Tag Archives: self-evaluation

Two Approaches To Jesus: Which Is Mine?

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Two Approaches To Jesus: Which Is Mine?

There are two types of people who come to Jesus:

– Those who come to get something and when they don’t get it they fall away,

and

– Those who are willing to give everything for Him.

Only one group is saved.

“So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”
— Luke 14:33

God often tests us by taking things.

Consider Job.

These tests are not because God needs any information, but to reveal our heart: whether we’re of the world or whether we’re God glorifying salt—whether we have the wandering heart of the first group so that we can confess it, humble ourselves in repentance, and cry out to God to give us the steadfast heart of the second.

Why? These two things go hand in hand: His glory and our good.

I definitely struggle with the first nature that is still with me. I’m striving to kill it and to yield to His bringing forth in me the second.

The Ultimate Test

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The Ultimate Test

Who we truly are is revealed not by what we do but by what we want.

That is the ultimate test. What we want is the measure by which we will be ultimately judged.

Truth and facts don’t matter when they conflict with what we want.

Reason is not pure. It is merely a device to justify our desires. We have a breathtaking capacity for rationalization.

Not what we do, but the condition of our heart is the principle thing, which is exposed by what we truly want.

What we want indicates who we’re with which in turn is indicated by what we’re willing to lose.

If we’re with Jesus we have a new heart that wants the kingdom of God, first—that is, above all.

The test of whether we have that heart and whether it truly wants the kingdom of God is what we’re willing to lose to get it.

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
— Mark 8:35

“So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.”
— Luke 18:22-23

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”
— Philippians 3:8

“But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.”
— Hebrews 10:32-34

So, test yourselves, whether you’re in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).

And we can do that with one question:

What do I want most?

For me, I want to be in God with you,

I think.

God will test that. Am I willing to lose comfort and convenience for that? Am I willing to lose “being right” to be reconciled?

The demonic industrial church with her false teachers and prophets teach that the indication of your relationship and favor from God is what you gain.

But the whole counsel of God revealed in the person of Christ says His heart is indicated by what you’re willing to lose for Him.

What do you want most?

God’s Love Burns

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - God's Love Burns

We gush about the blessings and kindness of God’s love, but what about the change His love demands and causes?

Our God is a consuming fire.

His love burns.

It both warms the heart and burns aways sin.

If I’m not experiencing both, I’m not experiencing God’s love.

****

It would probably be better said, “His love ‘ignites’ the heart and burns away sin”, because we were completely dead before, we had nothing to warm.

It was for reason of our common understanding of the expression that I chose “warm the heart” as in the pleasant warmth often associated with being loved.

But His love is not just pleasant, it’s transformative. It creates new life in us and eviscerates the darkness of our former selves.

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
—John 1:4-5

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“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

“Little children, LET NO ONE DECEIVE YOU. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
—1 John 3:1-2, 7-9

Fatal Words

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Fatal Words

Two fatal words:

“I’m good.”

As in,
“What I’m doing is working for me.”
“I don’t need direction, instruction or change.”
“I’m fine.”
“I’m doing good.”
“Sure, I’m not perfect but I’m doing better than a lot of people.”

If I’m not aware of where I can and need to grow I have already been deceived to the point of blindness.

If I’m not growing, either I’m not alive or I’m dying.

Death is resident in the world and is working against and in all of us.

If I can’t see it, I need to cry out to Jesus that I might receive sight so I can see the death in me, confess it to Christ that He may heal it so I can live.

This never stops being true, even if -no, especially if, I’m a Christian.