Are Christians supposed to be passive?
No.
It’s not that we’re not supposed to fight. The issue is we don’t understand what to fight for.
Christians are big on fighting for all the wrong things; standing up for themselves and their rights.
Does Jesus do this?
No.
But, if you dare come between the Father and His children, Jesus starts whopping folk and flipping over tables.
Originally posted on Facebook on Friday, October 20, 2023.
Is my fight as a Christian for liberty, religious freedom or the American way of life?
No.
It makes no difference to me if my adversary wins political power (he already has it) and throws us in prison for what we believe.
My fight is for the family of God and against everything that separates us, as Christ fought. And, what separates us are not issues of liberty, property or political power. It's sin in and between us.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.'
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
—Romans 8:35-39
Anyone who says otherwise is an enemy of the cross, such as American Family Radio .
Originally posted on Facebook on Thursday, October 19, 2023.
This "trolley problem" is really helpful in understanding some people's perception of Christian theology, except it omits the important part where God made the trolley for good, and told us its proper use but we were dupped into believing that we should be the ones to determine how to use the trolley.
So, in rebellion and as a defiant demonstration of our own agency we chose to prostrate ourselves before the trolley.
God not wanting us to perish, but respecting our agency, makes every effort to warn us, imploring us to get out of harm's way but we insist we do not need help.
We are so recalcitrant we even delude ourselves into believing the creator of the trolley does not exist even though there's a trolley in front of us that we did not create.
The impending destruction and death is because of our doing.
And the only way to be saved is to
acknowledge His voice, the only voice warning us of the danger,
admit His description of the problem, the only description that's accurate and that makes the only solution apparent,
and accept His Solution, the only solution that gets us off the track -the path of destruction, and restores His good design.
Complaining is evil. It is thought and speech in service to the evil one.
Complaining weakens the hearer (I can even weaken myself from my own internal dialogue)
directing attention and energy
away from God
and to my dissatisfaction or displeasure.
Complaining is contempt for the reality I’m faced with while cowering from the responsibility to make it better.
Complaining shirks that responsibility and shifts it to another, often in the form of blame.
Complaining denies my duty to glorify God (by keeping Him central, maintaining attention on His goodness) and abandons my responsibility to represent the goodness of His kingdom order in every situation that I face.
“Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as [it is] in heaven.”
—Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2
Complaining is cowardice.
And, no coward will be counted among the children of God.
“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
—Revelation 21:8
Believe Jesus. Repent and be saved.
#heartwords #heartdictionary
God wants to glorify Himself through me.
But, the Spirit has revealed weakness in me that is not in Christ
that He must burn away
so that I am able to reflect His glory.
The Holy Spirit said to me, “You have a problem with complaining.”
It’s a weakness that hinders my use for God’s glory. I repent.
Something I do a lot in my internal dialogue is express contempt for a situation I’m facing and always saying what I don’t want to do.
Jesus never did that.
“Not My will, but Yours, be done.” —Luke 22:42
Jesus did not complain, even as He was being crucified.
“He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.”
—Isaiah 53:7
“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
—Philippians 2:8
He was not deterred by the difficulty of the situation.
“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.”
—John 12:27
He did not try to shift the burden to another in the form of blame.
He didn’t concern Himself with who’s fault it was.
Jesus did not cower. He came. He confronted.
He committed Himself to the work of reconciliation. He focused on God and directed our attention to the kingdom of God and His righteousness and He set His hand to the task of bringing everything, all of creation back into God’s kingdom order, at any cost.
He put His hand to the plow and never looked back.
This is the man I want to be. This is the man I’m becoming, who God is making me.
He’s burning away the flesh, to reveal Christ that’s being formed in me, bit by bit.
I thank God for His love that both comforts my heart and burns away sin.
I confess my sin and submit to His scalpel.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” —1 John 1:9
I trust Him. He is faithful. He will finish the work.
“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete [it] until the day of Jesus Christ;” —Philippians 1:6
The work God is doing in me isn’t flashy, but it’s miraculous.
May God be glorified.
#GodsLoveBurns #perfectourlove
Is God real?
The natural approach to the concept of God often leads to the search for the super-natural, that is a super-event that is still along a natural continuum, a sign, an observable phenomenon, something bound by space and time that we can perceive with our five senses.
But, God is spirit. (John 4:24)
An authentic encounter with God is often non-obvious and imperceptible to the natural eye because it’s spiritual.
“Philip said to [Jesus], ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, “Show us the Father?”‘”
—John 14:8-9
An encounter with God is a committed, consistent, all consuming burning that transforms us.
