  Law based teaching gives power to sin and stripes the believer of his. 
Pure Grace teaching demonstrates that the power of sin is no more.  Really sin can become irrelevent in the life of the believer.  After all it has been condemned in the flesh of Jesus and we are dead to it.  Now I know that in the world we see sin all around, but we are dead to it.  Think of it like this.  (excuse my morbidity here) A dead man in the town grave yard is dead to the world still thriving all about him.  Life in the world continues on but he is untouched by the happenings about him.  He doesn't feel the crunch of the economy or the pleasures of the pits of human depravity.  Really all that is in the world has become irrelevent to him.  It still exists, but he doesn't exist in it.  Sin still goes on in the world but the believer is truly dead to it and it to him.
 Grace teaches death.  No, not like the law teaches death.  See the law teaches that if you sin you are going pay for it; this is the law of sin and death, you sin you die.  But Grace teaches that one absorbed your sin and died as you; therefore you have died.  And Grace also teaches that you have been raised up and are no longer alive to sin.  Paul says reckon yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God.
We are so afraid of people abusing grace; what we ought to really fear is offending the gospel.  To teach that God's Finished Work was not acheived is a more frightening proposal.  To say that we need to scare the "hell" out of people with wrath, blood, and guts, beating the "hell" out of people week after week so they will not sin is a waste of time.  No one stopped sinning completely because they got beat up by the preacher, in fact church becomes a weekly "wood shed" for some people.  That is a shame because  Hell was defeated soundly when God raised up Christ.  Jesus got the "hell" beat out of him so that sin would cease in you.  So, why don't you trust in what He did, and stop trusting in what you can do. 
Don't worry about abusing grace; true grace will guide, guard, and glorify you. 

Greatness Possible?

God is showing me how much He wants to be involved in our lives.  We have reserved Him into the "Churchy" things of life and have not accessed His amazing presence in every sphere of existence.  Peter says that He has granted to us "everything pertaining to life and godliness."  He has not just granted to us salvation and future inheritence.  He has granted us everything that pertains to life.  Too much of our lives are independent of the one in whom we are yoked together.  And a life lived like this is just a tragedy.
I like Olympic beach volleyball.  There is a player named Phil Dalhauser and he is amazing.  I love to watch him take out opponents with his incredible height and ability.  If I was ever in a beach volleyball tournement and could have anyone in the world on my team; you better believe it would be Phil.  Now, I know that Phil would be doing most of the work, but that would be okay for me.  To stand in his presence and watch him hit ball after ball back, well Wow.  It would be foolish for me in the tourney to say, "Phil sit back I got this, and if I need help I'll just yell out!"  No way.  I would be, "Hey Phil you do your magic and if you need my help just yell, but really I think you got it."
Paul says the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.  So, I figure it is alot like me and Phil only greater.  In life who better to partner with than Christ Jesus. And not just partner but be fused with.  Jesus and I are one with the Father and so I should be living in conjunction with Him.  Actually a great word is yoked.  You always yoke a weak animal with a great animal.  The greatness of the one is shared with the weaker one.  I am therefore yoked with Christ.  His greatness is a gift for me not to just worship and admire, but to experience.
What I am trying to say is "let go and let God."  At my work today I decided the job is just way too big for me so I said to God, "You are the Human Resources Assistant today."  I am the weak yoke animal, as He pulls me greatness insues. Praise God!!! He did great today.  Can you let Him be the GREAT yoke one and you share in His greatness even now?

John G. Lake Quote

"Commit your body, soul, and spirit in entire, one hundred fold consecration to God forever.  Don't be satisfied with sins forgiven.  Press on, Press in.  LET God have you and fill till consciously He indwells, lives, and abides in every cell of your blood, of your bone, and in your brain, until your soul indwelt by Him, think His thoughts, speaks His word, until your spirit assimilates God, and God assimilates you, until your humanity and His divinity are merged into His eternal deity."

Go for it! No limits, no boundaries, no law against this.  There are no conditions, addendums, or secret clauses.  Press on, Press in. 

Can you let go?

The rich young ruler had a materialistic soul that is to be sure, but he also couldn't let go of meritous religion.  He was confident in his wealth and his own piety; he was in no way poor in his life.  Sure he had a hard time letting go of his possession but he also couldn't part with his own goodness.  The law appealed to him because he could measure and calculate his own greatness in every sphere.  See he was rich in the sphere of the material, and as affluent in the religious sphere as well.  He couldn't let go of himself.  Law based religion was just another way to present his superiority of quality.
Jesus called him not just to physical poverty the outward expression of his inward condition, but also to give up score keeping.  He invited the man out into the world of obscurity and oblivion of merit and value.  The Lord was wanting the rich young man to give up his status, power, priviledge as well as his own piety and religiousity.  To become nothing.  No, the young man could not give up the material but he also could not let go of his own glory.  The weight of his own importance was too much just to let go and to become nothing.  Jesus was asking too much.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, " says Jesus, "for their's is the kingdom of heaven."  The ones who are nothing are the ones who have everything.  This is totally opposite of the way in which material man loooks at life; he judges worth in dollars, position, and merit.  We don't judge greatness upon the measure of nothingness.  And the law strokes the ego of people caught up in their own personal value.  After all it helps us keep score and gives us a standard by which we can aspire to, right?  Most of the time it becomes a way for man to elevate himself and look down upon any who would challenge his glory.  But it is those who think neither greater nor lesser than the people in whom they share the globe with that are truly blessed. 
Can you let go of the game?  Can you leave the crazy system of measure between men of faith and seize the simplicity of being found in Him?  See it is not about how we measure up or what we merit in this age or the age to come that determines our "piety."  But it is how much we depend upon the Work of Jesus and the thing He merited for every living and dead thing.  Can you let it go and trust in this work alone?  Or is your "faith" too entangled, intwined with your ego to let it go?  It is truly a sad, sad thing to watch one who thinks they are rich walk away from the only One who can make them inherit everything.  How often we men trade the wealth of the Kingdom for trinkets of the world? Hmm.

