August 6, 2009

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:28-39
 

I happen to be old enough to remember when cakes were baked from scratch. No, I am not older than Betty Crocker! But I have watched my mother put together a cake batter by mixing a bunch of ingredients that if eaten individually were awful - raw eggs, vanilla extract, flour, butter, etc. But somehow, when they were added together and beaten with a Sunbeam Mix-Master and placed in a hot over for 45 minutes - SOMETHING CHANGED! When it came out of the oven it was a delicious desert! And that was BEFORE the frosting!

 

When I read Romans 8:28 I hearken back to my mother mixing the batter. Individually bad tasting ingredients poured into a bowl, beaten up, shoved into a hot oven, and transformed into something tasty!
 

"All things work together for good" - the verse tells us. It does not say that "good things work together" it tells us that "all things" work together. That means that some unpleasant things and some bad things that happen to us can work out for good through the power of God. He has the wisdom and the power to make a masterpiece from our misery.
 

Do you believe that?
 

What is that masterpiece? What finished product does he desire? "He predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of His Son". 
 

Wow! 
 

Would it be worth it to you to experience some difficulties and unpleasant experiences if it would shape you into the image of Christ?
 

That sounds like a "good thing" to me! 
 

What are some other "good things"?
 

1) God Is For You!
 

Of all the people you would love to have on your side - God is the main One because if He is for you - who can be against you?
 

2) Inseparable Relationship With God!

 

Talk about security! You cannot be more secure than knowing that you cannot be separted from God. NOTHING can come between you and Him - not DEATH, not DEMONS, not POWERS - NOTHING can separate you from Him! So for anything to get to you it must come through HIM!
 

3) You Will Be More Than A Conqueror!
 

What is more that a conqueror? What does that look like? 
 

It is one thing to conquer, it is quite another thing to keep conquering and live as a conqueror. And God promises to make you "MORE than conquerors"! I like that! The only thing better than a win is a winning streak!

 

God wants to put you on a winning streak! How does that sound?
 

Perhaps life is pouring a lot of unpleasant stuff into your life right now. Maybe you are under the Mix-Master at the moment. Has your life been shoved in the oven and the temperature dialed up?
 

Be encouraged! God is stirring your life to produce something more beautiful than you have ever imagined!
 

And for frosting, He will throw in some Christ-likeness!

August 5, 2009

Barbara and I were walking in downtown Fredericksburg awhile ago. We often do that. But on this day a beautiful Monarch butterfly caught our attention. He was flittering freely from place to place without a care in the world. He seemed to be following us so we got to observe him for several blocks.

We commented on how his life had changed. Once he had been a creepy crawling earthbound worm. Now he had wings!

He had been fundamentally changed by a tranformation of his nature allowing him to shed his "wormness" and sprout wings!

That is akin to the fundamental type of change that the Apostle Paul is talking about in Romans. It is that sort of drastic transformation that is required to deliver you from your sinful nature. You can no more rise to the level of your potential in God than the caterpillar could before his miraculous change.

The good news is that it is possible! If God can do that for an insect, He can certainly do it for you!

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." Romans 8:1-11

A worm crawls because he has to. It is his nature.

You sin because it is your nature. You aren't a sinner because you sin, you sin because you are a sinner.

But, by the same supernatural power that transforms a worm to a butterfly, you can be delivered from your sinful nature!

Are you tired of your "wormness"? Ready to soar?

August 4, 2009

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members." Romans 7:14-23

A funny thing happens when I am preparing to hit my tee shot and looking down the fairway I see a water hazard. If my last thought is, "Don't hit it in the water!" Guess where the ball goes?

It is the same thing that happens when someone tells you, "Don't do that!" It makes you want to do it!

That is the nature Paul describes in Romans 7. He makes the argument that knowing the law causes you to break the law because the law says what you can't do. The does and don'ts in the law runs afoul with your rebellious sinful nature. His basic argument is "the law can't save anyone." It can't save the pagan (7:7-14), nor can it save the one trying to live by the law (7:15-22), nor can it even save the man with a new nature (7:23-25).

This explains why you or I cannot save ourselves. We cannot manage sin. We cannot regulate sin or control sin. We cannot escape the power of sin.

