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[workingontruth]

Distinguishing Between God’s Unconditional Love and Favor

August 9, 2024

In our contemporary culture, where moral standards often shift according to popular opinion, there's a tendency for believers who have become accustomed to such a moral fluidity to likewise assume that God's love and favor are both unconditional and universally granted. Many believe that God's love is best demonstrated by a blanket approval of all behavior, suggesting that He views everyone with eternal approval and provides blessings regardless of their actions.

In such an environment, you’d have I Jn 4:10 reworked as follows:

This is love, not that God has any requirements of us, but that He has overlooked our little peccadillos, that His great love would be demonstrated by a love that holds no account of our rebellion against his perfect nature.  - I Jn 4:10 (TSMV - Today's Secular Morality Version)

However, this view misrepresents the biblical understanding of God's nature and His expectations. For the scripture presents a different picture.

The Bible clearly states that God despises wickedness and those who practice it. Psalm 5:4-5 reads, “You are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.” Similarly, Psalm 11:5 says, “The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” These passages indicate that God's steadfast love cannot gloss over a Christian's preferential opinion of what is right in their own eyes, especially when those choices are in direct contradiction to His precepts as laid out in the Bible. Love is also just. Thus, His favor is conditional and contingent upon those whose hearts seek after righteousness.

This distinction becomes crucial when discussing God's relationship with believers. God’s unconditional love for those in Christ is a result of grace—His love is not earned by our actions but is given freely through the sacrifice of Jesus. However, this love should not be confused with His favor. The favor of God, as experienced by believers, is often conditioned upon their adherence to His commands and their pursuit of holiness.

The Bible teaches that those who are genuinely redeemed will show their new identity through increased sensitivity to God’s will and obedient living (James 2:14-26; Galatians 5:22-23). Thus, while God’s love for us is unconditional in Christ, His favor—demonstrated through tangible blessings and a sense of divine approval—is conditioned on our obedience and alignment with His will.

Misunderstanding arises when we equate unconditional love with unconditional favor. Unconditional love means that God loves His repentant and forgiven followers regardless of our behavior, but favor is linked to our actions and spiritual condition. If we live contrary to God’s commands, we may not experience His favor, as He may chastise us to correct our course (Hebrews 12:6-11).

Again, secular culture often distorts the concept of love, suggesting that it means an acceptance and embrace of all behaviors without judgment. This leads to a misunderstanding where God's love is seen as a blanket approval of all behaviors. However, true love as defined by the Bible, includes justice and righteousness. God’s love demands that we adhere to His standards, which includes a call for justice and holiness.

In Deuteronomy 30:19, God presents a choice between life and death, blessing and curse, emphasizing that our decisions impact our relationship with Him. His ultimate love provides us with freedom and choice, but His favor is closely tied to how we live out our new identity in Christ.

In conclusion, while God’s love for the redeemed is indeed unconditional, His favor is conditioned upon our alignment with His will. Our behavior can affect whether we experience His favor or face His loving discipline. Understanding this distinction helps us navigate our relationship with God, recognizing that His love is constant, but His favor corresponds to our choices and actions in accordance with His standards.

Post-script: Of course, many Christians are unable to draw the line between God's favor and seeming "bad things" that may happen-even to those who follow Him closely with a surrendered heart. Sometimes, God's favor leads to circumstances far from what is easy or "smooth sailing." We frequently have "weak eyes" when it comes to understanding God's ways. Many times, difficult circumstances come in tandem with obedient living (Job, Joseph, many of the OT prophets, Naomi, Ruth....). We get into difficulty when we judge the challenges of this life as God's disfavor. Scripture is replete with circumstances (and likely has been your life as a true follower of Jesus) where God allowed difficulty to enter into his servant's lives for His glory and the good of his people. We must remember we see as through a glass darkly. Our faith must allow for God to do with us as He pleases. In the end, the Potter has the right to do with His clay as He chooses. One day, we will see as He sees. Until then, we rejoice in all things, knowing He is good, sovereign and in control.

[workingontruth]

Weakness the Objective?

The other day, I heard something while running errands in the car and listening to Moody Radio. I believe it was JD Greear who was pondering something like my synopsis below. 

The truth it conveyed struck a nerve in that it reminded me how counterintuitive must be our walk in Christ to the self-preserving tendencies of the natural man/woman.

Here’s my single sentence synopsis we may do well to consider:

If dependence is the goal, then weakness is the objective.

Hmm.

Take away: Do not fear weakness, weariness or dependence today.

Rather than trying to buck up and dig deep into our own cleverness, or ladling our cup into a shallow pep talk or self-resourcing distraction to gain strength, if we handle today’s gift of weakness appropriately, it can materialize as a life giving, God-ordained trust-fall where His strength can show up to sustain and build up in us an appropriate, enduring trust in Him. But this can only begin in weakness.

It is not strength God desires in us, but weakness.

“But Greg,” you might say, “it seems these days I go from weakness to weakness, roadblock to roadblock! I am utterly exhausted and at my end.”

Welcome to the 2020s. ;-) In that case, you may be closing in on God’s preparatory work in you for a time of usefulness. Do not discount the spiritual battle that will likely only continue to increase in the months and years to come. We are living in amazing days. Watch for God. He is moving in amazing ways as we, I believe, close in on the 66th book— perhaps even in the lifetime of us old folks! And as we walk into these days, may we not forget that God seldom chooses to use a full cup or a vessel that is self-strong.

If God gives us enough practice in weakness, then turning to Him first and fully can become our modus operandi! And as the sheer volume of these experiences grows (we must remind ourselves to recount the stories of God’s trustworthiness in our own lives and experiences), these weaknesses turned to dependence upon the limitless strength of God can become the bedrock of a life worth living. And, the resulting give and take relationship with the living God then becomes a song worth singing (Nahum 1:7, John 15:4-5).

May we daily seek reminders that we have died in Christ (Gal 2:20) and have been raised to new life – a life that daily releases our self-will into as continual a dependence upon the Spirit living within us as possible…though it often times may seem to be weakness.

Broken vessels know dependence (Ps 116:6, Ps 114:47). Therefore, weakness is our friend, and daily surrender our lifeline to the vibrant and eternally productive and fruitful Christian life (Ps 73:26, Jn 15:5, Is 40:29, 2 Cor 12:9-10, Heb 4:16, Deut 8:3, Prov 3:5-6).

[workingontruth]

The Greatest Truth —

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

‭‭John‬ ‭5‬:‭24‬ ‭ESV‬‬

[workingontruth]

How can a good God...?

Where was God when…? How can a “good” God…?

Though most of the world has quickly moved past the human suffering many in Turkey were (and still are) experiencing in the wake of the massive earthquake on February 6, 2023 ... and the equally devastating aftershocks, one thing hasn’t abated from the minds of millions, the world over. 

What is that one thing? It is some combination of the age-old question that can be phrased in a hundred different ways, but that desires to hold God accountable for the evil that befalls mankind in this life. 

The earthquake in Turkey and Syria was so large that just 96 hours after the quake, there had already been over 22,000 confirmed deaths. 

When events like this happen, people want to know, “Why did God allow it?” They also want to know why God allows personal evil — whether a terrible illness, a shooting, or any number of tragedies. 

Because we don’t have the perfect mind of God, we don’t know the specific answer to these individual tragedies. 

No one has a satisfactory answer that will oblige many who ask the, “Why did God allow it?” question. But I do have some thoughts that help me when I struggle with this problem. 

Here are six concepts we can embrace about why a good God allows evil and suffering in this world. 

ONE. It is an absolute truth that God is sovereign over everything — including suffering. 

No natural disaster or personal struggle or any evil experience we can encounter can cause God to be surprised. God knows it all. He says in Isaiah 45:7; “I form light and create darkness. I make success and create disaster. I, the Lord, do all these things.” Just as God is the sovereign creator, so He is sovereign over all disasters. 

TWO. Our problem is we don’t know God’s purposes. 

It’s a terrible mistake to assume that God’s purposes are even knowable. That’s what God declared through Isaiah, 

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. Whereas the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” —Isaiah 55:8-9

God’s omniscient plans and purposes are way beyond our finite, human ability to understand. 

THREE. We need to remember that the tragic events we see are not necessarily related to some specific behavior — of nations or individuals. 

Evil things happen because we live in an evil, fallen world. As result, people get terminal diseases. Planes crash. Tidal waves overwhelm communities. And earthquakes shatter our nations. Paul wrote in Romans 8:22, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time.” The whole world is groaning because it is fallen. 

FOUR. Jesus taught, in Luke 13, that disasters, whether natural or manmade, are a reminder of God’s mercy. 