Expect Victory

2 Corinthians 2:14, 1 John 5:4-5

I'm sick of expecting failure, disaster, and defeat.  It makes me mad that I let the fears and intimdations of this world back me into a state of insecurity.  Are you tired of sitting around waiting for the boom to be lowered and see all your good, hard work ruined by mice and men?  This ought not be what we expect in the Kingdom.  Surely we should be standing firm in the conviction that the Crucified Jesus is greater than all the kingdoms in all the worlds.  It is high time we return to the simplicity of expectation of Victory.
Paul says that God ALWAYS leads us in a triumphant procession.  He is the leader of the ticket tape parade that signifies that the war is over and we are a conquering people of a victorious King: leader of Unbeatable Kingdom.  That is right.  We have far too long let the devil, the world, and "circumstances" of life keep us in a prison of fear.  There is no doom; there is no destruction.  The Church of Christ is not marching into Victory it is celebrating it.  We are not fighting the hoards of hell trying to free ourselves from sin and Satan; but are a people who are coming behind a King that has destroyed all so that we might be free.
John stated that whatever is born of God is a world conquerer.  Think about it.  If the same seed rests in the children of a God who defeated the world, flesh, and the devil; then those who possess that seed will do the same.  If the Father can do it, so can His children.  The victory that overcomes the world is our faith in the Finished Work of Jesus.  Believe, Believe, Believe!!! That is it. 

Under Law?

Paul said that no flesh is justified by works of the law.  This means that when a man seeks to be "right" with God by his own deeds he is under the law.  No man can on his own merit make peace with God; he the unjust can't be just with God.  The Law was given to get man to realize that before God he was justifibly helpless; he can't live righteously according to the law.  In fact Paul makes a statement in Romans 3 that no man is righteous not even one.  If not one man is righteous then he cannot even produce one righteous act.  How then can he be justified before God if he can't even produce one righteous thing.
The church paradigm is that we are saved and initially justified (declared righteous) by God but from time to time (some say every moment) we come out of that and need to do something to be right with God.  We have forgotten that God made Jesus the "just" and the "justifier" of the one who has faith.  It is sad that we have made all kinds of good spiritual activities law so that we can be "right" with God.  I have said and heard said that if you want to be right with God you need to pray everyday, read your bible, go to church, pray with your kids, witness, and give to the poor.  These things are wonderful acts of who we are in Christ, but have been elevated over redemption.  It is no longer a righteousness based upon faith in the Finished Work of Christ, but on what I can do to keep God happy with lesser sacrifices.
The only "way" be "right" with God is the Work of Christ.  His blood is what redeems us from all our sin; not our deeds before or after this great work.  Hebrews says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.  My conduct good or bad has no bearing on the redemption of Christ; God is appeased only through the sacrifice of Jesus.  It is a total shame that holiness by works is considered more effective than holiness by faith.  I mean that we put more confidence in "righteous" acts of our own doing to keep us righteous than in the blood of Christ.  This is why the modern church is so hobbled and ineffective; we have abandoned the power of the Finished work of Christ and replaced it with a holiness of our own making.  We place more emphasis on what we do and diminish by those deeds what He did. 
You may say how then do we keep people holy and from sinning?  I ask how will ever know the power of the risen life of Christ if we keep interfering?  We should be placing greater faith in righteousness by faith than we do righteousness by personal effort.  There is no way a man will be holy apart from faith in the Work of Christ; he will forever be alienated from God if he keeps on trying to gain and keep what Christ already got and is keeping for him.  As long as we keep piously interfering we will never know true holiness.  Have faith in the work of Jesus; that's it.   

Sin Conscious, Sin Obsessed

1 Corinthians15:34

Believers need to turn our consciousness away from sin and toward Christ.  There is way too much emphasis on sin in our Christian culture.  I know that people need to be aware of their personal sin, but they need to be more aware of what Christ did in them.  Paul tells his followers to Awake to Righteousness and do not sin.  We need to have a righteousness awakening; and what follows is freedom from sin.  Too much attention is given to the not sinning when we have not awakened people to righteousness.
Okay, the church is struggling in this age with its image and sin.  Paul was writing to a church in Corinth that was having the same issues.  But His advise was not to focus first on the sin of the people, but to awaken them to who they were in Christ.  He directed them to be conscious of the fact of their righteousness in Christ, and the not sinning will follow.  Our attention must be fixed upon Christ; let us fix our attention on the Finished work of Christ.  What He did; not what we do.

Died With......

If we have died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with Him

One day I was pondering on the death of Christ and it came over me that Jesus really died.  I know that sounds obvious since we have been schooled on that from the very beginning.  But it hit me that the statement "He died" means that His brain, heart, vital organs, and blood stopped living.  There was no more pulse or brain activity. Jesus for the first time in His existence stopped being.  This Son of God who was before the foundations of the world cease to live anymore. I had never thought of it like that; I sat down and cried.  He who knew no death; who had conquered it in His lifetime, gave into to it.  The Son of God tasted death for everyman.  Wow!
What does this mean in regard to our salvation?  It means that when Christ died I died with Him.  The old man ceased to breathe, bleed, live, and sin.  The old Joel died. Death is a final affair for the one who has died.  Now that is hard to accept when I examine my experience and still do the things I once did.  It is hard to believe that when I crave the old things that I once loved to do; and say the things that I once said.  The truth of this is severly challenged as I look in the mirror and see the old visage looking back at me.  But the truth is the truth.  We need to start believing the word of God over what we see, smell, touch, taste, and hear. The old person died with Christ.
Joseph Prince always says "right believing leads to right living."  I believe that to be true.  If we start believing we are dead to sin we could stop sinning because of our death.  Remember death is a final thing for the dead.  Paul said "reckon yourselves to be dead to sin; but alive to God in Christ Jesus."  Okay you Ozarkians it is time to reckon yourselves to be DEAD to sin. I mean dead!!

