I can really appreciate this…

I know that it’s long, but if you have the time to watch it, there is some really good stuff there.

Love you all,

~J

His Love in Your Spirit

by Gene Edwards

(See original article here.)

Most of us have a very poor opinion of ourselves. It is a Christian disease. And you would think God had an even worse opinion of us. He doesn’t. Why does He have such a high opinion of us? Everything negative ended on the Cross. It was done, finished. He emerges from the smoke and fire a passionate Lord. He does not care what you were. He is not interested in the old creation. Or its fall. Or what used to be here. Is God enamored, then, with what He did for you? I am utterly amazed at the way He forgot it all! He does not care about what He did on the cross. It is over. It is done. It is finished. He got what He wanted. You are part of His bride; you are perfect, pure. You are holy. You are a virgin. He is only wanting one thing. He wants you to start loving Him. Now! Hang the future. Forget the past. There is only one thing left and it is right now.

“Lord Jesus, You said I was beautiful. I’m not going to argue the point. I am beautiful. You Lord, cannot see that I am a fallen being. You are no longer capable of that. I see I am. I feel I am. I know I am. But Lord, You do not know these things. I am just going to stop being bothered by it all. I know about my terrible state. I am going to take Your view. I am not here to be a forgiven sinner. I am not here to know that I have been made perfect. I have been made perfect. Today, I sin, but for Your sake, I must not let that get me down. In some amazing, incredible way, these things do not even bother You. You see me on a different plane, in a different dimension, in another creation. Lord, You want just one thing out of me. You want me to stand here and let You love me. You want me more than anything in the universe. As of right now, You’ve got me. You have forgotten everything, I forget everything. Do what you wish, love me.”

What we are dealing with are things we just do not want to believe. You are almost repelled by such an idea. And yet, you want to believe it. If you ever do start believing it, there will be no event that ever happens to you but what you will sit down in front of it and rest.

I heard someone pray, “Lord, we are not worthy of this love.” That has got to go. I heard someone else, “Teach me to love You and receive Your love.” That has got to go. There is no more future. There no more, “Lord, teach me. . .” There is no more, Lord, my sinfulness.” “Now” is a big word in God’s universe. Get to the now. Love your Lord. Now. With all your heart. Now. The Lord Jesus Christ is looking for someone who will turn around and say, “Lord, I am blind to what I know about myself and to what is a space-time reality. I am open to all that You DO NOT know, or things You think are true which I believe cannot be true. I forget that You made a great mistake in educating me. I believe what You believe. . . about me. I believe You love me. I open my being to You. I embrace You. I yield utterly; You are free to love me. Let love begin.” It is like He is waiting for someone in the universe to be so daring as to dare to believe the absurd; to believe the ridiculous; to dare to believe what He sees. In that moment He gets His bride. Either God is God or He is not. Either He loves you or He does not. Either He died for you and it is finished or it is not. Either you are a holy, precious, beautiful, flawless, blameless, perfect, glorious virgin or you are not. Either He wishes to pour out His love on you right now or He does not. It is so easy to find out what is real. How? Yield! No. Crumble.

A Good Word for X-Mas

Well, I just wanted to give you all something which was related to what the birth of Christ is all about in the first place.

I tell you, it is good news.

 

Merry Christmas!!

 

 

Just be Your Real Self

by Norman P. Grubb

Nothing dogs our footsteps more in Christian living than our constant sense of condemnation. We see ourselves as such failures; we seem to be so fruitless. We are so up and down. We are such weaklings, so cowardly. Our battles are not so much against the great sins — the things we do or don’t do — but with this dragging feeling that we are no use because we are such a mess. We look at others, and some of them seem to be doing fine; so we wonder why we are such failures. We are constantly weighted down with a heavy feeling. We don’t feel bright, we don’t feel loving, we don’t feel spiritual; but we do feel out of touch, dull, dry, powerless.

The sense of condemnation manifests itself continually in the quick way in which we downgrade ourselves as useless, more of a hindrance to God than a help, so rebellious, so disobedient; and we are fond of saying that if God uses us at all, it is in spite of ourselves.