Responding to the question of why God allows evil, the Lord Jesus said that bad things happen to some people, not because they are more evil than others. According to Jesus, if God were to act based on our behavior, disaster and devastation would be the norm, not the exception. It would happen all the time! 

We all sin. And if God responded based on what we deserve, we’d all be devastated all the time. This is what Jeremiah meant when he wrote in Lamentations 3:22, “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, whereas his compassions never fail.” 

The reality is that it’s only God’s loving mercy that prevents him from destroying all of us instantaneously. 

FIVE. God uses suffering to remind us to turn to Him. 

When we see natural disasters strike others, Jesus said that this was a reminder for us to turn to God before we parish as well. You can see that in Luke 13:3-5. That’s the very reason the Psalmist wrote, “I turn to the Lord in my distress, and He answers me. It’s in my distress that I turn to Him” (Psalm 120:1). 

C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pains.” Suffering and tragedy are his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. God uses our pain and sorrow to get our attention and remind us to turn to him for comfort. 

SIX. God uses tragic events to remind us that we’re not home yet. 

It’s so easy to get overly comfortable here on earth, and never want to leave—as if this temporal earth were all there is to life, as if this is all God has for us. 

But He offers us eternity. 

Suffering on this earth reminds us that God intends a far better home for us in the future. “These present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). 

Suffering and adversity remind us not to allow ourselves to become overly comfortable here. It’s God’s great reminder that this world is not our real home. Suffering makes us remember this. 

We who know the Lord Jesus, are citizens of a far better future world where every tear will be wiped away and all pain and sorrow will be removed.

In closing, one last thought: 

Dorothy Sayers said that when it comes to human suffering, sorrow and death—all that, God had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine. 

In the Messiah Jesus, God entered this world as a fully human person and not only suffered with us, but suffered for us — that through his death and resurrection, we can have life forever. 

[Thanks to Michael Rydelnik for help with these concise thoughts]

[workingontruth]

FB Challenge 3

And we’re back! 

It’s time for another AI (ChatGPT) summary of a single chapter from my book, SET FREE. 

See below the dividing line. 

AND there’s an additional bit of AI production from this week’s mystery chapter...I asked it to create a rhyming poem about the chapter, and it spit out song lyrics for the chapter, complete with an outdo for the end of the “song” - haha! (It’s not very good)

Which chapter this time? Reply first AND correctly to Greg on his FB page, from which you were directed here, or via Messenger or to greg@twsuproject.org for your FREE Promo Code to the audio version of either of his books.

REMINDER: To participate (and WIN) over the next couple months in this challenge, you can purchase the hardback copy here:

https://www.amazon.com/Set-Free-Lifelong-Christians-Discovery/dp/B07N99CK2Z/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2GST6MM0YUZ13&keywords=Set+Free+Greg+Beaverson&qid=1674936198&sprefix=set+free+greg+beaverson%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1

CAVEAT: Remember these are the AI ChatGPT’s own summaries of these chapters, not mine ;-) They may or may not reflect accurate theologies or reflections of the chapter in question.

_____________________________________________________________

The author of this chapter in Greg's book believes that too many people settle for a shallow understanding of their faith in God and that God wants to take us over, not just be our insurance plan. He argues that faith should turn into a substantiated belief through a maturing walk with God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The author acknowledges that this journey requires sacrifice and that God searches the hearts of those who are willing with intentionality to remove the things that need to be cut out. The author emphasizes that this journey is the only road to freedom and wholeness, and that the Holy Spirit will help us through the process of change. The author warns that if our hearts are not changing and we are not experiencing deeper discoveries through the Word, we may have settled for too low a bar in our walk with the Holy Spirit.

Me: Write me a rhyming poem of this chapter.

AI: 

Verse 1: 

In faith we start our journey bold, 

With trust in God, who we are told 

Is good and kind, and full of grace, 

With love that brings us to a higher place.

Chorus: 

From faith to belief, the journey's long, 

With Spirit's help, we find where we belong, 

We learn and grow, with heart that's true, 

Our faith in God, is shining through.

Verse 2: 

The Lord is not just our insurance plan, 

He wants to take us, heart and hand, 

To lead us to a life divine, 

Where faith and belief, in God we'll find.

Chorus: 

From faith to belief, the journey's long, 

With Spirit's help, we find where we belong, 

We learn and grow, with heart that's true, 

Our faith in God, is shining through.

Verse 3: 

The Spirit's guidance, insight and might, 

Brings balance to our spiritual life, 

Academic truths and supernatural signs, 

Together bring a dynamic faith that shines.

Chorus: 

From faith to belief, the journey's long, 

With Spirit's help, we find where we belong, 

We learn and grow, with heart that's true, 

Our faith in God, is shining through.

Outro: 

The journey's not without sacrifice, 

As we're disciplined with love so wise, 

But in the end, we'll find release, 

In Christ, our faith, and belief will increase.

[workingontruth]

FB Challenge 2

The following is another AI (ChatGPT) summary of a single chapter from my book, SET FREE. Which chapter? Reply first AND correctly to Greg on his FB page, from which you were directed here, or via Messenger or to greg@twsuproject.org for your FREE Promo Code to the audio version of either of his books.

To participate (and WIN) over the next couple months in this challenge, you can purchase the hardback copy here: 

https://www.amazon.com/Set-Free-Lifelong-Christians-Discovery/dp/B07N99CK2Z/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2GST6MM0YUZ13&keywords=Set+Free+Greg+Beaverson&qid=1674936198&sprefix=set+free+greg+beaverson%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1

Caveat: Remember these are the AI ChatGPT’s own summaries of these chapters, not mine ;-) They may or may not reflect accurate theologies or reflections of the chapter in question.

_________________________________________________________

In this chapter, the author reflects on God's perspective on faith. He argues that God may not want our walk with him to be based solely on the world's definition of faith, which is a belief in something without evidence. Instead, the author suggests that God desires for us to raise our expectations and increase our appetite for spiritual growth. The author also suggests that our faith should not be strictly based on "a belief not based on proof" but rather, it should be based on the personal experiences that we gain with the Holy Spirit. As we acquire knowledge from the Spirit of God, our faith transforms into belief. The author suggests that as we live actively and obediently with the Spirit, our belief bank becomes less about faith and more about the knowledge of what is. Ultimately, the author argues that faith is an acceptance of something unseen or unsubstantiated, and as we mature in our spiritual journey, we move from faith to belief.

[workingontruth]

FB Challenge 1: A ChatGPT’s chapter summary from SET FREE

The following is an AI summary of which of the 60 chapters from Greg’s book, Set Free? Reply first AND correctly to Greg on his FB page, from which you were directed here, for your FREE Promo Code to the audio version of either of his books. 

To participate (and WIN) over the next couple months in this challenge, you can purchase the hardback copy here: 

https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FSet-Free-Lifelong-Christians-Discovery%2Fdp%2FB07N99CK2Z%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fcrid%3D2GST6MM0YUZ13%26keywords%3DSet%2BFree%2BGreg%2BBeaverson%26qid%3D1674936198%26sprefix%3Dset%2Bfree%2Bgreg%2Bbeaverson%252Caps%252C124%26sr%3D8-1&t=ZjdiYjExNGM1MDRjM2M5ZGRjNGIxOTU1Yzg5YzdiOGZiMDU0YTNlMCwwMjFmNGM4ZTg1OGVkM2EzM2FjYjRlMDM3Y2M1ZWIzNTYxNzJlOGY1&ts=1674936375

______________________________________________________________

The author of this chapter, Greg Beaverson, reflects on his personal journey in his Christian faith and how he realized that he had settled for a limited, cognitive understanding of Jesus rather than an experiential one. He believes that many people suffer from this same disease and that it robs them of a deeper connection with God. The author compares his faith to the fact that Columbus sailed the ocean, an entry of data into the knowledge bank, but that this kind of knowledge can only lead to a limited exchange with God. He argues that true knowledge of God can only come through a heart quickened by the Holy Spirit. He encourages readers to seek a deeper understanding of God through a Spirit-driven progression, characterized by the reduction of our old Adam in lieu of a supernatural expansion of our new man. The author acknowledges that it will never be our effort that will prove the ultimate difference-maker in our knowing God more deeply and that ultimately it is a revelatory move of the Spirit of God in our hearts and minds that allows us to know God more deeply. Overall, this chapter is a call for Christians to seek a deeper, more experiential relationship with God, rather than settling for a limited, cognitive understanding.

[workingontruth]

The Battle Belongs to the LORD

Saturday, Feb 26, 2022 

[If you can as you read this, have a Bible in hand] 

One day, and perhaps soon-in my lifetime, the battles man has fought for all of human history will seem like child’s play as God’s judgment falls on a world left trying to make sense of a completely new reality. Just like many of the ill-informed today thought tyrants and mass killings amongst “the civilized” could never again happen–and we are seeing it happen again as the nation God has destined to be drawn into Israel will trek southward (Ezekiel 38-39), so they will see the God of the Bible do all He has promised as mankind will watch the God of all creation undeniably insert Himself into the affairs of his world. 

