The enemy often enters a situation in the backwash of emotion that results from an injury to the heart (emotions). It is important to understand that access is not gained via the hurt itself, but through our own attempts to provide balm for the pain from any other source than Jesus. Vigilance is needed. We allow things we should not allow because of hungry and hurting hearts whose only hope of true satisfaction is in the Lord.
Satan is going to attempt to enter in using forged invitations. The vigilance that is required is a constant “being on our guard” against his schemes. He has no legal right to gain access to the heart or life of a forgiven child of God; he can enter in only as a trespasser and a thief. When he is caught, he has to go.
It is much easier to refuse the devil access at the door than it is to get him out once he’s established a camp as a squatter. He does not go without a struggle. But it is a struggle that we are ordained to win.
Scripture: "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a hungry lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Romans 6
Your present wrongdoing does not add to the weight of the sin that Jesus has already borne on your account. Christ's sacrificial death on the Cross has won your salvation. It is finished. In the economy of the Kingdom of God, your sins have already been paid in full.
However, within the confines of time, you may still have opportunity to refuse sin and thus ease the suffering of your Lord and Savior. This is a paradox that you cannot fully understand, limited as you are by your time-bound perspective.
But you are able to understand this: Do not "...continue in sin so that grace may abound" (Romans 6:1 KJV).
Scripture: "The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves 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 evil desires...For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." Romans 6:10-11, 14.
However, within the confines of time, you may still have opportunity to refuse sin and thus ease the suffering of your Lord and Savior. This is a paradox that you cannot fully understand, limited as you are by your time-bound perspective.
But you are able to understand this: Do not "...continue in sin so that grace may abound" (Romans 6:1 KJV).
Scripture: "The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves 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 evil desires...For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." Romans 6:10-11, 14.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Faith
Turmoil in the world along with failures in your personal faith walk have caused you to suffer a low level, energy sapping depression. Turn from your negative thoughts and accept that there is hope for your future. Of course there will be struggles, but you will become stronger, happier, more certain of your eternal destiny, more cognizant of your faith in God.
Your faith is the precious conduit through which Heaven flows to Earth via the terminal of your heart. As a prism divides a beam of light into the colors of the spectrum, God's word flowing to your heart by faith can be directed to minister to the needs of those who are earthbound. The Lord touches the world through your heart and hands, and He has come to your heart through faith. Your faith in God through Jesus Christ via the Holy Spirit provides the healing power of grace to a hurting world.
Scripture: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" Hebrews 11:1 KJV
Your faith is the precious conduit through which Heaven flows to Earth via the terminal of your heart. As a prism divides a beam of light into the colors of the spectrum, God's word flowing to your heart by faith can be directed to minister to the needs of those who are earthbound. The Lord touches the world through your heart and hands, and He has come to your heart through faith. Your faith in God through Jesus Christ via the Holy Spirit provides the healing power of grace to a hurting world.
Scripture: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" Hebrews 11:1 KJV
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Christ in You
How easily you doubt the veracity of the gift you have been given. God's voice channels through your mind, and the vernacular that results seems an unlikely expression for the Most Holy God. Do not doubt Christ in you. The piquant tone your voice lends to the truths He speaks through you does not diminish the truth itself. The Lord cannot be contained or channeled through a human vessel, but when you are yielded to Him, you become an instrument in His hand. The melody of your words is the result of the virtuosity of the master musician; Mozart played on a harmonica is still Mozart!
You are a unique and beautiful instrument that each day is being conformed more and more into His likeness. When you are perfected, you will be uniquely beautiful; a lovely expression of the creativity and love of your Lord and God.
Scripture: "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
You are a unique and beautiful instrument that each day is being conformed more and more into His likeness. When you are perfected, you will be uniquely beautiful; a lovely expression of the creativity and love of your Lord and God.
Scripture: "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
Friday, June 11, 2010
Liberated to New Life
You are in a depressed frame of mind because you have understood that things that are seen will pass away. Instead of dwelling on the fact that you are living on a planet that has been condemned to death, think of it in this way instead; you are living on a planet that will be liberated to new life. Set your affections on those things that are eternal, and you will not be disappointed.