To know how we can accept ourselves without condemnation is of the greatest importance. To fail to understand this is to have all of our vitality sapped from us.

The key is that it is He who accepts us, and He who chooses us.

If it depended on our choosing Him, we might continually hold back, for how could we know He would accept such as us? But He chose us — unconditionally. “You have not chosen Me; I have chosen you”.

He chooses us exactly as we are, with every facet of our humanity. We may well laugh at the strangeness of His choices, but that is no business of ours. He paid the highest price possible for us — the price of His own Son’s blood — so we had better get busy choosing ourselves if He has chosen us. To not accept those He accepts is to insult Him.

In fact, we need a thorough spring-cleaning of those condemning, smearing, guilty ideas we have inherited or picked up somehow about ourselves. That is why the wide-openness of today, though it shocks many because of its abuses, is actually much healthier and much nearer the truth than the hush-hush of past generations. And no book can be more boldly open than the Bible. There a spade is never called anything but a spade.

Let it sink into us that there is not a single reaction that we can have as humans — not a single response of our bodies, minds, emotions, imaginations — which is intrinsically wrong. God intends that we have all of these human reactions.

Let us drag such things to the surface and, instead of condemning the instincts or reactions — instead of trying to pretend they are not there, like so much religious play-acting — examine how misuse can be replaced by right use.

The negative is to say a thing is wrong, conceal it if you can. The positive is to face it and see how God’s purpose is to use that very tendency as some channel for His outgoing goodness.

God “works all things after the counsel of His own will.” He is in us “to will and to do of His good pleasure.” When we have been called by Him and accepted by Him, “all things [negative and positive] work together for good.”

Every situation we go through is God’s perfect will. It is precisely the necessary one. So praise God for each situation! Don’t question or condemn yourself in any situation, because this is what produces the bondage of spirit that has caused us all so much suffering. Instead, accept yourself exactly as you are and as you feel.

Don’t fret and struggle and try to change —just be yourself. Realize that as you are honest with yourself and with others about the way you are, there is no condemnation whatever.

“God is the One who justifies; who is the one who condemns?” At the same time, realize also that Christ is now your life. He has replaced your old self. This then releases you to be truly free as yourself — the Christ in you.

Only He can change any attitudes and feelings you might have. So don’t try to do more than what comes easily and naturally for you. Just do the next things that come spontaneously to you. Take the position that in Christ you are dead to everything except abiding in Him.

Sometimes this death includes those things we would really like to be. But we have to be content to be what He chooses to be in us at this moment. “If need be you are in heaviness through manifold trials” Peter says. When it is one of those dines for you, accept the human heaviness and suffering and don’t try to change this condition. Just accept it as being His direct will for the moment, and praise Him for it.

You can’t tell what God has for you, or what future purposes He might have in the experiences you are going through right now, so don’t try to find out. Just keep doing what you feel at present He is giving you to do. He has a perfect purpose for all that is happening to you, even if at present it is not clear. So keep centered on this glorious freeing truth.

The single eye of faith of which Jesus spoke enables us to remain free within, regardless of outside circumstances and appearances. We are not to be double-minded, frustrated by the circumstances. We are to accept fully the situation of the moment — the external situation He has us in, and the way we feel toward it — knowing that it is for the purpose of manifesting His life in us.

Our sole job is to keep inwardly at rest in the midst of suffering and temptation — and in the midst of failure and seeming defeat — knowing that we walk with Him alone and that He walks in us and will cause us to walk in His ways.

Because He has determined to take us this way, He does not see the confusion, heaviness or perplexity, but only His next step in His perfect plan for us. And He in us is the One who will bring it to pass as we accept the present fully and rejoice in it, trusting that all things truly do work for good despite the ap­pearance of the moment.

(This article can be found here in it’s original format.)

Thanks Linus.

S.D.R.D.

For quite some time now, the Lord has been moving me in a direction which, as time goes on, is becoming more and more clear to me.

It is not so much, anymore, about a walk going after Him, although I understand that it still is that in a way…

It is more about a walk in Him.

You see, I have been struggling with a horrible disease now for several years called S.D.R.D.