The good news? If you’re reading this, it isn’t too late to put your faith in the historic Jesus, God’s Son, who gave his life and rose from the grave to new life so that you and I could live - though these outer bodies expire for a time. Trust him today without delay. (See Romans 3:23, Psalm 14:1-3, Romans 3:10, Romans 5:8, Romans 10:9-13) 

In every generation since BC became AD, some have wondered if the circumstances of their day were leading to the imminent (during their days on Earth) catching up of the believers in Jesus, the Christ, into heaven followed some time later by the return of Christ, and all that those events entail. (More on that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ncY7F0mQj4)

In that way, we, on February of 2022, are no different. However, the convergence of more things than I have time and space (or even full knowledge of) to enumerate here make this time in human history more likely for this occurrence than at any previous. We are, right now, watching things move quickly into what could be the fulfillment of yet another of God’s trustworthy promises, as His promised return approaches. Mind you, with the extraction from the Earth of those who have placed their faith in Jesus (see the book of John in the Bible for illustrations of many who were putting their faith in God’s Son, Jesus and follow their lead), His physical return will yet be into the future (Matthew 24:29-31). If you are reading this in those days after the “disappearance” of the millions who had truly placed their trust in Jesus alone for rebirth into the eternal life only God can award, fear not what man can do to you, but fear God (Matthew 10:28). Then, hold tight to Him. The road will be rocky as you see the prince of darkness ascend to power. But you will be secured and strengthened in Christ. Follow the link above for more on what is to come for you. You are living in extraordinary times, and if you hold fast in Christ (which He alone will be able to help you do), your reward will be great - and we’ll talk all about it in heaven together! 

So that most important note of hope up front, I’ve been doing a bit of prayerful processing in light of what we’ve been experiencing for the last couple of years. And, most notably, as we have “led” internationally with the predictable weakness and ineptitude of what many (though not all) of us “older folks” knew we were bringing onto the national scene (of history’s most dominant superpower) with our current U.S. administration, we have helped to set the table for what is transpiring today on the world stage. Know that what follows is not something about which anyone could be categorically knowledgeable. I’m only thinking out loud, as it were. 

With that caveat, and only in MY OPINION, in nearly no reasonable to understand way do we, as of the date of this entry, have conditions for THE global Antichrist to be revealed/made known to the world and ushered embracingly into power - not RIGHT NOW yet. But that could change literally any minute now. If just ONE THING were to occur soon, given the present state of the world, the conditions for his being revealed would nearly instantly come to the fore, and we would know the groundwork is presently being laid for the Ezekiel 38/39 war of God's providential choosing. Namely, the hooks are being set into the jaws of those to the North (Ez. 38:4) whom the Lord is bringing out. It is instructive and helpful to know what is transpiring is not only a matter of man’s will, but is predestined by God’s sovereignty. 

IF (and that is a BIG if) we are entering the last days before the 7-year tribulation begins, one can see how the current weak-kneed conditions of what used to be the world's representation of strong and somewhat ethically-based global stabilization forces (not that they are or were necessarily Christian in nature) are setting the stage for the providential aftermath of this ONE THING…to include the Antichrist's rise. That one thing is, obviously, the rapture of the Church.

I think the first likely milestone or pivotal moment for our continued presence on earth as the Church before we are caught up into the clouds with Christ (I Thessalonians 4:13-18) could be THIS November. No, this doesn't mean I have an America-centric view of the world and end times. To be clear, I think all America can do is help, in our own way, set the stage for what is coming--just as are others in their own way. Instead, my reason for thinking this is simply because weakness, and the conditions it enables, as Mike Pence has recently said, gives way to evil. Then, beyond this coming November, certainly the next major, and in my mind greater milestone window of time that if exceeded might mean that the rapture, tribulation and millennial kingdom could yet be a long way off (perhaps another entire generation or more away) would be the end of November, 2024. 

No, and again, God's plans for Jesus’ return for those who have placed their trust in him, and the revealing of the Antichrist do not revolve around tiny America's political calendar. But we DO undeniably see how God uses conditions such as we have put into place with our current administration, to change the face of history. The Scriptures are replete with myriad examples of how God uses the decisions of those whom He has placed into power to bring about his extraordinary ends. Usually, in fact. It’s what He used to save the young nation of Israel thru Joseph…Pharaoh. It’s what He used to set the stage for the most pivotal time in the history of man via the crucifixion of his Son…the Roman Empire and it’s tyrannical method of human suffering in the cross/crucifixion. 

Okay, no need to waste any more time here enumerating more of the Kings, Pharaohs, tyrants/dictators He has used in variant ways both before and after Christ.

So that made clear, any time in this window (between now and November '24, though I don't see it going deep into '24 b/c of political, strategic and economic realities), if the Church were to be removed from the scene (at the trumpet which will call the first harvest of believers home prior to Jesus’ second coming - again, I Thessalonians 4:13-18), the global chaos and complete absence of Goodness and Truth left in any global leadership would be utterly absent for the first time in human history…until, that is, the hearts of some who are "left behind" are surrendered to Christ. Things will unravel quickly at that time because God will remove the One (the Restrainer in some translations...but this is the Holy Spirit; see 2 Thess. 2:6-8) who is presently holding the devil and his bloodthirsty demons for mankind at bay. And that utter chaos, we can now easily perceive, would perfectly set the table for the revealing of the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:7-8). He would, in fact, be pushing through an open/unlatched door. Indeed, I do believe the stage of the world is set for this right now as never before.

Now, what are the odds we are staring down the short road to Ezekiel 38ff? And what, therefore, means the likelihood of the rapture and the revealing of the Antichrist is eminent?

With:

1) this current, forward momentum of Gog (Ez.38 of the land of Magog—that is, Russia and it's satanic allies of Iran, Turkey, Syria, etc mentioned specifically in Ez. 38), coupled with 

2) the practical (this is frequently how God works...using the way the world he created works) financial constraints that have now, in the last couple of days, been slapped on her (sanctions of NATO and others in the global market) and her axis of like-minded powers, just with different stated objectives, 

…I don't see them (Russia) being able to sustain, let alone grow, their military strength for very long (certainly not years) before heading south to Israel - where scriptures tell us they will ultimately end up...and through which aggression they may figure they will just finish grabbing the natural gas and other resources (a big reason they're also in Ukraine) they'll need to live, in their mind, happily dominant ever-after. 

So, ...does any of this practical thinking (my thinking) help us guess whether we'd still be here as the Church to see the hand of God execute his judgment against the nations we are now seeing taking center stage from Ez.39:2ff? 

No, in my mind, it doesn't. In fact, we may yet witness with our own eyes, the deliverance of Israel by the hand of God in the Ezekiel 38 war(s). 

But what we can believe and that in which we can take hope is the same hope Paul was trying to make clear to the Thessalonians in I Thess. 5:9 - which, in its context, tells us God has not destined us for wrath...during the tribulation, which is precisely that of which many whom Paul was correcting were fearful.

But, the purpose of these ruminations was to try to flesh out whether we're looking at Putin as being the one who'll have his nation's jaws hooked (Ez. 38:4) and led into Israel for their destruction. And whether now could be that time. 

Could be.

And if I had to place my wager, I'd say yes, given all that we've witnessed coming to fruition in the last 30 years, all told.

BUT regardless, our work as followers of Jesus must not be affected. We are to be about the Father's business. And for me, increasingly, that business seems to be to leave things in place to encourage and resource the Church after we in the first "wave" have departed, along with He who is restraining and will be removing himself from the scene here for a time (I Thess. 2:6-7).

https://twsuproject.org/

[workingontruth]

Every December, our culture slows just enough to ponder Truth. In John 14:6a, The Truth himself, God’s son Jesus, confirmed this to Thomas when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

Here is my 32 year old daughter, Jordan, in 1993 at 4 years of age, telling us the story of our Christmas remembrance. Rejoice! The King has come. May your heart find room for the Christ child this Christmas season - for as the second half of John 14:6 says, “...no one comes to the Father except through me [Jesus].” 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DNFdyEDbzYU2p4gDzjp7clEsefjz71QW/view?usp=sharing

[workingontruth]

Part 7 of 7: The Gospel (In Full)…Stage 5; Fuel Us

August 22, 2020

[Forgive Me. Fill Me. Surrender Me. Command Us. FUEL US.]

In reaching this final stage of this Gospel (in Full) idea, I’m reminded of the impetus behind its formation. 

