The Focus Of Our Life

 

"I  wanted to write to you concerning our common salvation..." Jude 3 

Ask Christians if we should have a Christ-centered theology and church. A church without theology is a dead church and theology. Theology is always relevant and necessary but not sufficient. You could know all the theology in the world and fail in the point of Christian love which is the aim and be worthless.   We all have a theology we must realize that but how good our theology is is the point.

A Christ-centered gospel means that the gospel was about Jesus Christ's good news is about him. He solved the sin question by his death burial and resurrection. He conquered death itself and showed that there is life after death with infallible proofs according to Luke. Our whole lives should be gospel-centered because we are grace-oriented and focused on the gospel as we strive to know nothing but Christ and Christ crucified in our message. That means keeping the main thing the main thing and not majoring on minors but realizing that the Great Commission is our aim and goal as Christians someday it shall be called the great completion and we need a great commitment to it. 

We must realize that our salvation began in eternity past, is realized in time, and will be completed in eternity, and looks forward to heaven. Our Father purposed and authored our salvation, and the Son actually secured, accomplished, and achieved it but the Holy Spirit applies it to our lives.  All three members of the Godhead are necessary!  We must also realize that the whole person gets saved and we get rescued from the dominion of sin and that salvation is more than forgiveness. 

The whole point in justification is that God realized that we are reckoned as saints, not sinners anymore and that reconciliation ensures we are restored to our relationship with God and propitiation or that the actual sacrifice was made in the temple of God on our behalf by the blood of Christ itself. Salvation not only forgives us, but it also delivers us from the power of sin and regenerates us so that our spirit is alive and can know and Love and serve God in a relationship. 

Finally, we must realize that we are saved by grace alone not by any combination of grace and good deeds or good works or pre-salvation attempts to please God. Christ as a sacrifice and crucified saved us from the penalty of sin; his coming saves us from the power of sin and in heaven he saves us from the judgment of sin.

The foundation of all our lives is in Christ the solid Rock, not any one person or church or theology. What matters in faith is the object of the faith, not how strong the faith is.  You can move mountains with mirror mustard-seed faith and we can all walk on water by walking by faith.  You can be fanatical in your faith and have blind faith for no reason or not know why you believe or have a zeal but not according to knowledge but it matters what you believe in God and what kind of a god you believe in how big your God is not how big your faith is.

As Christians walking with the Lord we have the courage to face tomorrow, to live one day at a time, and to realize that we can live everything in the light of eternity and not be discouraged for we know that God is in control of our lives and that he holds our future and our destiny is in his hands. We know that we may have bad times but we must accept them for God gives the good times also and he has a purpose for them we see everything as related to the gospel that God will work everything for our good because of Christ what he has done and proven his love for us by redeeming us from the slave market of sin so we no longer servants of sin but servants of righteousness.

When we are Christ-oriented we have peace with one another ("My peace I leave with you...")  and we bare the image of Christ and have a natural love for one another as Jesus said we shall know we are disciples if we love one another. Christ said that the legacy he leaves is his peace and peace is the hallmark or calling card of the Christian life for there is no peace for the wicked. Jesus said peace to you and only Christianity can offer this. We can have peace with God, peace with our neighbors, and peace in our future. 

We must not doubt the saviorhood of Christ, that was His mission!   For in the Gospel of Christ, our past is forgiven, our present is given meaning, and our future is secured. It also means that we have been saved that our sins have been forgiven both past, present, and future and then we are being forgiven and being saved right now continually and ongoing basis as we have victory in power over sin and we shall be saved ultimately from the presence of sin itself in the final judgment and wrath of God.

That's what Christianity is about... salvation!   It is a religion of salvation and the saviourhood of Jesus should not be questioned for there is no name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, he is the only Savior of the world and there is no other one who came to save us for He was surely a man on a mission to seek and to save those who are lost.

We must recognize that the gospel is not new, it was given to Adam and Eve called the Protoevangelium and it was revealed more and more throughout the Old Testament until finally explained in Jesus Christ. We have always been saved by grace through faith in the Lord!  Looking ahead or behind.  Paul elaborated on the gospel message and the book of Romans is the highlight of the Bible's theology you could say that all roads lead to Romans. And Romans has highlighted in Romans chapter 8. This is the quintessence of the gospel.

Therefore, the foundation of our life is in the finished work of Christ it is a done deal we do not need to do this or do that we do not have a to-do list. Christianity is about having what Christ has done for us it is done and done already we just accept that fact. And rest in faith knowing that Christ did the work for us on our behalf and we can do nothing to save ourselves not even any pre-salvation work. Our present Christian life is based on faith as we walk in faith in the Spirit of God by his power we do not have permission to live in the flesh anymore or to sin because we have forgiven but we have the power to live in the Spirit. And our hope is not diminished as we hope for heaven with Christ in which we are like him and reign with him eternally our future is secure knowing that Christ is in us right now he has given us the earnest of our inheritance the Holy Spirit taking up residence with our spirit.

Therefore, we must realize that we are complete in Christ and that Christ fulfills us and gives us meaning and purpose in life as we are called to serve him and glorify him in our lives and to do his will. Without Christ, we are nothing Paul said he counted rubbish at all things he had compared to what he knows in Christ. Our past is not worth holding on to compared to the value of knowing Christ. What eternal life is about, not about improving our lives but having a transformation of our lives and knowing God is real and wants a relationship with us personally because he loves us.

The Great Benediction that closes Second Corinthians mentions Jesus first and specifically the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hours with the love of God in the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the triune formula that they all work in harmony and unity with each other for one objective our salvation.  If these three things are what is so unique about the Christian experience when we encounter God in our lives. 

Christianity is grace-oriented and stressed and is salvation by grace, not by work or merit which has no place in our salvation. And we experienced the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit as proof of our salvation since we love because he first loved us and the love of God constrains us as we love another. And the fellowship is unique in the Christian life because we all have fellowship centered in Jesus Christ in the love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit in his name.  Whenever we walk in the Spirit we have fellowship with one another.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

Through Thick And Thin

One Jewish rabbi bemoaned the suffering of mankind because he said that since God is almighty and God is good, why is our suffering. People basically complain about suffering and what happens to them especially. There are many alternative realities to suffering among the various worldviews and religions. Eastern philosophy grasps Karma, which means that there's an ironclad rule that governs good and bad and you get punished for all the bad or rewarded for all the good, they cancel each other out and you cannot escape from Karma. In fact, when they see someone else suffering, they say, "Well, that's his karma!"  And they don't have any mercy to help other people because they don't want to interfere with one's Karma. Another ancient philosophy was that of the Stoics in ancient Greece taught us to grin and bear it,, in that case, we must be glad to just go through suffering because there's no other choice but to be hardened and to grow in character we just must accept it as reality. 

The old Christian rule that gets in the way sometimes is that we reap what we sow and we only get what we deserve and we don't get half the punishments that we deserve, et cetera. Paul suffered more than any other Christian and he said that we should rejoice in our sufferings Rom. 5:3. Job was known for his patience in his suffering and we are to take him as an example. Jesus however suffered more than any other man he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and he went the way of the Via Dolorosa. 

Even among Christians there are various alternate realities that people see in suffering they see it as mere punishment from God or a curse of God or it's all of Satan or the enemy or that's only a test we must pass the test or that is just a thorn the flesh and we need it to keep us humble we all Christmas must realize we all have a cross to bear. There are only two types of Christians. Those who have been humbled and those who will be humbled. 

