Behold What Manner of Love the Father has Given Unto Us...

1 John 3:1-10 (The Message)

 ¹ What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called children of God! That's who we really are. But that's also why the world doesn't recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he's up to.  ^2-3But friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the beginning. Who knows how we'll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we'll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a model for our own.
 ^4-6All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God's order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They've got him all backward.
 ^7-8So, my dear children, don't let anyone divert you from the truth. It's the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil's ways.
 ^9-10People conceived and brought into life by God don't make a practice of sin. How could they? God's seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It's not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here's how you tell the difference between God's children and the Devil's children: The one who won't practice righteous ways isn't from God, nor is the one who won't love brother or sister. A simple test.

Small Bites

I don't mean small plates of food!  I'm talking about the small bites the enemy takes out of us little by little, day by day.  I always used to say that if the enemy took a large bite out of us, like biting off our arm,  we'd notice that, wouldn't we?  Instead, as wily as he is, he takes a little bite here, and a little bite there.  We are less apt to recognize what is going on if he keeps a low profile.  He doesn't want to shock us out of our sin.  He doesn't want to stop our progression, he wants to accelerate it!  What better way than to convince us, one tiny bite at a time, that everything is really okay, we haven't really done anything wrong...Soon our arm is missing and we didn't even notice it disappearing.

Now granted, sometimes we are convincing ourselves that what we've done is okay.  And boy are we masters at that!  We convince ourselves so heartily that we believe our own lies to ourselves.  Do you have any ongoing situations where that has happened or is happening?   Just a little of this won't hurt!  Or a little of that won't change anything!  Ha!  May it never be.  If you feel that still small voice nagging, or that queasiness in the pit of your stomach, that is your warning sign that something is wrong.  Heed it!  Don't push it away or sweep it under the rug! Don't rationalize and lie to yourself.  Take care of business and take care of your sin!  Having unconfessed sin in your life is not a good way to live.

"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."   James 4:7-10 (NIV)

"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.   Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings."  1 Peter 5:8-9  (NIV)

"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."  1 John1:5-10 (ESV)

"Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."  Matthew10:16 (ESV)

"Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you?  Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!'"  John 8:42-45 (NIV)

"Don't become partners with those who reject God.  How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That's not partnership; that's war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God's holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way: 'I'll live in them, move into them; I'll be their God and they'll be my people. So leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good,' says God. 'Don't link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for myself. I'll be a Father to you; you'll be sons and daughters to me.' The Word of the Master, God."  2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (The Message)

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."  Philippians 4:6-8 (NASB)

 Dear Lord,  Make us a people without compromise.  Help us to see our sin and not lie to ourselves about it.  Help us to confess it to You and receive Your forgiveness.  Help us to resist the enemy and  make us strong in Your word so that we might be victorious in You.

Photo courtesy of Photobucket.com.

Good Enough?

How good is good enough?  Will you ever be good enough to merit God's favor?  Let's be honest here.  If you've ever even taken a moment to think about yourself (which I'm sure you have-isn't that what we spend most of our time thinking about?), and if we are honest with ourselves we would surely know that what lies beneath the surface of our finely coiffed exteriors is pure and utter selfishness, to the extend that we consider ourselves and what we want as paramount in this life.  Don't tell me that in your heart of hearts you don't know that to be true?

Every day is a constant struggle to put away our own selfishness and put what Jesus wants first.  In Matthew 16:23-25 it says, "Jesus turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.'  Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.'"  (NIV)  Is it really possible to deny yourself in your own strength?

"You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world."  1 John 4:4 (NASB)

"And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'  Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. "  2 Corinthians 12:

"Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.  But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."  Romans 3:20-24 (NIV)

"So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it:

   There's nobody living right, not even one,
      nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.
   They've all taken the wrong turn;
      they've all wandered down blind alleys.
   No one's living right;
      I can't find a single one.
   Their throats are gaping graves,
      their tongues slick as mudslides.
   Every word they speak is tinged with poison.
      They open their mouths and pollute the air.
   They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,
      litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,
   Don't know the first thing about living with others.
      They never give God the time of day.

This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin."  Romans 3:9-18 (The Message)

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."  Philippians 4:13 (KJV)

You see, we can never be good enough!  But through Christ we can achieve a righteousness that comes by faith in Him alone.  God knew that we would never be able to achieve His standard of righteousness so He made provision for that fact from the beginning through the power of the blood of His one and only Son, Jesus.  In Him we have forgiveness of sins, as it says in Colossians 1:13-14, "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."  And in Hebrews 9:22, "Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." (ESV)

"Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you."  2 Corinthians 5:16 (The Message)

Dear Lord,  Help us to put away our pride and see ourselves for who we really are:  People desperately in need of a Savior.  Thank you that Your unfailing love provided a way for us to be made perfect through the precious blood of Your one and only Son, Jesus.