In short, it’s my attempt at luring both new and life-long believers into a deeper walk with the God who saved them – an ongoing walk. I suppose it’s been my version of a call to an increasing emphasis on discipleship within the Body…especially the foundational aspects of our new life in Christ. 

And not that I want to take anything away from this final “Fuel Us” stage before even unpacking it, but I must say I am very excited about what comes next – a practical way to begin the discipleship process by means of a life-giving dive into the origins of this new life we have been gifted! It’s going to be called The Story of Your Life - A 1st Step of Discipleship. For if our reborn soul is to be rooted beyond a surface-deep acceptance of our Savior, we must know the magnificent truths which anchor our new life! With scriptural truths in the arsenal, our new life in Christ will be protected with the shield of faith with which we can “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” who seeks our impotence and, if possible, destruction (Ephesians 6:16). 

But for now, as I ponder this final “Fuel Us” stage of The Gospel (in Full), I am hesitating – lest I be misunderstood.

I believe the first thing to do is clearly qualify our objective by stating what this entry is not. 

This fifth stage of The Gospel (in Full) is not going to be one that denies what the scripture tells us is already true of us. 

In other words, because we know the “fuel” of the Holy Spirit already lives within every believer who has placed his or her faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, we cannot make this “Fuel Us” stage about dancing around on hot coals or chanting indistinct gibberish in order to wake the Spirit into action at our beckoned call. 

While those characterizations may be a bit much, my point is this; 

The very Spirit of the living God is not something we manipulate or convince to move when we are ready, as if for the sake of an experience. Rather, He is someone who has promised to come into our lives (Rev. 3:20) upon repentance for our sins, remain with us forever (Deut. 31:6,8, Matt. 28:20, Psalm 94:14), and guide us into increasing obedience as we walk with Him.

What’s more, He is King. We are his commandable (Stage 4) subjects. And his timing and reach are supreme into each of our lives. Our role is to humbly seek and love him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30), hold to his precepts (John 14:5, 15:10, 1 Jn 5:3) and live daily in a faith that demonstrates our trust in him.

While a unique movement of the Holy Spirit may, on occasion, be part of our personal experience with God, we must not anticipate that goosebumps, visions or miraculous healings are primary evidences of his fueling us – for he has already promised us that he will strengthen, help and uphold us with his mighty right hand (Is. 41:10). Our marching orders come from Jesus, our Commanding Officer. And his Word is our playbook. 

As we walk in step with his playbook, his Spirit living within will fuel us with everything we need as his children (Matt. 7:9-11). 

But contrary to this order of things, I think many a believer today expects God to fuel us with something miraculous before we will move in a direction that may be anything less than comfortable.

“Surely,” we think, “if God desires that I do something for him, he’ll give me a burning bush experience that will give me what I need to walk in that thing with confidence and assurance.” Umm.

Perhaps the most overriding reality in which I live has become an utter awareness that I cannot know when or exactly how the Holy Spirit will show up in my or anyone else’s life to do his fueling work.

Said another way, I think many of us rely on our emotions to “detect” when the Holy Spirit is fully engaging with and leading us.

And therein lies the great challenge for many a lukewarm, low bar of expectation Christian today. Rather than reckoning upon and trusting by faith in who we are in Christ, and that we already possess the full resources of the King at our disposal (see 2 Peter 1:3-4 fleshed out in Chapter 11 of Set Free), we tend to move into places of trusting obedience only if “the mood strikes us” and we’re feeling empowered for a given request of God.

But this kind of living is more a reliance on our own “power of positive thinking” or an attitude of self-resourcing confidence than it is biblical Christianity! 

Instead, what brings activation to the Spirit of God is usually our boldness in obedience first, lived into as a result of our faith and trust in whom God says we are.

He usually asks us to step onto the surface of the water before he delivers the ability to walk on it. And I think sometimes we get it the wrong way around. As Christians, we must learn to move in obedience, knowing his fueling authority and indwelling power will show up to sustain us with each new step of obedience.

So, in clarifying our objective for this “Fuel Us" stage of The Gospel (in Full), while the Holy Spirit absolutely lives in us and is to be recognized for who He is, God in us, we must not be led to seek or gain possession of a technique intended to “wake a sleeping giant” (pardon the crude analogy) or to seek an experience purposed to make us feel as though we are fueled and ready for service unto God.

And yet, we know we must have such power and resourcing to live the Christian life! 

After a month or two of coming to Christ (or a day or two) most of us quickly realize we do not have it within ourselves to live the Christian life. Eventually, we realize it must be the same authoritative power who brought us to new life who will also enable us to live daily in the Christian life. And the great news is that it is not left to us to live this life in Christ! For Jesus has already given us, as 2 Peter 1:3-4 says, everything we need that pertains to life and godliness. We just have a hard time remembering our part of the process – we have a hard time playing follow the Leader.

And so going into this fifth ongoing stage of the Gospel, I just want to encourage you.

When you wake up in the morning, it’s not, “Okay, God you did all the work to get me here. Today I’ve got to go do all the work now to make it happen.”

No. The Christian life is not a self-improvement plan. We do not have the power in and of ourselves to follow through on this brand-new life. And we don’t have to because Christ is offering you the grace you need today to follow and obey him in everything he is calling you to do.

And so as we are obeying, as we are following, we just continue to say to him;

“God, give me the grace and give me the faith to believe that, in me, you’re going to supply the power I need to be the person you want me to be.

And this happens when we are rooted in him…which takes us to our playbook.

One of the best sources of the wonderful truth that the fuel for living the Christian life is not a matter of our willpower, is found in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In Chapter 2:6ff, we find God’s plan for us as ones seeking to live and walk with him.

In short, the same supernatural Spirit who walked us TO Christ will also enable us to walk out our new life IN Christ!

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him…” – Col. 2:6

Of course, this verse begs the question, “How did we receive Christ Jesus as Lord?”

For that answer, go to Paul’s reminder for us in Ephesians 2:8-9. This tells us that we received him by grace through faith, not as a result of works so that none of us can boast.

So if we didn’t get Christ by works that we could boast about, we’re not going to walk in Christ by works that we can boast about.

No, we walk with him in the same way we received him that first day! And that is by grace, through faith. Of course, it is our responsibility to willfully follow Jesus in obedience – to electively choose to follow and obey him. But the power is not us. The power is Christ in us.

This is made clear in the final verse of Colossians 1 where Paul reminds us of the following:

“For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” – Col. 1:29

In the context of the closing verses in the first chapter of Colossians, the his and he is none other than Christ himself! This should give us great confidence and assurance. Praise God we are not alone! He will never ask us to pull ourselves up from the bootstraps. When we get to heaven, Jesus will not reminisce about how he checked in on you periodically, and commend you for your resourcefulness.

So again, Jesus is offering you the grace you need today to follow and obey him in everything he is calling you to do. The very power, back to Colossians 2:6, that drew you to Christ and made you a new creation, is the same power source you possess to walk in him. And that happens when we are rooted in him, as it says in the next line – in verse 7. 

So it’s not about what’s above the surface – that’s the Instagram culture we live in. “Here’s my best life…on the best day…with the best filter!” 

That’s not what real spiritual growth and maturity looks like. Spiritual growth and maturity looks like what’s under the surface. It’s that hidden walk. It’s that hidden time in the Word. It’s what we’re doing right now. It’s putting roots down deep into the person of Christ, the work of God, the love of God so that up from those roots comes that sustaining grace, that sustaining life of Jesus that powers us through every day. That’s what happens after you’ve put your faith and trust in Jesus.

So if we’re rooted in Christ, what does that do for us? Let’s go to verses 9 and 10:

“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”

Do you know what that means for us today? It means that you and I have all we need in Christ to do everything God has called us to do. 

We’re not just nobody’s in the Kingdom of God. It’s not like we’re beggars looking for scraps to fall off the table of heaven, or that we’re “just a sinner saved by grace.” I hear people say that all the time! It sounds great. It sounds humble. Sounds like I’m putting myself in my right place. But we’re not “just sinners saved by grace!”

We are sinners who have been brought from death to life in the power of Jesus Christ and have been given, in Christ, access to the fullness of God!

So God wants you to start your day – to walk into circumstances and situations not feeling like you’re at the back, but feeling like,

“I have access to the fullness of God in Christ! I have a power source in me right now.”

Don’t ever forget what we talked about earlier in our contemplations of The Gospel (in Full)...you are a new creation! You don’t live in the impotence of an only fleshy man or woman. The old you has been killed off, buried, and your new miraculous life in Christ has given you access to the fullness of God in Christ!

And then, still in Colossians 2, going on from verse 11 we get a picture of this truth. He says our new existence is the same as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When you put your faith in Jesus, it’s as if the old you passed away and a brand new you has come to life. When Christ went into the grave, Paul is saying, you went into it with him. All the power that was over you and your old way of life went down into that grave with Him. But when He came out of the grave, the same power that brought Him out of the grave, brought you out of the grave too! 