For those of you who may not be familiar with it, it is a life threatening condition which is highly contagious and has the potential to destroy entire families, communities, heck…, even the whole world could be at risk.

(By the way, and in case you didn’t know, the anacronym stands for Severely Damaged by Religion Disorder.)

I am currently undergoing therapy which initially began with 777 cc’s of Godly repentance followed with daily appointments with the Great Physician.

So…

Just in case you don’t see me around here for a while, rest assured that the good Lord has me right where I need to be.

In the meantime, feel free to help yourself to some of these articles:

*

I wish you all a wonderful season in Christ Jesus Our Lord!

~Johnny

Heart Ramble ~OR~ Couldn’t think of a Better Title :-)

Since I really have no idea who you may be, or why you may be reading this, even though I realize that you may (or may not) be one of my ‘regular’ readers, I would like to post a warning:

I am in the process of discovering who I am.

Now this statement could carry different meanings for different people. Some may take this to mean that I am finding out just how wretched I truly am, how the things hidden in darkness are coming to light, and how I am truly seeing myself for who I am according to the flesh.

This is true.

For others, it could mean that I am discovering who I truly am in Christ, how I have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and have been set in heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord, and how I have been crucified with Christ and that it is truly Him who lives His life in and through me.

This is also true.

But there is a third way. At risk of sounding new agey I will say a middle way. Who am I right now?

Obviously, according to the flesh I am as described in the first assessment. “Wretched and broken”.

And according to the eternal perspective of God?

Holy. Blameless.

But right now…who am I?!

What am I?

A sinner?

A saint?

Does it depend upon my ‘conduct’ or on what God has accomplished in Christ?

My answer: A most certain ,”Yes!”

I live within a mystery, although it is a mystery revealed. Who can explain it?

Revelation.

But not a revelation given to me. It is a revelation given to us.

Maybe you are a very ‘black and white’ thinker, a very ‘need it nailed down’ kind of person. If so, God help you.

Seriously, perhaps that is the way you are according to your natural disposition. Well, I have some good news and some bad news for you.

First the good news:

At times, you are considered a wonderful blessing to those around you as you bring clarity and a sense of practical understanding.

The bad news:

Sometimes you have a very hard time finding Life as you are usually so busy trying to figure it all out.

You have a hard time understanding where others find their peace although they may not have the most sensible explanation, and you are left feeling insecure as you don’t seem to have any ‘handles’ to hold on to as you are faced with the ‘ethereal’.

Here is a prophetic word for you.

The letter kills, but the Spirit brings Life.

But maybe you are the one who will absolutely not acknowledge any concrete substance, no borders that are not *clearly* fuzzy lines when observed through your favorite fuzzy lens.

Good News:

You bring life to those who have found death in ‘the law’ and who are hungry for something deeper than stale religion. You are often more gracious to those who, in general, seem to struggle with ‘fitting in’.

Bad News:

You are often unpredictable and frankly considered as being ‘flaky’. For you there is still much to be desired in the area of ‘discernment’. Good luck being taken very seriously, with the exception of the very young in faith.

A prophetic word for you:

Jesus Christ; the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Now for the real news:

Whatever your natural disposition (which there are actually many more varieties and combinations than what I have mentioned above), it has been crucified and as you go on, and as you abide in the proper environment you will discover that it is quite necessary that this truth become manifest (and it will)…

“What do you mean ‘proper environment’ anyway?”

In the company of saints, the body of Christ. You know, living among all of the other little mysteries with the same quirks, inconsistencies, wonders, issues, AND LORD as you.

You see satan has had a trick up his sleeve for a very long time. What is it?

Individualism.

He wants you to believe that you are the part which should be separated from the whole, the one who says, “No, I am different from all the rest”. Sometimes this ‘difference’ is thought of as ‘better’, sometimes ‘worse’.

Sometimes it suggests that ‘I’m more enlightened’, while at other times it suggests that ‘I’m not worthy’.

Whatever the case, it is a lie born in darkness.

You see, according to the scriptures, we are all the same. We have all fallen short. Not only that, but we discover that as through one man all have fallen, through one man all have been redeemed.

In fact, there remains no more sacrifice for sins.