Crucified With.....

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ. 
Crucifixion is not something that happens everyday here in America.  In fact it hasn't happened as a criminal punishment in a very long time.  The capital punished has long since been abandoned and now fades into history if not for the Christian religion.  So as modern people we don't understand the agony and full effects of the gruesome way in which the Romans condemned the guilty in their society.  Being removed from the experiential knowledge of it we often miss the full impact of what it did to the society and the body of the person crucified.  The only reference we have tends to be Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. 
We know the effects of the cross of Christ about as much as we know of Roman crucifixion.  One amazing fact about the cross of Christ is that it ceased all punishment for the believer.  There is no longer a need for the person of Christ to be crucified because the death of Jesus was enough.  It satisfied the demands that the law had against you and I.  We are free because He was crucified on the Roman Cross.  There are no more "crosses" for the believer once he has entered into Christ. 
Jesus became what you did so you could become what He is.  There is a scripture in Luke that quotes Jesus, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me."  When Jesus was placed upon the cross you and I were gathered to Him and were crucified with Him.  Luke goes on to give commentary.  "He said this to signfiy the death that He would die."  Christ was preaching that when He was crucified the whole world would be crucified with Him.  There was no more crucifixions to happen.
The effects of that one act are amazing.  Jesus reveals them to us through His Spirit.  I will mention just one.  Sin no longer is a master over you.  Because you have died with Christ you have died to the old man, the world, sin, and the Devil.  You have been cut off from their influence, power, and mastery.  As a man who has literally died and can no longer sin, so you have died and are liberated from it.  Now walk it out.  You do not need to try as a dead man gives no effort; declare your death to sin, society, and satan and let the freedom of Christ reign in you. 

A Little Foolishness?

I hope today you can afford me a little space to be giddy.  I am in love with my Savior and I wish to write today just how much.  It may be a little silly but I can't focus on "doctrine" today, my heart has a different tune to it.  There are some times that we must break from the serious nature of "instruction" and dance in the light of His glory and grace.  I feel a little like David today when the Ark of the Covenant came into Jerusalem and he leaped before God with all his might.  Maybe I'll uncover myself and someone will get offended.  But I will become even more undignified than this.  Praise the Lord.
He is my love; my first love.  Jesus is what love is all about.  When He speaks there is love; when He moves there is love, and His being drips with the dew of His love.  All that He does for me is built upon the character and nature of His passion for this broken, flawed human.  It truly amazes me how much He cares for us who clearly at times forgets Him in the light of the world and its machines.  Yet, there He is loving all the way.  Consuming us with His eternal compassion and joy that He lavishes upon the foolish and ignorant. (Of the which I am chief.) 
I can feel His smile today and I have done nothing to warrant it.  There is not one good deed that has flowed out of my existence to mark a point at which He should be proud of me.  And yet, I feel the warmth of His love rolling over me because that is who He is.  I know in this hour He is leaping over us because we have been redeemed, saved from sin, death, and hell; that makes Him glad.  Oh, the grace of Jesus!!!
Let us rejoice with Him today.  Let us sing songs of redemption and gladness as we celebrate His existence.  Not because He does good, but because He is.  Jump with joy and split your pants (I told you foolishness).  Let us be joyous before man, beast, mountain, and stream.  Let the universe see our thankful, exuberant hearts. 

Grace! Always amazing?

I think we would all say yes to the question of grace being amazing always.  God's unmerited favor is a thing that boggles our minds as we ponder on how much it covers, what it conquers, and how it characterizes our relationship with Christ.  It's boundless nature and its holy work in our lives often are a cause for us to stay in awe of how really good God is.  There is no time when it is not beautiful, amazing and wonderful.
Yet, being a person under grace means that we are a people of Grace.  What I mean by that is that we are not the only ones who are benefiting from the work of Grace; but we are also conduits of His Grace.  As much as God wants to release us in the wonder of His everlasting, abundant, full and meaningful life He wants every man to experience the same.  This is  where grace may get a little sticky in the minds of people.  Because the ones who are irritating, abusing, and afflicting us are also in need of God's unmerited favor.  How can we deny them what He does not deny us? 
I was angry at a person a few months ago (I mean really angry), and God asked me if I wanted to be like Him.  I said of course I do.  He graciously answered back, "then let them go."  In my heart I said, "can I answer the first question again."  (No really I do want to be like Him.)  See God has released me so many times on the basis of the work of Christ not on the merit of my works or worth.  No I am not worthy to be released and forgiven; but by the blood of Christ God's grace sets me free to live, move, and have my being. 
We live in a time when mercy is short and grace (true grace) is missing.  People all around us are living such self-centered lives; and are critical of others who do the same.  We as a society are constantly clashing against one anothers egos, plans, agendas, and self-service.  And we don't afford the same measure of mercy we expect of others.  This is the time we who are under Grace ought to be spreaading it around; bringing others under the same shelter as we are enjoying.
 I think we refuse grace to others because we refuse it to ourselves.  We who are under grace haven't fully accepted that we are under grace; and we live lives under condemnation.  If we condemn ourselves we cannot help but condemn others.  Because we preach less than grace, we give less than grace.  Solution: believe the unmerited favor of God over your life and Let the River Flow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trusting in Jesus

