Hold On To Jesus' Truth

Hold on! That is the message I receive in my spirit this morning. Hold on to the faith. Hold on to the Word. Hold on to the Spirit. Hold on to Jesus Christ. There is a lot of forgery, mockery, and deception that is taking place and it is discouraging, but hold on. There is a lot of pressure to compromise, to give in, to conform to our society, but hold on. There is a lot of questioning, doubting, fear mongering in our own heart, but hold on.

Okay, but how do we hold on?

It is sad to encounter so many Christians who are redesigning their faith and beliefs according to the dictates of our society. Here I thought the Church was suppose to impact and influence society but in the truth of the world today it is the other way round. Youth and adults are claiming to be Christian while promoting teachings that fly in the face of the holiness and righteousness of Jesus. I am left scratching my head in sheer bewilderment how anyone can know the Word and make such assertions.

There are really two reasons why this is happening. The first is that we are not in the Word. The Bible is the source of everything we know about Father, Jesus and the Spirit. It is the reason it is under such incredible attack today, not that most Christians are even aware of this attack. But most Christians don't even open it let alone read, study or meditate on it. How can they apply the foundations of the Kingdom if they don't even know them?

So if Christians aren't in the Word, what is the source of knowledge for most of us? This blog and others like it, or short statuses, or society. The last is the scariest because Christians look to society for guidance but we are the ones who are suppose to be guiding society. The only source a Christian should be turning to is the Word of God and if they don't understand it they can seek the help of a mature Christian.

The second reason why we are encountering so many confused Christians is because they mistake their desires to be truth. Again this past week I have heard of at least three pastors who have decided to leave out sections of the Word because it conflicts with their new view on things; their new desires. God's Word did not change but their love for the Lord did, allowing their opinion to become greater than God's Word. Don't be shocked, we do it all the time.

We compromise on the Word when it comes into conflict with our desires. Yet the Word says that we have been crucified with Christ and no longer live but it is Jesus who lives in us. Amen! Sounds great until you realize it means the death of your opinion, your desires, and sets Jesus above all things. All things. We are too in love with this world to even begin to imagine how this impacts our lives. We want all the benefits without any of the cost.

It is not a simple thing. It gets messy when you hold on to faith and the roots it comes from. Jesus said he didn't come to bring peace but division. He said because of him families would be divided. Truth! But we are seeing compromise as parents' love for their children take greater priority over their love of Jesus. Because their children have made certain decisions parents are willing to throw out portions of the Bible. I know it is hard, these are your children, but they need salvation and that isn't going to happen as you try to make it easy on them by compromising. They need to see the truth and they need to see it in you, even if they don't like it.

It's going to get rough. It is going to get a lot harder. There are going to be some very discouraging days ahead. Hold on! Don't give up now, especially as the Day is approaching. It is like sitting down in a race with the finish line in sight. Yes, it is hard and will take all the effort you can muster but eternity is well worth it. Jesus' love is well worth it.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage each other - and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

My friend, dwell in the Word and in the Spirit every day. Don't miss one day. Worship every day. Make Jesus your greatest priority. Let him be the source from which everything else flows. With what is approaching, you will need to make sure that you are as close and as dependent on him as you can get. No compromise. Hold on!

You Can't Do It Alone

All sin can be traced back to a selfish heart. Every offence against someone is because someone considered themselves more important. Everything we have ever done against God happened because we considered what we wanted more important than what God wanted. We are a people who say we want to love God but we don't know how to let go of ourselves to do it.

We can look at all the socio economic reasons why we behave the way we do but at the end of the day it always comes down to the self-centeredness of the heart. Love is the opposite of selfishness. Perhaps not the thing that passes as love these days but the love that God describes:

Love is kind and patient,
never jealous, boastful,
    proud, or  rude.
Love isn’t selfish
    or quick tempered.
It doesn’t keep a record
    of wrongs that others do.
6 Love rejoices in the truth,
    but not in evil.
7 Love is always supportive,
loyal, hopeful,
    and trusting.
8 Love never fails!   (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, CEV)

Use whatever definition you want but this is the one that counts. This is the one that made a God who says he loves us, take action to show that love. This is the love that Jesus told us to have for God and for each other. A love that automatically puts the concerns of the other person ahead of our own and where sacrifice is a normal way of life. Imagine what the world would look like if this love permeated the hearts of everyone.

But it doesn't.

We were all born with a sinful nature that puts self ahead of everything and everyone else. As much as we try in ourselves to keep this love on the surface, what lay in the heart always rises up and dominates. This is why Jesus said the heart is key. It is the heart that will always dictate our actions, as hard as we try to work against it, because we know in ourselves what we want to be but we can't get there. Paul described the struggle of a religious heart without Christ:

I know that my selfish desires won’t let me do anything that is good. Even when I want to do right, I cannot. Instead of doing what I know is right, I do wrong. And so, if I don’t do what I know is right, I am no longer the one doing these evil things. The sin that lives in me is what does them. (Romans 7:18-20, CEV)

We must recognize that this all important love can only be produced in us supernaturally. If at any moment you think that you can do it without Jesus, you have stepped outside of the design of our Father and have taken your destiny into your own hands. It is an act of rebellion.

