Glorious Joy

The Crucified Man

2009-05-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today I finally concluded my reading of John Stott's book The Cross of Christ. My intention is not to necessarily only post quotes from books, but I felt excerpts of the conclusion of this particular book was worthwhile to post as an encouragement.

"First, the cross is the ground of our justification. Christ has rescued us from the present evil age (Gal 1:4) and redeemed us from the curse of the law (Gal 3:13)...

Second, the cross is the means of our sanctification. This is where the three other crucifixions come in. We have been crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20). We have crucified our fallen nature (Gal 5:24). And the world has been crucified to us, as we have been to the world (Gal 6:14)...

Third, the cross is the subject of our witness. We are to placard Christ crucified publicly before people's eyes, so that they may see and believe (Gal 3:1)...

Fourth, the cross is the object of our boasting. God forbid that we should boast in anything else (Gal 6:14). Paul's whole world was in orbit around the cross. It filled his vision, illumined his life, warmed his spirit. He "gloried" in it. It meant more to him than anything else. Our perspective should be the same.

To be an enemy of the cross is to set ourselves against its purposes. Self-righteousness (instead of looking to the cross for justification), self-indulgence (instead of taking up the cross to follow Christ), self-advertisement (instead of preaching Christ crucified) and self-glorification (instead of glorying in the cross) - these are the distortions which make us "enemies" of Christ's cross.

Campbell Morgan expressed it well:

It is the crucified man that can preach the cross. Said Thomas "except I see in his hands the print of the nails. . .I will not believe." Dr. Parker of London said that what Thomas said of Christ, the world is saying about the church. And the world is also saying to every preacher: Unless I see in your hands the print of the nails, I will not believe. It is true. It is the man. . .who has died with Christ, . . .that can preach the cross of Christ."

Blessings,
Emmanuel

The Cross of Christ

2009-04-17T21:13:00.000-07:00

I am just finishing up the book The Cross of Christ by John R.W. Stott (Christology). I have thoroughly enjoyed this Christian classic and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to get a deeper understanding of Christ and His Cross.

I wanted to post the following quote from this book:

"I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzche ridiculed as "God on the cross". In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away.

And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. The Cross of Christ...is God's only self-justification in such a world as ours."

Blessings,
Emmanuel

"How Great Thou Art"

2009-04-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

The Lord filled my heart with worship unto Him this morning with this great classic hymn:

* Verse 1:

O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Refrain:

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

* Verse 2:

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:
(Repeat Refrain.)

* Verse 3:

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:
(Repeat Refrain.)

* Verse 4:

When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!
(Repeat Refrain.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.

Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom. - Psalm 145:2-3

Blessings,
Emmanuel

Travailing in Prayer for His Presence

2009-03-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

"As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, O LORD." - Isaiah 26:17

The Webster's dictionary defines the word "travail" as follows - "work especially of a painful or laborious nature".

Travailing in prayer is laborious and can be violent at times when we are desperate for God's presence in our lives. Are we as God's people born by the Spirit of God desperate for more of His tangible presence in our lives?

As a woman cries out in labor from deep within her I believe we as God's people need to cry out in a loud voice as the Spirit leads us in our desperation for more of Him in our lives.

I believe this type of prayer is a soul thirst which longs for the living God to continue to break through in our lives. It does not take a prophet to say that we are living in some dark times and it seems to be getting worse. What we need now more than ever is not simply an answer from God to our petitions and requests (although He does answer us and cares for us). We need is palpable presence to infiltrate our souls and His glory to be manifested in us.

This sort of travailing prayer I believe has the following results:

1. A recognition of the Sovereign Lord being above us and we who are His children being under Him. He must increase we must decrease.

2. It causes our hearts to be softened as we recognize our humanity and our utter dependence upon Him.

3. When this broken and contrite spirit is produced in us as we travail in prayer directed by His Holy Spirit it makes us candidates for more of Him.

4. The ultimate result is worship, adoration and the exaltation of God Almighty as He manifests His presence in our lives which we are able to cultivate by the Spirit into a Spirit-led lifestyle. As we behold Him we are transformed with ever increasing glory in the likeness of Jesus Christ by the Spirit.

Consider our Savior as the writer of Hebrews points out in the 5th chapter 7th verse:

"During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission."

Are we approaching God as the Holy one of Israel? Let us ask God to enable us by His Spirit to be a people of reverent submission like Jesus displayed in His life on earth.

Notice Jesus was not "saved from death" but God heard His loud cries. Ultimately in Jesus' humanity He desired the presence of God. God answered His prayer.

In these days that we live in particularly may we be a people who travail in prayer for the Lord's presence to breakthrough in extraordinary ways in our lives!

"Then he said to Him, If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here." - Moses (Exodus 33:15)

Blessings,
Emmanuel

Forgetting Your First Love

2009-03-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

This Friday we are starting a community group in our home. I am excited for this and sense that God will do a great work among us and will reveal more of Himself and His will to us. The book that I have decided to work through in this group is the book of Ephesians. This book has a very special place in my heart and God has done much healing and much leading of both me and my wife through this book.

God used specific verses in this book to call us to a new church where He healed us, built us up, encouraged us and gave us a whole new vision of what it means to BE the church (not just go to a church). We have been pleasantly surprised over and over again as God has used the book of Ephesians to reveal more of Himself and His love for His people to us. Along with a deep understanding of the purpose and identity of the Body of Christ, the book of Ephesians teaches us about the powerful work of the Holy Spirit and demolishes the Western Christianity that diminishes emotion and experiential faith. I absolutely love this book - not that I don't love other books of the Bible, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

What I want to do today, though, is to look at Revelation to see what eventually happened to the Ephesian church. Though we are not told the ultimate fate of the church we do get a much different picture of the Ephesian church in the book of Revelation than we do in the book of Ephesians. It is a church in danger of having the very presence of God removed from their midst. It is a church that has walked away from the living God and are in danger of an actual "falling away." I don't care how reformed you are (I am very reformed), the warning given to the Ephesian church in the book of Revelation is frightening and goes against every Calvinistic doctrine I know and cherish.

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: "The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent."

Revelation 2:1-5

Jesus begins, here, by commending the Ephesians for their hard work, their patient endurance and their commitment to truth. This is evidently a church with impeccable orthodoxy and a fierce devotion to the truth about who God is in Christ. I imagine a church that says all the right things, contends for the truth, preaches the gospel and shoots the wolves. And Jesus gives them glowing encouragement for these things. Amen to that!

But something is amiss with the Ephesian church and it will cost them dearly unless they repent. What is it that can be so terrible if they believe the right things and preach the right things? Isn't that, in the end, what it means to be a church-to preach the gospel and see people come to know Jesus Christ; to contend for the truth about Who Jesus is; to protect the church from wolves and impostors; to discern truth from lies? No! That is not what it means to be a church! These are some of the things that the Church does...but it is not what/who the Church is. From the rebuke that Jesus hammers the Ephesian church with we can rest assured that to miss what Jesus is about to remind them of is to miss everything and to lose our very identity in Christ. Jesus is threatening to remove His presence from among them and to demolish their identity in Christ. In other words, they will no longer belong to Him and be His representatives to the world. Even though that flies in the face of your system, you must accept it because these are the words of Jesus Christ Himself.

Jesus rebukes the Ephesians for having "abandoned the love you had at first." Now, depending on which commentary or commentator you refer to this could mean that either their love for Christ Himself had grown cold and stale or their love for one another had diminished. I would submit to you, however, that neither of these interpretations of the text are wrong and that if the love for Christ has grown cold, their love for one another would be diminished. The same is true the other way around: if their love for one another had diminished it's directly related to their love for Christ having grown cold. Reading John 13 - 17 will show that if we love Christ we will keep His word, and His command to us is to love one another. It's really that simple. If deep, humble, steadfast love for and devotion to one another is missing, then the love of Christ Himself has grown cold...or worse yet, maybe there is no love for Christ there anymore. This helps us understand why Jesus' rebuke and threatened punishment is so severe.