Paul describes it this way, "You are married to sin. Like a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives, so you are bound to sin as long as it lives in you."

Says who? Says the law!

Living with sin is like living in a bad marriage. You can't be happy and you can't get out. The Christian can be the most miserable because there are two natures warring within. He is double-minded and unstable.

So, what's the answer? Death of that tyrant is the only way out.

How many times have you heard someone try to justify their own goodness by claiming that they "keep the commandments"? Maybe you have said that.

How many religious people try to save themselves by doing good works? The hope is to tip the moral scales in their favor by doing more good things than bad things. Is that you?

A desperate problem requires drastic action. Your sin nature has to die. The spiritual nature must live and grow. Nothing else will work but complete surrender to the Holy Spirit of God.

Are you ready to empty yourself to be filled with Him?

August 3, 2009

Read any good books lately?

I am reading one right now - Romans! This morning I am in Chapter 6. To summarize it I would say, "If you don't die to sin - it will kill you!"

Here's the skinny.

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him." Romans 6:1-8

"What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:21-23

Paul lays it out pretty clearly and simply here, doesn't he? You can live in sin and die, or you can die to sin and live forever! You can live in sin and be a slave to sin or you can live in the righteousness and holiness of God and be free.

He even tells you how to do it! Baptism is the key!

The sacrament of baptism is the symbolic act of dying to sin, being buried under the waters, and then rising to new life in Christ. Baptism is identification with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Baptism allows you to fully appropriate the grace of Jesus Christ. When you die to selfishness and self-will (which is the root of sin), then you live in amazement over the mercy and grace of God toward you through Jesus. When you live as a slave to your selfish desires you will abuse the grace of God - using for your selfish ends as a license to sin. That is despicable!

If you have been baptized as a believer and yet you still are giving yourself as a slave to sin, you are abusing the grace of God. You made a public vow before God and the church that you died with Christ and identified with His resurrection. How can you then still live for selfish goals and desires?

The grace of God is the gift of life given to those who are dying to have it! Grace is the gift of freedom for those who have died to sin. Is that you?

Are you living up to the commitment you made at your baptism?

Then die to sin before it kills you!

August 2, 2009

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned - for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was the pattern of one to come." Romans 5:12-14

Many present day philosophies and worldviews claim that people are basically good and that bad or immoral behavior is the exception. The implication of the "people are good" worldview is that good people don't need a Savior.

History would call that notion into question.If you examine the atrocities perpetrated by people within the last century, you find a huge number of murders. Adolph Hitler killed 6 million Jews prior to and during the second World War. Joseph Stalin killed 20 million Soviet citizens between 1929 and 1939 because they were not politically correct. Mao Tse-tung killed 34 to 62 million Chinese during the Chinese civil war of the 1930s and 1940s. Pol Pot, the leader of the Marxist regime in Cambodia, Kampuchea, in the 1970's killed over 1.7 million of his own people. These do not include all the people killed in "legitimate" wars.

Some might object to this analysis, since they could claim that these atrocities were perpetrated by only a few individuals. However, these individuals could not have done anything if they were not backed by others, who agreed with their "values." The vast majority of Germans willingly followed Adolph Hitler and gave their consent to his policy to get rid of the "Jewish problem."

You may further object by saying that I have chosen extreme examples that in no way apply to you or anyone you know.

Let me ask you this, "Have you ever entertained hateful thoughts toward another person?" If so, Jesus said you are guilty of murder. "Have you ever allowed yourself to have lustful thoughts toward a member of the opposite sex?" Jesus says you are an adulterer.

Here in these few verses, St. Paul challenges any notion of people being basically good - "even those who did not sin by breaking a command".'

One of the basic doctrines taught in this great Book of Romans is that we are not sinners because we sin - but we sin because we are sinners by nature.

Fish swim. Dogs bark. Birds fly. People sin. We are all slaves to our nature. You can no longer change your sin nature than a dog can become a cat.

What can transform your nature? Only something - or Someone - supernatural. Someone like Jesus, the Son of God.

When you get tired of lying to yourself about your goodness or when you get sick of your badness, Jesus is patiently waiting to save you from yourself.

August 1, 2009

"Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations."He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." Romans 4:16-25

I was reading in Romans 4 this morning. What an amazing treatise on faith! Hebrews 11 has always been the "Faith Chapter", but this chapter is strong! Let me see if I can help you get your heart and mind around it.

