It is definitely through the hardships of life that God does most of his sanctifying. God has used many things the past couple years to teach me hard lessons. It is hard to forgive. It is hard to let go of hurt. It is hard to give up and let things go, especially when I think I am right. Yet, I am not my own. I am bought by blood. I have to lay it all down.
Matthew 5 says:
You have heard that it was said, 'AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.'39 But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
It continues to say
Love your enemies, pray for them who persecute you.
It is so easy to think of enemies or those who persecute as people in other countries that are called to die for Christ, to watch their houses burned and friends and family tortured for HIS name. God used the extreme of any situation here... those who are your enemies. If God wants me not only to forgive, but LOVE my enemies, do I not think He wants me to love those who are a thorn in the side, a nuisance, add stress to my life or deeply hurt me. Love them! It is a high calling and not doable in my own strength. It happens as God changes me to look more like Him.
Forgiveness is so much God's will that it will affect our relationship with God if we don't. I have found often that when I won't forgive I am holding on to pride. There is some part of me that believes I deserve better treatment. It is my right.
I am required to do this because I have no rights. None. A slave should care for nothing except the will of his master.
Or do you not know that your body is a [fn11] temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from [fn12] God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
I am free to love because I am not my own. I am free to forgive because it is His job to take care of me. I have heard often times that we are the slaves of Christ. However, when Christ purchased us with His blood as His slaves, He also in doing so took on the role of Master. It is His job by His covenant with us to protect us. How glorious is that! How undeserved and God in is His goodness grants us a position of protection from anything He doesn't see fit for us to endure.
So then am I to become a doormat, someone to be tossed around and used by anyone? No! Let's look at the person we are struggling with to love, let us look at the person that has hurt us deeply. As a bond servant of the Most High I am to obey what God wants for the best for myself. I need to know the scriptures, who God is and how He wants me to live. The Bible tells us that it is not wise to fellowship with fools, the ungodly or "Christians" living in unrepentant sin. We are not to allow them into our home, and as in principle our intimate lives, those that cause dissension or teach heresy. We are to abstain from evil. However, I will not be rejecting them, I will be obeying God's principles that He has laid out for me to live by. I am obeying my master.
So the next time I come across a difficult person, it is easier to love, forgive because I know they don't answer to me but to God for the Master is responsible for his slave. I need to love because without Him, I would be just like them and many times I still act in the flesh. I can go the extra mile, show the kindness, be polite, witness within God's protective limits because He cares for me.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Can that faith save you?
I would invite you to read James 2:14-26 before reading my post.
What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but he has no works can that faith save him? James 2:14
Strong's defines the word faith as conviction respecting man's relationship to God and divine things with the idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it.
1828 dictionary describes fervour as earnestness in the duties of religion. It describes earnestness as zeal. Faith is zeal over the things of God.
Save means to keep safe from Messianic judgment. Hell.
I believe James is addressing the same problem we have today. "Can your faith save you?"Is faith alone enough? Does asking Jesus into your heart mark spiritual rebirth?
Now I can already hear the cries of salvation is by grace alone. Please read the whole post. I am not arguing against that. Salvation is always by grace and not works.
James asks a few rhetorical questions throughout the book. In verse James 3:11: Can a fountain send forth sweet and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. The answer is obvious... NO!
Continuing in James, he addressing the same question in different ways to make it quite clear.
James 2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. Dead comes from the root word corpse. No life. That again is not a picture of saving faith. Lazarus was a picture of salvation, the resurrection of our dead spirit. He was brought to LIFE. Remember when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. What was the consequence? Death. Their spirits died immediately. They lost communion with God. Ezekiel again paints of picture of salvation in the valley of the dead bones in Ezekiel 37. God asks Ezekiel if those bones would live again. Ezekiel responds, "Oh, Lord God you know". "Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, 'Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life." Wow! Gives me chills! Faith and the work of God produces life.
Again James 2:17 states the faith without works is dead. No life.
You believe God is one you do well. There are two types of faith. An intelluctual faith and a saving faith. God is one is quite a statement. One would be acknowledging one true God and Jesus as God. Yet the demons believe that. Yet their belief doesn't save them.