You have made a twofold error. On the one hand, you suffer an unholy grief that comes from a sinful focus upon and affection for the things on this world. On the other, having understood that what is seen is temporary, you neglect your responsibilities out of a “what’s the use, none of this is going to last” attitude. The solution is to understand that this world is a training ground for the next. The patience and discipline required to clean a drawer or deny yourself food for the sake of obedience and prayer will bear fruit in the next world, not in the form of clean closets or a slender body, but in the virtues of patience and obedience. By submitting your will to the Lord's, you learn of Him. This knowledge will bless you both in this world and in the next. The world would deitize the results of labor spent to beautify or organize. God honors the labor itself, blesses you with the fruits of that labor, and teaches you to value the virtues you’ve gained rather than the material objects that you have organized. However, so long as He is the treasure of your heart, He does bless you with material gifts; a man is not jealous of the diamond ring he gives to his beloved unless he knows she values the ring over him. Likewise, the Lord your God will withhold no good thing in this world or the next from those whose hearts are set on the obedience that springs from love for Him.
Scripture: "For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless" (Psalm 84:11).
You have made a twofold error. On the one hand, you suffer an unholy grief that comes from a sinful focus upon and affection for the things on this world. On the other, having understood that what is seen is temporary, you neglect your responsibilities out of a “what’s the use, none of this is going to last” attitude. The solution is to understand that this world is a training ground for the next. The patience and discipline required to clean a drawer or deny yourself food for the sake of obedience and prayer will bear fruit in the next world, not in the form of clean closets or a slender body, but in the virtues of patience and obedience. By submitting your will to the Lord's, you learn of Him. This knowledge will bless you both in this world and in the next. The world would deitize the results of labor spent to beautify or organize. God honors the labor itself, blesses you with the fruits of that labor, and teaches you to value the virtues you’ve gained rather than the material objects that you have organized. However, so long as He is the treasure of your heart, He does bless you with material gifts; a man is not jealous of the diamond ring he gives to his beloved unless he knows she values the ring over him. Likewise, the Lord your God will withhold no good thing in this world or the next from those whose hearts are set on the obedience that springs from love for Him.
Scripture: "For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless" (Psalm 84:11).
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
While We Were Yet Sinners...
You fear losing the privilege of God's presence, but His presence with you is not a privilege, it is a gift.
You fear the Lord will turn His back because of your sin and faithlessness. He will not turn away. His son died that you may experience the light of His presence.
You are nothing the most Holy God might be expected to desire, and yet, He does desire you; not by your merit, but for His own name's sake. It is because of who He is that you are accepted, and so when you are aware that you’ve sinned you do not need to fear rejection. You need only appropriate His presence through grace. God forgives. That He is able to forgive is not because of you, but because of Jesus Christ.
Rest, now, rest.
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
You fear the Lord will turn His back because of your sin and faithlessness. He will not turn away. His son died that you may experience the light of His presence.
You are nothing the most Holy God might be expected to desire, and yet, He does desire you; not by your merit, but for His own name's sake. It is because of who He is that you are accepted, and so when you are aware that you’ve sinned you do not need to fear rejection. You need only appropriate His presence through grace. God forgives. That He is able to forgive is not because of you, but because of Jesus Christ.
Rest, now, rest.
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Uncomfortable Truth
Our Heavenly Father endures the outcry of His suffering saints for one reason and one reason alone, and that is for the sake of the unsaved. If the work of offering salvation to those who are able to be rescued were complete, then the Lord would hasten to return and end the suffering of this broken world once and for all.
What have we done to further His cause of saving those who are lost?
We can anesthetize the pain that is the inevitable result of living in a broken world. We can hide in our houses and pull the covers of comfort over our heads. We can allow fear to separate us from an awareness of God’s will for those who are in need of our ministering hands and hearts.
Or we can say, “Here I am, send me,” (Isaiah 6:8) and, “Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20).
Our participation in His work hastens the time of His return. Our desire for perfect unity with Him fuels our efforts to speed His return. If we truly desire His return, we will want to help in the effort to complete His work.
What have we done to further His cause of saving those who are lost?
We can anesthetize the pain that is the inevitable result of living in a broken world. We can hide in our houses and pull the covers of comfort over our heads. We can allow fear to separate us from an awareness of God’s will for those who are in need of our ministering hands and hearts.
Or we can say, “Here I am, send me,” (Isaiah 6:8) and, “Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20).
Our participation in His work hastens the time of His return. Our desire for perfect unity with Him fuels our efforts to speed His return. If we truly desire His return, we will want to help in the effort to complete His work.
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