In John 14:22 Judas (not Iscariot) asks Jesus why He intends to manifest Himself only to them and not to the whole world. Jesus' answer is astonishing - "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words." John 14:23-24 Christ intends for the Church to reveal Him to the world and this is accomplished through our love for Him and our love for Him will be displayed in our obedience to His word. But what does Jesus mean by "keep my word?" Is He referring to all of the commands that He has made in all of the gospels here? I don't think so! The discourse of John 13-17 is all in the context of Jesus having washed the disciples feet. From that moment on Jesus keeps referring to one thing over and over again - "love one another" or "love one another as I have loved you." In John 13-17, what Jesus means by "keep my word" or "keep my commands" is simply that we love one another. And just in case some of you want to disagree with this, there is a wonderful passage immediately following the foot-washing in John 13:34-35

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

The context of this command is the foot-washing that has just taken place and Jesus repeats this command "to love on another" over and over again in this discourse. The deep, profound, humble, steadfast and sacrificial love that we have for one another is how the world will know that we are ambassadors for Christ and His gospel. Our doctrine does not do that! Nor does our success in numbers, baptisms, converts, influence, reach or anything else other than this kind of love for one another.

So you see, the Ephesians were lacking both in love for God and in love for one another because the two are inseparable. "for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." 1 John 4:20b And to wash one another's feet is not a dull, dreary love like that among those who belong to the same club or root for the same team. To touch another person's dirty feet and to tenderly serve another person by washing their feet is deep, profound and full of humility and devotion. Such is the love that Jesus commands us to have for one another. Such is the love that the Ephesians had abandoned and Jesus rebukes them severely for it and threatens to remove them from among His people for this sin.

I love the book of Ephesians. I love it because it destroys our individualistic, numbers-driven, hero-worshipping, and life-less American Christianity and brings us to our knees in repentance before God. If we heed the words of Ephesians well and pay attention to where they went wrong after a time, we will see that there is nothing sexy, glamorous, or grand about BEING the church...it's simply to humbly love Christ and love one another exemplified in mundane and menial tasks like washing the dirt off each other's feet. Anything beyond that is clanging cymbals and noisy gongs that will gain us nothing but rebuke and may endanger our very life with Christ.

"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe - and shudder!" James 2:19

Blessings to you all!

Kristian

Jonathan Edwards Center!

2009-02-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't want to spend the money to purchase Edward's works or who want his work in front of you at the click of a mouse...here you go:

http://edwards.yale.edu/

This is astonishing to put it mildly. Take time to just look through the list of "Miscellanies" and you will possibly get a taste of the greatness of this man. I certainly have a big fat smile on my face right now!

Blessings,

Kristian

Revival post on "The Religious Affections"

2009-01-31T12:54:00.001-08:00

If you feel so inclined, please take a look at some thoughts I wrote regarding revival on my other blog, The Religious Affections

Blessings,

Kristian

Lord, Lord!

2009-01-30T14:17:00.000-08:00

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in you name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' "

Matthew 7:21-23

Most of us find this particular passage to be among the most frightening in all of Scripture. Maybe it is for many but I don't think it's meant to be. I would, in fact, argue that it is one of the sweetest reminders of salvation by grace through faith that we see in Scripture. The only caveat is that "faith" may be something different than we often consider it to be. We tend to view faith as our belief concerning Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross and through His resurrection. Amen to that! This is indeed faith, but I would submit to you that this is only a part of the picture and faith without works is dead according to James.

"For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."

James 2:26

Faith, as I have discussed in the past, is much more than an intellectual ascent concerning Who Jesus is and what He has done. Faith must be an actual tasting of the Lord - Jesus Christ seen and savored through the eyes of the heart and this seeing and savoring leading to a glorious joy. We could spend a thousand pages talking about "tasting" the Lord but today I would like to focus on one more aspect of true faith that is at the heart of Jesus' words in the text from Matthew 7.

The context of this passage is actually "The Sermon On The Mount" and can be found at the very end of all that Jesus says in this sermon. This is a long sermon and contains in it a plethora of exhortations, commands and directions for what Jesus desires for us. I always considered it odd that we tend to preach sermons that focus almost exclusively on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus...yet Jesus never did. Jesus' sermons and conversations certainly focused in on His own centrality in the Gospel and points to His death and resurrection being the focal point of God's story of redemption. But it is more than a little curious that in what is considered to be His "main" sermon, Jesus says nothing about this. In fact, He points to something all together different - how we are to live our lives - otherwise known by the dirty W word, "works." There, I said it! Jesus is talking about works in the "Sermon On The Mount." Some of you are probably ready to beat me silly at this point, thinking that I will be arguing for salvation by works. I urge you to follow me to the end of my argument before you write me off as such.

The headings of each section of this sermon are as follows:

The Beatitudes - where Jesus pronounces blessings on those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, on the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers etc.
Salt and Light - where Jesus encourages us to live as salt and light in this world (and contrary to what some believe, saltiness has nothing to do with harshness or rebuke but grace, love and holiness)
Christ Came to Fulfill the Law - where Jesus makes very clear that He has not come to abolish the Old Testament laws but to fulfill them and warns anyone who tries to be rid of them that there will be consequences
Anger - where Jesus likens sinful anger with murder and exhorts us to be reconciled to our brothers at almost any cost
Lust - where Jesus uses hyperbole to show the seriousness with which we must fight against sin in our lives
Divorce - where Jesus makes it very clear that divorce is unacceptable and that it indeed causes other people to sin
Oaths - where Jesus tells to simply let our 'yes' be yes and our 'no' be no
Retaliation - where Jesus tells us to show scandalous grace to those who hurt us and sin against us
Love Your Enemies - where Jesus actually likens God's perfection with how He loves His enemies and commands us to do the same. I would like to note here that this is not some forced or coerced love that is spoken of but a sincere and heart-felt love that causes us to pray for and do good things for our enemies
Giving to the Needy - where Jesus commands us to keep our giving secret as well as making sure it is done without being forced (not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing)
The Lord's Prayer - where Jesus teaches us how to pray
Fasting - where Jesus again commands us to be careful about announcing our good works
Lay Up Treasures in Heaven - where Jesus warns us of the lure of riches and commands us to serve God and not money
Do Not Be Anxious - where Jesus tells us to live as the sparrows of the air and the lilies of the field, not spending our lives budgeting and storing up riches to protect ourselves but to trust Him with all that we need to live
Judging Others - where Jesus warns us against the dangers of hypocrisy
Ask, and It Will Be Given - where Jesus exhorts us to seek God, ask of God and to trust in God's desire to give us good things
The Golden Rule - where Jesus tells us to treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated
A Tree and Its Fruit - where Jesus warns us of false prophets who may look like they believe all the right things but whose lives bear fruit that prove them to be false

As you can see, this long sermon contains almost exclusively exhortations and commands about how we, as children of God, are to conduct ourselves and live our lives. No mention of the message about His coming death and resurrection and no mention of salvation by grace through faith. And considering the stern statement of Matthew 7:21-23 this ought to really make us wonder at what Jesus really means by them.

Jesus mentions that many will come to Him and call Him "Lord" and proclaim all of the things they have done for Him or in His name. This is interesting because according to 1 Corinthians 12:3, no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by or in the Holy Spirit. So the mystery of what Jesus is saying here is deep, indeed, because we know that according to Romans 10:9, if we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead we will be saved. What in the world could be going on here? Are the people who Jesus is talking about saved or not? They call Him Lord and seem to be preaching His gospel, yet Jesus condemns them to hell.

The key is found in the second half of verse 21: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Only those who do the will of the Father get to enter the kingdom of heaven. That sounds odd because we know that we are saved by grace alone, apart from any works (see for example Ephesians 2:4-10). Yet, Jesus states very clearly that not everyone who knows Who He is, preaches His gospel and does mighty works in His name will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of His Father Who is in heaven will enter the kingdom of heaven.

So what's really going on here? Are we saved by faith or by works? Are we to trust in Jesus or our good deeds? The answer is actually simpler than it at first seems to be and it is, of course, that we are saved by faith. However, faith is more than facts that we have bought into or truths that we have taken a stand on. Faith is the also the outworking of what we know to be true in our conduct, our hearts and our lives. No one can love their enemies without faith. No one can overcome sin without faith. No one can give to the needy in secret without trusting that God sees and will indeed be pleased by such a gift. No one can trust God to provide for them without faith. So it all comes down to faith in the end. But again, faith is much more than an intellectual ascent to the truth or an acceptance of some particular fact. Apart from works such as are laid out in the Sermon On The Mount there can be no salvation because the lack of them would prove that there was no real faith. Faith without works is dead and leads to death.