We must not get a martyr's complex in our suffering, thinking that we are humble or we have suffered more than anybody else or that suffering brings salvation. We must realize it's suffering is for the glory of God and that God means it for good no matter how we see it, he sees the big picture, so we should thank God even in our sufferings not thank for our sufferings we shouldn't we have the right attitude in other words and trust in the province of God as it says in Rom. 8:28 "All things work together for the good of them that Love God and our lows are called according to his purpose."

Only in Christianity, is there true meaning in suffering and I promise of a God who knows us and has suffered more than us and looks upon our suffering with sympathy (he can relate to us!) and we can relate to it that he will help us and comfort us in our suffering as Joseph said you meant that his brothers meant it for evil but God meant it for good.   So this is a Providence of God, a God who guides our lives and we must trust that he knows what's best for us and we will we look back upon the years and see that God indeed was wise and knew what was best for us.   And we will realize finally that God's Grace is sufficient for us and there are others who suffered more than us like they said you complain about not having shoes until you see someone that has no feet.

In the end, we can say that we have fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith )(2 Tim 4:7) we have been with God through thick and thin, and come what may we know that God is with us all the way wherever we go. And we will not leave us nor forsake us.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Listening To The Flesh

 Sin has been your downfall! (Hosea 14:1).  Sin wants to destroy you, but you must not let it! (Gen. 4:7). We all dread committing the sin unto death (1 John 5:16) or letting some sin domineer or dominate and rule over us (Rom. 6:14; Psalm 14:13).  We all have some sin to keep us humble as a thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:9) and easily besets us (Heb. 12:1-2).  Some of us even fear some unforgiveable sin (Matt. 12:32) or doing some egregious or heinous sin that we cannot forgive ourselves for. All sin is avoidable if we are filled with the Spirit and is a violation of our own conscience as well as God's perfect Law and plumb line of the Word of God and even falls short of the conduct of Jesus, our Exemplar. If we refuse to repent, "Beware you sin will find you out!" Numbers 32:23. 

I know sin is a killjoy word and is avoided in the pulpit; it's a thankless job to call people to repentance especially when you do not know of what. Nevertheless, we must call a spade a spade and not invent pretty names for it. For instance, if you take the label of the essence of peppermint and apply it to cyanide, you do not avoid a possible poisoning.  People do this by calling sin a mistake, error, flaw, weakness, shortcoming, or peccadillo.  Sin must be seen as our birthright and the virus inherited from Adam as we are born in solidarity with him and we sin because we are born sinners as Adam's legacy.  Sin is our Declaration of Independence from God!   So, the question on the pulpit:  Whatever became of sin?  

Many will admit no one is perfect or to err is human but deny they are sinners!  Sin is defined  many ways: whatever Jesus would not do; anything irresponsible, autonomous, rebellious, unbelieving, unloving, or disobedient to God, either in commission or omission.  The Book of Common Prayer says sin is any want of conformity to or transgression of the Law of God.  Any thought, word, act, feeling, desire, or reaction contrary to what God would or would not do.  In hamartiology, we say that sin is by definition, "missing the mark." It has been called "the refusal of the love of God."   

We fall short of God's glorious ideals and standards of conduct.  Confession means saying the same thing as and agreeing with God about what we did with no attempt at coverup or blaming others, but taking full responsibility for our sins. We then renounce and denounce our sins and ask for forgiveness because of the blood of Christ and Jesus making intercession for us. 

It is the Law that convicts and shows us we cannot keep it and brings us to repentance: "Indeed it is the straightedge of the Law that shows us what sinners we are." Romans 3:20  By the Law is the knowledge of sin; the Law was not given to save us but to measure us!  We must realize that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."  And as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Prov. 23:7.  

Jesus changed the concept of sin by internalizing it; i.e., making sins of the heart (as Jesus condemned in Mark 7; Matt 15) just as serious and sometimes more so than just doing the action. Ovid said, "I know the better things and I approve them, but I follow the worst." Pierre in War and Peace by Tolstoy said, "Why is it that I know what is right and do what is wrong?" Even Paul in Romans 7 admitted he struggled still with sin. 

There are degrees of sin and of punishment for them. There are no mortal sins that remove us from our state of grace in salvation, and there are no venial sins in the sense that they are not serious or harmless. All sins can condemn a person; if you break one part of the Law, you are guilty of breaking all of it. Actually, we should not limit grace because where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. (Romans 5:20).  We are all sinners and should not compare ourselves; God doesn't grade on a curve!  

Sin is universal and no one can claim to be sin-free or have reached some point of maturity without any sin (Prov. 20:9; 1 John 1:8,10).  But we all have feet of clay with flaws not readily apparent and we should pray for a lively sense of sin because that leads to less sin!  The more mature we are, the more  we see our sin and we must see how bad we are to be saved! and we don't know how bad we are till we try to be good! What a catch-22!  Soli Deo Gloria! 

Be Perfect As Your Father In Heaven Is Perfect

 Jesus exhorts us to be perfect in many ways and in different connotations, denotations, and meanings. Obviously, no one is perfect but God, so that can not be what He meant.  There are different interpretations of what "perfect" means, such as complete and mature or without fault or blemish or flaw.   The elder is to above blame for instance.  Pelagius was a heretic that debated St. Augustine and insisted that since God commands perfection, it must be possible, and taught what was known as sinless perfectionism.  This is now called "entire sanctification" or perfectionism. It is said by Catholics that saints and the Pope have attained this level of holiness.  We are to bear with each other's faults. Eph. 4:2

But God admonishes us not to think of ourselves as holier than thou (cf. Isaiah 65:5). What is commonly understand by the standards of achievement for the believer is that perfection is the standard, but direction or effort is the test.  Let me give you an example from the Old Testament.  After Israel had received the Law, they told God, "We will do all that is written..." They should have realized that no one can keep the Law but God and should have begged for mercy and grace. Christianity is not a rule book or to-do list or list of dos and don'ts. It is a relationship and Paul even claimed, "not to have laid hold of it yet." Phil. 3:12

Do I need to point out verses that say we cannot attain sinless perfection:  1 John 1:10 says if we claim to be without sin, we make Him a liar and the truth is not in us.  Eccl. 7:20 says "Surely there is not a man on earth who does what is right and doesn't sin." and Proverbs 20:9 says "Who can say, 'I have kept my heart pure, I am clean and without sin?'" Psalm 119:96 says there is a limit to all perfection. The point is that we are not saved by performance, but by faith alone and the Law was not given to be a way of salvation, but to measure us.  It was given to show no man can keep it!  "It is indeed the straightedge of the Law that show us how crooked we really are." Romans 3:20    

If we keep the whole Law and offend in one point, we are guilty of breaking it all.   What I'm saying is that no one keeps the Law without fault except Jesus and we all fall short and to try to put yourself under it makes you obliged to the whole of it.  We cannot attain to God's standards until we reach glory and no longer have the old sin nature or sin virus we inherited from Adam. We not only have broken one of the laws but the whole of the Law and cannot keep it! We all fall short of God's glory. Justification means that God reckons us as just, not that we are just. He calls us just in His eyes; we are both sinners and just at the same time (cf. Gal. 2:17).  God no longer counts our sins against us! (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19). Christianity is not about "Do!" but "Done!"  It is a done deal.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Do You Have Potential To Become A Rock?