There is no good thing in us, everything having been tainted by that sin nature with which we were born. If we really want to live like Jesus and do what he did, there has to be a complete abandonment of everything and a bear hug on Jesus. It is only in the total surrender that we are able to be possessed and controlled by the Holy Spirit. Outside of that we are just playing games. Paul understood his condition and the only one who could save him:

With my whole heart I agree with the Law of God. But in every part of me I discover something fighting against my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I do. What a miserable person I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die? Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me. (Romans 7:22-25, CEV)

If you really want to be a follower of Jesus; if you really want to do what he did; if you really want to have everything he promised; you have to give up everything else. You have to turn your back on everything you knew and surrender to the Father's embrace. What you were incapable to do he is capable to do through you. There is no other way. You have to decide between the world and the Kingdom; yourself and Jesus. By nature we are a sinful and self-centered people. By God's nature we are like Jesus. I end with this:

People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. (Romans 8:5, CEV)

It Is Suppose To Be Way Different Than This

It only makes sense, doesn't it?

Always trust God.

And we think we do.

But we don't.

We trust him with certain things which makes us feel like we are trusting him with everything because we seldom actually examine ourselves. We seldom ask ourselves the hard questions and when we do we are always able to justify ourselves. "Well, God gave us intelligence to think for ourselves." But that's not what the Lord said through Solomon:

With all your heart
you must trust the Lord
    and not your own judgment. (Proverbs 3:5)

Do not trust your own judgment. The reason is because God's ways are not our ways and God's thoughts are so much higher than our own. Our mind, our perspective, even our system of thinking has been crafted by the sinful nature of man. It is not natural for us to know God's ways. It is not normal for us to know his mind. However, through Jesus he has made it possible for us to know his mind, to know his ways, to know what we are to do, but it requires us to be centered on him, to be alive in Jesus, to be one with Jesus.

This is important because we think we are living according to God's will when we are actually following our own. We think we are being directed by him but we are being directed by the "common sense" (common sin) of this world. If we would really open ourselves to God's direction it would blow our mind. But we restrain ourselves by the knowledge of this world instead of living life in abundance through the promises of God. Even though God directs us, we walk according to the wisdom of this world. Instead of believing all things are possible through him who gives us strength, we walk away from God's anointing because the wisdom of the world says it is impossible.

I don't know; are we all reading the same Bible?  Can't we read the testimony of those who walked before us? Can we state that we trust in the same way they did? I mean with your family, finances, job, health, education, friends, love? Who is going to plan the size of your family? The wisdom of this world or God? Who is going to decide the work of your hands? The wisdom of this world or God? Who is going to provide for you and your family? The wisdom of this world or God? If God is not directing in these simple things then you will also not allow him to direct your place in the Body of Christ, in ministry. Trust is trust. It is not a partial thing but the whole. And when we trust, God will direct:

Always let him lead you,
    and he will clear the road
    for you to follow. (v. 6)

Always let him lead you. That is a direct and honest question to ask yourself today: Who is leading me? Can you, with confidence, declare that you are not directing your own path but have laid down all your will and are walking in the Father's? Most of us can't because we have not been trained. We have had no one come along side us and question us on this. We have had no one challenge us in our perspective and decisions because most of us think our wisdom is the Lord's:

Don’t ever think that you
    are wise enough,
    but respect the Lord
    and stay away from evil. (v. 7)

Respect means obedience. Not when we feel like it but because love compels to lay it all down before our King. We need to become radical in our desire for the Father's will. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to break down our old way of understanding and allow our minds to be renewed:

Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. (Romans 12:2) 

Is that plain enough for us? Something tells me it isn't or we wouldn't be talking about it right now. Don't be like the people of this world. Think on that for a moment. Are we really any different? It is when we realize that we aren't any different, other than the music we listen to, the church we attend, and sometimes our vocabulary (but sometimes even this sounds like the world), that we can start being honest with ourselves and God. "Oh God, forgive us for our facade. Open our eyes and show us how we have been wrong." Then maybe we will invite him to change the way we think.

I don't know about you but I am tired of the facade. I want to see as God sees and I want to see what he wants me to see. I want to stop being governed by the rules of this world and start submitting myself to God's promises and principles. I want to stop listening to those who tell me something is impossible when God has told me that through Jesus all things are possible. Too often I have been back and forth in my thinking, but no more. It's the Kingdom of God or it's nothing. It's God's way or no way. Change the way I think Lord and give me eyes to see your design and a willing spirit to accept it.

I trust you.

A Super Market Of Churches

The Christian Church reminds me a lot of a supermarket these days. You can find a little of everything to suit your taste. If you support women preachers go to that church. If you like believe in speaking in tongues go to this church. If you hold to gay marriage go to that church over there.  It is hard to know what the Church holds on to as beliefs any more because the teaching is as varied as people. We are making God out to be whatever we want or need him to be. But that isn't the Church.