O REJOICE Christian!

So, we have access today to supernatural power. Your life is now a supernatural life – not in some code you have to figure out or some technique for channeling your inner confidence, but in the person of Jesus Christ.

I love what Tim Keller says about the impossibility of our living the Christian life in the strength of the old, natural man. In Chapter 11 of King’s Cross, he says this…

“Christians, you see, are people who know that their Christianity is impossible, a miracle – there’s nothing natural about it…”

We must be people who know that our Christianity is impossible in the eyes of a secularist culture. There’s nothing natural about Christianity – not the initial act of salvation, and certainly as well not the life we are called to live as an act of worship after our salvation!

Read those last two sentences again.

But I don’t want us to think we have no role in this life as believers. We do have a role to play.

As I said earlier, we must choose to walk in obedience – to make conscious choices that line up with who God says we are now as his children, citizens of heaven but living on earth. But in order to live the life of a true Christian, one bearing evidence of our newness in Christ, we must position ourselves to be the recipients of his blessing and power and authority. What do I mean by that?

We cannot make God move in our lives, but we can make room for Him to move.

What we can do is take roadblocks out of the way that have a tendency to quench his ability or willingness to move with authority in our lives. Mark 6:1-6 is a good indicator of this truth. Our hearts can only long for, and our new lives be empowered to do, what the Holy Spirit desires if we are out of the way.

But how do we do this?

Well there’s both good news and bad news there. The bad news is that we cannot. We cannot remove ourselves from the scene of action. The good news is that He can. And He has!

I think the best way to set ourselves aside, setting the table for the Holy Spirit to move with less encumbrance in our lives, is to have a deep and personal knowledge of how the miracle of our new birth came to be.

Once we have come to an accurate knowledge of our access to God, and HOW that access came about, we will then have something firm onto which to hold as we become his disciples.

And I believe this knowledge and awareness must be one of the very first orders of business for the new believer in Christ, so that The Gospel (in Full) can, as Billy Graham says, “reform, conform, and transform us into obedient followers” of God.

Whew! What a journey we’ve been on!

In our first introduction to The Gospel (in Full), we proposed that “the Gospel is as much about our life in Christ as it is news about how to come to Christ.” Now, having explored our five ongoing stages of the Good News - Forgive Me, Fill Me, Surrender Me, Command Us, and Fuel Us, you know what’s behind each of these reflections for our living into our newness.

But if you’d like to enter a deeper study that will help you extinguish the flaming arrows Satan throws at you as he attempts to defeat you in your new life as a follower of Jesus Christ, if you want some ammunition of your own, stay tuned.

The Story of your Life - A 1st Step of Discipleship class will be in session soon.

[workingontruth]

This 48-minute self-processing message behind me, I am joyfully putting this whole mess behind. :-) It is high time to be fully engaged in “being about the business” of the Lord in these interesting days on planet Earth!

Until He comes, let us continue to be about truth, remaining aware of global events pertinent to our Kingdom citizenship, being kind and graceful in loving both those in Christ and those yet far from him, interceeding always. 

Come Lord Jesus!

[workingontruth]

Monday, August 10, 2020

We can do better than this. 

[KOC SESSION 1 Part 4 What They See In Me SEGMENT]

[workingontruth]

Wednesday, July 22

Yesterday, I sat down at my pc for another therapy session after doing some investigation into Truth…this time on the survivability rate of Coronavirus 19 in the U.S. 

It was more of a precursor to a broader context I’ve been hoping to be able to adequately share from the rational perspective of a guy with a Christian worldview. When I find a way to contextualize the message of my heart on the matter as a whole, I’ll get back with you here. 

I’ve tried my best to abuse only my family in recent months as I have wrestled with the oddity and extent to which we are responding to this partiular influenza. This audio is merely the laying out of the facts that have, only in small part, contributed to my low grade fever of frustration for the last couple months. 

[workingontruth]

Mask wearing in World Covid

I appreciate Steve’s approach (link below) which, much to the chagrin of my old man of flesh, has finally become my own conviction in the last 10 days. This, for many reasons, has been hard for me. 

In these continuing days of dissension, conflict and turmoil, not only outside of, but within “the Church” on nearly any topic of choice 😢 the passage from Romans 13, but more specifically for me Ephesians 4:1-3 and most recently Philippians 2:5-7, have allowed me to relate in this admittedly small way (yes, wearing a mask) to how Jesus must have felt as he humbled himself and gave up his rights, authority, and freedoms in order to sacrifice it ALL for the salvation of his greatest of creations — mankind.

Even if only as an exercise in humility and as an act of worship, I am finding this inexplicably hard thing for me to do (Crazy, isn’t it? Oh how the flesh of the old man likes to try to reassert himself 🤮😡), as an opportunity to live in Kingdom principles rather than to be controlled by what my earth-side man fears to be “losing“ as a citizen of an America whose once positive influence, facilitated by God, is ebbing away.

I must continue, day by day, returning to the reality of my Kingdom citizenship over my American citizenship. 

My loyalty must remain with my Father in heaven, to his praise and glory.

Lord Jesus, help us, your children, as we continue to discern how live out your Kingdom principles in these last days on planet earth as we have known it for some 6000 years.

https://242community.com/3-reasons-i-wear-a-mask/?fbclid=IwAR1eG9a1FKtsp4PIbLq1yc_R1iYC9QazW9Abg4u_McrhQbxfv9DezUs78o8

[workingontruth]

Our 2 Kings 7 Kind of Life

Don’t you love it when God shows up?

Have you ever missed it when God showed up?

What about now?

Today, opinions are a dime a dozen. Talk to a dozen people, and you’ll get a dozen different angles on any of a dozen subjects. But in spite of our differences of opinion on any of a wide range of topics, I think we all agree on one thing these days; had I interrupted your Christmas celebration this past December (whether or not I were wearing camel’s hair and in need of a good flossing to extract locust legs from between my teeth), telling you the following list of things would all come true in less than 90 days, you would have labeled me a complete crazy man and would’ve told me to go back beneath the rock from which I had come.

“In less than 90 days,…”

1.       You, over there in the Free Enterprise motor coach pullover (that would’ve been me) … you will be returning to the University of Indianapolis with the Men’s Lacrosse team from South Carolina before playing the final game of your trip–but oddly enough, both teams will be fully healthy, the weather will be ideal, and the trip will have been coasting along without a hitch. Oh, and the university’s administration will also require the other eight remaining U Indy teams, participating in their various collegiate sporting events from Florida to California and everywhere in between, to immediately return to campus as well. And, once you return, your entire fleet of buses will be emptied of fuel, removed from insurance plans, and put out of service–though all machines are mechanically sound and all drivers are healthy and available to drive.

2.       And you, in the red Community Hospital valet shirt (that would’ve be my wife) … you will be in your new role in the front office of the Center for Genetic Health. But having been asked not to congregate with your co-workers in the perfectly suited and newly designed office space the hospital had just finished, you and all of your co-workers will be working from home to reschedule all patient appointments sixty days or more into the future–unless they are willing to conduct their appointment over the phone or via video-chat.

3.       The NBA post-season will never happen, and the balance of the season itself will be stopped cold in its tracks at half-time of a game in the Mountain Time Zone on Wednesday, March 11th.

4.       All NCAA spring athletic events will be cancelled for the remainder of the school year and March Madness won’t happen.

5.       There will be no date set to begin the MLB season.

6.       Grocery stores will have been unable to keep chicken, ground beef, bread and toilet paper on their shelves.

7.       Gasoline will, in some places, be under a dollar a gallon, but few will be filling up.

8.       The nation’s restaurants will be closed for all dine-in experiences while the fortunate will try to stay in business by doing carry-out or drive-through business only.

9.       All shopping malls, strip malls, barber shops and hair and nail salons will be closed.

10.   The Federal Government will be sending $1,200 tax-free cash gifts to the vast majority of American citizens.

11.   The world will have a drastic shortage of personal protective equipment.

12.   The Down Jones Industrial Average will suffer 3 of its worst days since the “Black Monday” market crash in 1987 in the span of less than a week, losing roughly one-third of its value in a matter of about eight days.

13.   State governors will be requesting their citizens “shelter in place” by remaining home but for essential trips for food or health-related emergencies, while in some states it will be a finable offense to travel anywhere but to secure such.

14.   The President and VP of the United States will be holding daily, 2-hour press briefings for weeks on end.

15.   Frequent air travel will be little but a memory, international travel banned, airfares costing less than a good meal out (which will no longer be happening).

16.   The President will sign a presidential memorandum that will require the likes of General Motors to begin manufacturing respiratory ventilators.