"The LORD lives and blessed be my Rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation,"(cf. Psalm 18:46). For starters, there is one Rock who is Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 10:4) but we can become rock-like like Peter.  Jesus saw potential in Simon and after his declaration of faith, renamed him Peter to be like a rock.  You've heard it said that no man is a rock or "no man is an island," (John Donne) but some people do have the steadiness of faith to encourage others and to be especially independent and able to be a light to others, to be a leader of men, a mover, and shaker.  Also, we must strive to be strong.   But that's the point;:  We all have unrealized potential and the ability to be a Daniel to stand alone or to be a David to be a man after God's own heart or to fight like he did or to be bold a prophet like Elijah. What we are in actuality or achievement and what we can become or have the potential for are not the same. 

God does give us opportunities but many of us squander them and waste the grace of God,  even frustrating it.  Peter was an ordinary fisherman who probably had no special ambition but Jesus saw something He could work with--a brazen even impetuous personality that God could use for His purposes.  What we are in actuality and what we can become potentially are two different things.  Some people just require extra grace and God is able to make grace abound even to the chief of sinners, Paul. Paul said that he would speak of nothing but what Christ accomplished through him (cf. Romans 15:18).  Remember we have nothing but what we have received by grace and what we do with it is our gift back to God. Even our righteousness is God's gift to us, not our gift to God.  

Peter was brave but he overestimated himself and underestimated the wiles of the devil to tempt or test his grit and faith. At one moment Jesus commended him, the next it seemed he was being rebuked!  But when it was showtime, Peter's love for the Lord endured and Jesus knew that if He reinstated him and forgave him for his denials, he would be all the stronger: "When you have been restored go and strengthen the others.  

We all must reach the faith of Peter ot be saved; i.e, knowing who Jesus is in reality and not believing in another Jesus. But we must not judge him, for when it counted, he showed faith and was faithful after realizing the truth.  We too can be guilty of putting our foot in our mouth and speaking first and thinking later Peter made all the mistakes we probably would've made: bragging or boasting, trying to impress, correcting the Lord, speaking blasphemy, being confronted for our testimony, and being ashamed or embarrassed, even denying our Lord; there but for the grace of God go us!  None of us are above these except for the grace of God.

In fact, grace is what sums up his life because it shows what God can do to a willing believer.  Peter actually came to the point to realize that Jesus was using him and didn't need him but that he should consider it an honor. Jesus went through the trouble to reinstate Peter three times because he had denied Him three times.  We are all too familiar with the flaws of Peter, but they are ours too.  It wasn't Jesus but Peter who had to be reassured of his love for the Lord and to verbalize it and confirm it with words. Jesus tested his faith after the resurrection by asking him to fish on the other side of the boat, contrary to his reasoning, but he obeyed simply because it was the Lord who told him to. This even hurt his pride as a professional fisherman, but he still obeyed. There is a direct correlation between love and obedience,  Peter had proven his love but needed reassurance. 

Before we judge Peter, we must realize he walked on water and was the first to realize the identity of Jesus as God's own  Son. It was for this declaration of faith that Jesus made him a leader in the church despite the fact that Paul rebuked him for playing politics with the Jews and the party of the Circumcision.  We should all see a bit of ourselves in his flaws.  

Peter's faith went through many phases: he had his shining moment of confessing Christ, his macho moment of boasting of his faith and drawing the sword, his puzzling moment of wondering about Christ's fate and outcome, his humbling moment of finding out he's not such a great fisherman, and his Spirit-filled moment of being reinstated and reassured of Christ's love. Indeed, Peter had the raw material of the makings of a spiritual leader and Jesus saw this potential and made him realize it in real-time with Him. 

Do you yourself realize you are capable of doing a lot more for the Lord than you can imagine? Few of us reach our full potential and are underachievers for God. We have all missed opportunities and failed tests of God but we must never lose our faith that we can become what we are meant to be to fulfill all God's will for our lives and be obedient to the heavenly calling and fulfill the ministry God assigned us. But some of us don't even know our spiritual gift, much less to be engaged in God's will for us. 

We must refrain from measuring ourselves with ourselves and comparing ourselves to others; to whom much is given, much is required.  Who wrote the "Let's Compare!" book?  We are to be rocks in our personal orbit and circle of influence, and not worry about the ministry of the next guy! 

The conclusion of the matter is that we have the potential to be rocks in our own right and to fulfill God's will and calling for us because God doesn't call us to success but to faithfulness--the success is up to Him to bless or not. He makes the fruit grow and have the increase. We must not have gift envy and wish we had Peter's potential, for we do but we may have different gifts but the same Spirit. We can only find out our gift by serving God in the best way we know how to, and look to see how God uses and blesses us.  We all can possess the faith of a William Carey: "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!"  Soli Deo Gloria! 

Do You Struggle With God?

 We must be honest in our relationship with God and admit everything isn't a perpetual spiritual high or some Cloud Nine!  Our walk of faith is not Polyanna!  We all struggle with our faith if it is genuine because it must be tested for its genuine grit.  It's okay to tell God like it is and be honest about your issues, problems, and trials.  The patriarch Job threw a fit with God and found out that it was his way of venting with God and his personal lament was finally recognized and God heard him. the struggle with faith is faith!  Doubt in faith is not just a Christian issue but a  human one. If faith were not difficult and it was easy, it wouldn't have much value (therefore it must be tested), and the only reality where faith isn't easy, can it really exist.   God has placed us all in the same boat where only faith pleases Him and we all have the ability to exercise some degree of faith.   We must take a leap of faith, not into the unknown, but into the light!  

We must learn to take our problems directly to the top and seek God's face in our deepest and lowest funks and when we are in the pits and have the doldrums. We have this privilege because Christ has promised He will hear any petition in His name.  We are not the only believers to ever suffer depression; if you read Psalm 42-43, 147,  and you will see how discouraged the psalmist got at times, yet he never gave up on God. God wants us to learn to turn to Him in our troubles; we will either become bitter or better by the process!  We cannot learn to trust God in the good times; in fact, these are the times we are likely to forget God. 

Did you know that honesty with God and not hiding our true feelings is a form of worship!  If we come to God on false pretenses or with some coverup, that is hypocrisy. Do you even think you have a case against God like Job did, well tell it to Him but don't turn to men for your answers; take it directly to the LORD in prayer. It is not a sin to be depressed but this is a matter of our disposition and can be because of circumstances that can befall anyone.  Don't be like Asa who sought not the LORD in his illness but the aid of the physicians! (2 Chron. 16:12).  We will find out that God is still with us in our time of trouble and that He is our Deliverer. We will then realize that the answer to our problems is not some philosophy or ethic but a Person.  Jesus is the Answerer! 

In the end, we will have a stronger tried, true, and proved faith that can face any problem because we've learned to go directly to God first and not as a last resort.  "If you do not stand firm in your faith you will not stand firm at all," (cf. Isaiah 7:9).  Soli Deo Gloria! 

"I Am What I Am By The Grace Of God."