But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
He continues in 20,24,25 that man in justified by works. Abraham was saved by works, Rahab was justified by works. Man is justified by works and not by faith alone.(vs 24)
I have heard James used to support a works salvation. Never. The Bible doesn't contradict itself. James' message is one that is throughout scripture. You see it in verse 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS ," and he was called the friend of God.
It seems you have this chapter going on and on about works, then out of nowhere comes this verse and Abraham believed God. But wait ... shouldn't it say that Abraham did great things for God? You see faith was working along with his works. The word believed is in Aorist tense. It means that it never stops.
James is making the point that Abraham believed God and because of his belief in God, he obeyed God. The result of that faith was works.
Salvation is by grace. Nothing we have done to merit it. Such glorious love of God! However, when we are saved there WILL be works. If dead bones arise or a dead man comes from a grave, you will see a difference. How would you react if you saw a dead animal laying on a lawn and asked why they wouldn't bury it and they told you, "no, it is really alive." You look at it, check to see if it is breathing, moving or has a heart beat. If it is showing none of these signs, you are going to think your friend is in serious denial.
Salvation is spiritual rebirth. Something that was dead is now alive. You expect it to breath, to have a heart beat, to eat, to move. You expect you new spirit to start to love God, follow God, seek to do and love what God loves. Not perfectly, but alive and growing. As every instance of belief in the tense form of aorist ... it is permanent. The states never changes. Everybody stumbles, everyone falls. But they will get up again and follow Him again. If there is no evidence of any spiritual life, of any spiritual change then that faith is useless, dead (stated 3 times) and we are foolish to believe in it according to James.
John Calvin describes like this
It appears certain that [James] is speaking of the manifestation, not of the imputation of righteousness, as if he had said, Those who are justified by faith prove their justification by obedience and good works, not by a bare and imaginary semblance of faith. In one word, he is not discussing the mode of justification, but requiring that the justification of all believers shall be operative. And as Paul contends that men are justified without the aid of works, so James will not allow any to be regarded as Justified who are destitute of good works ... Let them twist the words of James as they may, they will never extract out of them more than two propositions: That an empty phantom of faith does not justify, and that the believer, not contented with such an imagination, manifests his justification by good works. [Henry Beveridge, trans., John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3:17:12 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966 reprint), 2: 115.]
John MacArthur states it this way.
Again, James echoes the Master Himself, who insisted on a theology of lordship that involved obedience, not lip-service. Jesus chided the disobedient ones who had attached themselves to Him in name only: "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46). Verbal allegiance, He said, will get no one to heaven: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 7:21).
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Praise God!!
What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but he has no works can that faith save him? James 2:14
Strong's defines the word faith as conviction respecting man's relationship to God and divine things with the idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it.
1828 dictionary describes fervour as earnestness in the duties of religion. It describes earnestness as zeal. Faith is zeal over the things of God.
Save means to keep safe from Messianic judgment. Hell.
I believe James is addressing the same problem we have today. "Can your faith save you?"Is faith alone enough? Does asking Jesus into your heart mark spiritual rebirth?
Now I can already hear the cries of salvation is by grace alone. Please read the whole post. I am not arguing against that. Salvation is always by grace and not works.
James asks a few rhetorical questions throughout the book. In verse James 3:11: Can a fountain send forth sweet and bitter water? Can
Continuing in James, he addressing the same question in different ways to make it quite clear.
James 2:17 Even
You believe God is one you do well. There are two types of faith. An intelluctual faith and a saving faith. God is one is quite a statement. One would be acknowledging one true God and Jesus as God. Yet the demons believe that. Yet their belief doesn't save them.
But are you willing
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Adolescence
Adolescence is described as a period or stage of development preceding maturity.
Recently I heard statistics that point to the fact that adolescence is not ending at 18, 19 or 20. We have begun to see adolescence clear into the 30s. This idea was foreign a few generations ago. Teenage years were a time of apprenticeship and beginning of responsibility. Girls were married at 14,15 or 16 and society thought nothing of it. Why? Their period of development preceding maturity was a child. They expected more of them by the time they became teens.
Maturity is not a black and white moment defined by reaching a certain age. Maturity is the achieving a certain level of character that defines you as trustworthy. Maturity is having self-control. Self-control to do what you need to and refrain from those things you don't.