17.   Dozens of privately held companies like Michael Lindell’s “My Pillow,” will be transformed into N-95 facemask factories.

18.   Samaritan’s Purse will have set up and be running a fully-functioning hospital in the middle of New York City’s Central Park.

19.   The United States Naval Hospital Ship “Comfort” will have been deployed to New York to help in the cause.

20.   Most people will be wearing PPE masks everywhere they go.

21.   All public concerts world-wide will be on hold.

22.   Churches will be asked not to meet, and nearly all will comply without resistance.

23.   Employees representing nearly every U.S. industry will be furloughed, let go or kept on payrolls with forgivable loans from the Fed.

24.   People will be asked to stand in lines outside Lowe’s stores at six-foot intervals to ensure active shopper customer quotas are kept while both one-way entries and exits are monitored.

25.   Many stores will be required to close down public access to much of their merchandise not deemed “essential,” to help support the cause.

26.   Pork, chicken and other meat packing plants in the U.S. will be closing down.

27.   U.S. unemployment will be at the highest rate since the Great Depression as new weekly filing claims will be counted not in the hundreds of thousands, but in the millions.

28.   The nation’s, and most of the world’s movie theaters, will be closed.

29.   People without facemasks will be shunned and avoided by “mask-wearers.”

30.   Neighbors will be sitting in their driveways and on FRONT porches again.

31.   College students will be home with their families, taking part in online classwork since all university campuses will be closed prior to semesters’ end.

32.   In lieu of our celebrating athletes and Hollywood types, doctors, nurses and healthcare workers will be the new heroes.

33.   People in some industries will be earning more to stay at home than while working full time.

34.   The Fed will be paying the unemployed an additional $600/week over and above the state provisions.

35.   All elective surgeries will be halted while hospital ORs remain unused.

36.   Online church “attendance” will skyrocket, leading to thousands and thousands of new believers.

37.   American celebrity musicians will be holding online “Global Citizen” concerts to raise millions of dollars to give to the World Health Organization which is being held liable for its part in enabling the death of hundreds of thousands in nearly 200 countries world-wide.

Would any of these things been plausible just a few months ago?

Obviously, this is only a partial list, and one to which most of us could quickly add another dozen. And NOTE they’re not all bad! Isn’t it just like God to orchestrate blessing in the face of difficulty? 

But in my mind, these “90-days-ago incomprehensible occurrences” are not unlike the similarly baffling predictions that Elisha, in 2 Kings Chapter 7, was revealing to the king and his officer.

Here’s the short version:  

Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah [probably about 7 lbs] of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.” 

The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”

“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”

The officer was utterly confounded. “Really? How could this be?” And to be sure, there is no way, given their circumstance at the time, they could have concocted such an unlikely series of events.

(Read verses 3-13 to learn how this mystifying prophecy actually took place.)

But then, the verdict is recorded in the later verses...

“So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king. Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.”

Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.” ...but your officer will not eat any of it.

What’s my point?

God often does things in ways no man would ever script. What we deem impossible is a drop in the bucket of God’s immeasurable and endless power and insight. After all, He knows the future!  

But here’s what WE do.

If told of how the above-mentioned improbables would come true by late-March, we would have responded, “Oh I see. What a tragic series of events. But I understand now how that will happen. It all makes sense.”

And because it “makes sense” in hindsight, we disregard the overriding variable of the supernatural God into the equation and chalk up the now-plausible circumstance as nothing more than the “natural” occurrence of things.  

No matter how crazy things get, when viewing world events on merely the natural plane, most won’t need a God to “see it.” It will all make logical, cause-and-effect sense.

In the same way, I believe much of what will lead up to Revelation 12 and is told us in Daniel 11:31 and following, will likewise “make good sense” to the mind of mankind at the time. Going so far as to think of the Anti-Christ to come, we have to assume he will not come into power forcefully, but peaceably, with the full support of a global community…one that is now forming rapidly. Yes, it will all “make perfect sense,” for the answers and charismatic leadership of the one we know is to come will help to solve what will have become the world’s most pressing and previously unsolvable complexities. And the world community will give him his prominent role. 

Still, for those in Christ, let me be clear that these can be days of amazing intrigue and anticipation, not fear and worry. 

But, you see, my point is that this is how God usually chooses to bring about his plans, through a course of events that will be laced in the common sense of man … so much so that even the elect would be deceived were it possible (Matthew 24:24).

BUT, He gives light to the eyes of his children. Our great and unshakeable God has let us in on his plans. We are his friends if we do what He commands (John 15:14). And as friends of the Son of God, the Son has made known us to his agenda (John 15:15).

Now, my intention is not to insinuate we are absolutely on the cusp of the rapture of the Church, or teetering at the edge of the Tribulation–though I’m also not saying that we couldn’t be, for the Father alone only knows the day of Jesus’ return for his children (Matthew 24:30-42).

What I am saying is that if we can learn anything from history, and from an acquaintance with the scriptures, we can assume that the initial events predicted in the Bible will likely “make sense” in the moment to the mind of unregenerate man.

So, one last question. 

Given our current sermon series at my home church, Northview Church, I am wondering if you are listening, watching and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit living inside you? It’s something about which I wrote in great length as well in SET FREE. 

Do you know the mind of Christ? Do you have the mind of Christ? 

If not, it’s time to change that. If not, you may be missing that God himself is showing up right now on planet Earth.

Place your trust in Jesus Christ. He is ready to open your eyes.

Maybe it’s time you learn more about the God who is doing something incredible right now in the midst of this unprecedented time. Maybe it’s time you gain in you the Resource that dispells anxiety and replaces it with a calm assurance the world will never understand. 

You can learn more about having a relationship with Jesus here. Or, reach out to a pastor at Northview Church by texting “NEXT” to 85379 and selecting Option 2.

God is showing up right now. Don’t miss him in the details.

Keep watching.

[workingontruth]

Part 6 of 7: The Gospel (In Full)...Stage 4; Command Us

October 9, 2019

[Forgive Me. Fill Me. Surrender Me. COMMAND US. Fuel Us.]

We’re making good progress into the ongoing beauty of the Gospel – what a JOY! With the controversy of self-will behind us in Stage 3, this fourth stage of The Gospel (in Full) represents a corner turned.

However, we must not simply plow onward into this fourth stage of the Christian life without honestly verifying the condition of our soul at this point on our personal journey with God in Christ.

Said in another way, if the controversy of self-will is not behind you in a way that you know the Spirit has dealt with you sufficiently unto repentance and surrender, now is not the time to “roll on.”

“Why not”, you say? “Doesn’t there come some point, Greg, where you just have to press on, regardless of whether one has been illuminated on a matter?”

The answer is NO. Not, that is, unless you’re just trying to “accomplish” your Christianity.

Let me try to tell you why–from a few slightly different vantage points. 

Being “Christian” out from an unsurrendered, wrong motivation of the soul will only be an unfruitful exercise into a venture that will not “work” for you. In such a case, it’s best to stay out of it altogether. 

If your motive in following Jesus is to attain “your best life now” or to somehow discover what will “work for you,” you’ll be sorely disappointed. 

Instead, in bridging our 3rd to this current 4th Stage of these Gospel (In Full) contemplations, you must know the surrendered and commandable Christian life will frequently appear to fly in the face of the old man’s, earth-side logic and self-interest. And so, until you are willing to be, at times, divorced from your own logic and unmoored from self-interest, you will never become commandable. Until the clay of your life is moldable to the Potter, he won’t fight against you. Clay which only continually leaps off of the Potter’s wheel will never reach its purpose. Neither will you. Just forget it, it won’t happen. 

The Christian life is one that must be accompanied by faith–a faith that trustingly walks in the mission of God even as your self-preserving interests are being daily set aside. 

Stay on the Potter’s wheel. Without a surrendered, faith-filled and trusting walk with God, the first sign of difficulty will have you clutching the steering wheel of control in order to regain what you wrongly believe to be the predictable stability and comfort which you value more than the unpredictability that comes with being a disciple of Christ. This need for control will sabotage any hope of a maturing walk with God and place severe restrictions on the Holy Spirit’s ability to guide and fulfill you. For the surrendered life will be one supremely commandable by its Owner.

From another vantage point, KNOW THIS –

Being commanded by one whom you ultimately believe has no right to do so will only lead to resentment and a begrudging heart of religious frustration.

We do not need more unsurrendered “Christians” today. It will be far better for you to return to the previous stage than live detrimentally to both yourself and the body of Christ.

From still another slightly different vantage point, I want you to introspectingly consider the contemplation of Billy Graham when he said…

“…the Lord Jesus Christ will come into your life and reform, conform and transform you into an obedient follower. If that is not your desire, you have every reason to question whether or not you have been saved.”