 Paul declares this in 1 Cor. 15:10 to show his grace-orientation and blessings in God as he was redeemed from being Christ's archenemy of the church who nearly wreaked havoc on its spread. We have no right to look down on the wicked as if we are superior because we were once the enemies of God ourselves!  (cf. Romans 5:10).  We are to be held to a higher standard and realize that what God holds against sinners is realizing sin and not believing in His Son.  But God had mercy on him! George Whitefield said as he saw a condemned man go to the gallows:  "There but for the grace of God go I."  We must realize that if God withdrew His grace we would be no better than the run-of-the-mill sinner if not worse; we'd be left to our own evil devices or schemes!  ("The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.. Who can know it?"  --Jer. 17:9). 

Our righteousness is God's gift to us, not our gift to God! (cf. Isaiah 45:24; Romans 15:18; Hosea 14:8; Isaiah 26:12).  This means we all have a dark side that only God knows about; we have seen ourselves for who and what we are and the picture isn't pretty!   Christian author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, we all have an old sin nature that remains after salvation and we must not obey it. We have a new man as well as an old man and the one we feed and nourish the most dominates our demeanor and conduct. We must cease to do evil and learn to do good; it's not automatic or a given.  Even the fruit of the Spirit is a given but must be cultivated before it's ripe enough to harvest. We will reap what we sow. 

The wicked live by the rule of the jungle, each man for himself, looking out for Number One while trying to win the rat race. But his reward is in this life (cf. Psalm 31:15) and we are not to get too comfortable in our temporary abode as we are citizens of heaven and only passing through on a green card and are in a dry run or staging area, or dress rehearsal for our permanent home with the Lord. We have salvation in three tenses: our past is forgiven, our present is given meaning, and our future is secured.  We are saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from its power, and we shall be saved from its presence.  

Our lives stand in contrast to the wicked who lives for the here and now and virtually eats, drinks, and is merry as if he were ot die tomorrow.  The wicked do what is right in their own eyes and live for themselves, not some higher purpose or power. Essentially, they waste their lives and have no ultimate purpose, meaning, dignity, or worth.  They live according to what is right in their own eyes go their own way, or act according to feelings or worse yet, libido. (cf Judges 17:6; 21:25; Isaiah 55:6). When you don't surrender to the Lordship of Christ, you surrender to Satan's chaos and evil.  There's no middle ground of neutrality!s  The central question of humankind is: What think ye of Christ?  Even Christians can be deceived by the devil and held captive by him to do his will (cf. 2 Tim. 2:26) and should pray to be delivered from the evil one as the Lord's prayer says.  

We should realize that the wicked are self-condemned by their own conscience (cf. Romans 2:14-15) and will all be judged by our works either for reward as Christians or for salvation for the lost (cf. Romans 2:6; 2 Cor. 5:21; Matt. 16:27; Psalm 2:12).  God's kindness and goodness are meant to lead them to repentance (cf. Romans 2:4).  We are held to a higher standard and should realize that God can convert the wicked just like He converted us! No one who repents is too far gone for grace! (cf. Isaiah 1:18). But the wicked are too proud to seek God and believe they are not accountable since they reckon Him as dead and do not see their own sin due to their pride.  (cf Psalm 10:4); none seeks God! (cf Psalm 14:2).    Soli Deo Gloria! 

Are You Fighting God?

 "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD" (Prov. 21:30, NIV).

If you’ve heard the song, “I fought the law, and the law won!” you may realize that if you fight God, He will always win!

“You may even find yourself fighting against God, “(cf. Acts 5;39, Gamaliel).

On the road to Damascus Jesus confronted Saul that it was "hard for [him] to kick against the goads." (Cf. Acts 26:14, ESV). The NLT says, "... It is useless for you to fight against my will." God's will is stronger than ours--He's the Almighty! He gets His way! His power "works mightily in us" (cf. Col. 1:29). We have a will, but God decided our nature, and we act according to our nature, which God has the power to manipulate.

If everything seems to be against us, perhaps we are going the wrong way ourselves! For God is at work within us, "both to do and to will of His good pleasure" (cf. Phil. 2:13). He will make us willing on the day of salvation (cf. Psalm 110:3). God's will overcomes ours and it is vain and futile to oppose God: "... For who can resist his will?" (Rom. 9:19, ESV).

When God decides to save us, He doesn't just help us to believe (we cannot believe apart from God, as it says in John 15:5 that "apart from [Him] we can do nothing"), but He makes believers out of us (quickening our spirit with faith), by virtue of irresistible grace, called the effectual call of God (cf. Rom. 8:30). When we call someone they may or may not respond, but when God does it, the result is guaranteed and efficacious. Jeremiah proclaims "...[Y]ou are stronger than I and have prevailed..." (Jer. 20:7, ESV). We must not find ourselves contrary to God!

We must not find ourselves contrary to God's revealed or preceptive will (which can be thwarted), because God will find a way to work out His plan regardless: "If he snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, 'What are you doing?'" (Job 9:12, NIV); "... No one can hold back his hand or say to him: What have you done?" (Dan. 4:35, NIV). God gets His way: "... 'Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen'" (Isa. 14:24, NIV); "For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him [going against His decreed or secret will]? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?" (Isa. 14:27, NIV); and finally, "'Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old, I planned it; now I have brought it to pass...'" (Isa. 37:26, NIV). Even the Gamaliel recognized the futility: "'... You might even be found opposing God!'..." (Acts 5:39, ESV).

God accomplishes His will in us: He will "equip you with every good thing that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight.." (Heb. 13:21, ESV). God will accomplish His will with or without our cooperation, and it is our privilege to be the clay in His hands, our Potter. For this reason, we ought to stop fighting God or kicking against the goads and get with the program. We are made to do His will and this is the only way to find fulfillment (in His will). Our wills follow our minds and God can change our minds and give us a "knowledge of the truth" (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25, NLT).

Isaiah wondered: "O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart so that we fear you not?..." (Isa. 63:17, ESV). God can "uphold [us] with a willing spirit" (Psalm 51:12, ESV). It is for our own good that we pray the prayer of relinquishment and put ourselves in God's hands, praying that His will be done through us willfully, with our cooperation. Wycliffe's tenet applies: "All things come to pass of necessity," and we must realize God's sovereignty, that He is in complete control, working all things for our good (cf. Rom. 8:28) if we love Him. It is important to know that we are aligned with God's will, to know whose side we're on; it is vain to fight God the Almighty One, for He is stronger than us, His creatures, and there is not even "one maverick molecule in the universe," according to R. C. Sproul!

"...'The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will...'" (Acts 22:14, NIV). Christians are exhorted to seek His will and have the unique privilege of knowing it. We also pray in His will and all our prayers are answered if they comply with His will (cf. 1 John 5:14). One petition of the Lord's prayer is for God's will to be done. God's will is laid out to us in Scripture and revealed and illuminated through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Even Paul tells the Greeks: "For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God" (Acts 20:27, NIV). We are responsible for what God has opened our eyes to; to whom " much is given, much is required" is the principle (cf. Luke 12:48).

Jesus said that those who do the will of God are His brother, mother, and sister! (Cf. Matt. 12:50, NIV). And so it is paramount that we seek, know, and do God's will. Why? "... For whoever does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17, NIV); "you need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised" (Heb. 10:36, NIV); "... [That] you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured" (Col. 4:12, NIV).

Note: one reason David was a man after God’s own heart was that he fulfilled all God’s will (cf. Acts 13:36). Soli Deo Gloria!

