THE CHARACTER OF A MAN
GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF JESUS:
When it comes right down to it the character of a man or woman is the essence of who they are, but we have very little understanding of what that character is all about. Most people think of their character as being something that God has created them to be, but I am finding that is not so true as we might have thought. As I look at the scriptures more closely in Matthew 5: and as Jesus begins His first sermon on the mount He is talking about "You heard that it was said" which is His way of saying that it has always been the wisdom of men to think in this way; but I tell you a new way. What God was trying to tell us is that it is our very character that needs to be changed in how we look at the world around us.
The enemy has been very good at misdirecting information to us about the very nature of what God has been telling us all along about our salvation. Today's concept of accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior is to be convinced that Jesus is the Son of God, and then accept a free gift of salvation just for the asking. I personally believe there is much more to the process that has been cleverly hidden from us. God's promise of making us a new creature in Christ has several things that we have dropped from the conversation in our churches our of an effort to not offend anyone, and yet we find in an example of Jesus speaking to a rich young ruler who wanted to become a disciple of Jesus there is for a great many people a pitfall standing in their way that is not always dealt with. That pitfall is the basic character they have as a person is never put to death for the cause of Christ so that they can then be raised to walk in newness of life. The term Paul used in his letters " For me to live is Christ and for me to die is gain" is directly related to the fact that he had given his basic character of who he was as a man to God to be crucified along with Christ, and now in everything that he did it was not he who was in charge of his life, but rather it was Christ who was living through him on a daily ...moment-to-moment basis.
There are many things that are missing in our relationship with God today that need to be addressed such as SEEKING AFTER GOD with our whole heart mind and strength that we refuse to do based upon the fact that our old nature is still in charge of our lives. For many years in my efforts to live for Christ, my failure was because I approached my salvation as a decision made mentally to change. As I approached any effort in change I never went to a place where I laid down my own will to live and be in control of what happened in my life to God without taking it back up at the first opportunity. I found I was approaching giving myself and my character to God just in the same ways I was approaching allowing God to wipe away all of my sins from me. The burdens I carried and laid down at the cross are the same burdens I was picking back up and walking away with to continue to deal with moments later. Coming to God and even begging Him to forgive sins only works if we let go of them and leave them, and changing our character is not an automatic process without our participation in laying it down as a sacrifice to Jesus Christ. Most of the time we have not even understood the reason for Jesus's sacrifice was not to automatically gift us a free gift of salvation but to allow us the change to have a relationship with God so we can find salvation. When Jesus stated that He came to take away the sins of the world He simply said that He was breaking the power of sin to bring death and eternal separation between us and God. It is our job to create that relationship with God. We have for the first time the privilege of finding and befriending God through Jesus Christ.
For us to accept that salvation there are conditions that we must meet. This salvation isn't any freer than it is to accept love from someone without returning it. We cannot love someone else without it costing us something. Our old nature/character will fight to stay in control as long as we allow it to live within us. God has promised to help us with that very battle; believe me, it is a battle to allow God's Spirit to transform our mind and heart, but not until we die by putting our old nature to death as our part of the completed sacrifice. There are a tremendous number of things that we need to discuss with regard to this process, and so as time permits I will continue sharing more information with you. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
When it comes right down to it the character of a man or woman is the essence of who they are, but we have very little understanding of what that character is all about. Most people think of their character as being something that God has created them to be, but I am finding that is not so true as we might have thought. As I look at the scriptures more closely in Matthew 5: and as Jesus begins His first sermon on the mount He is talking about "You heard that it was said" which is His way of saying that it has always been the wisdom of men to think in this way; but I tell you a new way. What God was trying to tell us is that it is our very character that needs to be changed in how we look at the world around us.The enemy has been very good at misdirecting information to us about the very nature of what God has been telling us all along about our salvation. Today's concept of accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior is to be convinced that Jesus is the Son of God, and then accept a free gift of salvation just for the asking. I personally believe there is much more to the process that has been cleverly hidden from us. God's promise of making us a new creature in Christ has several things that we have dropped from the conversation in our churches our of an effort to not offend anyone, and yet we find in an example of Jesus speaking to a rich young ruler who wanted to become a disciple of Jesus there is for a great many people a pitfall standing in their way that is not always dealt with. That pitfall is the basic character they have as a person is never put to death for the cause of Christ so that they can then be raised to walk in newness of life. The term Paul used in his letters " For me to live is Christ and for me to die is gain" is directly related to the fact that he had given his basic character of who he was as a man to God to be crucified along with Christ, and now in everything that he did it was not he who was in charge of his life, but rather it was Christ who was living through him on a daily ...moment-to-moment basis.
There are many things that are missing in our relationship with God today that need to be addressed such as SEEKING AFTER GOD with our whole heart mind and strength that we refuse to do based upon the fact that our old nature is still in charge of our lives. For many years in my efforts to live for Christ, my failure was because I approached my salvation as a decision made mentally to change. As I approached any effort in change I never went to a place where I laid down my own will to live and be in control of what happened in my life to God without taking it back up at the first opportunity. I found I was approaching giving myself and my character to God just in the same ways I was approaching allowing God to wipe away all of my sins from me. The burdens I carried and laid down at the cross are the same burdens I was picking back up and walking away with to continue to deal with moments later. Coming to God and even begging Him to forgive sins only works if we let go of them and leave them, and changing our character is not an automatic process without our participation in laying it down as a sacrifice to Jesus Christ. Most of the time we have not even understood the reason for Jesus's sacrifice was not to automatically gift us a free gift of salvation but to allow us the change to have a relationship with God so we can find salvation. When Jesus stated that He came to take away the sins of the world He simply said that He was breaking the power of sin to bring death and eternal separation between us and God. It is our job to create that relationship with God. We have for the first time the privilege of finding and befriending God through Jesus Christ.
For us to accept that salvation there are conditions that we must meet. This salvation isn't any freer than it is to accept love from someone without returning it. We cannot love someone else without it costing us something. Our old nature/character will fight to stay in control as long as we allow it to live within us. God has promised to help us with that very battle; believe me, it is a battle to allow God's Spirit to transform our mind and heart, but not until we die by putting our old nature to death as our part of the completed sacrifice. There are a tremendous number of things that we need to discuss with regard to this process, and so as time permits I will continue sharing more information with you. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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