Offending Holiness?

Psalm 51 was written by King David after being confronted for his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and plotting the murder of her husband Uriah.

With all the offenses David committed against people in this situation, it is interesting to see his confession to God in 51:4. He said, "against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight."

As I ponder this, the Spirit begins to speak truth. At the very heart and core of our sinful choices and decisions in life, the very origins of the offenses are against the Holy One. Our sin nature is at war with the Holy Nature of our God.

We who live after the death and resurrection of our Savior, no longer have the excuse that even King David did not use. The excuse that we are not able to live according to God's Holy standards is not viable since the Holy Spirit has been sent into the hearts of all who accept Jesus as Savior. His is to be Lord of our lives and that means given the place of preeminence.

His Spirit and life, via the indwelling Holy Spirit is to be allowed to rule over our flesh in Holiness all our days. We are to be Holy because God is Holy and He has sent us His Spirit to enable us to be Holy. In and of ourselves we cannot accomplish this mandated Holiness, but with His Spirit we have no excuse not to live according to His Holiness.

In our relationships for example, we are commanded by Jesus to love and to forgive. In our flesh we may be giving people what they deserve, and that's called justice, but when we give the life of Christ inside us what He does not deserve, that is called sin.

Jesus deserves all our obedience and all our loyalty and when He asks us to love and forgive, and if we refuse or fail, it is truly against Him and Him only that we sin and do what is evil in His sight.

Could this be what King David knew when he wrote those words?


This Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Perserverance

Computer failure, a fitting backdrop for this daily blog. An upset to the plan, another seemingly random blockade to moving forward in obedience to what the Spirit directs me to do.

I have to admit my life feels like a spider web of threads designed to trap me and hold me bound up and helpless.

As I was thinking about all that is "wrong" in life, knowing that Jesus came to show us how, one day, He will make all things new, the Spirit led my thoughts to Hebrews 12:1-2, "let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the JOY set before Him endured the cross, scorning it's shame and sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God."

Years ago I saw the movie "The Passion" and it left an indelible image in my mind as to the suffering our Lord and Savior endured throughout the crucifixion process from early betrayal to His ultimate physical death. Knowing the account from a historical perspective, with each step He took under the weight of the cross He carried, I found myself saying, "It's almost over, it's almost over, just a little longer and you will be free, I know what happens next and you win ......this will be over soon."

While I have never had to endure such horrific pain in anything I have had to deal with in life, still I hear the Spirit say to me, "It's almost over, it's almost over, just a little longer and you will be free, I know what happens next and you win...this will be over soon."

The lesson for me in this, is to understand where Jesus placed His focus. The Word says "Jesus, who for the JOY set before Him. " Meaning He had His focus set upon the ultimate goal, the ultimate win, the ultimate victory..and therefore He endured the cross, scorning it's shame.

Even if our trials don't involve crucifixion, they are not random, "oh sucks", "bad luck" "poor me" events. Our trials come from a very deliberate enemy trying to discourage and defeat us. This is the same evil enemy who tried to defeat our Savior as he did our ancestral father and mother, Adam and Eve.

Just as our Heavenly Father's Sovereign and ultimate control sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the fallen world to save us, so His Sovereign and ultimate control will rescue us through the myriad of enemy plotted trials.

Let us not lose heart but rather fix our eyes on Jesus and the goal. I need to get a focus that looks past the suffering, anxiety and anguish to the JOY of what is to come, knowing and trusting that there is purpose to each obstacle the enemy throws in my path. We may not understand all the why's and wherefore's but we can trust that our faith through each trial will have it's reward.

Perserverence pushes us past giving up when we don't see immediate changes to our circumstances. Faith sees the coming victory and brings us joy in the process.

What are you facing today that requires perserverence?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Follow the Ark

The Spirit has led me to the account of the Israelites crossing the Jordan in Joshua 3. Under their new leader, Joshua,the Lord commanded the people to follow the Ark of the Covenant through the Jordan River. As I read the account, I noticed some interesting things.

For those of us who don't always know where they are going, I was comforted when the Lord told the people to move out from their positions and follow the Ark...because "then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before." (vs 4) Life seems to get more confusing and chaotic every day. How wonderful to be able to trust the Sovereign God to lead us. His view takes on all time from beginning to end. He knows every turn in the road, every rock, boulder, or pit that lies in our path. Who better to trust when we cannot always see what lies ahead. Not only is it His blessing to lead us..it is His command that we follow.