The Obedient Believer Part I

Coming Of Age

 All of us have a right to leave our mark (leave a legacy) and make a difference in the spiritual world.  Also, we all have a right to be treated as adults and not children once we've come of age and though we may still be innocent in regards to the evil we can still be mature in godly matters.  The focus of Jesus' life was the relinquishment of "They will be done!" There are many seasons of life that we all pass through and they all have their right of passage. In Jewish culture, the bar mitzvah was the age of maturity for a young man.  

We notice that especially in Mary, the mother of Jesus, that she had to adjust to the Lord growing up and realizing His mission in life to please the Father and to accomplish His will, not His own.  A mother's role is complex and she has to realize when she is mothering too much when it is not welcome and not respecting a son's independence or manhood and even robbing it and smothering him in affection or caretaking. There comes a time when all men ought to leave their mothers and cling to their wives as to another form of care and affection. But we still "honor" them according to the commandment despite being emancipated.  

She started out in her path with the Lord just being her handmaiden but then became blessed among women by being selected to bear the Savior in her womb, so she became a mother and had to realize many responsibilities, that were above what the average would be. At the marriage of Cana, she realized she had no more authority over the Lord.  There comes a time when a mother must recognize her child is all grown up and has a right to make his own decisions and to be responsible for them.

When Mary and Joseph lost track of Jesus as the temple in Jerusalem (where was her faith?), it wasn't negligence even though she thought she had let God down, but it was Jesus purposely assuming His mission "to be about His Father's business." Jesus doubtless had done this on purpose.  She might have doubted her ability as a mother and was probably thinking she had failed God or erred from His will feeling guilty. We too can doubt our mission in life or not even realize it, and then conclude we have failed God. However, Jesus never doubted His divine mission first as Savior.  But it's never too late to get on track with God and back with the program.   Mary would learn the lesson and might have needed to apply it to herself, that one must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and follow God as Job One.  

Yes, there would come a time when she would "treasure these things in her heart," and she did ponder them meaning she didn't fully comprehend them but they would be food for thought and reason to meditate. She would have to acknowledge His authority and to listen to His teachings. Mary had been thankful and praised God for being chosen but there came a time when she was just addressed as "woman" by Jesus and she had to realize that she couldn't order Him around anymore that there comes a time when a child is no longer under the parents' tutelage, aegis, or authority. At the marriage feast at Cana Jesus told His mother: "What has this concern of ours to do with Me, woman..." (cf. John 2:4).  Jesus had to mention that His mother would be anyone who did God's will--a spiritual family.  Mary would be subject to Jesus now! 

There would come a time when she would become His disciple and follow and contribute to His ministry, even carrying for His personal needs as He sojourned and preached.  She stuck by Him all the way to the cross and probably mourned like any mother and thought it all had been for naught and that her mission had failed too. She didn't understand again but must have known by faith that God would work it all out and that there comes a time to trust and obey God even beyond our understanding--you don't have to understand to obey.  We too may have to realize a mission we don't comprehend and go by faith and not by our understanding. We all must learn to walk by faith and not by sight. She became a mourner for the Lord.

We all have a unique place in God's scheme of things and it all starts with a decision to follow Christ.  Even Mary had to do this and to become a follower.  Just like her, we are all called to a unique opportunity and place in God's kingdom. It all goes to show also that you don't have to understand God's will and probably won't but you can still accomplish it by faith.  Soli Deo Gloria!

He That Is Spiritual III

 Le

Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder and first chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary (the largest Protestant seminary on earth) wrote a book in 1918, He That Is Spiritual, to delineate the so-called carnal Christian as contrasted with the so-called spiritual ones. An unbeliever was called the natural man. This dichotomy of believers is unbiblical and misleading. Any Christian can become carnal by sin, and all he needs to do is to confess it per 1 John 1:9--carnality is no perpetual or permanent state. We all live in a state of perpetual and progressive confession and repentance--the unrepentant person is not saved. John says that a Christian doesn't continue in sin, and this means he makes it his way of life, though he may live a defeated life, there is some life to his faith or it is dead faith producing no works, which cannot save.

The whole purpose of faith is to produce the workmanship of God, foreordained by God, that we should walk in it (cf. Eph. 2:10). Spiritual believers are not those who go overboard or are fanatical or so-called Jesus freaks, but those who walk with God in the Spirit. They are realizing their potential of the fruit of the Spirit, and of knowing the Lord. The Christian life that is spiritual is one that enjoys fellowship with God and other believers. All believers are exhorted to read the Bible, witness, and pray; not just the clergy.


The spiritual man has relinquished ownership and the throne of his life to Christ, he has surrendered to the Lordship of Christ, and he lives the substituted or exchanged life with Christ living through him. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (cf. Gal. 2:20). This can only be accomplished by a believer in sync with God's will, and willing to follow Jesus wherever he may lead. The spiritual man has learned the secret of "inhabitation," as opposed to "imitation."

The obedient Christian does these things and the only test of faith is obedience. A. W. Tozer, in I Call it Heresy!, says: "The Lord will not save those whom He cannot command. He will not divide His offices. You cannot believe in a half-Christ. We take Him for what He is --the anointed Saviour and Lord...." We see our faith in action by our good works according to James. Paul would say we see our good works by our faith. They go hand in hand. In other words: As Lutheran martyr, preacher, and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient, only he who is obedient believes." (Note that it was by faith that Abraham obeyed, as written in Heb. 11:8.) The ultimate result is the fruit of a changed life, not an ascetic or mystic one that parades or charades as spiritual.


The spiritual man is appraised of no one, because of the wisdom of God and, if we have the Spirit, we are spiritual. The natural man cannot comprehend spiritual truth, for Satan has blinded his eyes. We need the eyes of our hearts opened to see spiritual truths. Some believers are more mature in the faith and know the Lord better, but all of them are spiritual. There's no class system or caste system in Christianity, we are all brethren and one in Christ. We should not idolize our fellow believers, even if they seem to be spiritual giants. We should never try to give the impression we are more "spiritual" than other believers or have a holier-than-thou attitude. By the same token, we shouldn't be intimidated by others and develop an inferiority complex. Christ's church has no spiritual elite or privileged class, for God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality (cf. Acts 10:34, Rom. 2:11).

We all have different gifts and we don't have anything the Lord has not given us (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). It is the Spirit that matters, not the gift that makes us spiritual. In exercising one's gift, what matters is the spirit that he uses it in. Believers have no excuse not to understand Scripture, pray, and witness and should enjoy the fruits of fellowship and worship in the body because they have the illuminating ministry of the Spirit.


We are all works in progress and improving from faith to faith (cf. Rom. 1:17); no one can claim to have "arrived" or to have met the goal and won the prize (cf. Phil. 3:13-14). We are in the process of maturing in Christ, but it is the direction we are going that counts and is the test, while perfection is the standard (cf. Matt. 5:48). We must bear fruit as proof of our faith, or it is bogus--no fruit means no faith, and ergo no salvation. (Jesus said we shall know them by their fruits in Matt. 7:16.) We can only find meaning, purpose, and fulfillment ultimately in Christ: "There is a God-shaped blank, and only God can fill it." (old axiom). Soli Deo Gloria!

He That Is Spiritual II

"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God" (Rom. 8:14).



It has been said that a Christian has a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which He loves, a voice through which He speaks, and hands through which He helps--this is the epitome of spirituality--to know Christ and make Him known.