“And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?'”
—Luke 24:32
“For our God is a consuming fire.”
—Hebrews 12:29
We can know and experience God.
“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
—John 10:10
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
—John 17:3
Everyone who does is transformed by it. No one who sees Him remains the same.
“You must be born again.”
—John 3:5
It’s a miraculous reality unbound by time that always is; before you were born and after you die.
“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world”
—Ephesians 1:4
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
—Ephesians 2:4-7
That’s spiritual. That’s supernatural.
It is real.
It’s a reality on a higher spiritual level, that’s not always obvious on this natural one, but its effects are (Galatian 5:22-23).
Originally posted on Facebook on Tuesday, October 10, 2023.
During my study time this morning, I was struck by this wonderful gem about how to walk with other disciples of Christ who I disagree with.
"Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you."
—Philippians 3:15
Note how Paul trusts the Holy Spirit, "if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you."
Paul doesn't force what he's saying.
He gives what God gives him.
He doesn't quarrel with those who don't or can't yet receive it.
He trusts God with those who may disagree with him AND he seeks to continue walking with them in Christ, "keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace". (Ephesians 4:3)
Though they may disagree now, Paul invites them to walk together with him, trusting God to bring them together along The Way. He doesn't cut them off.
"Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind."
—Philippians 3:16
It's an approach and attitude that demonstrates real spiritual maturity and an authentic love and desire for Christ as well as for the things of Christ.
It's a stark contrast to the rage and brow-beating that is commonly the response of those that cannot patiently bear with others in their spiritual development and who cannot tolerate for anyone to disagree with them because it threatens their fragile egos built on the approval of men and justification based on the collective affirmation of the group, rather than Christ.
It is so easy to be the latter. I must beware.
I must trust God that He will get me and those who disagree to where we need to be (we could both be wrong — God alone is wise), I must pray for them, I must desire their fellowship in Christ and seek to keep the togetherness already established by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:3) as I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
This is an ability that, I dare say, is not only required for discipleship but is proof whether I'm in the faith at all.
I can already hear, "How can two walk together unless they agree?"
They can when they share love of One greater than their disagreement.
I constantly struggle, especially as I age and face the certainty of death, with the feeling that what I am doing isn’t big enough, isn’t grand enough and that I’m a failure.
Perhaps that’s another way of saying that I’m seeking approval or recognition.
Honestly, I’m not sure, but it is a lie that’s blocking love and needs to be purged. This is why I must continually expose my heart to the Word of God to search such things out.
When I brought this to God, this is what the Spirit gave me.
A meditation, a poem:
When The Flower Passes.
A flower,
stretched toward heaven,
taking in the Son,
passing Him on,
so others would live,
pleases God,
and that is enough.
I am accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)
This is what we’re built for,
This is humanity’s greatest suppressed desire,
This fills the God-sized hole in each of us,
It is the reason for our social bent,
To be accepted truly, purely, safely, irrevocably, ultimately by the Father.
I am accepted in the beloved.
To really recline in that I need two things:
to be completely satisfied with being accepted by the Father —alone, to be perfectly content and full of joy with the Father’s acceptance whether anyone else accepts me or not,
and to understand that I’m accepted on the basis of His goodness, not mine.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” —Romans 5:8
I cannot mess this up.
There is nothing I can possibly do to mess this up.
Oh, what amazing grace! Praise your name God our Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ!
Hallelujah!
This is at the heart of righteousness.
Righteousness is having a right relationship to everything.
This reality, that I am accepted in the beloved, changes my posture.
Accepting it changes how I relate to everything. It makes righteousness possible.
It allows you to stand tall and stand firm for what is good and right, like a mighty tree that gives shelter to others and feeds them with the fruit from The Tree Of Eternal Life who’s leaf never fades and is always in season.
Consider Jesus.
This cradle of absolute safety was established so that you could be conformed to His image without fear of failure or rejection, so that no matter what happens, Jesus is the result.
“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete [it] until the day of Jesus Christ;”
—Philippians 1:6
I am accepted in the beloved.
Rest in that, and be transformed by it.
People often say, “Don’t give up. Keep going.”
But, “keep going” where?
My answer: to God;
To more conformed to the image of Christ, to experiencing the Kingdom of God to a greater degree by helping others to experience the Kingdom of God to a greater degree, to deeper and sweeter communion with the Beloved…
When I feel like giving up, this is why I will keep going: I am going to God, my treasure, my help now and my hope for eternity.