So why should we care about this? We all know that we are supposed to do the things prescribed for us, no commanded of us, in the Sermon On The Mount. The question is this: do we understand the weight of what Jesus is saying? Do we understand that without a faith that can forgive the worst of trespassers against us there is no real faith and thus no salvation? Do we understand that the "will of my Father" Jesus is speaking of is indeed the very things He just spoke of in His sermon? Do we understand that loving an enemy is much more than simply withholding punishment but actually doing good to them from a sincere heart of love and forgiveness? Do we understand that at the last judgment Jesus will not ask us what we believed but will actually look at the totality of our lives and make a sound judgment as to whether or not there was true, saving faith in our hearts? Don't make the mistake of thinking that at the last judgment you can say "Jesus is why I should be let in!" That is no different than what the people who Jesus condemned to hell did. "Lord, Lord..." That is not to say that there is any other reason than what Jesus did on our behalf that should gain us entrance into the kingdom of heaven - there isn't.

Our works do not gain us entrance at all. Our works simply show that our faith is genuine and of a saving nature. Our works show whether or not we truly do love people as Christ commanded us to do. Our works simply show whether or not we truly do trust God enough to forgive those who have sinned against us. Our works show whether or not we truly do treasure Christ and His Kingdom above all else. Our works show whether or not we truly do belong to Him and have been born again with a heart full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. None of the things that Jesus commands of us in the Sermon On The Mount are different from what Galatians 5 refers to as the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians focuses on the condition of the heart of faith and Matthew 5-7 shows us what such a condition of heart looks like.

Let's look at Matthew 6:14-15 as an example:

"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

It's pretty clear, isn't it? If you forgive, God will forgive you. If you don't forgive, God won't forgive you either. And forgiveness isn't just a state of the heart - it comes with loving behavior and loving pursuit of the person who has sinned against you. Just look at Matthew 5:43-48 to get an idea of the cost involved in truly forgiving someone. God doesn't just forgive you in a passive way - He pursues you and does good to you and His kindness leads you to repentance (Romans 2:4). It's important to point out that, once again, it's not your forgiving of another person that saves you, it is your faith in the act of forgiving that person that saves you. But don't be deceived, if you don't forgive people their sins against you through scandalous and loving actions, God won't forgive you either.

Don't trust in your works for they will gain you no good standing with God. We are saved by grace through faith. But, if you look at your life and think that you can circumvent the life of humility, suffering, sacrifice and hardship that Jesus demands of us in this text I urge you to assess yourself soberly and find out if you indeed are in the faith. If you don't love anyone but those who you are drawn to and those who love you back - repent and live like Jesus! If you have budgeted your life away and avoided living like a sparrow in His Father's hands - repent and live like Jesus! If you think that Jesus is impressed by the numbers of people you have drawn through your preaching or if you think that Jesus will reward you for doing everything for Him - repent and live like Jesus! If you think that anything other than a faith that dies to your own rights and needs will save you - repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

Living a life like that which Jesus demands doesn't look successful nor does it look very sexy. In fact, it will look like you have lost everything. You will pursue people who have hurt you with love and care. You will forgive, from the depths of your heart, those who have done the most heinous things to you. You will be betrayed and abandoned by the very people you love and pursue. You will be mocked and reviled because you take extreme measures in your life to put sin to death. You will be alone at times...you will feel like this earth is not your home...you will suffer abuse at the hands of people you have loved and still do love...you will suffer financial difficulty...you will give generously but no one will know that you did...you will love your spouse, even in the face of extreme betrayal and unhappiness...you will look weak...you will have your heart broken over and over again. But in reality, you have lost only your life in order to gain eternal life with Christ.

A Letter to a Brother in Christ

2009-01-28T09:20:00.000-08:00

Do you ever come across old emails that encourage you? I came across an email letter I wrote to a dear Brother in Christ back in 2007. I wanted to post this as an encouragement for the Body of Christ....

Brother,

Thank you for your candid email. I actually was prompted by the Lord a few days ago to intercede in prayer for you in this specific area of temptation. So, I have already been praying for you and I will continue to pray for you in this spiritual battle.

I have been reading that book on the Pursuit of Holiness (great book). The author identifies essentially two points of the Christian life: the love of God and the fear of God. These must go hand in hand. They are basically two sides of the same coin. The author claims a lot of times we as Christians get this unbalanced. Sometimes we are flippant about sin and the fear of God and just "dwell" on His love and start to say sin is okay or "is under grace". Other times we do not dwell on His love and because of sin and failure with the fear of God we never recover and are continually in despair. I feel this must be in equilibrium or balanced in the Christian life by the Holy Spirit.

I believe you have the right idea to start at the Cross. That is where we all need to go and receive repentance and restoration from Jesus. We must really grasp and understand what the atonement really is especially in regards to the area of sin in our lives. I believe at the Cross of Christ we can develop and understand both the love and the fear of God.

I think a lot of times we look at the Cross of Christ as a point to where Jesus was physically tortured and died a gruesome dead (which is true), however, we fail to see the spiritual implications of the "scandal of the cross". In all reality God turned His back on His Son which I believe was the most "painful" point for Jesus who is part of the Trinity of God but at the point of the cross God's wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ on mine and your behalf. He became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. How awesome is that!! Praise the name of Jesus!

However, we must remember that sin is a serious thing to God. It essentially is the opposite of holiness. Since God is holy He cannot be around sin. In the Old Testament the priest would enter the holy of holies once a year to give a sacrifice to God for the sins of the people. Their legs would be wrapped with ropes and bells so that when they started to jingle someone outside would pull them out from the presence of God because they would be devoured because of their sin (this particular concept is not explicitly described in the Bible but is more of a Jewish tradition – but the point is well made).

God cannot stand sin and neither can He be in the presence of sin. However, this is where we come back to the "scandal of the cross". Jesus who knew no sin and is the perfect Lamb of God took our place at the "gallows" so to speak. Since God cannot be in the presence of sin He turned His back on His one and only Son and His wrath was poured out on Him for us. This is a very serious thing. So along with Jesus our Lord we must die to our sin (Jesus was sinless of course but took our sin onto Himself) because He died in our place. We also must live in this life because He is Life and has purchased life for us; so that we may no longer be bound by the things of this world.

The story does not end there. He rose again! He conquered sin and death and we now have an opportunity to live righteously before Him by the blood of Jesus. Your identity is no longer of this world but your identity is found in Jesus Christ. Let the life of Christ reign in your mortal body so that you may not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

My advice would be to stick close to Jesus. Worship Him and adore Him. Study His Word and grasp His love for you and develop the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of all godly knowledge - which will propel your life towards godliness and holiness. His love will penetrate those ugly areas of our lives and they will start to dissolve, but our responsiblity is to keep in step with the Spirit.

Remember to cleave to your wife in all circumstances. Do not let the enemy get between you and cause division. Do not let your sin become "habit", and I believe that is why you wrote this email to the brothers. I see the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon you and that is a good thing.

Let the Holy Spirit search your heart and cleanse you and build you up. It is all about relationship with Jesus.

Have a wonderful New Year! Use this New Year as a "new season" in this battle to walk blamelessly before the Lord.

Hang in there and fight the good fight of faith! Jesus loves you and we do too. I feel prompted to leave you with a few verses bunched together for you to meditate and dwell on.

Blessings,
E

“But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY" And again, "THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE." It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Bible Reading

2009-01-02T12:14:00.001-08:00

For those who might be interested, here is a good collection of Bible reading plans for the New Year.

I am going to go with the Discipleship Journal Reading Plan because it allows for a few days of falling behind each month and being the procrastinator that I am I find this helpful in order to stay on track. You can read about John Piper's reasons for going with this plan as well. It's like God has given me permission to fall behind which reminds me that I am under grace and not under law and that my Bible reading should be from desire and not compulsion.

At any rate, I highly recommend using a Bible reading plan.

Blessings,

Kristian

Glorious Joy - A Vision For The New Year

2008-12-25T12:19:00.001-08:00

In almost every way 2008 has been the worst year of my life...but it has also been the best year of my life in almost every way. I have experienced some of the deepest betrayals but also the most profound healing of my heart wrought by the Holy Spirit and Christ's body, the Church. I have seen dreams die but I have also seen God fulfill His desires for me...desires that fill me with joy. I have wept and I have laughed. I have despaired and I have hoped. I have died and I have truly lived. Such is life under the hand of a sovereign God Who works all things out for my good.

At every moment that I began to see light at the end of the tunnel another devastating blow would be dealt that brought more heartache and more sorrow. With every disappointment would come a lesson from the Lord and these lessons are precious.