That was the title of the 1918 book by Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, that made him a renowned and celebrated theologian. Who is? This is a vital and bona fide question: Like someone has said, "We have found all the questions, now let's find the answers!" When we are spiritual we are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit in a manifold manner. There is no certain manifestation, such as talking about Jesus or the Bible. Sometimes just touching base with someone in love and charity and meeting their needs is genuine fellowship and expression of being spiritual. There are telltale signs of spirituality: A famous saying goes thus: Where there is love there is joy; where there is joy there is hope; where there is hope there is peace; where there is peace there is Jesus! I have learned this and have observed it: God meets us where we are and knows where we are! We don't always need someone to preach at us, but sometimes we need a listening and sympathetic ear.


Just think of all the possibilities of expressing the nine winsome graces given by the filling of the Holy Spirit. Wherever two or three are gathered together in Jesus' name, there He is. The one who is spiritual simply walks in the Spirit and has continual fellowship with the Lord (keeping short accounts of his sins and confessing them per 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The spiritual one simply is in touch with God and meets people's needs and is not self-centered, but Christ-centered. He lives for Christ and not for himself. This does not necessarily refer to a level of maturity or of being mature per se, because sometimes a baby believer can be more spiritual than the seasoned.


No one can claim to be always spiritual or that they have "arrived" at such a point of perfection, of not being conscious of sin or shortcomings. Sometimes the wisest remarks can proceed out of the mouths of babes, as Jesus noticed: Psalm 8:2 says, "Through the praise of children and infants..." I believe children can even be used by God: a child's voice convicted St. Augustine said: "Take and read, take and read."


He that is spiritual simply walks with the Lord as Enoch and Noah ("Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God")-and we have this privilege too! It is a "faith-walk" because "we walk by faith, and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:17). There is no veneer to see through or guise of spirituality, such as hypocrisy (he has nothing to hide and is straightforward in speech), but a genuineness and authenticity in action. He is the real thing, an original! He's not out to outshine someone or be a rival. "The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments' (1 Cor. 2:15). There is a certain natural ability to discern the Spirit, in other words. Whatever he does, he does to the glory of God (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31)!


There is no inherent dichotomy or division of believers into classes of spiritual and non-spiritual, first-class and second-class, or what Chafer mistakenly believed to be carnal and spiritual Christians. Just like it is wrong to have a "holier than thou" attitude (cf. Isa. 65:5), it is wrong to deceive yourself into thinking you are more spiritual than your brethren--you either are spiritual or you're not--there are no degrees to graduate to.


Any believer can be carnal or spiritual at any given period of time, it is not a given (each day one must start all over in their walk: "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut. 33:25). "This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it," says Psalm 118:24), and he must "abide in Christ" or stay in fellowship with God in order to walk in step with Him. The most spiritually mature can indeed fall into sin like David did but he will ultimately recover and his carnality will not be a permanent or continuous state. The continuity of our status in Christ never changes; only our state of fellowship and relationship and/or sanctification.


This doctrine need not be problematic or an issue at all: "So I say, walk by the Spirit and you shall not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). We are indeed free in Christ: not free to live according to the flesh and our old nature, but power to live in the new nature or spirit. The old nature knows no law, the new nature needs no law! In other words: Freedom to do what we ought, not what we want! We've never had the right to do what is right in our own eyes or to do what is scripturally wrong. In sum, "So we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step [pace] with the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25). Soli Deo Gloria!

He That Is Spiritual

 It has been said that a Christian has a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which He loves, a voice through which He speaks, and hands through which He helps--this is the epitome of spirituality--to know Christ and make Him known.

"O that they were wise, that they would understand this, that they would consider their latter end!" (Deut. 32:29, KJV).


That was the title of the 1918 book by Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, that made him a renowned and celebrated theologian.  Who is?  This is a vital and bona fide question:  Like G. K. Chesterton has said, "We have found all the questions, now let's find the answers!"  When we are spiritual we are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit in a manifold manner.  There is no certain manifestation, such as talking about Jesus or the Bible.  Sometimes just touching base with someone in love and charity and meeting their needs is genuine fellowship and expression of being spiritual. There are telltale signs of spirituality:  A famous saying goes thus:  Where there is love there is joy; where there is joy there is hope; where there is hope there is peace; where there is peace there is Jesus!  I have learned this and have observed it:  God meets us where we are and knows where we are!  We don't always need someone to preach at us, but sometimes we need a listening and sympathetic ear.


Just think of all the possibilities of expressing the nine winsome graces given by the filling of the Holy Spirit.  Wherever two or three are gathered together in Jesus' name, there He is.  The one who is spiritual simply walks in the Spirit and has continual fellowship with the Lord (keeping short accounts of his sins and confessing them per 1 John 1:9:  "If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  The spiritual one simply is in touch with God and meets people's needs and is not self-centered, but Christ-centered.  He lives for Christ and not for himself.  This does not necessarily refer to a level of maturity or of being mature per se, because sometimes a baby believer can be more spiritual than the seasoned.


No one can claim to be always spiritual or that they have "arrived" at such a point of perfection, of not being conscious of sin or shortcomings.  Sometimes the wisest remarks can proceed out of the mouths of infants (cf. Matt. 21:16), as Jesus noticed:  Psalm 8:2 says, "Through the praise of children and infants..."  I believe children can even be used by God: a child's voice convicted St. Augustine said:  "Take and read, take and read."  Proverbs 20:9, HCSB, says, "'Who can say ,"I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin?'"

He that is spiritual simply walks with the Lord as Enoch and Noah ("Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God," Gen. 6:9)--and we have this privilege too!  It is a "faith-walk" because "we walk by faith, and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7).  There is no veneer to see through or guise of spirituality, such as hypocrisy (he has nothing to hide and is straightforward in speech), but a genuineness and authenticity in action. He is the real thing, an original!  He's not out to outshine someone or be a rival.  "The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments'  (1 Cor. 2:15).  There is a certain natural ability to discern the Spirit, in other words.  Whatever he does, he does to the glory of God (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31)!


There is no inherent dichotomy or division of believers into classes of spiritual and non-spiritual, first-class and second-class, or what Chafer mistakenly believed to be carnal and spiritual Christians. Just like it is wrong to have a "holier than thou" attitude (cf. Isa. 65:5), it is wrong to deceive yourself into thinking you are more spiritual than your brethren--you either are spiritual or you're not--there are no degrees to graduate to.   Any believer can be carnal or spiritual at any given period of time, it is not a given (each day one must start all over in their walk:  "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut. 33:25).  "This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it," says Psalm 118:24), and he must "abide in Christ" or stay in fellowship with God in order to walk in step with Him.  The most spiritually mature can indeed fall into sin like David did but he will ultimately recover and his carnality will not be a permanent or continuous state. The continuity of our status in Christ never changes; only our state of fellowship and relationship and/or sanctification.

This doctrine need not be problematic or an issue at all:  "So I say, walk by the Spirit and you shall not gratify the desires of the flesh"  (Gal. 5:16). We are indeed free in Christ:  not free to live according to the flesh and our old nature, but power to live in the new nature or spirit.  The old nature knows no law, the new nature needs no law!  In other words:  Freedom to do what we ought, not what we want! We've never had the right to do what is right in our own eyes or to do what is scripturally wrong.  In sum,  "So we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step [pace] with the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25).   Soli Deo Gloria!

Fixing Our Eyes On Jesus

"I pray that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened..." (Eph. 1:18, NIV).
"Open my eyes that I may see..." (Psalm 119:18, NIV).

