Monday, January 25, 2016

Renew

Romans 7:15 NLT

I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate.


Before we were born again and had the Holy Spirit we knew what was right and wrong based on what had been programmed into us during our upbringing-the years up until we found Jesus. The jews had the law and that told them what was acceptable behavior and what was not.

When we accepted Jesus into our heart and believed He is the Son of God who came to save us, we were still following the moral code we learned. Now we have the Bible to show us the jewish law including the ten commandments. Jesus fulfilled the law and gave us two commandments--to love God and to love each other. In doing that we fulfill all of the law the jews attempted to follow.

Even though we now have Holy Spirit, the spirit of Christ in us, we still mess up. Our born again person is totally free. Our old man is still under the same moral patterns. We know what is true, what is right and wrong in God's eyes. And yet our muscle memory kicks in and we still do those old things, especially when we are around those we spent time with before we became a born again believer and follower of Jesus.

We try to do what is right, but we fall into the same old traps because our mind has not been renewed to the mind of Christ. You see, it is not about just having knowledge of what we should or should not do. As we build our relationship with Jesus, and this occurs over time in His word, communion with Him, and fellowship with others on this same journey, our mind becomes more like the mind of Christ. Renewal occurs a little bit at a time. Then it is not longer about the knowledge of wrong. It is about us no longer wanting to do those things.

Thank you Jesus for continually renewing my mind so I think and act more and more as You.


Monday, January 18, 2016

One Liners

The Bible is not a bunch of one liners to be mixed and merged into something we want to hear. And yet each line is important and there for a reason. We just have to ask God to have Holy Spirit reveal to us today as we read His word. Lord, thank you for fresh revelation daily.~ DickEvans.org

Ambassador

2 Corinthians 5:20 NLT
So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!"


Being an ambassador is a big thing. In each country around the world there are US embassies each with an ambassador to the USA. That ambassador speaks for his country. And what he does is a direct reflection on the USA.

The same is true for any business. That clerk at the local store may not get paid a lot, but how that clerk treats customers reflects on the entire business. When we have a bad experience at that business because of how a clerk handled us, we don't think "It was not the business, it was the clerk." No, we find somewhere else to do business.

We are Christ's ambassadors. Our words and our actions to others is a direct reflection on Christ. We are not perfect by any means, but we are looked on by other Christians and the world as though we represent Jesus to our world.

Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ lives in us. When others look to us do they see that old man we were before Jesus came into our lives, or do they see Jesus? We are the hands and feet of Jesus. We have the same authority as Jesus. We have the same power in us that raises the dead. Let's let others see the Jesus in us.


Monday, January 11, 2016

Complete

Colossians 2:9-10
For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body, and you are complete through your union with Christ. (NLT)

When we complete our meal there is nothing left on the plate. We are finished. When we complete the cruise to the Caribbean and return to our home port the cruise is complete. Simply stated the word complete means finished as in there is nothing more to do.

The gospel is simple. Jesus said, when asked how you become born again, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. We accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, become baptised, and receive the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. It is complete. We are saved by Grace. Once. There are no additional steps we have to take for our salvation at the end of this age. It is finished.

Some seem to think we have to continuously please God to keep our salvation. No, it was complete and irrevocable when we became born again, when we were saved and Holy Spirit came to us. This is not a license to sin, but grace to know we are a work in progress and each at a different position in our salvation walk.

We are no longer sinners on a long walk to eternity without God. We were saved by His Grace, but we still mess up. We still find ourselves doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing. This is because our soul is still in need of change. Our mind is in need of renewal. We still sometimes think and act and talk like we used to.

Our Spirit man is complete. Jesus is in us. We need His help in renewing our mind and our actions to be like Him and not like our old self. We cry out daily for Him to change us and as we release more and more of our old self to Him it happens. We become more Christ like in our thinking and fall to our old ways less and less.

Monday, January 04, 2016

Continue

James 1:25 NIV
But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it-not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it-they will be blessed in what they do.

We spend most of our time continuing in something. We continue in our schooling when we are growing up. And then when we end our schooling and finally begin our journey in the career path we have chosen, we take continuing education courses to bring us up to date on all the changes that have occurred in that line of work.

In our friendships outside of work we continue learning more about each other, even our spouses, as we go from year to year. And as we go, we grow stronger in those relationships.

Whether it was yesterday or many years ago, when we saw the Truth and asked Jesus into our life, we received freedom. We found the meaning of it all. We believed and received Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, to live in us. We have it all.

Continuing in our quest to know and understand more, we read God's Word. We listen to and read others as they expound on their understanding of scripture and how to apply it to our lives.

But our continuing education comes not from others and what they say and write about. It comes from the experiential knowledge we receive as we walk out in His Truth. It comes as we listen for His voice and act on His words in our day to day life.

It comes as we act on what we have learned. It comes as we do what Jesus commanded us to do--to go forth and tell everyone the Good News.