THE DEBATABLE THINGS OF LIFE Hebrews 12:
GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF JESUS"
We have all sat through a number of sermons on LOVE and yet in spite of having the standard "Churchy Answers" while we are in the midst of other Christians who speak and understand our spiritual language, we are still called on to give an account for our beliefs and an answer as to why we believe .
John 3:16 tells us why God loves us and exactly what lengths He is willing to go to in order to prove that claim is real. I drew this picture of grain being choked out by thorns to let you know that today we are facing some very dangerous prospects when we accept God's free gift of Salvation without understanding the cost of living it out in front of other men. In accepting that gift we are now on the hook for proving our love for God in return is real. The price for that kind of conviction is very steep, and even though it has been clearly spelled out for us in the word it is mostly not spoken of clearly in much of the teaching we have had in our churches.
As humans, we try to go about things in the easiest ways we can. That means that if we can get by with it we will take the easiest shortcut we can find to getting a job done. While we may have heard the term "DYING TO SELF" we still try to avoid a direct answer to the question of what it will take for us to die to self in this life by using these cute pre-written answers that sound like they use the right words and have the right emotion but end up dealing very little with our personal commitment. Our responsibility to prove what we say to God is true as well is left alone. It is that accountability and response from each of us that God is looking for today. This you see is at the real heart of what God is beginning to do with pruning the church from the inside outward.
While we think we know John 3:16 pretty well, we don't usually go into the verses that follow and that give us warnings. Verse 17 tells us this effort on God's part was an act of redemption, not condemnation like the law was set up to do for the law was given to convict men of their sins.. This redemption was brought to us in the form of a contract given to us through both the message and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and it becomes God's first act of love for us and proof of His intent. This was the only way that God could take the power of what had been done away because the sacrifice had to be completely pure. It had to be as Holy and perfect as God is for it to be a Holy and acceptable sacrifice for sin.
When James wrote " Faith without works is dead" I believe he was saying that we cannot claim to believe fully enough to accept God's Holy Sacrifice without proving that we are willing to give our life in return to His complete control. It is true that we can do nothing on our own, but if we never include the power of God's Spirit in our life we are still alone. To say we can do nothing on our own is an agreement that we need active participation in the power that God has to transform our lives. Those who say that they can do nothing often sit back and try to watch God work without any action seeking themselves. God should reign in every breath we take, and although the battle has both been fought and won by Jesus Christ; our battle to continue to run the race is not over. As long as we draw breath we are still accountable to continue to prove our loyalty and love to the end by finishing the course that has been set out before us. For each one of us that course may be different, but no less intense as we daily seek to give God the very best within us to build the Kingdom with.
Dear ones there is no list that we can check off in our pursuit of living for Christ, but I believe there are some effects that we can see in our lives that we should not only expect to see from our own lives but from the lives of anyone around us who claims a relationship with Jesus Christ. If we are not sensing that transformation then we need to ask ourselves WHY NOT? You cannot give something away to someone else that you do not have yourself. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THHE UNWORTHY SERVFANT
We have all sat through a number of sermons on LOVE and yet in spite of having the standard "Churchy Answers" while we are in the midst of other Christians who speak and understand our spiritual language, we are still called on to give an account for our beliefs and an answer as to why we believe .
John 3:16 tells us why God loves us and exactly what lengths He is willing to go to in order to prove that claim is real. I drew this picture of grain being choked out by thorns to let you know that today we are facing some very dangerous prospects when we accept God's free gift of Salvation without understanding the cost of living it out in front of other men. In accepting that gift we are now on the hook for proving our love for God in return is real. The price for that kind of conviction is very steep, and even though it has been clearly spelled out for us in the word it is mostly not spoken of clearly in much of the teaching we have had in our churches.
As humans, we try to go about things in the easiest ways we can. That means that if we can get by with it we will take the easiest shortcut we can find to getting a job done. While we may have heard the term "DYING TO SELF" we still try to avoid a direct answer to the question of what it will take for us to die to self in this life by using these cute pre-written answers that sound like they use the right words and have the right emotion but end up dealing very little with our personal commitment. Our responsibility to prove what we say to God is true as well is left alone. It is that accountability and response from each of us that God is looking for today. This you see is at the real heart of what God is beginning to do with pruning the church from the inside outward.
While we think we know John 3:16 pretty well, we don't usually go into the verses that follow and that give us warnings. Verse 17 tells us this effort on God's part was an act of redemption, not condemnation like the law was set up to do for the law was given to convict men of their sins.. This redemption was brought to us in the form of a contract given to us through both the message and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and it becomes God's first act of love for us and proof of His intent. This was the only way that God could take the power of what had been done away because the sacrifice had to be completely pure. It had to be as Holy and perfect as God is for it to be a Holy and acceptable sacrifice for sin.
When James wrote " Faith without works is dead" I believe he was saying that we cannot claim to believe fully enough to accept God's Holy Sacrifice without proving that we are willing to give our life in return to His complete control. It is true that we can do nothing on our own, but if we never include the power of God's Spirit in our life we are still alone. To say we can do nothing on our own is an agreement that we need active participation in the power that God has to transform our lives. Those who say that they can do nothing often sit back and try to watch God work without any action seeking themselves. God should reign in every breath we take, and although the battle has both been fought and won by Jesus Christ; our battle to continue to run the race is not over. As long as we draw breath we are still accountable to continue to prove our loyalty and love to the end by finishing the course that has been set out before us. For each one of us that course may be different, but no less intense as we daily seek to give God the very best within us to build the Kingdom with.
Dear ones there is no list that we can check off in our pursuit of living for Christ, but I believe there are some effects that we can see in our lives that we should not only expect to see from our own lives but from the lives of anyone around us who claims a relationship with Jesus Christ. If we are not sensing that transformation then we need to ask ourselves WHY NOT? You cannot give something away to someone else that you do not have yourself. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THHE UNWORTHY SERVFANT
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