It comes down to interpreting the Word of God, or at least that is what I have been told time and again recently. The problem with interpretation is that it has to go through our own personal set of filters. We tend to ignore the stuff we don't like or excuse it away. Looking at the Word of God this way means it is wide open to abuse and it most certainly has been abused. We can make the Word say whatever we want it to say according to our own personal prejudices.

The problem with all of this is that we have left out the very important part of "deny yourself". Following Jesus has been very aptly explained in a couple of steps in the Word. First we are crucified with Jesus, so we die. We die to ourselves, to sin, to desires, hopes, dreams, opinions and this world. This is the part people tend to overlook or forget. We go right to the second step which is to be made alive in Jesus. Well we can't be made alive in Jesus if we have not died. So we have this fake thing happening.

We conform most of our behaviour to that of Jesus but our heart actually remains the same. There has been no transformation because transformation requires death, a letting go of everything we knew, especially our opinions, and living in Jesus through the Holy Spirit. In a society that prizes individual rights and freedoms, this is hard. What Christians should be understanding is that we are taking orders and directions from the Spirit and not doing what we think is best based on our knowledge.

This is how we read the Word, not through our experience and opinions, but through Jesus. The Word says that we know his mind. We don't know his mind if we have not died. We only know his mind when we have been crucified with him, raised to life in him, possessed of the Spirit and seeking only the Father's will. Anything less than this has the danger of "interpreting" God's Word with our filters. If we use our filters we will always bend God's Word to our desires.

Perhaps this is the reason Paul instructed Timothy:

Worship with people whose hearts are pure. (2 Timothy 2:22)

The only heart that is pure is that which is possessed by Jesus. The only heart that can be possessed by Jesus is the one that has voluntarily died, been crucified with Jesus and has been raised to life in Jesus. I repeat, in Jesus because there is no life found in us, only what is found in Jesus. We can't live for ourselves and Jesus. We can't serve both this world and God. Holiness requires that we find no value in this world or opinion of man but instead we live on every word from God. Anything less and we are lying to ourselves.

So I have a problem when people talk about interpretation. It usually means the person has a personal agenda and is creating God in the image of his own sinful desires. When we have died to self, been made alive in Jesus, the only interpretation we need comes from the Spirit and is always the will of the Father and not our own. Stop looking for a church that meets your own personal beliefs. Repent of your selfish ways and seek believers whose hearts are pure.  

The Right Goals Are Important In Life

Goals tend to be important for us. Without goals we tend to just exist; we eat, work, sleep, eat, work, sleep for our entire life. We may have small goals like, finish our homework, go for a walk, make supper. We may even have longer term goals like buy a house, pay off the car, set money aside for retirement. But what sense of well being does that give us? Isn't well being really what we are looking for? Don't we want to wake up every day with a desire to live life, to enjoy people, to love and feel loved and then go to bed with a sense of peace and joy?

We can earn a million dollars and never feel that peace. We could get that job we always thought we wanted  and never feel that joy. We could reach retirement with our plan intact and not have a thankful word on our lips. Goals are great and needed but they must be the right goals or it will be a wasted life.

The problem is with perception and expectation. From a young age we are shaped and trained with other people's expectations. It starts off with our parents, and they only want the very best for us. They speak their dreams and hopes into us but often these are dreams and hopes already shaped by society. Then we are faced with advertisements which bombard us with images and slogans of perceived success. We face it in school, with friends and sometimes even in church. Most people don't even give it a second thought and just go with the flow, with society's perception and expectations. So many lives wasted.

In it all there is God's quiet and gentle voice calling us to something so much different; something that deals with our true well being. Quiet words, such as:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29)

Jesus promises so much more than our small goals ever could. He offers more than the greatest job, best education, biggest retirement fund:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)

Just because you are a Christian doesn't mean you have discovered the truth of these words. Too many of us don't have a clue that we are suppose to trust God;  that we are suppose to follow his instructions; to listen for his direction. We accept Jesus and then continue pursuing life as usual but Jesus told us specifically not to do that:

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:31-33)

We hear the words but fail to understand; fail to allow them to affect our life; fail to allow them to change or perspective and expectations. Failing to understand these words prevents us from living a life of "risk" (faith), and keeps us in a very "safe" (dull) place all of our lives. There is no growth, just existence. Do these words have any effect on you:

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:15)

Jesus has given us peace, now we must allow that peace to rule our hearts. That means considering what is important to God and walking in that thing. It means allowing his priorities to become our priorities. It means allowing the Holy Spirit to instil God's values in us. But mostly it means letting go of everything we are dependent on and trusting God. Can you do that? Let go of society's expectations? Allow Jesus' love to be our motivation for all things, to desire to reflect his glory in all we do and say, in the choices we make? We must allow God to define success for us.

I want to wake up every morning with a desire to live life to the fullest. I don't want to feel horrible because it is morning; I want to feel excited. I don't want to see my day filled with boring routine but with endless possibilities. I don't want to see people as an interruption but as my reason for being here. I don't want to exist; I want to live life in abundance because of Jesus. And when I put my head on my pillow at night, I want a heart overflowing with thanksgiving and a great sense of peace, no matter what I faced that day.

This is all possible as we take Jesus' hand and allow him to lead.