Hebrews 1:1-4

One powerful phrase in this text really sticks out to me; "He appointed Him heir of all things."  I have been meditating on this verse for days (why I have not written my blog).  Because the Son was obedient God gave Him ownership of everything.  That means that all things are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ now and forever.  He is not going to be the heir of all things, God has already highly exalted Him to the seat at His own right hand.  In the book of Luke Jesus says that the Father had handed all things over to Him. (Luke 10:22)  And Paul in Colossians writes that, "He is before all things, and by Him all things are held together.  The writer of Hebrews says that "he upholds all things by the word of His power."Jesus is in Control.
We must be careful not to judge His position by what we see going on around us.  Sometimes we interpret the truth of God's word by our senses.  We don't see how He could be over all things and in control when all things seem out of control.  But we should never allow what we see, feel, taste, touch, and smell to take precedent over the word of God.  God's word says that he is before all things and by Him all things are held together.  This truth should trump all others. 
What we need to do now is to look for Christ in all things.  No matter what is going on whether it is good or bad Christ is working all things together for good to them that love Him who are called according to His purpose.  Because God has given all things into His hand He takes all things and makes it new according to His purpose and grace (2 Corinthians 5:21).  This thrills my soul that The Father trusts the Son with ALL things therefore I should trust Christ with all things too.

Judgment?

How can we judge one another?  It is not our realm.  The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment.  Of sin because they donot believe.  Of Righteousness because Christ goes to the Father and His followers see Him no more.  And of judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.  There is no more judgment.  Christ did not come into the world to condemn it but to save it.  On this earth He was not judge.  I am as He is in this world and I am no judge.
How can I stand in judgment of another when I the one who can stand in judgment of me does not?  What then do we proclaim? 
1.  We must understand that Christ died for all.
2.  That the Holy Spirit's anointing is upon us to:
    A.  Proclaim liberty to the captive
    B.  Healing to the broken hearted
    C.  Release to the prisoner
    D.  The jubilee of the Father
Church, proclaim salvation! Proclaim liberty! Proclaim life! Let us cease judgment and condemnation and proclaim redemption upon all people. 

Apostles no tolerance for mixture

Galatians 1:6-10, 2 John 8-11

On the one hand the Apostle Paul battled against the mixture of law and grace.  And on the other John contested grace and license.  The Jews in Paul's sphere were trying to mix grace with works of the law of Moses, while John combated the gnostics who were mixing grace with sin.  The Apostles teach that Grace is the complete victory over sin; and the Christian need not rely upon the works of law to keep him righteous and holy; he can stand upon God's grace to overcome all sin.  This is what the Apostles contended with from the beginning and it is what we modern people of faith battle today.
Mixture is achieved when sin is viewed as greater than salvation.  Let me explain.  The general knowledge of believers is that sin is bad and needs to cease in the life of the believer.  Yet, we see that Christians continue to sin.  So, the Church must take up the cause to combat sin in the lives of its constituents.  One philosophy is like the Jews in Paul's time; hit him with the law.  The understanding is that the law will keep people in line.  Grace is too soft on sin it has to be mixed with grace in order to keep the believer in check.  The second philosophy is that if grace covers all then it really doesn't matter how believers act as long as they are "born again" and going to heaven.  After all we are "sinners saved by grace," and need merely to ask for forgiveness.  Both philosophies give greater power to sin than to the work of redemption and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Both of these philosophies are error.
Grace and truth are the power over sin.  It is God's unmerited favor that gives us the authority and stance we take over sin.  Paul says that it is the grace of God in which we stand.  A stance is not just where we are but a place in which we make a solid defense and offense against an enemy.  I think of one famous stand in history (well it didn't really work out to good) Custer's last stand.  (I couldn't immediately think of another.)  Grace is our out and out stance against sin.  We can't lose standing in God's unmerited favor; His grace is greater than all our sin.  We are saved by Grace (the power and stance of God's unmerited favor) through faith.  Our victory is actualized when we trust in grace over sin and death.  Faith unlocks the super-abundant power of grace over sin in our lives. 
Mixture weakens our stance, because we are not completely relying upon the Lord.  When we rely upon the law we are demonstrating that the work of Christ was not finished but man needs to do more to be right with God.  This is really offensive to God because it diminshes the work of Christ making it weak in regard to sin.  And when grace is mixed with license it proves that we believe sin is more powerful than the gift of God; the Holy Spirit.  Mixture empowers sin. 

Refections on the Now

God identified Himself to Moses as I am when they met in the  desert.  He didn't recount the past nor did He reveal the future with His name.  He simply was telling Israel I am the Now.  He is present with them this day and all that they encounter in this moment He is there to provide, protect, establish, and guide.  And Moses had come to rely and crave that present Now.  In fact in a later point God said that His presence would go with Moses and he said that he would not go if the presence of God was not with him.  Moses had come to a point that he was not relying upon what had happened yesterday nor what might happen tomorrow; but where God was in the now.  That is all that mattered.
Is that all that matters to us?  That is my question today.  I am at a place where I have no experience from the past to glean from nor do I have a picture of what tomorrow is going to bring.  All I have in this moment in the knowledge of His presence.  Sometimes I struggle with that really being enough.  But out in the wilderness the "I AM" must be enough, it is all you've got.  Moses discovered as we will discover that His presence is always with us and it always changes things.  It will bring you to your Promised Land.  A place and life of blessing and abundance.  I Am sent you. 