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:6-7

You see, without suffering and trials there can be no growth. Without difficult circumstances and sorrow in this world, our faith would not be so clearly displayed for all to see and Christ would not be so clearly revealed to be the greatest treasure of the universe. This text makes it very clear to us what the purpose of our suffering in this world is - that our faith may be proven to be genuine and that this faith will result in praise and glory and honor for God in Jesus Christ. Let me try to explain:

1. If God is truly your treasure, you will not run away from Him or let go of Him simply because life is difficult and He has brought some painful hardships your way. No! You will cling ever more tightly to Him and you will seek your treasure in Him - letting go of the treasures of this world. In short, God will be revealed to all around you as the all-satisfying and glorious treasure of your life. As you weep tears of sadness but also acknowledge His endless goodness you will show that He is worth losing all things for. As you go through the pain while worshipping Him you will be giving a testimony to the profound worth that is in Jesus Christ. You will find for yourself and show to the world that your joy is found in Christ and in Christ alone. You may lose friends, family, wealth, reputation and all worldly hope, but your joy and satisfaction will come from finding that your faith is genuine and that you belong to Jesus Christ.

"Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Philippians 1:18-21

2. Not only will you faith be proven as genuine and your joy be full because Christ alone is your treasure, but Christ Himself will be praised and glorified as those around you see that He is your treasure. Those who look on (among them may be those who hurt or betrayed you) will see that your joy is not found in this world but in a person, Jesus Christ. That must make them wonder at how worthy and glorious Christ really is and it will cause the angels in the heavenly realms to give praise, glory and honor to God. Not only that, when Christ is your treasure in this way, you are also giving praise, glory and honor to Him.

"Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible ad filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:8-9

This text is found immediately following Peter's discourse on the purpose of suffering and is intended to remind us that Christ is honored and glorified as we are satisfied in Him, despite our circumstances. Oh, the joy of knowing Christ and beholding Him by faith. The glorious joy that is felt, experienced and radiated as we look to Him (Psalm 34:5) brings glory, praise and honor to Him. And notice how God is glorified here...by and through our joy in Him. I have said this a million times and I will probably say it a million times more: God's glory and our joy are not two separate things - they are one and the same. God is glorified by our glorious joy in Him; as God is glorified we are filled with joy and as we are filled with joy, God is glorified.

"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever." Romans 11:36

This is my vision for 2009. I want Christ to be honored in my body whether by life or by death; whether in good times or bad; whether I have friends or not; whether I am wealthy or poor; whether life goes my way or my life falls apart...I want Jesus Christ as my treasure and nothing or no one else. I want the world to see how beautiful, satisfying, and glorious Christ is and this will happen as I live my life in Him, cherishing Him as my treasure and worshiping Him in the best and the worst of times...though His worth is most clearly seen in the worst of times.

How great is our God and how worthy of praise, glory and honor! May God fill you with His Spirit in the New Year and may He be your treasure. May you be enraptured with Him and His beauty and may you desire to live in peace with those in the body...not just peace, but an interconnectedness that goes way beyond friendship to oneness in the Body of Christ.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Kristian

Reflection

2008-12-07T09:03:00.000-08:00

The other day I posed a question that just "randomly" came to my mind to some of the members of my household. I asked them how would it feel to live in a world where you could not see your own reflection at all. Let us say there was no means of seeing your own reflection...no mirrors...no water reflection...no cameras...no apparatus that would allow you to see your image.

I really did not know why this philosophical type of question came to my mind. One of the first thoughts that came to my mind about this question involved the Trinity of God. Where the Bible says in Colossians 1 that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. So, Jesus is the reflection or image of what God thinks of Himself and at the very same time being a unique eternal person of the Trinity of God.

Although this is true and one could come up with perhaps many different "angles" that fit into the question I posed earlier about reflection. I believe God was speaking to me about a different angle primarily one that deals with the issue of faith.

Let me explain, after this original question came to my mind I had several conversations with various friends over the weekend about faith, prayer, overcoming sin, purity, etc.

This Sunday morning as I picked up the book I am currently reading by A.W. Tozer called The Pursuit of God. I now know what the Lord was trying to tell me through that particular philosophical question that was ingrained in my mind earlier in the week.

The following quote from Tozer really touched me and I hope it is a blessing to you as well:

"Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves - blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.

Faith is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is in the One toward Whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus. Sin has twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding. Unbelief has put self where God should be, and is perilously close to the sin of Lucifer who said, "I will set my throne above the throne of God." Faith looks out instead of in and the whole life falls into line."

Is Jesus In Your Boat?

2008-11-30T09:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I have much too be thankful for this year to the Lord. His endless love, abundant mercies and amazing grace in my life are just a few of the many things that I am thankful for this year. As I was reading the Word the other day from Matthew 8:23-27 another thought came to my heart to be thankful for and that is God’s peace in the storm.

For many of us 2008 has been a difficult year full of hardships and storms but God is faithful and good. His peace is available for anyone who would want to come and draw near to Him through faith in Jesus Christ. Here is the passage:

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"
He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"

There many important points in this text but I will name a few that the Lord put on my heart:

1. The storms of life can come “without warning” and can be furious when it hits your own life in such a way as to rock you. I believe many of us have faced this in one way or another in our lives and in particular this past year.

2. At times when these storms occur it “seems like” God is asleep on us. We ask Lord where are you? How come you will not save us? Don’t you see the power of the storm it is going to kill us?

3. However, God answers us in His timing and tells us to trust in Him. We must look to Him in the storm and put our full hope and faith upon Him for only He can deliver.

4. We must not be afraid when faced with the storms of life. Jesus reminds us to check ourselves to see where we are putting our faith. Are we putting our faith in the stock market, our jobs, the housing market, our government, our own intellect and abilities or are we putting our full faith in God? I believe if we put our full assurance and faith in God during the storm we will not be afraid but instead we will be overcome by love, power and a sound mind.

However, in order to know the peace of God during the storm one must ask themselves “Is Jesus even in my boat”? The only way to face the storms of life and the coming future storms is to have Jesus Christ in the boat of your life. When He is in your boat you have comfort, hope, salvation and deliverance. If he is not in your boat the furious and powerful storm without warning will surely overtake you and you will be lost in the sea.

In your heart today pray to God and receive the newness of life and the peace that surpasses all understanding through His beloved Son the Prince of Peace - Jesus Christ. Let me end with the actual reliable words of Christ in regards to the storm and the many troubles we may face in this life:

“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

The Day of Atonement

2008-10-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

On the Biblical calendar one of the feasts of the Lord called the Day of Atonement and commonly known today as Yom Kippur falls on our Gregorian calendar on October 8th (sunset) until October 9th (sunset).

I was just meditating today on this Feast of the Lord and what the Bible says about it (read Leviticus 16, Leviticus 23, and Numbers 29 to learn more about this particular Feast of the Lord).

As a summary essentially this Feast Day was marked on the Lord’s calendar as a day when the High Priest would go into the Most Holy Place and make the sacrificial offering for his sins and the sins of Israel. There were very specific commands by God on how the High Priest would prepare himself to enter the Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place is where the presence of God would rest and because God is Holy anything that was not cleansed and consecrated would ultimately die in His presence.

“The LORD said to Moses: "Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area….” – Leviticus 16:1-3

"This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or an alien living among you because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance…This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites."
– Leviticus 16:29-31, 34

What we read here in the Torah is only a shadow of the reality which is Jesus Christ. Praise God that He sent Jesus Christ into the world to be our great High Priest and Sacrifice for sin once and for all!

My dear friends let us keep this lasting ordinance in remembering the finished work of Jesus. Let us meditate this day on how His blood has cleansed us from all sin and we not only are sanctified but we can now also enter the Most Holy Place by ourselves and experience the presence of the living God!

Have you experienced God’s presence in your life? If your spiritual life feels dry at the moment which can happen to all of us; I encourage you to step in by faith into the presence of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Take your sabbath rest in Him and deny yourself and experience His life-giving presence today.

I encourage you to meditate on the following excerpts of verses from the book of Hebrews chapters 9 and 10. May the Lord Bless you!

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Blessings,
Emmanuel

Escape through the Kingdom that Cannot Be Shaken

2008-09-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.

And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, "YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN."

This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;

for our God is a consuming fire.” – Hebrews 12:25-29 (NASB)

I believe we are embarking upon a very prophetic season in God’s calendar. The Lord has been speaking to me in various ways this week as to the “shaky” season this world is about to enter into. Do we as God’s people know that we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken? This should bring us great hope no matter what happens in this world. As we can see in God’s Word from Hebrews there is a shaking which occurs which will shake all created or material things so that what cannot be shaken – which is the Kingdom of God will remain.

God loves the world so much He sent His only begotten Son – Jesus Christ into the world so that whosoever believes and trusts upon Him would not perish but have eternal life. God sent Jesus into the world not to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. The Kingdom of God is at hand in the person of Jesus Christ. Do you trust Him with your life today?

