Living in Christ

Many of us, even after coming to Jesus, continue to struggle with sin in our life. We allow the things of this world to have control over us. We give in to temptations too easily. But, the Bible teaches us that a Christian has died to sin. Before we were Christians we were very susceptible to sin. Sin held us in its grip. Did you know that even though temptation can present itself persistently, a corpse will not succumb? The Bible says that when we became Christians, our old self died. That means that sin now has no more control over us than temptation has over a corpse. We have died to sin. We can still sin, but we are no longer in sin's power! SO why is it that so many of us continue to sin? It is because we allow sin to have power over us even though we have been freed from its grasp. When we choose to succumb to temptation, we are rejecting the freedom from sin that Christ gained for you by His death. "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that

As elections draw near in our country, we are seeing a constant slue of advertisements asking us to vote for this candidate or that one. One of the things we are seeing over and over is the constant badgering as one declares we should vote for them because they can do the job better than the other. Are we listening to any of those ads? I started thinking about the wisdom of each political ad, and then my own wisdom about things and was lead to a remarkable conclusion: One big hindrance to hearing a word from God--might be our own wisdom! "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure." Luke 10:21. Wisdom, like success, I believe can delude us to think that we should take the role of teacher rather than student. Our knowledge leads us to believe that we hav

I want to say that I think that if we count ourselves followers of Christ, we must have elements of humble service in our lives! We must be people of the towel! What does it mean to be people of the towel? The Disciples asked this same question one night as they were having supper with our Lord. Jesus sat down with His Disciples one last night before His crucifixion. During the course of the meal, in one simple act, Jesus taught them, and us, what it is really love and serve. "So He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him." John 13:4-6. Teaching His people to love was one of Jesus' overall purposes in the Upper Room Discourse. He had one question for them: "Do you know what I have done to you?" Jesus was the one that everyone thought was going to restore Israel as a powerful na

I have been stuck on time for the last couple of days. But, not my time, God's time. I am learning to understand that God's timing is always perfect timing! This is something that we need to wrap ourselves around and understand! When God speaks, the time to respond in obedience is right now! Many of us act as though we have all the time in the world to respond to Him, to obey Him. However, may I say that history has shown that it doesn't wait on our commitments. And, there is no such thing as postponing a decision with our Lord! There are only two choices--either we obey or we disobey. That's it! It's either faith or unbelief, or obedience or disobedience. "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of

One of the things that I notice that we as Christians struggle with is not in deciding whether we should obey Jesus, but in obeying Jesus Immediately. Many of us will be quick to acknowledge that we need to follow Jesus and commit ourselves to doing what He has told us, but again we struggle with doing it as soon as He tells us too. Some of us make excuses, some of us fail to trust, and some of us are just afraid. But when God reveals His will to us, we must learn that we need to obey immediately! God's revelation of His will to us is His invitation to respond immediately. "Another disciple said to Him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." Matthew 8:21-22. As Jesus was ministering, some that wanted to be His disciples pledged that they were willing to follow Him that day, but they told Him that they were not ready to go yet. In Jesus' day, you were expected to care for

One of the things that I find puzzling and troubling today is that so many of us Christians try to live the Christian life in this world today, without reading our Bibles! Many of us will occasionally give it a sporadic look, seeking a pithy thought to help us get through our day. This is sad. The Word of God is not merely a source of helpful suggestions, preventative warnings, or even inspirational thoughts . The Word of God is life itself! But, oh how foolish that many of us are, having the words of life right at our fingertips, and still not bothering to make time to sit down and go through it's pages. "For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess." Deuteronomy 32:47. God gathered the nation of Israel at the edge of the Promised Land to review their pilgrimage with Him. They had just spent 40 years wandering the desert, on a journey that should have

I am sure that you have experienced the same thing as me. You are in a store shopping and you pass by someone and say, "Hello," or, "Excuse me," something like that. They respond in like manner, smile and continue on their way. You pay for what you have gotten, go out and get into your car, and meet this same person in their car, only now things are different. You are in their way, you cut them off, you made a strange look at them. Many different things, but instead of the kind persons you both were, you are now each others enemy's and will stop at nothing to get even with the other. " But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him." Luke 10:33-34. There was a man on his way to Jericho that was mugged, beaten and left to die by the side of the road.