FAITH IS BELIEVING

Abraham believed what he couldn't see. He trusted for something he had never see before. He was committed to a Higher Reality.

 

Why did he do that?

 

Because of a promise from God - "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as had been saint to him, 'So shall your offspring be.'" V. 18

 

Faith is believing what you have never seen - seeing with your spirit - because you trust the promise of God.

 

FAITH IS BEHAVING

 

Abraham not only trusted God in his mind and in his spirit, but he acted on what he believed. He took his wife and possessions and left for a place that had not yet been revealed to him. Every day he acted on what he believed God wanted him to do. As James tells us, "Faith without works is dead."

 

Why did he behave that way? He believed in the Person of God.

 

If you say you believe it is going to rain but you leave the house without your umbrella, you are not acting like someone who really believes. True belief, faith, expresses itself with action.

 

To say that you believe that the Bible is God's Word demands that you actually read it, know it, and live according to its truths. If the Bible doesn't shape your behavior, you are not a believer.

 

FAITH IS BECOMING

 

Because Abraham believed in the promise of God and the Person of God, but he also believed in the power of God to help him possess what He had promised! And because he believed and behaved like a believer - God believed in him.

 

The power to become is founded in the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead. Abraham's faith was amazing because not only did he experience God's power prior to the Resurrection, he believed it before Jesus was even born!

Abraham became a literal father, but because he believed and behaved as a man of faith, God made Him a spiritual father. If you could look up faith in God's dictionary you would find a picture of Abraham because to God, Abraham = faith.

God counted Abraham as the righeous father of a great nation, even when he was childless.

God loves it when, by faith, we become what He has designed us to become!

It was out of the faithfulness of Abraham that the Hebrew people became a nation. And it was out of this nation that Jesus was born. So not only is Abraham the example of faith, he is the father of THE Faith.

How is your faith?

Do you believe in God's promises? Do you behave in a manner consistent with His Person? Are you becoming like like Jesus by His power?

July 31, 2009

"Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." Psalm 55:22

You have probably heard this: "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death."

The moral:

It doesn't matter if you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better be running.

No one enjoys being fearful, but fear is a powerful motivator. In our verse for today, the Psalmist offers some great advice, "Let your anxiety drive you to the Lord."

"Cast your cares".

"Cast" in Hebrew means: to throw out, throw down, throw away, to hurl. It does not mean to take back what you have cast, nor to cherish, or keep - but to cast, toss, throw away from yourself.

"Cares" in Hebrew means: whatever is given by providence. That means every part of your personality, talents, thoughts, body, emotions, worries, burdens, joys, and gifts.

"LORD" as used here in Hebrew means - Eternal, Jehovah, self-existent. The One with no beginning and no end. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, the Almighty." Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13.

Piece all these truths together and you get: "Throw and hurl everything that has been given to you onto the Lord. Everything that has been given to you, you are to throw onto the Lord and not to take it back."

That is your part. If you will do your part, here's what God will do:

"Sustain" in Hebrew means: "To keep in and contain, To abide, remain with and reside, To receive, comprehend and guide, To feed, nourish, make provision for and provide sustenance for."

God makes this personal - "You" - means God is willing and able to do this for you, just the way you are. No changes are needed to come before the Lord God Almighty.

Putting this all together: The Lord Jesus Christ will do all these thing for the one who casts to Him all that they have been, are now, and will be. Every facet of your life must be given away for Him in order for your joy to be full. God Himself will nourish and help you through what you are going through, no matter what it is!

"Fall" in Hebrew means: "To waver, slip, shake, fall; To be carried, cast, be out of course, be fallen in decay."

Add it up like this: The Lord God Almighty will never ever cause the just, clean and righteous person to slip and fall or be carried, cast, or be out of course and be fallen in decay. The Lord God will keep His child, that means the one who trust in Him and loves Him and obeys Him in Spirit and in Truth, He will keep that child cared for and nurtured, steadfast in His Love and protection.

What kept you from sleeping well last night? What caused you to awake with anxieties today? You can carry that again today or you can cast it on Him. Your fears can drain you or they can drive you to Him.

Listen to the Psalmist!