Is Christian a Noun or an Adjective in Your Life?

My Utmost For His Highest

“[…] The only reason for the forgiveness of our sins by God, and the infinite depth of His promise to forget them, is the death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the result of our personal realization of the atonement by the Cross of Christ, which He has provided for us. […] It cannot be earned, just accepted. […] God’s response, through Peter, is, “… there is no other name…by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). […] “In Him we have redemption through His blood…” (Ephesians 1:7). To identify with the death of Jesus Christ means that we must die to everything that was never a part of Him. God is just in saving bad people only as He makes them good. Our Lord does not pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The atonement by the Cross of Christ is the propitiation [satisfaction of God’s wrath toward sin] God uses to make unholy people holy.” CHAMBERS

God sent Jesus because He loves us and because Jesus is the only way that we could be restored back to God.  You can never make it right with God through your wanting to or through your effort.  It is only because of Jesus that our sins are forgiven.  He is the essence of grace and mercy. It is so easy to forget that as we live day to day.  Our sins begin to pile up and we push them back in the corner of our minds .. our thoughts wander to other things .. things not quite so heavenly. The single most important thing in our mortal and eternal existence is no longer a noun but an adjective.  Who we are in Christ no longer defines us .. but is merely a characteristic like the color of our hair, or the school we attended.  This life we live in Christ requires focus and effort.  If we are not intentional every day, it will soon slip into the background.  Our light will grow dim.  And the purpose that God has intended for us will not be fulfilled.  So be alert!  Don’t forget “Whose” you are.  And ….

Colossians 3:16 “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Faith - Acting Without Seeing And Seeing Without Acting

My Utmost For His Highest

“Waiting for God to act is fleshly unbelief. It means that I have no faith in Him. I wait for Him to do something in me so I may trust in that. But God won’t do it, because that is not the basis of the God-and-man relationship. Man must go beyond the physical body and feelings in his covenant with God, just as God goes beyond Himself in reaching out with His covenant to man. It is a question of faith in God— a very rare thing. We only have faith in our feelings. I don’t believe God until He puts something tangible in my hand, so that I know I have it. Then I say, “Now I believe.” There is no faith exhibited in that. God says, “Look to Me, and be saved…” (Isaiah 45:22). When I have really transacted business with God on the basis of His covenant, letting everything else go, there is no sense of personal achievement— no human ingredient in it at all. Instead, there is a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and my life is transformed and radiates peace and joy.” CHAMBERS

One of the disciples, Thomas, is remembered not for his faithfulness but because of his lack of faith.  That is where the phrase “doubting Thomas” comes from.  (John 20:24-29) “Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." […]  And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

To exercise faith, we must first act without seeing and then we will see without acting.  We must be willing to trust God first and then God will bless us … act on our behalf … accomplish His purpose.  That is not to say that somehow our unbelief limits God.  But because of our unbelief, we will miss what God might do in response to our belief.  Our lack of faith limits us .. not God.  The exercising of faith is a challenge to our flesh but a joy to our spirit.  ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

The Devil Did Not "Make You" Do It

My Utmost For His Highest

“I am not being saved— I am saved. Salvation is as eternal as God’s throne, but I must put to work or use what God has placed within me. To “work out [my] own salvation” (Philippians 2:12) means that I am responsible for using what He has given me. It also means that I must exhibit in my own body the life of the Lord Jesus, not mysteriously or secretly, but openly and boldly. “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection . . .” (1 Corinthians 9:27). Every Christian can have his body under absolute control for God. God has given us the responsibility to rule over all “the temple of the Holy Spirit,” including our thoughts and desires (1 Corinthians 6:19). We are responsible for these, and we must never give way to improper ones. But most of us are much more severe in our judgment of others than we are in judging ourselves. We make excuses for things in ourselves, while we condemn things in the lives of others simply because we are not naturally inclined to do them.” CHAMBERS

I have often shared Romans 7 with Christians when talking about the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit in us. 

(Romans 7:15-25) “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. […]  But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

It is not Paul’s excuse for sin, but the realization that through Jesus, he no longer has to be a slave to the desires of his flesh.  And so it is for you and me.  We should stop making excuses for our sin .. there was a comedian years ago .. Flip Wilson .. who coined the phrase “The devil made me do it!” Well, we make that claim each time we excuse our sin as unavoidable.  We are no longer owned by the devil, but are children of the most high God, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ.  We must keep that in mind the next time a temptation comes our way.  ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Sharing Your Faith ... Looking For The Magic Words

My Utmost For His Highest

“If in preaching the gospel you substitute your knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the gospel, you hinder people from getting to reality. Take care to see while you proclaim your knowledge of the way of salvation, that you yourself are rooted and grounded by faith in God. Never rely on the clearness of your presentation, but as you give your explanation make sure that you are relying on the Holy Spirit. Rely on the certainty of God’s redemptive power, and He will create His own life in people.” CHAMBERS

So what if you are not a preacher .. but you are a minister … you, like every other believer, carry a message in your heart .. the Gospel .. the good news of Jesus Christ … resurrected … triumphant over sin and death.  Jesus the way, the truth, and the life .. the only way to the Father (John 14:6).  The part that most of us stumble on it the thought that somehow, if I share what I know, I will mess it up.  And someone will reject Jesus because I did not say the right thing.

The truth of the matter is that God is bigger than our words … that He has chosen to use us .. but does not need us.  That what happened in our lives on the day of our rebirth, and will happen in the lives of others until Jesus return in glory, is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit.  I know that many books have been written … many lectures have been given .. many notes have been taken .. many scriptures have been memorized .. having to do with sharing Jesus “the right way”.  The bottom line, what happens at the point of salvation is spiritual, not of man.  Sure you can prepare .. the Word says  (1 Peter 3:15) “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;”  But the point is … speak when God says speak .. and leave the rest to God …. ELGIN

(I Corinthians 2:1-5)  “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

When Things Don't Go Your Way ..

My Utmost For His Highest

“How can we say, “It could never be God’s will for me to be sick”? If it was God’s will to bruise His own Son (Isaiah 53:10), why shouldn’t He bruise you? What shines forth and reveals God in your life is not your relative consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your genuine, living relationship with Jesus Christ, and your unrestrained devotion to Him whether you are well or sick. […] God’s purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He wants.” CHAMBERS

What is your idea of the proper Christian life?  Does it include the absence of hardships … no financial worries .. no relationship problems .. perfect children … good health … the absence of trouble?  The absence of hardship is not the validation of being right with God.  Jesus said that we will face hardships (John 16:33) … the true test of spiritual maturity is “Do we have sufficient faith to allow God to be glorified through that hardship?”  Jesus modeled that for us.  You might be thinking .. “But I am not Jesus” .. that’s true enough … but Paul said “[we] can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us.” (Philippians 4:13)

The Anchor Holds – Ray Boltz

“I have journeyed, through the long, dark night out on the open sea

By faith alone Sight unknown And yet His eyes were watching me.

The anchor holds  though the ship is battered the anchor holds though the sails are torn.

I have fallen on my knees as I faced the raging seas, the anchor holds in spite of the storm”

(2 Corinthians 4:7-10) “ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

The darker the night, the brighter the light .. Put your hope in God and let you light shine! ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)