Union

1 Corinthians 6:17

There is more to Christianity than just doctrine, missions, and worship.  It is not just about doing good deeds and being a loving neighbor.  All these things are really by-products of the main thing.  Our text today teaches us the "main" thing; union.  We are not just people who have beliefs we are intimately and uniquely joined to God in Christ Jesus.  "The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him." 
When we confess Christ as Lord and that He was raised from the dead we are not just saved judiciously we are born again and brought into a spiritual relationship with God.  Paul relates it to when a man and woman engage in sexual intercourse they become one.(1 Corinthians 6:16)  God and man are connected together in Jesus Christ. You are brought into Jesus and He is brought into you.  Paul understood this when He wrote Galatians 2:20 and Colossians 1:27.  He lives through me and I live through Him.  As a branch and a vine are connected and produce fruit so the Christian is fused into Christ and He flows through the believer to produce the life. 
The Secret? Paul said it in Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.  All things are possible to Jesus.  And because you and I are fused together with Him all things are possible.  I can do nothing apart from Him.  So the secret is living with confidence and adherence to the fusion of the lives of you and Christ.  We must not allow anything to come between that reality and our lives.  Today, live with the confidence of union and expect all things to flow from it.  The hard part is waiting for fruit. 

A Burden for Love

1 Corinthian 13

If we don't have love we are nothing.  Love is the character of God; He can't separate His actions from who He is.  And so the Church which is His fullness must also bear this character.  Our faith is literally smoke and mirrors without the radical character of God's love.  It is the foundation of all the "disciplines" and "missions" of  the Church.  If this key element is missing then they eventually will founder in mediocrity and irrelevence.  I believe the Church has come to this point because we have chosen moralism over the heart of Christ's love.
Today is a call to keep ourselves in the love of Christ.  My burden is for us to seek first Christ's love and let it pulse through our minds, hearts, souls, and personalities.  We need to stop dictating to love our own philosophies and paradigms and begin to receive from it truth.  There is simply no limits to the love of God and that is what Paul in Ephesians was wanting to discover.  The height, the depth, the width, and the length of the surpassing knowledge of love.
What we need to do is not try to love others.  That is relying on our own selves to produce something only God can give.  Our call to action is to realize that He is love in and through us.  The love of God exists in me because the God of love is in me.  Therefore His presence is the answer I need to love all people with His love.  It is not me trying to conjure up feelings of love for humanity, but rather me accepting the reality that the resource of the fullness of God's love is only a choice away.  One choice to let the Holy Spirit move every day is all it takes to release the flood of God's love out. 
Do you believe?  The love of God's explusion depends upon my faith that He is love, that He loves me and all others, and that He can love through me.  I am the conduit not the broker.  If we don't believe that it is possible it will not be possible.  And all that amazing love that warms us will be hidden from the world and the good name of Christ will be blasphemed because the Love that He that claims is His character is absent in this cruel time.  Oh, let us believe and let God release through us the amazing tide of His incredible love.  Today is the day. 

It was For Freedom

Galatians 5:1

That first clause of 5:1 has been on my mind strongest today.  It was for freedom.  Jesus has given us liberty from all things (Act 13:38&39) and yet we find ourselves in bondage to a thousand things.  Paul preaches that He has freed us from all things; and yet it seems like so many of those things still have mastery over our minds, eyes, and hearts.  But it was FOR freedom that Christ has set us free and we should not be entangled again to anything.  It is so amazingly simple; for freedom He has made us free.  And yet we complicate it with laws, guilt, condemnation, and processes. 
The process that makes us free is the redemption.  Christ redeemed us and fulfilled all processes to make us free from all things.  Now, we have to choose the work of Christ and His freedom over whatever binds us.  It seems to silly to think that belief in the Finished Work is enough.  I want to let it be.  No, I have not proven this perfectly.  There are things that still conquer me from time to time; I wish it were not so.  But I am realizing slowly that grace IS the power that was first instrumental in motivating God to send Christ, but also is the power that leads me in the freedom for which Christ set me free.
Could it be I need to exercise my freedom?  Is declaring to temptation, sin, doubt, stress, and people that I am a righteous, free man enough to exert my freedom?  If I don't exert my freedom I will be exerted upon by captivity.  We must let the Holy Spirit that is present exert its influence upon all that which tries to bind us.  That is my heart's true desire.  May it be so in Christ Jesus for the reality is that I AM FREE!!!

His Grace is More Than Enough

2 Corinthians 12

Paul said that he had a messenger of Satan to buffet and asked God three times if He would remove it from him.  God answered "my grace is sufficient."  And for some reason we have made grace a kind of consolation prize to what we were asking for in the first place.  We think God is not answering us but giving us His grace instead of the solution to the problem.  Our job then is to take the grace of God and endure whatever thing is causing us to suffer.   But that is not what Paul thought of the more than enough nature of Grace.  It is the answer.
God never said "no" to Paul's request for relief.  He said, "My grace is more than enough, power is perfected in weakness."  Grace became the power of Paul's life to live regardless of his circumstance.  Often times we think that because God doesn't answer our prayers right away he is saying no.  What we need to do is wait for the grace of God to roll out into our lives.  We are affected so immensely by a "microwave - high speed" society that if God is not responding immediately something is wrong.  God's sovereign grace and its operation are not limited to time and space; it is not affected by deadlines and schedules.  Just because there isn't instantaneous results doesn't mean God is saying no.  In fact He has already said yes, Grace.
What we have to do is trust the details of Grace to Him.  I think that is the hardest part of walking by faith in God's grace.  The reason we often fail is because we are not sure if God will do for us what is the best.  And we judge His performance by the circumstances we are experiencing.  We trust our sight and not His grace.  However, our vision should be dictated by His grace and not our sight.  Can you imagine if your Point of View was filtered through the Grace of God?  You would see everything as a gift of God and that God is indeed good.
Gratitude and Thanksgiving is attitude of the one who is convinced in their heart that "grace is more than enough."

