…being justified freely by
His grace… —Romans 3:24
{CHAMBERS} “We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything
from God through our own efforts. We must either receive it as a gift or do
without it. The greatest spiritual blessing we receive is when we come to the
knowledge that we are destitute. Until we get there, our Lord is powerless. He
can do nothing for us as long as we think we are sufficient in and of
ourselves. We must enter into His kingdom through the door of destitution. As
long as we are “rich,” particularly in the area of pride or independence, God
can do nothing for us. It is only when we get hungry spiritually that we
receive the Holy Spirit. The gift of the essential nature of God is placed and
made effective in us by the Holy Spirit. He imparts to us the quickening life
of Jesus, making us truly alive. He takes that which was “beyond” us and places
it “within” us. And immediately, once “the beyond” has come “within,” it rises
up to “the above,” and we are lifted into the kingdom where Jesus lives and
reigns (see John 3:5).”
{ELGIN} This morning Martie,
my wife, asked me what I was thinking about that I would write in this
BLOG. I told her that I really didn’t do
it that way. I read Chamber’s devotion
and then ask the Lord, what am I supposed to say today. And “out it comes”. Very often, there will be some event –
interaction from the previous day that the Lord uses as a launching point from
Chambers. So in that regard what I write
is not premeditated as such, but more spontaneous … although that is not to say
that there are not years of life that undergird what I write. I’ve done this 1567 times so far, plus this
one …. Frankly I am amazed by the process and perhaps more amazed that God is
using me in this way.
So to the point. As
Christians we live our lives on this earth with a tension between the spiritual
and the natural. The preaching of the earthly
health and wealth gospel … God wants you to be rich and healthy … is the carnal Christian's attempt
to resolve that tension. The idea is
that God will give you money .. which He tells you not to love … and health ..
which He tells you that you will face affliction and hardship of many kinds …
and so … you can really be independent of God .. all of your earthly needs will
be met … do you see the heresy in this?
God wants us to give up our dependence upon earthly comforts and assurances
and trust Him, alone. When Job lost
everything, the assumption was that he had done something wrong .. why? Because he lost his earthly possessions. What
was the truth .. there was something spiritual at work that superseded the
natural. The same is true in our
lives. The thing is, you must be willing
to submit to that … to yield your devotion and dependence upon the
natural and trust God's provision. What do you hunger for? I see people struggling after disasters and
war and poverty, while Americans are trying to figure out if they should go
ahead and buy that $1000 iPhone and get rid of their $700 iPhone. The Church in the United States is the “frog
in the pot” with respect to materialism.
We don’t know that we are being cooked … instead, we think the water temperature
is just right.
I have been watching the Black
Friday phenomenon .. which it seems has crept into Thursday.
I am trying to find money to help people recover from Hurricane Harvey
and people are spending money – hand over fist – to satisfy their lust for more
– because they certainly don’t need it – not really. Pastor Brian, pastor of the church we are
connected to in Texas, preached on needs and wants last Sunday. With respect to the rest of the world, I
think it is safe to say that 99% of what we buy is to satisfy our wants. Our needs were met a long time ago. (Psalm 37:4) "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" The emphasis here is on our focus on God and His changing what we desire to conform to what He desires.
(James 4:2-4) “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and
cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You
ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your
pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with
the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the
world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Ugh! That does not leave a
lot of wiggle room does it. I guess I should quote Jesus to bring this to a
close. (Matthew 13:14-16) “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled,
which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you
will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their
ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see
with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with
their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes
for they see, and your ears for they hear" ..... And I would add .. He who is convicted – let him
repent.” Pray about it!
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