That leaves us with two options:

1) Receive the redemption which God has provided

~or~

2) Continue to walk in darkness and at best remain in the deadly cycle of guilt and self righteousness until…well….

Whoever you are, I want you to know that when Jesus Christ was crucified, and spilled his blood at calvary, your sins were done away with and your self-life was destroyed.

When He was resurrected, he went up on your behalf and now is set down before the Father, representing you (and me). And you know what?

The Father is well pleased with His beloved Son.

This truth of our being reconciled to God contains tremendous power and as you enter into this grace, by the faith of Christ (that’s right, your faith doesn’t cut it) wherein you already stand, you will begin to know, in your heart, what the Love of God is and how it floods you very spirit, soul, and body. This love of God which reveals itself in you will begin to permeate every aspect of your being and begin to reach out to all of creation.

This is Good News!

This truth floods into our being, and our ’self’ becomes submerged within the Holy Spirit, healing our broken dispositions, purifying our tainted minds, and, in some cases, even bringing restoration to our damaged bodies.

So regardless of your personal ‘bend’ on things, and in spite of impossible circumstances, Jesus Christ is alive and well, and He is working in ways that may be impossible for us to comprehend.

He is good, and, chances are, He is better than we think He is.

Have a wonderful weekend in Christ!

Recent Ponderings part III (Wrapping It All Up)

It is at this point that I think I would like to sum up what my recent ponderings have been all about. Before doing so, it would only be fair for me to mention that in no way have I expressed everything that has been on my mind lately.

Some things I wouldn’t dare write about for ‘public consumption’. None of us are ready for that.

Hopefully I’ll be back in full swing before too long as these last few posts have been a little more from the top of my head rather than the center of my heart.

But let me give this summing up a shot…(from my heart)…

I think that from time to time it is a healthy thing to take a look at the things we hold to so dearly, the things that we profess to believe and what those things mean to us, and re-examine them, re-evaluate them to see if maybe we haven’t just been handed something that may or may not be true.

Do not be deceived. The power of tradition, in itself, is something that has been the reason and motivation behind many horrible crimes against God and mankind.

‘Salvation’ is one of many terms that us Christians have learned to throw around without really knowing what it means.

‘Reconciliation’

‘Justification’

‘Redemption’

‘Sanctification’

More terms. Words used to convey truth.

I’m sorry. I mean words that point to Truth.

All of these… are God.

“I AM your salvation.”

“I AM your reconciliation.”

“I AM your justification.”

“I AM your redemption.”

“I AM your wisdom.”

“I AM your SANCTIFICATION.”

“I AM the true bread from heaven.”

“I AM the way.”

“I AM the truth.”

“I AM THE LIFE.”

IN Messiah.

THROUGH Messiah.

FOR Messiah.

H A L L E L U J A H!!!

Recent Ponderings partII

Believers are Reconciled

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Reconciliation with God is something that has already taken place on the cross at Calvary. ‘Through His death…’ we have been reconciled. It is only now a matter of our believing this truth. This is the saving faith.

‘That is reconciliation, what about salvation?’

It is His Life in us which saves, which guides us through the process mentioned above (tribulation, perseverance, character, hope).

 

How to Perform

 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Here we have the key to working our salvation out. The gospel of Christ is the POWER of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Unbelief simply doesn’t work.

What the Heart Believes the Mouth should Confess

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and

with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Belief takes place in our hearts. If our righteousness were only the result of having the ‘right answer’, then that would make it a very mechanical and impersonal event.

No. God will not have that. We must absolutely have belief in our hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord. When this is so, confession with the mouth is a most natural occurrence…and the remarkable thing is that confession with the mouth is made unto SALVATION.

(Should I make this next statement or not…? Yes, I should…)

‘Salvation’ in the scriptures, is not primarily concerned with our eternal destination. Not in the conventional sense of those terms .TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION.

‘Biblical salvation’ involves right now.

‘But what about all the “…shall be” statements?’

When the time comes, it will still be right now.

(to be continued…)

Recent Ponderings part I

Are You Saved?

What is biblical salvation? Is it a position that we acquire by something that we do, or maybe it’s a ’status’ that only a select few are given from God above?