The Better Part

Whenever we talk about the time when Mary and Martha were serving Christ there is a collective sigh; largely because many of us are like Martha.  We get so bogged down in the details of life that we don't or can't focus in on the mainstream of life.  I never really understood this until I left the professional pulpit and struck out in the world of work.  Our lives are so full of things even "good" things that we fail to realize what the better part really is.
Jesus said that, "seek you first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33) The question is what does it mean to seek His Kingdom and Righteousness?  The answer to that question is found in the very Genesis of history when Adam and Eve were created.  He decided to make man and place him in the garden of Eden.  The Psalmist prophetically said that, "He made him a little lower than God and crowned Him with glory and honor." (Psalm 8:4-8) 
First God blessed man.  Now man had not done one thing to earn the blessing; his blessing did not come through obedience it came as a sovereign work of God's unmerited favor.  After he was blessed God said to him to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.  Adam was to exercise dominion and authority over all the works of God's hands.  What a life!  God had blessed man with His own image and righteousness and gave Him authority to carry out God's word and work on earth. 
Man lost that when he sinned in the garden; he lost his righteousness and his rule.  But the good news is that Christ won it back on  the cross.  Jesus told His disciples to pray, "thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  And the prayer was answered in the Son of God.  What the first Adam could not do the second accomplished.  Jesus has restored man's rightful place in the universe once more. (Hebrews 2:5-15)  This is the better part of life.
So many of us are like Martha still trying to live through Adam.  We do not seek the righteousness of Christ but our own attempts at it.  The worries and cares of Adam's image plague our minds and sap our strength.  How often we let the kingdoms of men and nations suppress the reality of the risen Christ in us.  It is time that we stop looking to ourselves to serve God and live this life; and start looking to Christ and the Finished Work He accomplished.  We are righteous because of the Cross; we are Kings because we are in Christ and He is in us.  Let us now be like Mary, focused on Jesus.  Living our lives by faith in His righteousness and authority.  The rest will be added on top.  Seek the better part first.

The Cross and The devil

John 12:31-33.

Jesus made an awesome statement in our text today.  He said that, "Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out."  There are two amazing truths exposed here in this verse.  The first is that Christ Himself was going to be judged for the whole world's sin. And the second was that in the same act the devil was going to be deposed of His rule.  You see the Finished Work of the Cross is the satisfying of the demands of the law against sinners; and that is the only victory Satan had over the world. 
Jesus said now!  The Church has become future orientated in regard to our view of scriptures.  For over 150 years we have interpreted the Scriptures through Daniel and Revelation.  But the true way is not to look forward to the "second coming" but to look back through the Cross.  Jesus never suggested that our victory was future and that we had to struggle along till He returned a second time.  He showed here that the judgment of the world was in His own body on the Cross.  And that because the thorn in man's side was removed the Devil no longer had a foothold in the lives of men.  John in his first letter said that Christ was the propitiation of our sin and not only ours but the whole world's.
Jesus went on in our text to show how the judgment would take place, "and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.  This He said, signifying what death he would die."  When Jesus said this He wasn't saying that this was how evangelism would work when a man preaches about Him.  He was telling us that on the cross He would draw all men unto His death.  The death that He died would gather the sin and death of all humanity and there be judged in His body.  Paul would later write, "if one died for all; then were all dead." (2 Corinthians 5:14 KJV)  Jesus tasted death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9) so that everyone could "taste" His life.  On the Cross the full debt of your sin and the judgment for it was gathered into the body of Jesus and you were released.
The Devil therefore has no play in your life.  The King James Version says in Hebrews 2:14, that Jesus destroyed the devil; and in 1 John 3, Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.  Lets see if the Cross destroyed Him then we have continual and eternal victory over everything he tries.  We should not fear him nor believe that he has any authority, power, or influence in our lives.  I am afraid that many Christians put more faith in his works than in the Finished Work of Christ.  Faith in the Finished Work of Christ is how we are saved and is our everlasting victory of the power of the devil.  So, looked to the cross where the serpent is CRUSHED!!!! (rememer what God said to Adam and Eve, he shall bruise His heel but HE shall CRUSH his head.)

With Christ

The Lord has been teaching me that this life is not me trying to please God through perfect religious performance; it is a living connection with God in Christ.  Christ became identified with me and took me with Him to the cross, grave, hell, resurrection, and to the very throne of God.  I am with Him there now.  He did all this so that God could be imparted through the Holy Spirit to every man.  And man could take God with Him into this life.  Christianity therefore is living this life in and through Christ. 
Jesus can't just be a part of your life; He is your life.  Paul says this in Colossians 3:4, "When Christ who is our life..."  Too many believers make God a category in the resume of life.  When they are asked about religion they check a box or when things get tough and all resources exhausted they turn to Him.  I know because I used to work at making Jesus a part of the whole.  God did not send His Son to the Cross so that He could be a part of the whole, but so that we could become part of the whole life of God in Christ Jesus.  We are grafted in to His life.
Paul said that he was crucified with Christ and that he was no longer the one living but Christ was living in and through him.  A great error is thinking that we have solely invited Christ into our lives; when the truth is that He has invited us into His life.  We are a part of the whole now because of the Finished Work of Christ.  That means that we alive to God and and His life in partnership with Him and He with us.
Our faith is connection with Christ.  We are hidden in Him and as He is so are we in the world.  As He has brought us into His life we need to bring Him into ours.  Letting Him have our fears as we take His joy; letting Him have our despair as we received His hope.  This is what fellowship means to share life with Christ.