You see, a merely strategic acceptance of truth void of a truly humble heart which pleads for God’s command over you in recognition of your inability to run the show yourself, is pointless. Even further still, if you are ready to walk in the command of King Jesus but only as a “have to” of accepted obligation, there has yet been no genuine surrender–and you have a heart issue. This should make you wonder whether or not you really have a new heart! 

[If, right now, you want to address whether this new heart God offers to all who seek him is in you, it may be helpful to review the last half of Chapter 46 in my book, Set Free. Start reading at the fifteenth paragraph where it begins, “To review then,...”]

Indeed, before you will be able to enjoy the supernatural refreshment that accompanies being commanded and fueled by the Holy Spirit, our final two stages of The Gospel (in Full), surrender will have had to become part of your journey.

PAUSE to PONDER: 

Have you truly surrendered your life to Christ, or have you merely desired to have the weight of your sins lifted from your conscience while also believing you’ve met the qualification for heaven as part of your portfolio?

If you have been unable to release your circumstances, your emotional anxiety, your frustration with a physical malady, or any other state in which you find yourself living, pause and return to Stage 3. More directly, retrace your steps back to the cross and decide once and for all whether you trust the one who says he alone can give you the new life you desire, lacking nothing of value either in this earth-side “pre-life” or the life to come.

I am taking this long walk around the barn before journeying with you into God’s command of your life because attempting to walk in this stage prematurely will be fruitless. Without a surrendering heart of faith and trust in God’s desire and ability to bring you into only what is best for you, it will be impossible for you to please him (Hebrews 11:6).

So, here’s my challenge going forward into these final two, ongoing and life-giving stages of the Gospel: 

Refuse to read past this point right here until you have been ruthlessly and utterly honest with yourself, and marks of broken surrender have become a part of your experience.

Give the Spirit time to work.

Seek him persistently on this matter of surrender.

Ask him what you desire more than him.

Your Creator God, through his son, wants to gain in you more than cerebral add-ons of himself. He wants to remake you. He wants you to walk in obedience as he commands, and abide in his love–that your joy would be made complete (John 15:10-11).

Oh, dear friend, the best thing I could hear from anyone reading these Gospel (in Full) contemplations is that it took a month, or the summer, or the better part of a year to get through them. There is no rush. Let the Spirit take you to a place where you drink most deeply of Him unto surrender. Then you will be ready for The Commander!

All that said, let’s turn our minds and hearts to the only reasonable response of one who has surrendered his or her life to the omniscient, all-powerful King of Kings and Creator of all things past, present and future … a sincere desire to be commanded in his service.

There are two things I want to emphasize as we contemplate this fourth stage of the ongoing nature of the Gospel.

FIRST, we must begin to embrace our position in relation to God. He is Commander. We are his faithful and compliant inheritance, living a new life in Him.

God’s command of us is the beginning of an exciting adventure–one less predictable but promising far greater satisfaction than our old life of self-preservation and societal predictability.

This life of complete trust and sensitivity to the command of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us may sometimes border on what the world would inaccurately perceive to be irrationality or reckless self-neglect. This is because the life we now live ceases to be about us–it ceases to be only about our welfare. And this is very counter-cultural in our “plan-ahead, make a life and a future,” secularist mentality.

But thanks to the truth of our new identity on which we now continually dwell (Romans 5:12-6:23, Colossians 2:9-15), our old self is increasingly being translated into the life of Christ. As this happens, we have a new lens through which to live what is now God’s life – in us (Galatians 2:20).

In a phrase, if SURRENDER is the fulcrum upon which a flourishing Christian life pivots, then a natural and instinctive compliance to his COMMAND of our lives becomes the launch pad for what God intended to be the “normal” Christian life.

Indeed, in this fourth stage of The Gospel (in Full), we now turn a corner. We now begin living in our new creation not by sight, but by faith (2 Cor. 5:7). We now begin to live in the light of our new life as a surrendered yes man, without controversy.

Once we understand there is a God who is uncreated, beginningless, infinitely transcendent, who made this world, who keeps everything in the universe going such that all the molecules, all the stars, all the solar systems are being held up by the power of this God, …to this God we must say, “Command me!”

Here’s how historian N.T. Wright puts it:

“How can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human, that fire has become flesh, that life itself became life and walked in our midst? Christianity either means that, or it means nothing. It is either the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality of the world, or it is a sham, a nonsense, a bit of deceitful playacting. Most of us, unable to cope with saying either of those things, condemn ourselves to live in the shallow world in between.”

And this living in the shallow world in between is what must come to an end for us if we believe what we proclaim as ones redeemed into perfect relationship with the God of the universe. You cannot live in that misty “world in between” if you want to live with integrity as a Christian.

Do you pray to Jesus when you’re in trouble, and otherwise mostly ignore him because you get busy? Again says, N.T. Wright:

“Either Jesus cannot hear you because he’s not who he says he is – or if he is who he says he is, he must become the still point of your turning world, the center around which your entire life revolves.”

Yes, if God is who he says he is, and if he is whom you claim him to be as your redeemer, then your whole life has to revolve around him and you have to throw everything at his feet and say, “Command me.” 

He is King. We are his beloved inheritance. And during this short time on earth, while inhabiting these bodies of flesh and living in a deteriorating world due to the effects of sin, we are called to lay down our old lives, and take his upon us–and follow him.

You see, we have a new kind of King. In Mark 8:34-9:1, Jesus is saying, “Since I am a King on a cross, if you want to follow me you must go to a cross.” In other words, you must recognize him as boss.

At this point in following Jesus, it ceases to be about us…or what we’d been conditioned to understand to be “our life.” 

We must stop living in the fiction that our old man is still living, or that we own our life. It’s a lie. 

Jesus went to a cross. He really died. And he tells us in Romans and again in Colossians 2 that we went there with him…IN him (Chapter 45, Set Free). And so if logic is to be our friend at some point along this path, we must embrace living in the full command of our King Jesus.

Daily we must be eager, as an overflow of our love for him, to live into our new identity. I’m not saying that we focus on carrying our cross daily. I think that’s a bit distorted to be honest with you. What we’re doing is REMEMBERING that our old man has DIED on that same self-cross in Christ Jesus–and we’re remembering to live in the new man, the new creation, as ones who are no longer in charge…we are now under the full command of King Jesus.

SECOND, at this point in our development as a Christian, it also becomes helpful to radically change the way we speak and think about ourselves.

At this point in our development as a Christian, we must continually reckon upon the fact that we never walk alone. 

Why? Because as we ask God to command us, and he begins to do so, He may ask of us things we may feel unresourced to do. In such moments, we must remember in whom we now live and breathe and walk.

Too many Christians live as if the sky is falling and all hope is lost–at the drop of a hat! I believe this is because we retreat far too easily into our own resourcing, the resourcing of the old man or woman whom Christ himself has killed off and laid to rest in an eternal grave.

Take notice that I changed the pronouns in the final two stages of The Gospel (in Full). Why? Let me explain.

One of the things that began to transform my life is when I started to think in the “we, us and our,” rather than in the “I, me and my.” To think in the “we, us and our,” is not only healthy, it’s reality.

Let me demonstrate the difference:

If I’m fooled into believing that I am alone in the midst of life’s challenges, I would be tempted to self-talk in the following way:   

If I say, “I’m afraid I won’t make it next year!”

Or if I think, “I don’t know what to do!”

Or what if I’m going through a terrifically difficult circumstance and say, “I honestly don’t think I can make it through this! I am going to die!”

Do these singular “I, me or my” perspectives convey reality for believers in Christ, or are they “old man” thinking? 

Now, let’s try these same real and disheartening circumstances in the “we”:

“Lord Jesus, we are so afraid we won’t make it!”

He will say, “Really? I think we will.”

“This circumstance is just too difficult! We don’t know what to do!”

But Jesus says, “I think I do know what to do.”

“We aren’t going to make it–we will die!”

And Jesus says, “Really? I was raised to life again.”

Suddenly, everything is totally different, isn’t it? Do you see it?

Where is Jesus living? If you’re a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, he is living inside you. You are not alone. You do not fight alone. You do not walk alone. You do not sleep or eat or drive alone.

When we begin to take stock of our true condition as a child of God, as one possessing the life and resources of the risen Christ Jesus, everything changes!  

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20

You are always at least two.

Dwelling on these truths of the Christian life makes us choose.

“Am I going to live in the truth of who I have become in Christ, or will I choose to live in a lie–under the influence of Satan, the father of lies?”

When you begin your day, do you say, “I’m going to my first meeting for the day…” or do you say, “Let’s go to our first meeting for the day…”? The second one is the truth. The first is a lie.