The Greeks came to the disciples inquiring: But we would see Jesus! It's not a matter of having some religious or spiritual encounter that lets you behold Christ clearly and meaningfully, but a life of obedience, not ecstasy, vision, or experience! Remember what Jesus told Thomas: Blessed are those who haven't seen! The point is that Jesus opens the eyes of the blind. But Christians all have the ability to see Christ at work in the world, the church, their brethren, and even themselves if they persist in growing in the faith. It is vital to know that Satan will trip us up with a temptation to test us at our weak points and vulnerabilities. And we must realize that he is like" a devouring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (cf. 1 Pet. 5:8)!

As Christians with the Spirit within, we have an advantage over those who actually did see Jesus in the flesh and may have become biased, calloused, or blinded to the Spirit. We don't have to go to and fro seeking Jesus' teaching and presence but have the power at work within--which is a much greater blessing and comfort. We are exhorted to walk by faith and not by sight, and if we do we'll see Christ by faith! To be a person who thinks clearly with our thinking straightened out, we must see (Christ) clearly (i.e., by faith). As the Christian sees Jesus from page to page throughout the Bible like a scarlet thread of His theme in action, that the whole of Scripture is about Him.

Peter walked on water as long as he kept his focus on Jesus, but the second he was overcome with the situation at hand and got his eyes off Jesus he began to sink. Suddenly he realized he needed the intervention of his Savior and uttered the simple words of salvation: Lord, save me! We all need to realize that we are in over our heads in this life and need Jesus in order to cope with the mundane. The distracted mind is no fertile territory for the seed of the Word of God to germinate.

It has been said that the faith the grain of a mustard seed can move mountains; likewise, we can have faith to move mountains in Christ, figuratively speaking. William Carey said that we ought to "Expect Great Things From God; Attempt Great Things for God!' It's not how big our faith, in other words, but the size of our God, who can work the impossible on our behalf. The clearer our perception of Jesus, the closer we can walk with the Lord and be of benefit to the kingdom. Too often the cares of this world smother our spiritual life and we lose focus from keeping the main thing the main thing. We don't want to major in minors, or become legalists! Each of us has a part to do in the Great Commission and can learn from each other doing their part.

The more we learn of Jesus and see Him spiritually at work, the more proficient we are at accomplishing His work. The Great Commission will one day be The Great Completion (by the corporate body of Christ working in unity). Yes, they say that we can walk on water if we have faith, or that someone has the faith to walk on water. This applies to everyone and not just to a spiritual elite, for there is no room for a class system in Christ--we are all one in Christ.

I read a book once called The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey that was a description of the Bible's doctrine of Christ. The point: one can never adequately describe Jesus, but you can know Him personally! And we must learn to focus on Christ in the mundane and everyday and down to earth, not just in a book. Each of us is a gospel in shoe leather and has a story to tell or a gift to give. We don't want Jesus to be just in our head or what's called story faith or head knowledge but have first-hand experience one-on-one with our Lord that we have something to share and pass along to others of our encounter with the Lord.

We are to walk hand in hand with our Lord through all the ups and downs, through thick and thin, to realize the presence of our Lord and being able [to see Him more clearly,] "to know Him more clearly, to follow Him more nearly, and to love Him more dearly"  (cf. Richard of Chichester). You don't just need a book to know Jesus, you need Jesus! Jesus is as close as the mention of His name! However, the temptation is to get enamored with the intellectual aspect of the faith and not to apply what we know. And the Bible wasn't written to describe Jesus, but to make Him known.

Our faith is not a creed to believe or even song to sing, but a relationship and person to know in the here and now with vibrations throughout eternity.   Religions are creeds to believe but Christianity is a Person to know!  We don't need to get informed, but transformed, and to know our Lord, if we are to walk with Him. We get to know the Spirit at work in our hearts and grow in the faith as we increase in our experiential knowledge of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. "But we do see Jesus..." (cf. Heb. 2:9). God is with us through the indwelling Spirit. The disciples longed to see the Father, thinking it would suffice, but Jesus reassured them He is all they need.

We are not boasting of visions and dreams or visitations, but we see Christ at work in the world in the here and now through each other. Do you see just evil in the world, or do you see the good overcoming evil? Paul said that it was "Christ in you, the hope of glory..." (cf. Col. 1:27), meaning that we live an inhabited life, not just an imitating one. Our walk is a substituted, transforming, relinquished, and surrendered one--"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me..." (cf. Gal. 2:20).


We ought to be so preoccupied with our Lord in all we do that he is the center of our life and our treasure is in Him that it shows to the point of being a testimony and a light in the dark if we are Jesus freaks or fanatics to some or even "out of our mind" (cf. 2 Cor. 5:13) it's for Christ's sake, that would be a compliment, as long as we don't live in ignorance of sound doctrine, having a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge (cf. Rom. 10:2, Prov. 19:2) Colossians 3:2, NIV, says: "For you died., and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

We are the hands to do Christ's work, the heart to show Christ's love, and the voices through which Christ speaks to a lost world that doesn't realize He's for real and works in us. We shouldn't be saying that we see the devil at work in the world and ask "why?" but Jesus at work through the church and ask "why not?" As the hymn by William Cowper goes: "God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform."(Cf. Isa. 45:15, NLT).

The faith we have is the faith we show--we must learn to become contagious Christians because of our fixation on the Lord, though we are not fanatics who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, because the clearer our vision of Christ, the more useful in the mission to the world and ministry in the church, as it becomes obvious that we have been in the presence of Jesus!

Bear in mind that to see Jesus with our physical eyes may not do any good spiritually, we must behold him with our spiritual eyes and not only with our intellect but with our whole heart. We need a real-life personal encounter with God that will change us from the inside out so that we can walk with Christ through faith. To see Jesus is to know Him and to know Him is to love Him.

In sum, let's follow on to know the Lord (cf. Hos. 6:3).   Again, as Richard of Chichester said, "To know Him more clearly, to follow Him more nearly, to love Him more dearly."

CAVEAT: TO THE PERSON WHO DOES NOT SEE, HE SHOULD ASK HIMSELF: WHERE IS HIS HEART? Jesus Himself said that the person who is really blind is the person who thinks he sees and doesn't. Soli Deo Gloria!

The Battle Is The Lord's

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36, NIV).  

"The battle is the LORD's," (cf. 2 Chron. 20:15). 

HOW'S THE BATTLE?  We are engaged in great angelic conflict in which we have no chance of coming clean without God's help using the military armor of God.  We sin over and over again to be forgiven over and over again, sometimes for the same old sins (we certainly don't want new ones to worry about). Sin is like the smoking habit:  it enslaves us and alienates us from others.  People don't accept smokers as being "good" or polite company, especially when they light up without permission or even in your face.  Cigarettes can become a god or crutch just like our bellies!

"People are enslaved by whatever defeats them," (cf. 2 Peter 2:19, HCSB). [Smokes!]   Alcohol can be a god but people can become addicted for life as a crutch because they haven't learned to lean on God and trust in Him in times of need, knowing "the central neurosis of man is emptiness"--Carl Gustaf Jung. They need therapy!  NB:  "You belong to the power you choose to obey," (Rom. 6:16, HCSB).  We are bad, but not too bad to be saved!