Grace Reigns in life

Romans 5:18-21

Paul is comparing the work of Adam with the work of Jesus.  We see the effects of Adam everyday and tend to trust in his failure more than Christ's success.  The Apostle teaches that the first man's sin does have an effect.  Adam's disobedience ushered sin into the world and condemnation came with it.  But Jesus' Finished Work (ONE righteous act) brought life-giving justification for all.  The work of Jesus surpasses the work of Adam.  Paul goes on to say that because of Adam's sin many were made sinners.  We believe today that everyone is a sinner.  Adam's work infected everyone.  Yet, when we speak of the work of Christ it doesn't (in our theology) change people completely.  So, in essence we exclaim yes to the work of Adam by faith, but to the work of Christ?
The revelation that Paul gives says the work of Christ makes men righteous.  Adam made men sinners; Jesus makes them righteous.  Whose work wins?  If you are still a "sinner by nature" then Adam's work is more complete and Christ is a coming work.  Think about it; Adam's work had immediate results.  Why would the work of Christ have results that would be processional?  Romans the 5th chapter teaches that the results of the work of Christ are not only instanteous but life-changing.  Not only is the work of justification immediate it changes us by nature.
Grace reigns in life through the righteous act of Jesus.  His righteousness given to us by the Unmerited Favor of God and our acceptance only by faith causes Grace to reign over sin, death, and hell.  Often times we don't let it reign because we can't accept the Unmerited Favor of God.  We still think we have to earn it with good deeds and perfect performance.  Christians (including myself) fail to continually realize that if I would believe in the Grace of God absolutely I would watch it conquer temptation, sin, failure, disease, poverty, etc...If we would only trust solely in the Finished Work of Christ then we would see the life that God has promised.  It rests on faith.  Grace is already reigning all around us; faith opens our eyes and draws our attention off us and onto the Unmerited Favor of God.  "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."  Purity of heart is oneness of vision; therefore don't look at yourself as a miserable sinner, but the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. 
After this you will see "Grace as it is falling all around you."

Grace is Enough

Titus 2:10&11

We (the Church) are presently afraid of Grace in an undiluted state.  Many believe that if we preach such a grace that people will take it as a license to do whatever they want.  I have heard it called "greasy grace" and shudder that we have posted such an ugly concept with such a beautiful thing.  What a man means when he combines "greasy" with "grace" is that grace apart from law is an open invitation for church members to sin and get away with it.  He is suggesting that God's standard of righteousness is laxed so people can live a life of sin.  These maintain that we need the law to instruct and keep man on the straight and narrow.

Law never instructs man to be godly, sensible, or righteous.  It is simply not built that way.  The Law came to (1) identify what sin is, (2) condemn the sinner, (3) bring the whole world together under sin, (4) to condemn Jesus so we could go free.  And finally we don't need the law because it only arouses sin.  Take for instance you have a green house made of glass next to a school.  To keep the little boys from throwing rocks at your fine green house you post a sign that says "don't throw rocks."  You have made a fatal error; you have now awakened the need in every little boy to break glass.

Grace teaches us how to deny ungodliness and worldly desires.  That is what Paul taught Titus in his letter.  Grace appeared bringing salvation; Christians believe that explicitly.  But Paul didn't stop there and he didn't add to grace a law to keep man from sinning.  He said that was Grace's job.  Grace will instruct and lead not the law.  We don't need the law any more because it didn't do the job anyway.  It has been replaced by Grace that can manage our righteous life.  Paul says it teaches us to live sensibly and righteously now in this present age.  We think that because this world is so sinful that it is impossible to live perfectly righteous in this evil world.  That is because we are looking to a grace watered down by law.  God's grace will guide us for that is it's purpose along with saving us.  AMAZING GRACE.

The Absurdity of Belief

John 3:15
Some people have a hard time with the "just believe" prerequisite for salvation.  They are convinced that there must be more than belief to stand before God justified.  Yet, that is exactly what Christ and the Apostles teach.  It almost seems just too good to be true.  Let me take you back to an Old Testament story to explain this phenomenon.  The story is from the book of Numbers and is about Moses in the wilderness. 
The Children of Israel were murmuring against God about being brought into the wilderness to die and so God sent "fiery" serpents in response.  The word fiery might mean when they bit there was a burning sensation as the people were dieing.  But more likely it followed the definition of "cruel."  These snakes were not as wild ones trying to get away from man; they were out to kill.  The serpents were sent with the mission to condemn the sinners to death.  Well the people cried out to God so that He would remove the snakes.  It seemed like a simple solution.  They were sorry and God sent the snakes, so He now can remove them; we got the picture.  But instead God told Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and put it at the top of a pole.  Everyone who "looked" to the serpent would be healed.  Now that took great faith.
God did not say "prove your pentitent hearts by doing something."  He didn't call them to clean up their act or promise never again to grumble.  The solution provided was simply to look up to the staff and they would be healed.  Probably if it had been some "law-based" idea it would be easier to believe, but to look at stick with a bronze snake on it must have seemed too easy.  I don't like snakes around even harmless, non-venomous snakes; I would have rather God just taken them away.  We could imagine the arguments people gave when He didn't.  Just look? Is that enough?
Bronze in the bible always signifies judgment; God told Moses to fashion the likeness of the judgment (bronze snake) on a staff.  The thing that was killing them was molded in judgment and if the people believed (trusted in absolutely) in that judgment they were healed and saved.  Jesus later says that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so the Son of man must be lifted up.  He became what was killing us; that perfect man who never sinned was twisted in judgment so that we could be healed.  By His stripes you are healed. 
All He calls us to do is to look to Him and believe.  Not just believe that He died and was raised; but that is what it takes to be saved.  He calls us to trust in His provision.  We can't save ourselves by works of the law; we have to trust that what Jesus did was enough to please and appease God.  There is no one else who can save us from our sin.  If you trust in Him but feel like you also need to do something to help you can't be saved.  You have to fall completely on His grace.  Pretty scary, but that is what real faith is, trusting absolutely in the Finished Work of Christ.