So, even though God is love and loves the world He also has other divine attributes. Many of us including myself at times forget that the Lord is the Righteous Judge. We forget that He is Holy and despises sin, and that He is a God of justice and He will vindicate His Name amongst the nations of the world. We cannot forget how many times God has judged nations in the Bible. Yes, I fully believe that God is love and that He is full of compassion, kindness, redemption, forgiveness but He is also Holy and Just. Just look at all the stories in the Old Testament and you will find that the true and living God is a “jealous God”.

“Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” – Exodus 34:14

With this in mind let us humble ourselves and hold to His Hand during this season. I am not writing this as to cause fear in people but I am writing this to show you there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken at all! It is the Kingdom of God which we can be a part of through Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. As the text in Hebrews states because of this understanding let us have gratitude and thankfulness in our hearts toward God so that we can be of service to Him. We must live our lives with reverence and awe toward the Lord our God. Do you have a holy fear of God in your hearts? Not a fear as to be frightened or scared but a fear that causes you to say God is awesome. If you do not I encourage you today to ask the Lord to put this awful fear in your heart. The Bible says in Psalms 34:7 – “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”

If you do not have a fear of God and a relationship with Him please come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

On the other hand if you “think” you have a relationship with God by believing in Jesus intellectually or historically but you do not have a love for Him and a relationship with Him I pray that you would ask God to give you eyes to see and a new found desire to seek Him with all of your heart so that you may know Him and be known by Him.

“Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' – Matthew 7:22-23

Let us heed the call of the Almighty and escape and flee from the wrath which is to come. Trust and have faith in God. Do you live with a hope in Him knowing His Kingdom cannot be shaken? The Bible says the kingdoms of this world will come down, and they shall in the end be the Kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ.

I want to conclude by saying we must be alert, watchful and prayerful particularly during this coming season. Let us live in such a way as to live as people who have hope and may we not be caught off guard. Allow the Hope of Glory to shine in you and through you. Draw near to Jesus.

In the words of our Savior from Luke 21:34-36 –

"Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap;

for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth.

"But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Maranatha!

Blessings,
Emmanuel H.

Solus Christus

2008-09-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Ephesians 5:19-20

Yesterday during our church prayer meeting we read and sang a song about the preeminence of Christ. Singing unto the Lord and just declaring who He is can touch your heart in the deepest of ways. When we look to “Christ alone” who is the author and perfecter of our faith our circumstances and trials in life fall in comparison to His majesty. We sense the beauty of His presence knowing that He loves us and He is for His people.

I believe it is a vital part of our spirituality to make “confessions and heart-felt declarations of faith” in Christ. We need to be Spirit-led in our worship of God in which by the Holy Spirit in us Jesus Christ is exalted.

So, I encourage believers everywhere to open our mouths in praise, prayer and song not only in church services but in our own daily lives outside of church and declare the glorious Truth who is Christ Alone.

I would like to leave you now with the song that we sang and spoke to one another as outlined in the verse above. This lifted my heart and encouraged me greatly and I hope it does for you as well.

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.

Blessings,

Christ-Exalting Generosity

2008-08-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 6:1

True generosity is a rare thing indeed. To receive a gift that is given anonymously and is given with no strings attached and with no expectations in return is to receive a gift from God.

My wife and I have recently received just such expressions of God's love for us. One gift was given quietly with clear direction to not tell anyone and we were told that this was a gift from God to show us that He loves us and cares for us. Another gift was given in a similar way and on both occasions I have sensed God's love for me and my wife through the gifts.

We have been recipients of generosity before but most of these acts have been very different from these most recent experiences. Usually there have been strings attached or the generosity has been brought up later, in front of others, in order to make a point of how nice and kind the person has been to us. The previous experiences left me feeling dirty, defiled and used. These more recent experiences have left me feeling loved, appreciated and cared for by God Himself.

I praise God for all of the experiences of generosity from people - whether they were given with a pure heart or from sinister motives. But I do pray for those who announce their generosity and lord it over the recipients because Jesus calls such people hypocrites and makes it very clear that such generosity may be used by God, but it is not from God.

When we rob God of His glory by announcing our acts of righteousness we have already received our reward and there will be no reward for us in heaven. If that is our pattern of generosity we are in serious trouble because it reveals not a love for God but a love for our own glory; it reveals not a love for people, but a love for our own reputation. To give in such a way is to break both commands that Jesus gave us - to love God and to love people. It ought to be sobering for us all to realize that kindness done in the open for all to see is considered by God to be on the level of robbing Him of His glory.

"Thus when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be done in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Matthew 6:2-4

Thank you, Lord, that You love us and care for us. Thank you, Lord, that You have given us good and perfect gifts from Your saints who desired for You, and You alone, to be glorified in their giving. Their gifts have caused us to weep for joy and to shout praises to Your name because of the love that You have placed in their hearts for us - Your love for us.

Blessings,

Kristian

Circumcision

2008-08-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

"Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn." Deuteronomy 10:6

The simple meaning and purpose of circumcision is that when the foreskin is removed, that which is exposed is the most sensitive and most tender part of the male anatomy. That portion of the man's body is capable of producing the most amount of pain as well as the most amount of pleasure.

God wants us to have a heart like His and that means that we must have hearts that are circumcised; hearts that break easily because they are unprotected and hearts that experience the "inexpressible joy filled with glory" that is spoken of in 1 Peter. David was such a man and if you read the Psalms you see a man whose heart is regularly broken; a man who weeps often; a man who rejoices in the Lord with shouts and song; a man who dances before God; a man who is profoundly sensitive and emotional.

"The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be a prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you." 1 Samuel 13:14

If we are to have hearts like God's heart we must be capable of the most profound sorrow and pain, as well as the most exhuberant joy and love.

If you are not deeply grieved over sin, betrayal, disunity and discord I would submit that you have once again grown a foreskin which protects your heart from the pain God has designed you to feel. Either that or you never had your heart circumcised to begin with. God feels the pain of rejection which is why our sin of rejecting Him causes such profound reactions of wrath from Him. In essence, God's sensitivity explain His anger over our offense against Him. When we ignore and reject God, He is offended and it deserves hell. If someone ignores you or rejects you, you ought to feel a deep pain because we are made in His image and likeness.

But, we must also have hearts that are capable of the most profound pleasure, joy and love. God rejoices loudly over His treasured posession, the Church. In Zepheniah we are told that God will exult over us and sing over us. God is a joyous and glad God. David was capable of the most exhuberant joy of any saint we have been priveleged to read about. David exulted, praised, sang, danced and shouted for joy.

To many, David seems schizophrenic because of his mood swings and his ability to go from exuberant joy to gloomy depression. I would submit to you that God saw David as a man after His own heart for the very same reason many view him as "moody."

David was a man after God's heart because he was sensitive. He felt pain deeply and he felt joy, love and gladness deeply. This is the essence of having your heart circumcised - it is no longer protected and therefore experiences pain, joy, love and sadness on the level it was meant to - on God's level.

Supernatural Faith

2008-08-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to look at something the Lord has been impressing in my heart lately and that is the topic of supernatural faith. Faith in general is a huge topic and cannot be fully expressed in all of its nuances in this forum. However, today I wanted to meditate on some Scriptures that deal with supernatural faith in a believer’s life.

In general we know that “salvation” is a gift of God from Ephesians 2:8-9. We also know that this salvation comes by the sheer grace of God through faith. So, having faith and trust in the Savior Jesus Christ is foundational and the life of the believer in Christ begins from this point of faith.

However, as a believer who has faith in God unto salvation we come across some passages in the Bible where it seems to talk about another type of faith within the believer’s life. This faith is not different in essence to saving faith but I would say it is different in mode of operation.

Let’s take a look at the following passage from 1 Corinthians 12:9 –

“…..to another faith by the same Spirit….”

Now the interesting thing about this short passage is the fact that Paul is describing the “charismata” or gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12. It is clear from the context that you need to be a believer first and foremost before any of the gifts of the Spirit can reside in your life. So, the question is why would he list “faith” as a supernatural charismatic gift of the Holy Spirit if “faith” is what initially brings us into the family of God in the first place and is in of itself supernatural in essence?

I believe again that the “gift of faith” described here is different in mode of operation but not different in essence to saving faith. The gifts of the Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12 is for the edification of the Body of Christ. So, as the Sovereign Spirit gives to each person in different circumstances different gifts it is for the common good of the Body of Christ as a whole.