That's why the first step in recovery is admitting slavery; that you cannot overcome it by yourself and need a "higher power," or a buddy.  It wants to destroy us but we must not let it (cf. Gen. 4:7).   Most men look for some outlet to let off steam, whether in escapism or in fantasies.  They won't admit they "cannot see clearly," or they are clueless.  Drugs seem to offer temporary solutions/fixes but the long-term effects aren't worth it and make one worse off.  We must realize how bad we are to be good, and we don't realize how bad we are till we've tried to be good (a catch-22).

We must realize that our lives our not our own and God has first dibs on our bodies because He owns them.   In God's economy, we must surrender daily; it's not a one-time event done at salvation, but a progressive one never to end.  We are to be continually filled with the Spirit (cf. Eph. 5:18) to live the Christian life, not just have the filling we all received upon salvation as evidence of our initiation into the body of Christ.

When we get saved, we engage in the mop-up effort to defeat Satan, who's already doomed because of Christ's victory at the cross. We cannot do this alone but need the body of Christ and must not become solitary saints thinking we can defeat the enemy on our own. This battle is a joint effort of the body of Christ where everyone has a ministry and mission to complete in God's plan for their lives.   That's where the ministry of the local church comes in to equip the saints.  Hezekiah felt overwhelmed by his enemies and was reassured that the battle is the Lord's (cf. 2 Chron. 20:15)!  God is on our side, He is fighting for us, and He is using us!

The good thing about our so-called slavery to sin is that where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more, as John Bunyan wrote, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, to describe his testimony and his self-estimation.   We must also realize God's grace is not only necessary for us for but we can do nothing without it, but that it's sufficient--we cannot merit it nor add to it nor subtract from it.  Grace means that you don't deserve it!

We don't believe in Jesus and try to be good!  We're a new creation (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17).   We don't try, we trust because it must be Christ who changes us, not us turning over a new leaf or making a New  Year's resolution, or an AA pledge. God's grace to us is infinite and we cannot exhaust it, He never gives up on us but we can give up on Him!  We are the ultimate works in progress that God isn't finished with yet (cf. Phil. 1:6).

We all have failed the Lord and must realize that we can come clean by confessing our known sins, keeping a short account with God (cf. 1 John 1:9).  Prov. 28:13 says that if we confess and forsake them we shall find mercy and if we hide them we will not prosper!  But if we have unconfessed sin our prayers are hindered and blocked due to us being out of fellowship and in need of restoration or reconciliation (cf. Psa. 66:18; Isa. 59:2). We are to examine ourselves periodically for the sake of fellowship with the body of Christ at least during the Lord's Supper celebration (cf. 1 Cor. 11:28) and we should always examine our hearts to see if it's really Christ living there (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5).

We must be in awe of God's economy because the way to be filled is first to be emptied!  The more readily we confess, the easier filled.  As we get closer to God, the more we see our flaws and shortcomings, especially "laying aside every weight, and the sin which easily besets us" (cf. Heb. 12:1, KJV).  "Love covers a multitude of sins" (cf. 1 Pet. 4:8, HCSB).  NB:  But "the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation."  --Henry David Thoreau

All in all, we must give God some credit for delivering us from ourselves, for we are our own worst enemy.  It's not just you and I, that's the way it is and ought to be--to rely on God--we don't try, we trust!   In summation, the way to change our lives is by full surrender and to have a change of heart, (will, attitude, and understanding of our sins)--renouncing them and coming clean.  Soli Deo Gloria!

How Shall We Then Live?...

"And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans 12:2, KJV). 
Francis Schaeffer wrote a book by this title too, showing its importance.  The question we all must answer:  "How shall we live in light of eternity?"  Jesus didn't tell us to close shop and stop working to wait till He comes but Matthew Henry said that we should live each day as if it's our last!  Jesus told us to occupy till [He] comes and be ready!  But we are to be ready and watch for Christ's coming and live our life to have maximum impact on eternity. We aren't seeking to be remembered but to be obedient. 

We see eternal results in everything; all we do strikes a chord that will vibrate for eternity.  Everything will either be rewarded or not, and in time we can be disciplined for what we do if not in God's will.   Paul said that to him "to die is gain" not as a death wish but he meant that he saw eternity in a better light than imagined ("what no human mind has conceived"). He only said this because he had a clear concept of heaven with no misconceptions or delusions to live the good life.

Living in light of eternity inspires us to do good deeds and to have a good testimony to the world at large so they get saved as a result.  It helps us in our trials, seeing that they are only temporal and serve an eternal purpose.  In short, we become purpose-driven.  We prove and validate our faith by our deeds--the faith we have is the faith we show and authenticate.   The more we see Jesus coming soon, the more eager we will be to show our faith also because we will see the urgency of the Great Commission relative to our personal lives. We will want to pass it on and become contagious Christians.  We will be eager to make others ready and to stop living for the moment and the here and now.  What we look forward to affects our worldview and how we interpret life in general.  When the "Desire of all nations" (cf. Haggai 2:7) comes at His Parousia, we will be transformed to become like Him, but we can have a taste of the good things to come now:  "Taste and see that the LORD is good." But now we can see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living (cf. Psalm 27:13, KJV).

We are simply pilgrims, aliens, foreigners, and even strangers in this life and to the world, and passing through, not meant to make ourselves at home here--we don't belong here!  But God has a place for us in His plan. God has an eternal purpose for our lives that He will fulfill and not give up on us.  We are on a spiritual journey too, growing in our relationship with Christ--Reality 101.  We should not cling to our mundane lives but see that our spiritual lives take precedence; however, we do not live with our heads in the clouds nor on cloud nine.  What matters is how our relationship with Christ is growing.  It is wrong to think that we should live as if we go around once and should grab all the gusto we can.  We must have an eternal bucket list that involves our beatific vision of God in glory.

Having a true focus on Christ, keeping our eyes on Jesus orients our life and sets the priorities to have spiritual value.   However, we ought not to be so heavenly minded we are no earthly good. We must not be known as mere secluded saints but actively involved in the real world.  We can enjoy this life, but without sin, and thank God for the blessings that it gives to all in common grace. We can enjoy life to the max as Jesus promised:  "I am come that they may have life, and have it to the full [more abundant life]" (John 10:10, NIV).  On the other hand, we ought not to "love the world nor the things of the world" because the more we do, the less room we'll have in our hearts to satisfy our spiritual appetites to enjoy all the good things He gives us richly as blessing for stewardship (cf 1 Tim. 6:17).

The good life has universally been defined as an ethical one: our duty to God and mankind.  We do this by loving God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves as exemplified in the parable of the Good Samaritan.  "Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you:  to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8, HCSB).  This is achieved by a true sense of "oughtness."  Knowing and believing right doctrine or having one's thinking straightened out is orthodoxy while living right and practicing what one believes and applying it is orthopraxy--both are necessary for the good life (which is not achieving the American dream!).

In the final analysis, when our lives are given their final audit and we go one-on-one with our Maker to face God in the Bema or Judgment Seat, we must ask ourselves whether we are faithful stewards to the blessings God has given us and whether we used them to have an impact. We all will pass on some legacy and people will tend to judge our lives, but what matters most is what Christ sees in us. He isn't going to ask us about our achievements but our obedience and we will realize that success doesn't matter to God because it belongs to Him anyway (cf. Deut. 8:18), but what matters is our call to faithfulness.   Praise the Lord, life is good!    Soli Deo Gloria!