The other interesting thing is the next sentence.."but keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the Ark; do not go near it." As I was pondering the distance they were to keep, thinking about the reverence and respect issue, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "stop bum rushing the Ark...you give me no room to work." Then I realized that the Lord wants us to give Him room and time to bring other things into each situation that we know nothing about. We get impatient with His pace, we start to run ahead of His timing and suddenly we realized we just passed something important if we see it at all. I have recently seen this principle work out over and over as "my agenda" gets interrupted by His plan.

When Jesus walked among us, there was no stress to His gait...no apparent urgency to His pace. He took each situation that came and just squeezed out all this wonderful resolution or lesson that the situation contained. How much more peaceful and productive would our lives be if we just follow Him and give Him room to work out His amazing plan? I'm ready to follow.....how about you?

The Spirit is calling. Can you Hear Him?

Chosen

"You did not choose Me but I chose you to go and bear fruit...fruit that will last" John 15:16

For the longest time, I thought the "fruit" I was to bear was associated with evangelism and the "fruit" was each person brought to salvation because of my "efforts".

But the next part of that verse confused me saying, "THEN, the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name" I know that I cannot save anyone. It is the Father who calls them, and Jesus, the Savior, who saves them, so how can I bear this fruit first before asking or receiving what is outside my control or ability?

More searching for Truth...then the Spirit revealed to me that this "fruit" we are to bear is the "fruit" of the Holy Spirit spoken of in Galatians 5:22: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control.

We have been chosen to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit, Who has been sent by the One who saved us. However, we have free will before and after salvation.

Before salvation, we have the freedom to choose our eternal destination. We have the freedom to choose to come to God through His only begotten Son, Jesus. After salvation we still have the freedom to choose. We can choose to walk in obedience to the Spirit of our Christ. We can choose to surrender to His Spirit, to be fruitful and victorious or we can choose to surrender to our flesh and live defeated unproductive lives.

The Holy Spirit calls us to surrender and allow Him to produce the fruit we are to bear. We cannot generate the fruit, we can only bear it because it is His fruit.

Vs 17 says, "this is My command, Love one another". Love is the first fruit mentioned on the list of the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus also said, "by this all men will know you are my Disciples, if you love one another".

The Lord is a "fruit inspector" What will He find when He inspects our fruit today?

Can you hear the Spirit? He is calling.

A Greater Sense of Eternity***

A long many years ago, I was involved in a prayer movement intended to keep our nation and the Body of Christ covered in prayer 24/7 for 365 days a year. The goal was attained through the networking of Chuches who would host and "man" a prayer room for that purpose, in their city, on a rotation basis.

The Body of Christ would volunteer to enter into the prayer room 2 by 2 for an hour around the clock. On one such Saturday, my prayer partner was detained so I came into the Presence of the Lord by myself.

My usual starting place was to ask the Lord how to pray for His people. During this time the Spirit called me to pray very specifically for the Body of Christ. The Lord spoke to my heart through His Holy Spirit to pray that His believers would have a greater sense of Eternity than ever before.

Inquiring minds want to know....therefore I asked the Lord, "Why"? "Why is this so important at this time?" His response to me was recorded in my heart and has been re-played over and over in my mind:

"Throughout the history of man's days upon the earth, he has lived with the perimeters of birth/death, birth/death, birth/death, generation after generation, year after year. Many count on these perimeters to set the intensity of their Spiritual walk. Many think they will have time to focus on Spiritual matters later, when they get older, after the worldly cares become less intense.

BUT...this is "the" generation who will not taste death but rather who will see the coming of the King of Glory. This is the generation spoken of in Prophesy and they must be ready at any moment for the return of the King and to be translated from life to life."

It was said of the Acts Church that they lived in the expectation of the imminent return of Jesus...."the greater sense of Eternity". It was this expectation that governed their lives. The Acts Church of early believers rocked their world. How would we, the Church of today, live life differently IF we expected the Lord to come back for us, His people today? Tonight? This week?

What would we find important? What would we be willing to do?

Can you hear the Spirit? He is calling.............