Jesus Dealt with Sin

John 1:29
The Testimony of man.  All of us are sinners and we need to fight sin in order to be right with God.  Yet, even though we try we will still sin.  What we have to do is read the bible, pray, avoid the evil world, and if we falter ask for forgiveness.  Therefore our lives are filled with frustrating failures and futile attempts at being holy.  We make promises to God and resolutions every year to be better than what we were before.  Only to come crashing down soon after we have confessed our resolve.  But there is a different way; a way that was carved out for us by Christ.  John the Baptist declares it and we have a choice to believe it or the testimony of modern evangelical reasoning. 
"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
This is revolution to the world of religion.  Everyone is trying to deal with the evil of the world and in themselves.  One "solution" is to make laws to try and keep men from evil.  Yet, we have learned that no one can keep the whole law perfectly.  If a man eskews evil in his word and deed; his mind can be full of evil thoughts and intents.  Man on his own armed with only religion cannot deal with sin.  It will master him.
Jesus however, comes along and defeats sin with His life and death.  John testifies that He is the Lamb of God that takes sin away.  In order to understand this we have to go back to Old Covenantal sacrifice.  The lamb (perfect and innocent in every way) was brought by the sinner to be inpected by the High Priest.  Then the sins of the man and nation where confessed over the lamb.  The sin of the offerer was TRANSFERRED into the body of the lamb; and the lamb's innoncence and perfection were transferred into the body of the man.  The offering would become sin and the man would become perfect.  All the sin of the man was punished in the body of the lamb; all the righteousness of the lamb became the offerers.  It doesn't sound fair but that is how God set things up.  So when John says that Jesus is the lamb of God he is saying that Christ became our sin so we could become His righteousness.  It was transferrance. 
Christ took our sins.  This is the first part of our victory.  Think about the reality that Jesus took every sin that plaques humanity and became those things as and for the world.  He took our sins away from us.  All lying, stealing, cheating, and killing were seized by Christ and removed from us.  The Psalmist says that God "removes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west."  Our transgressions are removed from us.  How?  First the Father deemed Him a perfect sacrifice at His baptism (This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased).  He gathered up sin on the cross and it was condemned in His flesh. Then and there my sin and the sin of the whole world was dealt with in one fell swoop.  He conquered it for me in His body.  And my rap sheet was nailed to the cross (And I bear it no more....). 
He takes AWAY the sin of World.  Jesus taking our sins is an amazing thought but combined with the word away empowers the reality that our sin is gone.  He systematically took it and cast it away from humanity.  We keep trying to do what has already been done by Jesus.  He procurred my sin and died with it; it died with Him.  When Christ was buried the sin of the world was buried as well.  And when Jesus descended into Hades my sin was consumed in the fires of everlasting judgment.  Praise the Lord.  Jesus is risen; my sin is not. 
What now?  The testimony of man teaches us that in order to beat sin one must pray, beat the body, and use the Holy Ghost to combat the devil and sin.  John testifies that Jesus took away the sins of the world.  All our self-efforts even combined with the power of the Holy Spirit are not enough to defeat sin.  But faith in what Jesus did does.  I need to confess belief in the work of the Cross as my power over temptation and sin.  Paul said that we need to "reckon ourselves indeed dead to sin, but alive unto God."  Sin no longer shall be your Master; because Jesus took it away.  We must trust absolutely and only in Jesus' victory over sin and not look to ourselves to try.  Confess your freedom.  Declare His righteousness. 
If you are struggling with certain sins know that your efforts will not bring you victory.  There is no will power nor program of man to help you stop.  You must first recognize what Jesus did and believe the testimony of John even when you don't see the evidence.  Keep on confessing the truth.  Look to Jesus who TOOK AWAY your sin.  It is no longer yours; it has been removed.  It is hard to reverse ways of thinking that have been ingrained into our heads.  But God's revelation of Jesus is what we should be trusting in. 

Acts 13:38&39

"By Him all that believe are justified from all things."

 

Christ's death, descent, and resurrection not only provide the way for us to live eternally but also to be freed from all things.  In our attempts to preach the gospel we have freed men from the fear of death and Hell in the future but gave them no hope presently.  But the gospel preached through Christ liberates the believer from all things past, present, and future.  It sets man up to live totally freed from all sin, guilt, and condemnation.

He does the work.  The phrase "by Him" determines that the work of justification (freedom) has been accomplished by Jesus Christ.  The believer is not justified by any deed he can do; he is not free because he is good or performs perfectly before God.  Jesus' deeds (not man's) are applied to the account of all believers. 

Jesus told the crowds that the work that God required of man was to believe in the Son whom God had sent.  The work is not just believing in the teaching of Jesus; it is to trust in His life, death, provision for salvation, and His Finished Work.  Man is to lean the weight of his soul and life on what Christ did.  We ought not ask the question What would Jesus do, but rather what did Jesus do?

Jesus freed the believer from all things.  This thought is so refreshing in light of legalistic religion that binds up man under the condemnation of all his errors.  Jesus' work releases man from the sin and guilt of ALL things.  This means that there is nothing that is remembered, held in storage, or left unjustified.  Past, present, and future failings are not just covered they are eradicated in the work of Jesus Christ.  It was for freedom that Christ has set us free.