I have noticed a lack in teaching children to be mature. The Bible says even a child is known by their doings. I fear that we are going to see adolescence reach far into middle age if the direction of parent rearing doesn't change. By the grace of God, I hope to raise my kids to glorify Him. When I discipline Benjamin for his lack of control, I do so to better his life that he may be behaving as more of an adult at 13 than most adults are.
One of my favorite quotations on maturity.
What is maturity ? Maturity is the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence or destruction. Maturity is patience. It is the willingness to pass up immediate pleasure in favor of the long-term gain. Maturity is perseverance, the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of heavy opposition and discouraging set-backs. Maturity is the capacity to face unpleasantness and frustration, discomfort and defeat, without complaint or collapse. Maturity is humility. It is being big enough to say, "I was wrong." And, when right, the mature person need not experience the satisfaction of saying, "I told you so."
Maturity is the ability to make a decision and stand by it. The immature spend their lives exploring endless possibilities; then they do nothing.
Maturity means dependability, keeping one's word, coming through in a crisis. The immature are masters of the alibi. They are the confused and the disorganized. Their lives are a maze of broken promises, former friends, unfinished business, and good intentions that somehow never materialize.
Maturity is the art of living in peace with that which we cannot change, the courage to change that which should be changed -- and the wisdom to know the difference.
Recently I heard statistics that point to the fact that adolescence is not ending at 18, 19 or 20. We have begun to see adolescence clear into the 30s. This idea was foreign a few generations ago. Teenage years were a time of apprenticeship and beginning of responsibility. Girls were married at 14,15 or 16 and society thought nothing of it. Why? Their period of development preceding maturity was a child. They expected more of them by the time they became teens.
Maturity is not a black and white moment defined by reaching a certain age. Maturity is the achieving a certain level of character that defines you as trustworthy. Maturity is having self-control. Self-control to do what you need to and refrain from those things you don't.
I have noticed a lack in teaching children to be mature. The Bible says even a child is known by their doings. I fear that we are going to see adolescence reach far into middle age if the direction of parent rearing doesn't change. By the grace of God, I hope to raise my kids to glorify Him. When I discipline Benjamin for his lack of control, I do so to better his life that he may be behaving as more of an adult at 13 than most adults are.
One of my favorite quotations on maturity.
What is maturity ? Maturity is the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence or destruction. Maturity is patience. It is the willingness to pass up immediate pleasure in favor of the long-term gain. Maturity is perseverance, the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of heavy opposition and discouraging set-backs. Maturity is the capacity to face unpleasantness and frustration, discomfort and defeat, without complaint or collapse. Maturity is humility. It is being big enough to say, "I was wrong." And, when right, the mature person need not experience the satisfaction of saying, "I told you so."
Maturity is the ability to make a decision and stand by it. The immature spend their lives exploring endless possibilities; then they do nothing.
Maturity means dependability, keeping one's word, coming through in a crisis. The immature are masters of the alibi. They are the confused and the disorganized. Their lives are a maze of broken promises, former friends, unfinished business, and good intentions that somehow never materialize.
Maturity is the art of living in peace with that which we cannot change, the courage to change that which should be changed -- and the wisdom to know the difference.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Friendship with God
Seven months ago, I experienced a painful breaking of a friendship in my life. I have been reading through a True Woman Movement book which points out that all trials in our life are chosen for us by God. I had been learning to accept this season in my life as a gift from God.
This weekend at True Woman Conference was an incredible working of God stripping things from my life. So painful and so beautiful at the same time. Through the sovereignty of God, I went alone to this conference. I couldn't even find anyone I knew. I had left phone numbers at home to be able to even contact them. God isolated me.
A speaker asked us to pray with those around us about things when needed to surrender to God. Those around me gathered with people they came with. In that instance, I felt utterly isolated and alone. God revealed that I desired friendship with people more than friendship with Him. I felt extremely lonely. I began to surrender with the crying out in my heart that I will give this up, but I need you. Please don't leave me all alone. God revealed that I had a hard time releasing this friendship in my heart, though I had physically a long time ago. I was clinging to an idol.