Is it the prize we get for knowing the right answer to Gods special question?

No, I really don’t believe this to be the case at all. In fact I think it is at once much more simple than we think and at the same time would take an awful lot of ‘explaining’ to un-do our hyper-religious mental programs that we have acquired over the years.

Briefly stated, I will sum it up in this.

YHWH IS SALVATION.

Okay, so you kinda get it…? No? You mean that you totally get it? Good. Now that we have it all figured out, let’s move on to something else.

Just kidding! (Actually, I’m_ not_ kidding. The name ‘Jesus’ mean ‘YHWH is Salvation’…., but I would like to elaborate on that a bit.)
First let’s look at the STRONGS definitions for the word saved:

(btw, although I like them all, I’m going to emphasize my favorite definitions.)

sozo (Greek)-

1) to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction

a) one (from injury or peril)

1) to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health

1) to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to save or rescue

b) to save in the technical biblical sense

1) negatively

a) to deliver from the penalties of the Messianic judgment

b) to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic deliverance

Below is a collection of scriptures which are pertinent to the topic at hand. They have been taken from various places in the new testament, so I have once again committed the horrible sin of ‘cut and paste’ theology. Please forgive me, but I believe that my overall point will nonetheless stand true in the end.

Hopefully my commentary will be enough to hold my train of thought together as you read through (here and in future installments of this series).

“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard [it], they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

But Jesus beheld [them], and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

Kingdom of God = Salvation

I think from the above passages, it’s safe to equate ‘entering the kingdom of God’ with ‘being saved’.

We can also safely and even dogmatically state that it is impossible to be saved without divine intervention.

To state that another way, it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God…without God.

His Great Love

… But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

In this passage we see that salvation is an event that has already taken place for the believer by the grace of God, through faith. In remaining consistent with our last observation, those who truly have faith in Christ have already entered the kingdom of God (Kingdom of God = ’salvation’).

The blood of Christ brings us near to God.

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh–who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands– that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

 

Accessing the Grace in Which We Stand

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

The key to accessing His grace is the key of faith. This key is a gift from God.

From STRONGS

Faith (Greek) pistis -

1) conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it

a) relating to God

1) the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ

b) relating to Christ

1) a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God

c) the religious beliefs of Christians

d) belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same

2) fidelity, faithfulness

a) the character of one who can be relied on

 

Faith is essentially believing the truth. This is the opposite of believing a lie.

One way believes God (or one of His messengers) the other believes Satan (or one of his messengers).

(I believe this is related also to ‘who our father is‘, but maybe I will touch on that at a later date.)

What exactly is it that we believe? What exactly do we have faith in?

The Truth.

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

It’s not a popular thing these days to speak of the saving power of the blood of Jesus Christ, but we read here, quite clearly, it is through faith in the blood of Jesus that we are able to declare HIS righteousness for the remission of sins which have been committed.

We are justified through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and nothing else.

Consider this text from ‘colossians’:

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Here we have the stated fact that we who believe in Christ have been rescued from the power of darkness.

Did you get that?

You have already been rescued. The power of darkness has no more power over you. Why?

Because you have also been conveyed INTO the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

And by the way, all value has been returned to you as a human being.

Your sins are forgiven and therefore you have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb.

Nobody said this Believe ism was Gonna be Easy

~OR~

Yes, There is also a Process of Salvation

 

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

In this process of salvation we are faced with tribulations. Because of our faith in God (which, truly, is God’s faith in us) we are able to persevere.

We learn to persevere in His strength. This is the character of Christ being developed in us.

It is important to know and to remember that we should glory in tribulation, and not count them as just some ’strange thing’ happening in our lives.

“(Hard times) work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to His purpose”.

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

This verse really puzzled me for a while. I mean it sounded like it made sense, but I just couldn’t really understand what it meant.

All and all, what the Lord is showing me at the moment in this verse is just this:

It is the love of God that sees us through the whole thing, and as we abide in Him, continue to look to Him, to trust Him, we will see that this is true.

(Sorry if all of this seems a little disjointed…but my thoughts have kind of been all over the place lately…but in a good way. TO BE CONTINUED…)