Even though the Sovereign Spirit gives to each one according to the circumstance and for the good of the whole; Paul is very clear that we as individual believers should pursue the different gifts of the Spirit as the Lord leads us. We should be praying for these gifts to be evident in our lives for the good of the Body. I pray we would not neglect these wonderful gifts from God because they are actually not for ourselves but for others to be built up.

As is the focus today I would encourage you to pray specifically for the “gift of faith” so that God will manifest this in your life by His Holy Spirit so that others may be encouraged in their walk with God. You see I sense that the enemy is running around trying to devour the Body of Christ. In particular I see spiritual battles in my life and in the lives of those around me rising up a notch as of late. The enemy is working overtime because his time is short. Let us be a people of God who operate under the influence and direction of the Holy Spirit. This “gift of faith” is simply a specific act of faith and assurance in God during a trying or difficult circumstance in which God by His Spirit prompts your heart toward Him rather than you going down the road of despair. It is simply the supernatural act of trusting in God knowing the outcome is assured in Him. Take some time to read about the heroes and heroines of the faith in Hebrews chapter 11. Please note the specific details and circumstances facing these people of God who were already called by Him but they had supernatural faith in particular circumstances that they faced in their lives.

One profound thing that spoke to me from this chapter is that these people of faith operated in the understanding that they were foreigners in this Earth. Even though the gift of faith was evident in each of their particular circumstances the Bible says that they did not see the fruit or tangible expression of the promise of God in their earthly lives. Their saving faith as a foundation propelled them into the realm of the supernatural gift of faith as they experienced all of life’s different trials, circumstances, tribulations, etc.

“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” – Hebrews 11:13

This chapter in Hebrews is interesting because it describes great victories for people operating in supernatural faith but also great hardships and tribulations – all coming from the same faith.

“…and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated

(men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.” – Hebrews 11:36-38

Let me try and tie this together with the supernatural gift of faith in specific life circumstances. You see God is writing a story – “His-story” in your life and my life. We must always remember it is not about us but all about Him. The supernatural gift of faith described earlier from 1 Corinthians 12 as I mentioned is manifested from individual to individual as the Lord gives, but it is primarily for the benefit of the Body as a whole. What I mean is your supernatural faith in a particular circumstance which leads you to worship and adoration unto God results in edification for those who watch you and see you. God is painting a tapestry of faith from person to person so that in the end you and I will finally “get it” we will finally see the full picture and the promise in Jesus Christ will be fully known.

Let me end with a proof of this in the last two verses from Hebrews chapter 11 verses 39 and 40 from the Message:

“Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.”

You see God withholds the final promise in the full disclosure and revelation of Himself even when we are operating in supernatural faith because He is “doing something” – He is writing His Story. Praise His name that we who are His people are part of His Story and our supernatural faith during particular times and specific moments of our lives is added together with the rest of God’s people throughout history which is creating a completed whole. This is precisely why we need each other as the Body of Christ – let us pursue the supernatural gift of faith by the Holy Spirit so that God’s plan and purpose may be accomplished in our lives and in the lives of others!

Blessings,

Cry Out !

2008-07-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

The Lord has been speaking to me this past week through a passage in the book of Exodus which we will be looking at in a moment. However, I wanted to lay down some ground work on the issue of suffering and affliction from the point of view of a child of God who has entrusted their life to the Redeemer and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible speaks of suffering and afflictions to be inevitable in the believer’s life. We can see this clearly in the following passage from Philippians 1:29

“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him…”

We also read in many other passages that in the midst of our sufferings and afflictions that we are to rejoice in the Lord at all times and we are to not feel that these trials are “unusual”. I see mainly two major “types” of sufferings/afflictions in the believer’s life. One type may come in the way of discipline or correction from the Lord. This is not a punishment of wrath but rather correction in which God wants to teach us and to discipline us to get us back onto the right track in our relationship with Him. The other type of suffering/affliction has nothing to do with discipline or correction but rather the suffering is there because He has a bigger purpose or plan in view for you.

We see this in the book of Job. Job was a blameless man, upright, and feared God but we see in one day a major calamity that comes upon him and stays with him for some time. Job did not quite understand it until the end when God’s purposes behind the suffering were made evident and Job makes this statement from Job 42:5 –

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You..”

So regardless of the type of suffering/affliction we are going through we know that God is good and has a good purpose in mind for us. We can rest in His divine sovereignty and have comfort in knowing that He loves us and that He is trustworthy. The Bible says in Romans 8:28

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

However, keeping all of this in mind we find a tension in Scripture in which we rejoice in our sufferings, we rest in God’s ultimate purposes and plans in our suffering, but “we are not to live or act fatalistically in this world”. As believers we should not just say “it is fate” and sit complacently in our suffering and afflictions. We must pursue God and come to Him for deliverance, to hear His voice and find His will for our lives.

Let us look at this in the following passage from Exodus 3:7-9

“The LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.

"So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

"Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.”

Keep in mind that in the context of this passage we remember that the children of Israel have been in oppression for hundreds of years at the hands of the Egyptians. However, at this particular time God calls Moses as an instrument in His hands to deliver His people from their bondage. We see in verse 7 that God “sees and is aware” of His people’s suffering. In Hebrew this literally means intimately connected to or concerned with the suffering of His people. I want to encourage you as a believer that God sees your suffering and He cares for you!

In verse 8 we see that not only does God care for His people who are suffering but He has a plan of deliverance for them. We as believers have a “living hope” in God who is the one who breaks the bondages of suffering in our lives. Not only does He desire to break the oppression in your life but also take you to a “new and spacious land”. However, this is in His timing and in His way and according to His will.
However, He does it via His people “crying out to Him” (see verse 9). Now this cry is not out of a complaining nature but rather out of desperation. We can see this clearly in the previous chapter in the 24th verse:

“And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.”

When we take this into context we see the children of God crying out to God for deliverance from their oppression. This “crying out” is not a simple stoic prayer, but it is an emotionally charged prayer from the heart of a believer out of desperation and dependence on God. I do not believe in formulas for our prayer lives like if I pray x number times God will answer or if I pray a certain way mustering up my faith He will answer me.

However, I do see two major principles of intercessory prayer found in the Word of God. The first is God looks at the heart of the individual and our heart must be in utter “dependence” upon Him. We must understand He is in control of our lives and we come to Him boldly but humbly to find grace in our time of need by way of dependence upon Him. The second is “persistence” in prayer. We must come persistently to God with our needs in prayer. We can see this articulated in our passage where it is says “the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me”. This literally means that the fullness of the cry of the people of God in persistence has come to God and He is now going to move in His delivering power. I believe these are two very important points which we need to take to our personal and corporate prayer lives.

If I can, let me challenge you to have an extraordinary prayer life in crying out to God. When was the last time you cried out in a loud voice to the living God? Are you desperate for Him to move in your life? Are you persistently in hope seeking His face daily by faith in the prayer closet? I encourage you to cry out to God and believe upon Him in faith for the deliverance, and at the same time resting in fact that He is good and His compassions they fail not.

“The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” – James 5:16

So, crying out to God in prayer for deliverance from suffering and affliction is powerful and God sees and is aware of His people’s suffering and oppression and He desires to set us free, but we must cry out to Him persistently knowing our help cometh from the Lord the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

Let me end with saying that knowing Jesus and abiding in Him is entering that “land flowing with milk and honey”. Let us come to Jesus and allow Him to break through in our lives with His desires and purposes. The Gospel of Luke chapter 4 verses 17-18 says speaking of the Messiah Jesus of Nazareth:

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed”

Blessings,

How To Be Great Without Being Great

2008-07-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

"But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Have you ever thought that you might be wasting your life because you are not accomplishing anything seemingly great? Have you ever wondered if anything you ever did mattered in the eternal sense? Do you look at great men of God like Luther, Edwards, Calvin, Owen, Henry and Piper and wonder if you will ever have an impact like they did and still do? Do you long to do something great for God so that you may leave a legacy to your children? Are you mesmerized by large and grand ministries or movements and wish that you could do something equally important?

The verse above should be comforting to you if this is the case - at least if you are willing to be foolish in the eyes of the world, weak, low and despised.

"But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be a slave of all." Mark 10:43-44

God is great, people are not. God works through empty vessels that have no greatness in themselves, other than the greatness of humility to be nothing and do nothing of their own ambition. Consider that Jesus told James and John that if they wanted to be great they had to become the lowest of all - they had to consider others more significant than themselves (Philippians 2:3). Paul continues in Philippians to show that Jesus displayed the utmost humility by considering the good of others before His own, became obedient even to death on a cross and therefore God has highly exalted Him.