I made it to the prayer room and fell to my knees and my body shook in sobs. I repented of idolatry and felt a painful cutting away of flesh and then peace. Rarely did I sit next to another woman in the conference, though I was never alone. We were asked to hold hands with those around us to pray. Again women were connecting with those they came with and the woman next to me distracted by the people next to her. This time, however, I was holding the hand of God and in complete peace. I smiled as I closed my eyes and soon after felt a woman's hand join mine. The sweetness of God. I am looking forward to the continuing of a much deeper relationship with God.
"As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after thee"
This weekend at True Woman Conference was an incredible working of God stripping things from my life. So painful and so beautiful at the same time. Through the sovereignty of God, I went alone to this conference. I couldn't even find anyone I knew. I had left phone numbers at home to be able to even contact them. God isolated me.
A speaker asked us to pray with those around us about things when needed to surrender to God. Those around me gathered with people they came with. In that instance, I felt utterly isolated and alone. God revealed that I desired friendship with people more than friendship with Him. I felt extremely lonely. I began to surrender with the crying out in my heart that I will give this up, but I need you. Please don't leave me all alone. God revealed that I had a hard time releasing this friendship in my heart, though I had physically a long time ago. I was clinging to an idol.
I made it to the prayer room and fell to my knees and my body shook in sobs. I repented of idolatry and felt a painful cutting away of flesh and then peace. Rarely did I sit next to another woman in the conference, though I was never alone. We were asked to hold hands with those around us to pray. Again women were connecting with those they came with and the woman next to me distracted by the people next to her. This time, however, I was holding the hand of God and in complete peace. I smiled as I closed my eyes and soon after felt a woman's hand join mine. The sweetness of God. I am looking forward to the continuing of a much deeper relationship with God.
"As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after thee"
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Brokenness by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
I am beginning to think any sermon by a leader I admire named "Brokenness" if definitely worth listening to.
This is the first of the message. Worth listening to the whole message.
May I be broken before God!
This is the first of the message. Worth listening to the whole message.
May I be broken before God!
Friday, September 3, 2010
An Act of Kindness
When we moved to East Texas from the crowded city life, there were many strange differences. Things you that are just normal to small town folks that they don't even take notice to talk about them to the people living on the other side. It was strange to see a hog running along the side of a highway. Nice little changes like not having to plan a day around getting your car registered. I actually had to double check that I was at the right building when I saw there was no one in line.
Here in East Texas it is tradition that if a funeral procession is on the way from the funeral home to the grave sight that every car on both sides of the road will stop until they pass. I wish I could say someone had warned me of this tradition as I was toodling down the road with my children and had a woman from the funeral procession let me know in unrepeatable words how unhappy she was with me. The awkward embarrasment of knowing I had done something wrong, as well as the stares from the cars along the side of the road who I am sure heard the chastisement, made me seek out a reason to my offense.
I don't know if the way I was introduced to this tradition soured my thinking about it. However, I came to dread seeing the headlights coming or the police leading a procession of cars. It seemed ridiculous to me. Why stop everyone's day for someone you don't know? Respect? Needless to say, my attitude definitely didn't reflect one a child of God's should.
Fast forward a couple years. My grandma died. I was blessed to have moved into the town where she lived and get to know her as an adult. I spend many days driving her to her doctor's appointment in the next town over and enjoying lunch with her. She was apologized for taking my time away from raising my family of four girls. I always told her it was my pleasure. It truly was. It was time I HAD to make to talk. So many times, I mean to spend time with people, but life gets in the way. I cherish those days.
As we drove from the church to the family grave yard to bury her, I was now on the other side of the tradition. This city girl was able to experience the act of kindness of simple country people who took a moment out of their busy day to show compassion for those grieving. This hard heart got it! As we turned down a small country road, the only cars driving down the road were those from the funeral. Yet, a man got off his tractor and stood with his hat in his hand and bowed his head while we all drove by. I cried. Not only for my grandma but for someone who touched me so deeply by honest compassion.
I softened a lot that day. I thank God for little moments that impact my heart and help mold me into a person that better reflects Him. I might not understand many things in life, yet, I can die to myself. I can think of others first. I can give acts of kindness. I can pray for people I don't know who are going through a tough situation.
