Forgiven Christians (Ephesians 2:8-9)

01/16/2010

Matthew 25:34-40: "Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'

"Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My bretheren, you did it to Me."

As you read these verses, dwell on them for yourself and see what the Holy Spirit wants to share with you. In different seasons of our lives, we learn new lessons from the same passage.

WE have a lot to unpackage in these seven verses.

First, we must understand the folks the King was talking to did not realize when they did all they were being credited for. This indicates the purity of their hearts. Their actions were not motivated to "earn" heaven. they simply were so in love with God and filled with the Holy Spirit that their actions were an outflowing of that joy in the Lord.

"Works" for God's people was not work. It was the fruit of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. They did not consider their actions any more than they thought of breathing.

Second, we need to consider our desire to be "like Jesus."

Jesus (the King) states He was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned. If we are to conform our lives to the will of God, we must be willing to accept these circumstances in His service. Paul is a great example of how he experienced all of these conditions, yet kept his heart content.

We all would prefer to be on the giving end of the trials Jesus describes. But guess what? Sometimes Jesus needs to put us on the receiving end. It is in these times that our testimony can be most powerful. How much more we will impact the unbelievers if we can display our confidence in Christ in the midst of extreme conditions!

Lord Jesus, increase our ability to proclaim Your Holy Spirit dwelling in us in every and all circumstances.

01/22/2010

John 15:4 - "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me."

When we read this verse, there is so much to grasp. We are permitted by God to bear fruit, to bring the light of Jesus to the world. He didn't need to give us that honor. He didn't need to be born in a manger. He is all about relationship - we never see Jesus force Himself into communion with anyone.

Let's humbly look at ourselves as the vessels the Holy Spirit uses to reach out to our friends and family. To touch the strangers among us. As believers, we ought to fervently ask our God to use us in His service, to give us the courage to act when we feel Him nudging us out of our comfort zone to serve Him.

Let's also feel secure that He is abiding in us. What a great thought as we wake in the morning and lay our heads on the pillow at night.

 02/05/2010

"Jesus wept." John 11:35

 The shortest verse in the Bible, yet extremely profound.

Sometimes as I read the Bible I think of Jesus as God, like when He walks on water (John 6:19), other times He's all human, as when He chastises the Pharisees in Mark 7:1-13. In todays verse, we see Jesus fully human and fully God.

Jesus the man wept over the death of His friend Lazarus; Jesus the Son of God wept over the consequences of man's sin nature. I wonder how many times throughout the Gospels Jesus contemplated what society was like verses what God desired for us before the fall. When He went off by Himself to pray, how often did Jesus weep over our sin nature?

Throughout His teaching, Jesus encouraged us to live with a heavenly perspective; in some respects I suspect the "poor" of this world have a better time grasping the truth of being i"in the world, but not of the world." It may be more difficult for us who have homes and heaters and filled pantries to desperately desire the return of the Lord. We (I) can get pretty comfortable on a Saturday afternoon watching TV and eating popcorn. The homeless beggar may be more inclined to pray for Jesus' return while I'm watching the "Big Game."

Jesus wept. Let's look at ourselves and the folks around us with a heavenly perspective. If our neighbor is not a Christian and we "see" that he or she doesn't have the assurance of Salvation and an intimate relationship with Jesus, shouldn't that bring us to tears? If we believe the Bible, wouldn't we be motivated to cross the street and invite them to Church on Sunday, or at least bring them a gift and open the doors to conversation with them about their eternal future?

Lord Jesus, please move us with compassion for our friends and neighbors. Let us get to the point of weeping over their lack of response to your calling. Let your Holy Spirit work through us to bring our friends and family to a saving relationship with you. Amen.

03/13/2010

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" - Hebrews 13:5,6

Recently I've been dealing with physical and work related challenges. Last night I surveyed my life and observed that threaded through it God was always Present with me. In times of great blessing and in times when I truly turned my back on Him, I knew He was there.

I remembered with fondness the times I knew I was in His will, when our relationship was intimate and I loved Him with all my heart. I realized when I was rebellious that God allowed me to be that way, yet He never left me. He just remained silent and I'm sure kept me safe from anything that would totally derail me. Like a Father who lets His little one run to the street but will not let the child get so far away that He cannot reach him and keep him from danger.

Take time soon to look back on your life and see if there was ever a time when you can honestly say you were abandoned by God. In all honesty, answer the question, "who abandoned whom?" If you are like me, you will realize our Father never ever leaves us. His arms are always open to embrace us, no matter how far we stray.

God our Father, thank You for Your constant Presence in our lives. Forgive us for all the times we strayed from You, and thank You for Your promise to never leave us or abandon us.

04/27/10

Ephesians 6:10-17 ~ "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with the truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation on the Gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. and take up the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

Too many times when I write on this website, I push a button and my work disappears. while I admit I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to computers, sometimes I think I'm battling Satan in getting this published. This is a good example of our Scripture today.