I took my wife out for dinner on Saturday night. We went to a very nice restaurant. As we sat and talked we took time to notice the other dinner guests seated throughout the establishment. There was one couple seated behind us that were not exactly having a good time. Their dinner was served, but the husband announced that it was the last few minutes of the game and he didn't want to miss it. He asked of it would be alright to go into the next room to catch the remaining moments and then he would return to eat. As his wife gave permission, a look of sadness came across her face. She remained this way, not touching her food, until her husband returned 20 minutes later. Then the conversation resumed with the husband telling her about the game while she looked on, uninterested. Sunday in church, we were enjoying great worship when a cell phone close by went off. The woman hurriedly picked it up and proceeded to leave while having her conversation as our pastor preached. "My peopl

This weekend I had the pleasure of having a study lesson with an incredible teacher! She was very wise and had an incredible anointing of the Spirit upon her. One of the things that stuck with me was when she was talking about how important it is to be in God's Word and how there was a time when she couldn't sleep past 2:30 in the morning that she found herself praying deeply and pouring through God's Word in ways she had never done before. It was only later, after her husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer, that she realized that the Lord had been preparing her spirit for the trial that lay ahead. That is the key today! There is no substitute for spiritual preparation! Had she not prepared herself through God and His word, she wouldn't have had near the courage or strength to go through what lay before her. Spiritual preparation equips us for unforeseen crises or opportunities. However, if we are unprepared spiritually, we will be vulnerable to life's unexpecte

Here's a bold statement: I think the quality of our worship is not based on our activities but on our character. Take for instance churches today, many can mistakenly assume that the better the music, the more impressive the building, the more animated the preaching, the more worshipful the experience will be. But I believe the Scriptures teach us that genuine worship originates from within our hearts. If we have a poor and unhealthy relationship with our Lord, then all these other things are nothing more than religious pageantry! "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge then as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness." Malachi 3:3. The Levites were the worship leaders of their day. They were charged with setting up the holy things and offering sacrifices on behalf of the people. God declared that before they could worship Him in righteousness, He would first refine them with

These are trying times we live in. We are constantly bombarded with opportunities that entice us to invest our time and our energy. And, everyday the "voices" of urgency cry out for our every available moment. There are so many causes out there that promises us that if we spend time on them we will reap great rewards. The thing that I am concerned about is this: How do we recognize God's voice with so many other voices competing for our attention? "See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:15-16. One thing the Bible teaches us is that a fool makes unwise choices with his time. With every new opportunity that comes, the fool chases a different direction. He doesn't question whether it's the best choice or not, he just chooses to follow the loudest voice. There will be a point, however, where he will discover, to his dismay, that he has squandered the investment of his ti

Something occurred to me today as I was buttering some bread to eat for dinner. We all know how to use physical bread. Whenever we are hungry we simply go get some, put what we want on it and eat. But what about our spiritual bread? Do we do that with our spiritual bread? "And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." John 6:36. Jesus said that if we believe in Him, we will never be spiritually hungry for He is the bread of life. Every time we face a spiritual need, it is a simple matter of going to Jesus and allowing Him to provide us with what we need. But I believe that we have a problem. Our problem, I believe, is that sometimes many of us interpret Scripture based on our own experience. Some of us might say something like: "Yes, but I remember a time when I was spiritually hungry...." Friends, if that is true, then one of two things has happened. Either Go