We must not think like the world. God doesn't exalt great people, He humbles them. God exalts humble people and they will not be exalted in this life-time, but in the one to come so that no one has any room for boasting in their humility.

Jesus didn't come to be great - He came to become nothing.

"...but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." Philippians 2:7

Jesus didn't come to rule or be served - He came to serve.

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45

Jesus didn't draw people by being great, eloquent, or through any particular gifting - the Father drew people to Jesus because God was pleased to work through that which is nothing and that which is weak, low and despised.

"...he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." Isaiah 53:3

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." John 6:44

God doesn't reveal His greatness through great people - He reveals His greatness through the humble and downcast; through those who are nothing.

"He must increase but I must decrease." John 3:30

This last verse from the gospel of John is particularly telling. John the Baptist doesn't just say that Jesus must increase. He also says that he himself must decrease. If Jesus is to be revealed as great it is not enough for us to expound upon His greatness. We must decrease and become nothing. Then and only then will God work great things through us. And it will be God doing them, not us, so that He alone is glorified and we have no room for boasting about anything we have done.

If you want to be great and do great things for God, be like Jesus and become nothing. Then you will see that there is nothing you can do for God - but He can do great things through you.

Blessings!

The Terrible And Glorious Sovereignty Of God

2008-07-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

"See now that I, even I am he, and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand."

Deuteronomy 32:39

These words come from the mouth of God Himself - this is God's own description of His sovereignty. There is absolutely no way around the truth that God reigns and rules over all the earth. He gives life and He takes life. He wounds and He heals. There can be no victory over the sovereign Lord of all the universe. All who fight against Him will lose and to fall into His hands is a terrible thing.

He alone sits enthroned as God and ruler of the world and He does as He pleases. No action or choice of ours can thwart His will or catch Him by surprise.

"Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases." Psalm 115:3

Compared to the awesome majesty of God we are all like a grain of sand on a vast beach or like a drop of water in a giant bucket.

"Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust." Isaiah 40:15

In His wrath He makes men eat the flesh of their sons and daughters.

"And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them." Jeremiah 19:9

He has readied His bow and whetted his sword to slay all who are opposed to Him.

"If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts." Psalm 7:6

In the end, He will cast into His lake of fire all those who do not belong to Him.

"And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:15

Consider therefore, those who do not belong to Him, the goodness and loving kindness of God in Jesus Christ.

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

"For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8

And realize that God gave His own son for us. In His sovereignty He made His own Son suffer and die for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God.

"Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief...yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors." Isaiah 53:12

This absolutely sovereign God used His sovereignty to make a way for you to be reconciled to Him.

"...this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." Acts 2:23

Know that there is no other way but through Jesus Christ that salvation and reconciliation with God can be attained.

"And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

Consider His kindness and His goodness. You don't need to be a better person - you need Jesus Christ! You don't need to clean yourself up - you need Jesus Christ! Turn to Him and simply fall to your knees before Him acknowledging that you cannot win against Him. Fall in love with Jesus!

And those of us who do belong to Him should remember His sovereignty and worship Him while trembling.

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Philippians 2:12-13

"Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!" Psalm 96:9

It's been kind of a "Sinners in the hands of and angry God" kind of day :)

Blessings!

Does It Smell Good or Bad?

2008-07-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

My family always makes fun of me for smelling my food before I eat it. Do you do that? I find that some of my friends do it and others think it is weird. The sense of smell is an interesting gift God has given to us that sometimes we take for granted. There are many good odors in life, but there are also very bad odors that make us turn the other way. For example, when I was a kid I used to always love filling up the car gas tank with my Dad because I love the smell of gasoline. However, I also know many other people in my life who dislike the smell of gasoline. Isn’t that interesting – one specific odor but two different reactions or responses to that one odor? Keep this concept in mind as we go through a quick study of the passage in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16.

Let me give you a quick background of the passage which we will be looking at today. The Apostle Paul has already written his first letter or epistle to the church at Corinth, and in that letter there were many corrections or rebukes by Paul to the Corinthian believers. With this backdrop in mind Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians his desire to visit them twice on his missionary journey to Macedonia – on the way there and on the way back (2 Corinthians 1:16). However, it seems Paul changes his mind from his original plan and does not visit them on this missionary trip. He goes into detail about why he changed his mind in 2 Corinthians 1:14-24, 2:1-4. Basically in summary Paul says that he did not change his mind due to a vacillating and capricious heart, but rather he did not want to visit them at this particular time because he did not want to distress them or hurt them in person by them taking his rebukes in the wrong way (see 2 Cor. 1:23, 2:1). So even though he does not meet them in person he reminds them of the promises of God which are “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ Jesus, and he tells them that he wrote the first letter with a heart full of love toward them.

After Paul describes what happened in terms of this “change in plans” he goes on to describe how he went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ but again felt restless in his spirit even though a door of opportunity was opened to him in Troas, and instead departed to Macedonia (2 Cor. 2:13-14). So, Paul essentially does not go to Corinth as he had originally planned and he also leaves Troas fairly quickly even though there was an open door for ministry there. Interestingly it seems Paul is all over the place and some might look at this as not sticking to the “course” or “plan of God” and hence he is not being used by God in “ministry”. However, Paul does not think this is the case by the following verses we are focusing on today:

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;

to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life And who is adequate for these things?”
- 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NASB)

So Paul starts off this section of Scripture with the small but powerful word “But” which makes the transition to this climactic passage. He has just gone through an entire discourse more or less from the end of 2 Corinthians 1 to 2 Corinthians 2:13 about ministry plans being changed, changing the course of traveling to different cities, etc. However, he reminds us that God always leads His people in triumphal procession no matter where we are in life by manifesting His sweet aroma through us in every place.

A few words which really stand out to me in the first section of this passage are “always”, “triumph”, and “every”.

Paul says he thanks God that God “always” (not sometimes) leads us in triumph in Christ. This is an amazing and encouraging statement we read from God’s Word. No matter what season you find yourselves in at the moment whether you are living on the mountain top or in the valley of the shadow of death God always leads you in triumphal procession in Christ. What a great hope we have in God that He is always leading us in triumph whether we recognize it or not.

Paul has this confidence not to mislead us into thinking that we should not have plans or a course of action in life. This sort of thinking can potentially lead us into aimless living and complacency; rather we are to focus and put God first in our lives trusting Him and knowing He will direct our steps. Paul rests in God’s divine sovereignty knowing that wherever he is at in life God has a purpose for him in that place. Do not fret child of God the Bible says the steps of a righteous man or woman are ordained by God.

Furthermore, the Bible says in Colossians 2:15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Praise the Lord this same triumph is in the children of God when we are in union with Christ and have put our faith and trust in Him. This is why Paul can say “He always leads us in triumph in Christ”. When the enemy comes against you remember you are paraded by God on a red carpet in triumph because of the finished work of Calvary. You are the apple of God’s eye through faith in Jesus Christ. The triumph Paul speaks of here is not inherent in ourselves but rather is appropriated by the finished work of Jesus Christ defeating sin, death, and the grave once and for all. So, anyone who puts their trust in Him will never be put to shame.

The effect of this triumph is the manifestation of the sweet aroma of God through us who believe and results in continual fragrance unto God in every place we are find ourselves in. Are you a follower of Christ who does not see this fragrance of God in your life in “every” place you go? Then pray to God and ask Him to reveal to you the surpassing greatness of His infusion of love in you which should be spreading to every arena of your life. God fully intends that His people are a fragrance unto Himself in “every” place. We all must humble ourselves and recognize where we fall short and ask God for His Name sake to empower us by His Holy Spirit so we can manifest the fragrance of Christ wherever we go.

Now verse 15-16 talks about this sweet aroma or fragrance of Christ manifesting itself as the aroma of life to those who are being saved and as the stench of death to those who are perishing. Remember what I spoke about at the beginning of this blog, namely the one odor having two very different reactions in people? This one aroma of Christ – the sweet fragrance of God’s love manifested through the God-man Jesus Christ in which He died for the ungodly (which is all of us) so that we might find life in Him; smells differently from one person to another.

To one person it may “smell” like something good – something better than life itself and according to this passage from “life to life”. It ends up being a vital fragrance and a living fragrance where eternal life begins and only gets better.

To another person it may “smell” like something bad – something that they do not want. A fragrance that makes them look the other way or causes them to get mad, angry, upset, etc. To them it ends up being a fatal odor; the smell of doom.

What does the fragrance of Christ smell like to you? Is it good or bad? Every person on this planet has to answer this question since Christ has defeated the principalities and powers; either you are for Him or you are against Him there is no in between.