Thus, this fourth stage of the ongoing nature of the Good News is purposely in the plural “us.” Whatever he commands of us, we can know he is able to do in us, for he himself is able to finish the good work he began in us (Phil. 1:6).

Get used to inquiring of God, listening and seeking him through the pages of his good news in the Bible…and thanking him ahead of time for providing in you the ability to do whatever he asks. For once you have surrendered the short-sighted, comfort-seeking desires of your old self whom God has put to death in Christ, in favor of the new self, being continually transformed by the renewal of your mind with what is true of you (Romans 12:2), then you will eagerly, satisfyingly and joyously be commandable by the God in whom you have believed, and who is able to guard you until the day of your ultimate renewal (I Timothy 1:12,14).

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” – Isaiah 6:8

Isaiah got it. I pray you and I so live in the truth of who we are that we, too, will live commandable lives.

[workingontruth]

The Holy Spirit – Mankind’s Supernatural Information Superhighway

Monday, Aug 19, 2019

I’ve been on John 16:7-11 for a few days, asking the Father to bring light to the eyes of my heart regarding the threesome in verses 8-11… 

“…he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…”

I used to read these verses and see in them condemnation – almost as if the Holy Spirit would be delivered to point the finger of judgment onto mankind because Jesus, himself, was here walking and talking and living and healing and loving and illustrating and teaching …but as if to no avail - as most refused to give up their lives to follow him. So now, while the Father and the Son were going to deliver the Holy Spirit into the world to certainly encourage and empower believers, He was also coming into the world to judge (dare I say condemn) unbelievers “so that they would be without excuse,” to insert a bit of the context that seems more appropriate of verse 20 of Romans, chapter 1.

But this view was, I am now convinced, incorrect in its context!

I believe what Jesus was saying to the disciples was that even in his role as the Son, restricted (if I may say it that way) to his body of flesh while on earth, along with its inherent limitations of space and time, he was now going to be withdrawn from earth so that this spiritual ministry to seek and to save those who have ears to hear and eyes to see would get a massive upgrade!

I used to just think about this passage like I tend to initially think of everything it seems – centered on me, on us, on mankind. I still, to my great sorrow, seem to be so egocentric in my worldview at times. But every now and then God seems to remind me that He is the potter and I am the clay, that He is the maestro and I am the instrument, that He is the Father and I am the little child, that He is the Shepherd and I the lost and wandering sheep in need of guidance and continual redirection.

Instead, the spotlight continues to be on Jesus’ great heart of compassion! And there’s a glorious truth to this passage only coming to me now. 

I think Jesus is saying that his testimony and power to bring the world to himself will be intensified and broadened and unlimited now by space and time - as the Gospel had been during his time while walking around in the midst of his creation with the limitations of a human body of flesh. He could be in only one place at a time. He could only look into so many people’s eyes and commune with their souls from the outside-in as a man. But NOW…haha, but now I think Jesus is pumped to give this really incredible news – not that He was going to begin the judgment of mankind by pointing the convicting finger at men through the Spirit, but that He was going to now have a seriously broadened ability to minister to millions of souls at the same time, and that with the coming of the Helper, the spiritual influence God could now have on planet Earth was going to be increased exponentially!

A couple passages came to mind this morning as I was praying through these verses again – which the Father used to shed light onto this new angle on these verses.

I was reminded of Revelation 14:6-7 where we learn of the first of the three angels whose responsibility toward the end of the tribulation will be to literally “fly directly overhead” in the sky of this earth “with the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.” Do we even realize the amazing and long-seeking desire of God to draw all people unto himself? It will continue right up to the END! 

Alongside this recollection from Revelation 14 came Jesus’ words from John 3, in verse 17. 

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

These passages reminded me that the heart of God is not to bring judgment, but to bring any and all to salvation in himself, lest he must condemn us one eventually awful day - because justice must be met. Of course, WE know he met that justice through the death and resurrection of his Son! 

And so knowing these character qualities about God, it suddenly hit me that the Holy Spirit was coming to bring greater hope, more effectual conviction into the hearts of all men so that they would be saved and drawn to himself – not to condemn!

Verses 9-11 then give us additional insight into these three “convictions” – into these three piercing realizations of our need for a Savior. There are two meanings for conviction. 

One tells of someone who has done wrong and has been judged or convicted – and is now a convict. In this light, it speaks of one having been doomed or sentenced or rightfully condemned. 

The other speaks of one being conscience-stricken, drawn into a sorrowful state followed by a hopeful and guilt-eliminating repentance leading to forgiveness, clearing the way for redemption. 

Do you see where this was taking me?! In this light, verses 9 through 11 take on a whole new light – an optimistic and glorious light which speaks to God’s true heart of love and his tender heart-seeking of mankind.

“…concerning sin, because they do not believe in me…” 

Jesus had walked and talked, admittedly to little effect on many who merely saw him as their earth-side savior, one who was told from old to be the One to overthrow this world’s systems of injustice and one who was going to come to save his chosen people. His saying this was not, I see now, from a heart of frustration and anger, but from a heart of increasing hope for the drawing effect the Holy Spirit would begin having by doing his work on earth from the inside-out …drawing mankind to himself from under the conscience-stricken sorrow of guilt and into the freedom of forgiveness understandable via the convicting power and authority given the Helper, the Spirit! Jesus is saying, not only in effect but literally….”they didn’t believe in me while I was here walking and talking amongst them (I think he also knew how hard it was for people to have known his physical background, his homelife as a child having grown up in the home of Joseph and Mary and James and his other siblings) so I  am going away so that my supernatural, drawing and lovingly convicting hand can reach deep inside man so as to draw him to myself. And this without the limitations of his human body – being in one place at a time. His Spirit would now be free to unleash God’s elective power to save the world-over – and all at once, continually! He’s saying that because they don’t believe (haven’t believed while I’ve been here in the flesh), I’m going to send the Helper as another and more powerful change agent, that their spiritual eyes may be opened…opened to the sin in our lives which keeps us from returning into fellowship with the Father.

“…concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father…” 

Jesus was not only disbelieved by most to be The Messiah, except maybe for that terribly misconstrued single day at his “triumphal entry into Jerusalam,” but was called wicked, a sinner himself, a friend of publicans and sinners, that he literally had a devil within himself (was possessed by Satan), and so on. He was slandered inaccurately. But as evidence of his actual righteousness and not sinfulness and inaccuracy, Jesus was going to the Father and would make an appearance to 500 people who would see his resurrected and righteous body and realm of being which would not only initially, but then for all time to come, demonstrate to those with eyes to see that He was who he said he was. And going to the Father would not only demonstrate this, but it would be accompanied with the sending of the Holy Spirit who would convict/convince many of his divinity and righteousness. This, too, was not a damning bit of “evidence” but was intended by Jesus to be a drawing agent for the spread of the Gospel.

“…concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” 

The act of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, leaving this earth to rise back into a physical union with the Father was, more or less, the final stamp of authenticity of the process which included his death and resurrection – and which completed the victorious act of defeating the last enemy of God in the human race due to the curse of sin – death itself. The ultimate curse stemming from the garden and its author, Satan himself, had finally been both judged and unilaterally defeated forever. This closure was demonstrated in Jesus’ return to heaven and physical removal from Earth in bodily form. And only if he departed this earth and sent us his Spirit would all of this become crystalized as being true to willing onlookers who would be encouraged to place their faith in Jesus.

And so without the Holy Spirit being given us, we’d be yet left with a supernatural vacuum – a shortfall. Without every human being able to hear of and interact with the words of Jesus in person, he couldn’t be so convicted of his sin and treason against God…the precursor to our being saved and redeemed unto God. But in God’s great plan for the salvation of many the world over, his limitless Holy Spirit was now given to draw men to himself without having the limitations of a human body which Christ possessed and yet possesses for all eternity to come.

So, yes, Jesus had to go away to the Father so that the all-present Holy Spirit could be our world-wide supernatural information superhighway to the Father.

These verses demonstrate God’s amazingly loving and strategic plan to redeem more – those who had not believed initially when he was here in bodily form, to reach those who wrongly believed he was of the devil and was deceiving them rather than coming to save them from their spiritual mal-condition, and to put the final nail in the coffin of judgement for the adversary of mankind – the original God-hater, Satan himself. For if God had overcome the grave, then he had effectively dealt with the ultimate curse which led man out from the perfect fellowship with God which he enjoyed for a short time at the beginning of creation.

Our great God has come to bring life and not judgement. 

He is the seeker of our souls. And he has done everything necessary to draw all men to himself who would but place their faith in him…and it is the Spirit’s ability to do the drawing from within the heart of man.

Thank you, Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit for your great conspiratory plan from the beginning to return us into fellowship with yourself. Your heart of compassion for us is clearly demonstrated in this passage. I pray I never see these verses the same again.

Grateful.