I would like to say that I think that one of the marks of spiritual maturity is a willingness to sacrifice personal comforts in order to strengthen other believers. Over and over in the Scriptures Paul urges Christians to pursue only activities that promote peace and behavior that builds others up. Why is it then that many of us Christians pursue activities that tear others down, or that promote unrest and disorder, when we are outside of our churches? " Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another." Romans 14:19. The definition of pursue is to passionately focus one's undistracted effort toward a goal. I do no think that this is a casual matter either. For us Christians, I believe that it involves using all the resources God has given us to ensure growth and peace in the life of other Christians. To the Colossians, Paul wrote about his own work: "We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisd

James and John were refered to as "the Sons of Thunder" in the Bible. When they discovered a Samaritan village that would not receive Jesus, they were fully prepared to call down fire to consume the entire community. "And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" Luke 9:54. Maybe they felt that through such a show of power, the gospel message might be enhanced. The two brothers were willing to sacrifice the lives of the village in order to further the cause of the gospel. However, Jesus rebuked them! Later, the apostles heard that Samaria had responded to the gospel. Guess who was commissioned to go and help them receive the Holy Spirit? None other but Peter and John! It was God's purpose that the people not be destroyed but saved! God chose not to rain down fire on the village, but to shower it with His Holy Spirit! I wonder what w

I believe that one of the hardest areas in which we trust God is in the matter of justice. When we see or experience an injustice, we want to see the guilty party punished immediately. We want justice now, especially if we are the victim. We become angered and impatient if we are not avenged quickly. But friends, God warns us that vengeance is not our prerogative. We are to desire justice, but we are not to seek vengeance! When someone offends us or attacks us, our responsibility is to respond to them with forgiveness. God always takes responsibility to see that justice is done. God loves people too much to allow sin and injustice to go unchecked. "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Romans 12:19. Peter claimed that God is not slow concerning His promises to us, but God is patient and long-suffering before He brings about judgment. Still, God has prepared for a

Faith and obedience go hand in hand. Yesterday we looked at faithlessness, today we look at obedience. Did you know that God allows and does everything for a reason? Most times, it's for reasons that we don't understand. Take Paul for instance, God met him on the road to Damascus for a purpose. Paul had planned on persecuting Christians, but his encounter with Jesus changed him forever. God also did more in that encounter than to save Paul from his sin, He also began to reveal His will for Paul's life. "Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Acts 26:19. God had a plan for Paul. It was revealed to him through a vision. It involved him both testifying before kings and suffering persecution. Paul was to enjoy the thrill of performing miracles, preaching to large crowds, and planting churches. But, he was also to be stoned, shipwrecked, whipped, mocked, conspired against, and imprisoned. We never hear of Paul complaining a

Without faith it is impossible to please God! That is what the writer of Hebrews has told us. Whenever God reveals something to us, He expects us to believe and adjust our lives accordingly. "But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin." Romans 14:23. What does this mean? It means we trust Him without question for all of our needs because He says He will provide for us. It means we approach crises with the assurance that God will bring good from them. It means we overcome anxiety during stressful situations because God instructs us to bring our requests to Him. It means that we should never worry or think we are alone in any situation because God promised He would never leave us or forsake us. It means that, no matter what happens to us in our lives, we will never doubt God's love because He has told us that He loves us with an everlasting love! Friends, there are many times, I am sure, th

There are a lot of people, Christians included, that appal me by the way that they speak. Filthy words, degrading comments, prideful accusations; I wonder what really goes on inside them. You see, the Bible stresses that what we say is an accurate indication of what is in our heart. If our words bless and encourage others, they give evidence of a compassionate heart. If we share the good news of Christ, we demonstrate that our heart is grateful for our own salvation. When others around us are in crisis, will they find peace and comfort in our words? Do we frequently and spontaneously offer prayers for others? Do our words and manners in which we say them reveal a patient, kind heart? All of these behaviors indicate a heart that is like the heart of the Father. "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man." Matthew 15:18. Friends, some difficult questions we need to connsider about ourselves are: Do we often regret our words? Are