Here in East Texas it is tradition that if a funeral procession is on the way from the funeral home to the grave sight that every car on both sides of the road will stop until they pass. I wish I could say someone had warned me of this tradition as I was toodling down the road with my children and had a woman from the funeral procession let me know in unrepeatable words how unhappy she was with me. The awkward embarrasment of knowing I had done something wrong, as well as the stares from the cars along the side of the road who I am sure heard the chastisement, made me seek out a reason to my offense.
I don't know if the way I was introduced to this tradition soured my thinking about it. However, I came to dread seeing the headlights coming or the police leading a procession of cars. It seemed ridiculous to me. Why stop everyone's day for someone you don't know? Respect? Needless to say, my attitude definitely didn't reflect one a child of God's should.
Fast forward a couple years. My grandma died. I was blessed to have moved into the town where she lived and get to know her as an adult. I spend many days driving her to her doctor's appointment in the next town over and enjoying lunch with her. She was apologized for taking my time away from raising my family of four girls. I always told her it was my pleasure. It truly was. It was time I HAD to make to talk. So many times, I mean to spend time with people, but life gets in the way. I cherish those days.
As we drove from the church to the family grave yard to bury her, I was now on the other side of the tradition. This city girl was able to experience the act of kindness of simple country people who took a moment out of their busy day to show compassion for those grieving. This hard heart got it! As we turned down a small country road, the only cars driving down the road were those from the funeral. Yet, a man got off his tractor and stood with his hat in his hand and bowed his head while we all drove by. I cried. Not only for my grandma but for someone who touched me so deeply by honest compassion.
I softened a lot that day. I thank God for little moments that impact my heart and help mold me into a person that better reflects Him. I might not understand many things in life, yet, I can die to myself. I can think of others first. I can give acts of kindness. I can pray for people I don't know who are going through a tough situation.
Monday, August 30, 2010
True Woman Movement - Chapter 3
I have skipped a couple chapters and might post about them later. This has been a hard "assignment" for me. How do I respond in any adequate fashion to such eloquently written chapters?
Now to sum up this chapter. Do I just say Sovereignty of God? Yet the Sovereignty of God is so completely overwhelming where do we even start to comprehend that. Yet even a minuscule tidbit can so drastically throw my life in a spin that changes me forever.
What is a true woman? One that trusts so completely that God is in such control, that He CHOSE every difficult situation we are in to HIS glory in us. I can rest in my struggles because He wants me to go through them. That is so reassuring, that is the basis of my hope and my joy. It is what allows me to hum praises in the hardest of days.
Praying that I learn to live God-centered because in realty God is the center of all things. Isn't that the essence of sovereignty? If I truly grasp this, my life will reflect it. It will change the way I react to a difficult person, a trying situation, physical pain or emotional heartache because I know He is allowing this for my good and to work His good in me.
I finish with the song of Phillips, Craig and Dean playing in my head. You are God Alone!
You are God Alone!
From before time began
You were on your throne
You are God alone
in the good times and bad
You are on your throne.
I am looking forward to Fort Worth, TX this October. Love to see you there or at one close to you!
http://www.truewoman.com/
Now to sum up this chapter. Do I just say Sovereignty of God? Yet the Sovereignty of God is so completely overwhelming where do we even start to comprehend that. Yet even a minuscule tidbit can so drastically throw my life in a spin that changes me forever.
What is a true woman? One that trusts so completely that God is in such control, that He CHOSE every difficult situation we are in to HIS glory in us. I can rest in my struggles because He wants me to go through them. That is so reassuring, that is the basis of my hope and my joy. It is what allows me to hum praises in the hardest of days.
Praying that I learn to live God-centered because in realty God is the center of all things. Isn't that the essence of sovereignty? If I truly grasp this, my life will reflect it. It will change the way I react to a difficult person, a trying situation, physical pain or emotional heartache because I know He is allowing this for my good and to work His good in me.
I finish with the song of Phillips, Craig and Dean playing in my head. You are God Alone!
You are God Alone!
From before time began
You were on your throne
You are God alone
in the good times and bad
You are on your throne.
I am looking forward to Fort Worth, TX this October. Love to see you there or at one close to you!
http://www.truewoman.com/
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