What did Jesus Write in the Sand?

The Adulterous Woman

 ¹But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.  ²Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them.
 ³The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court,
 ⁴they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.
 ⁵"Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?"
 ⁶They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.
 ⁷But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
 ⁸Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
 ⁹When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court.
 ¹⁰Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?"
 ¹¹She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more."
John 8:1-11 (NASB)

"For Jesus to forgive this woman meant that He had to one day die for her sins.  Forgiveness is free but it is not cheap."  (W. Weirsbe)  What did He write on the ground?  I feel certain that whatever He wrote had a great deal to do with the fact that they, one by one, left  the center of the court where they had so adamantly condemned her. I am also certain that Jesus had a purpose in this.  Was He writing their sins in the dust?    Was He reminding them of the Ten Commandments written by the hand of God as it says in Exodus 31:18?  Or was He writing their names, reminding them of the warning in Jeremiah 17:13 which says, "O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water"?  (NIV)  Was He implying that they, themselves, were the ones prophesied about as those who forsook  Him and that He, Himself, is the spring of living water which He states in John 4:10-14 (NIV).

"Go, and sin no more!"  Jesus said.  This freely given forgiveness will never be an excuse to sin.  We are to repent and turn away from our sins, not repeating them again.  In Psalm 130:4 it says,  "If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance?  As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshiped."  (The Message)  "God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5:8 (NASB)

Many think that this woman was set up by the scribes and the Pharisees and being that the man she must have been with was not there also, for the law calls for both to be stoned, it seems to confirm the thought that they must have orchestrated the event which would be, of course, against God's law.  They were definitely trying to trick Jesus into a controversial situation, into something they could use against Him.  The law demanded stoning but if Jesus allowed her to be stoned, many of his followers who were the weak, sinful, and poor, would have felt abandoned by Him since He said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."  Luke 19:10 (ESV)  But if He were to prevent her from being stoned, He would be going against the law of Moses.  Jesus, of course, cannot be tricked and knew the exact intentions of their hearts even before they brought the woman before Him.  Whatever He wrote in the dirt, in combination with His statement, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her," was enough to send them away in disgrace.  Could it have been their sins or their names?  Or was He just giving them time for the words He had spoken to sink in and do their work?

Do you give Jesus' words time to sink in and do their work?  Do you try to convince yourself that you are too busy or too important or too tired to spend time in His presence?  Do you rationalize your lack of devotion?  Is Jesus writing your name in the sand?

Dear Lord,  Make us a people who forgive as You forgive.  Make us a people who hear Your word and let it sink in and do its work.  Let us not trick ourselves into a life without Christ...

Casting Crowns - East to West

As Far as the East is From the West...

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him."  Psalm 103:11-13 (NASB)

I imagine a globe spinning, you know, the kind we use in classrooms all over the world.  As I spin the globe I realize that one can always go east.  We can always go west as well.  So in essence, we can say that the east is infinitely far away from the west and visa versa.   So how far is the east from the west? It is an infinite distance.  That is how far the Father removes our sins from us if we have been forgiven.  He tosses our sins into the sea and remembers them no more if we have been forgiven.  Not only does He toss them into the sea, He puts up a sign that says, "No fishing!"

I don't know about you but all of my life I have had a tendency to drag my old sins up off of the ocean floor and rehash them.  I ask for forgiveness from the Lord again and again over the same old thing.  Now, I haven't committed the sin again (which is a whole different situation), I am just asking God to forgive again something He has already forgiven!  I think He must wonder whether I truly understand what He means when He says He has forgiven me.  If He has forgiven me and I haven't committed the same offense over again, He has forgiven me and He remembers it no more.  I need to accept His forgiveness and let it go...No Fishing allowed!

"I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more."  Isaiah 43:25 (NIV)

"The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"  John 1:29 (NASB)

"O Master, these are the conditions in which people live, and yes, in these very conditions my spirit is still alive— fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life!  It seems it was good for me to go through all those troubles. Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline.  You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing.  But my sins you let go of, threw them over your shoulder—good riddance!"  Isaiah 38:17  (The Message)

"But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ."  Romans 3:21-24 (The Message)

Dear Lord,  Teach us to ask for Your forgiveness for our transgressions with repentant hearts.  Help us to turn away from our sins.  Thank you that You do not remember them once You have forgiven them.  Help us to see the sign that says, "No Fishing!", and leave those sins where You have put them, on the bottom of the ocean floor...