Often I get the urge to watch action movies and then get pumped up to go work out and develop my physical strength. Meanwhile, I get assaulted with spiritual and emotional issues and end up realizing I've put my spiritual armor down while I try to deal with the physical challenges.

Looking at the Apostle Paul, you can put his life up against any modern day warrior, and see that he endured shipwreck, beatings, threats, and still ended up praising God in prison. Paul had real strength! I am fascinated with all things military, and have a tremendous affinity for the Special Operations community. When I come across a man with a warrior's heart and a deep Christian commitment, I am extremely grateful to God. This is the type of man who can appreciate the power and resolve Jesus and His followers had in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity.

As Christians, we should read the "Armor of God" passage with an understanding that we are in the midst of spiritual warfare every bit as real as our military fighting in Afghanistan - just on a different battlefield. We need to glorify God by taking the "hits" of malice, persecution, doubt, fear, anger, lust, envy, depression and anxiety that Satan throws our way, recognize these emotions as "probing attacks" by the devil looking for an opportunity to break through our defense, and fortify ourselves with the full armor of God so that we may win the battle and glorify God.

Brothers and sisters, we are fighting a formidable enemy - throughout the Bible we see his cunning and resolve. Yet Paul reminds us "we are more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37) through Jesus Christ.

Now, having said all that, please pray constantly for our military and law enforcement personnel. They are not only fighting a very real and dangerous physical battle, but are also having to deal with spiritual warfare. As we all know, when we're exhausted and alone, we can be very vulnerable. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to give them an extra portion of grace and peace as they defend us.

In Christ, always,

Joe

06/26/10

ROMANS 8:28 ~ "And we know that God causes all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose."

Yesterday I bit the bullet and tuned in to Joel Osteen just to see if his preaching had much to do with the Truth of the Gospel (every now and again I want to give folks the benefit of the doubt and see if they've changed). He was preaching on "when bad things happen" and talking about how it's not God's will that we suffer, but God will let a person go through hard times and reward them exponentially when all is said and done. I didn't finish the program, but left thinking Joel was at least talking about God a little more clearly.

Then I watched "Wretched" with Todd Friel. Apparently Todd had seen the same broadcast as he referenced Joel and his teaching. Then Todd pointed out some very wise Biblical principles. Pain, suffering, and "bad stuff" as we see them are actually good things for believers. He pointed to the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus as seemingly a "bad" thing, yet by going through the experience, Jesus paid the price for our Salvation - a very wonderful thing.

God not only allows things to happen, but uses them to make us better. A personal example is that a month ago I had to have my gall bladder removed. At the time I was in great pain and would have let the surgeon remove anything he wanted. Anyway, since the surgery, I've been eating healthy, avoiding chocolate and pastries and all the unhealthy fatty foods that made up my diet, and have lost twenty pounds and my blood pressure which was borderline high is now normal. I also wonder if my gall bladder didn't have to be removed, would I have had a worse condition in the future due to my poor eating habits?

In the "Wretched" show (it aired on 6/25/10 if you have an opportunity to watch it, it might be available on wretched.tv), Mr. Friel showed a youtube video of a young man who had abdominal cancer and was sharing his testimony of how the cancer changed his whole life - making him a better father, husband, worker, and Christian. The video was amazingly powerful, especially when Todd told us that the man went to be with the Lord three weeks ago. The whole show was a powerful testimony on how everything God sends our way is for our good, we just need to get out of the "victim" mentality and realize that we are "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37) when we see events unfolding in our lives with supreme confidence that "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." (John 8:33).

Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me with an everlasting love, and assuring me that everything that happens in my life is Your gift to me. Let me see the opportunity to share Your love in every circumstance of my life, especially in adversity where unbelievers would have no hope.

GOING DEEPER... 

01/16/2010

We serve a King! The King of the Universe has chosen us, little bitty grains of sand, to be His hands and feet in a hurting world.

01/22/2010

The only way we can bear fruit is through relationship with Jesus. We cannot give what we don't have. Wouldn't it be great if our whole being was an overflow of Jesus dwelling in us?

03/13/2010

God our Father is with us always. To know peace in this life in every circumstance, we must resist the urge to run from Him - to attempt to live under our own power - and find our contentment with our hand firmly in His. This, my friend, is life at its best.

Please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers. This is their season of being in desperate need. Can we see Christ in the pictures of the hurting coming through our television screens? 

Remember in your prayers, also, all the incredible people responding to the earthquake victims, whether they are "boots on the ground" or donating money to support those on scene.

03/13/2010

As we started to put the devastation in Haiti in the back of our minds, Chile was hit by a massive eathquake. Again, please pray for the people affected by the earthquake and for their rescuers. If possible, please help financially the established organizations who are able to bring food clothing, and medical care for those suffering from this tragedy. Among the organizations I feel are most effective are the Red Cross, Feed the Children, and World Vision. But research and verify for yourself the integrity of whoever you choose to donate to.

God bless, and thank you for visiting this website.