Remember this fragrance of Christ is an effect of the triumph of Christ. As we saw earlier the triumph of Christ took place at the cross; it is a done deal which leads to one particular aroma. See the following verse from 1 Corinthians 1:18-19:

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

You see the Bible says Christ came into the world by God’s initiative of love not to condemn the world but to save the world. However, men love darkness more than the light and hence do not come into the light of Christ.

Right now if the cross is foolishness to you and hence the fragrance of Christ is a fatal odor to you I plead out of love for you to repent and ask God to save you and give you a new heart so that the fragrance of God will manifest itself in your life and be a sweet smell of God’s love, peace, joy, and hope.

If the fragrance of Christ is already a sweet fragrance to you and is life to you, but you have forgotten that He leads you always in triumph in Christ in every place – be encouraged today through His Word and through the power of the Holy Spirit!

One final point is Paul ends this section of Scripture with a rhetorical question – “And who is adequate for these things”. The fragrance of Christ which is the sweet aroma of God that diffuses out of the followers of Christ as mentioned earlier is not naturally from ourselves lest we boast. Paul makes this point of adequacy clear in 2 Corinthians 3:5 where the Bible says “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God…”

As Kristian mentioned in the inaugural blog on this site the verse from Romans 11:36 –"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever."

The passage we looked at today fits perfectly with this concept. From God comes the manifestation of the fragrance of Christ which goes through our lives when we are found in Him and it goes back to Him by the aroma of the knowledge of God being manifested in every place we go!

Blessings,

Man Of Sorrows

2008-06-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not...

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth...

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes and offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand."

Isaiah 53:3-10

Jesus was a man of sorrows. Jesus is familiar with loving people only to have slander and evil speech thrown back in His face. Jesus is well aware of what it's like to be spoken evil of and how much it hurts to be rejected by those we love. Jesus knows intimately what the sorrow of such utter rejection feels like because He lived it. But I want you to see five things about Jesus' suffering that can give us hope when we are rejected, slandered and hurt by other people.

1. Jesus was rejected, slandered, falsely tried, scourged and murdered in the face of his sinless life. Jesus did not suffer nor was he rejected because of some wrong that He had committed because Jesus never sinned.

"And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth." Isaiah 53:9

2. Jesus was rejected, slandered and hurt by the very people he actively loved and cared for without any thought of having that love returned to Him. This is profoundly evident in the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet (John 13). Judas was among those disciples that evening and Jesus was well aware that Judas had betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver and (this is perhaps even more shocking) that Judas would not turn or repent at any point. Jesus humbly washed the feet of a man who hated Him and betrayed Him to His death - a man Jesus had loved, cared for and instructed for three years.

3. Jesus did not, at any time, try to defend Himself or clear His name. The Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the Sovereign Lord of all the universe did not consider equality with God something to be grasped (Philippians 2:6). He humbly endured the rejection, the scoffing, the scourging and the murder without so much as a single word or action to stop it.

"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth." Isaiah 53:7

4. Jesus actively loved those who were slandering Him, beating Him, rejecting Him and murdering Him.

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments." Luke 23:34

5. Jesus' response to the sins committed against Him led to salvation for His people. His humble obedience to the Father by not returning reviling for reviling and His willingness to lay down His life quietly in the face of rejection and abuse blotted out my sin and made propitiation for the sins of the whole world.

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends." John 15:13

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." Romans 5:6

What a glorious savior and God we have. My eyes well up with tears when I remember that such love actually exists and that Jesus loves me that much.

As His treasured possession, those of us who call Him "Lord" should follow in His example.

When we are slandered, rejected and hurt it should not be because of sin
When men speak all kinds of evil about us and betray us we should be slow to speak
When people slander us and lie about us we should not rise to our own defense but we should love them practically, pray for them and rest in God's sovereignty
When we are rejected by the very people we love and have loved we should love them all the more and both forgive them and desire forgiveness for them

When we love like this the outcome may be greater than you realize:

"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8

Jesus' love for us is the root of "Glorious Joy." It is from Him; it is through Him; and it is to Him for His glory.

Blessings!

Dwelling in Unity

2008-06-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings! My name is Emmanuel and if you read Kristian’s last blog he mentions recruiting another team member to be a writer on this blog. So, I guess I was the one picked and it is an honor and privilege for me to be writing on this blog with Kristian who is my good friend, family member (he married my cousin Bina), and most of all Brother in Christ.

I do not want to talk too much about myself, but in a nutshell I want to go on the record as saying I am a man who loves the Lord Jesus Christ my Savior, Redeemer, Sanctifier, Baptizer, and Healer. His grace has found me and He is changing my life for His glory. I think it is important for us to make confessions of faith and declare the Lord’s goodness in our lives.

God saves us when we come by His grace through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. He saves us from sin, eternal death, and the wrath to come on the basis of Jesus’ perfect sinless life and sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. However, this is by no means ‘only’ an individual salvation but part of a greater story that God is writing in human history – “his-story”. God is making a “people for His Name” (Acts 15:14) and His great Name is to be established amongst His people.

Recently, I have had the privilege to be part of a men’s accountability group in which we encourage one another and grow in the grace of God. We come from different church backgrounds, traditions, families, culture, etc. – but we are one in Christ! I am so blessed to have this fellowship and know that I am part of the family of God by His grace. In the Bible, God says it is good and pleasant when brothers and sisters come together and dwell in unity (see the following passage from Psalm 133):

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious oil upon the head,

Coming down upon the beard,

Even Aaron's beard,

Coming down upon the edge of his robes.

It is like the dew of Hermon

Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;

For there the LORD commanded the blessing--life forever.”

In this text the author uses two similes to describe the reason it is “good and pleasant” for brothers and sisters in the Lord to dwell together in unity. The first simile talks about the anointing oil on the head of Aaron which flows down to his beard and down further to the edge of his robes. The anointing oil in the Old Testament was oil used to set apart the priest unto the Lord. It was a way of marking them out as consecrated for service to God. Aaron was the first high priest in the Old Testament and was anointed by Moses.

"So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.” – Exodus 29:44-46

See the Lord wanted these priests to be set apart before Him as holy, and to be known as their God. The Old Testament is a foreshadowing of things to come in the New Testament. So, anytime we read about Egypt or slavery in Egypt that is basically life lived outside of Christ and His salvation from a New Testament perspective. So, God says specifically He saved them and vindicated them so that He could dwell among them. God desires to be part of our lives not just so we can have eternal life in heaven but that we might know Him and His love for us – now! Part of this knowing and experiencing the presence of God is done through the community of faith – when believers dwell in unity.

This unity is in the context of brotherly love. We are to love one another as Christ has loved us. The anointing of God that rests upon us all who are now part of the universal priesthood when we come to faith in Christ (1 Peter 2:9) flows from our initial anointing; our consecration to God in His saving grace to the outer extremities of our lives. Just like it flowed downward from Aaron’s head this anointing of brotherly love and unity flows into the outer spheres of influence that God has given to us in our individual lives.

Furthermore, when we are in Christ and abiding in Him, he is our great High Priest who has the “anointing oil of joy” upon Him (Hebrews 1:9). So, we experience the joy of the Lord in the Holy Spirit when we dwell in unity with brothers and sisters in Christ – as the name of this blog suggests it is an inexpressible joy which is full of the glory of God!

The text from Psalm 133 goes on with the second simile which talks about the dew of Hermon which comes down to the mountains of Zion. Mount Hermon from a geographical perspective is higher up in elevation in comparison to Mount Zion. As dew is new every morning so is the Lord’s loving kindness and compassion toward us (Lamentations 3:22-23). So, we see again in the context of God’s presence with us when we dwell in unity the understanding of brotherly love flowing downward to all areas of our lives and not confined to just one area.

Finally, when we dwell in unity and understand that we are not just individuals but we are saved into the Body of Christ from a corporate perspective we realize that God has a destiny for His people – life forever in Him. There is so much death in the world everywhere we look, but let us remember that God dwells amongst His people when we dwell with each other in unity and there is “life” to be experienced in that dwelling place.

I wanted to end with writing out the lyrics to the chorus of one of my favorite songs where we can see God’s love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us – and that love of God flows primarily through His people from the place of united brotherly love to all the world so that His glory will cover the earth as the waters covers the sea!

"The Blood will Never Lose Its Power" by Andrae Crouch

It reaches to the highest mountain,

it flows to the lowest valley;

the blood that gives me strength from day to day,

it will never lose its power

Blessings,

Emmanuel