The Lord’s Assembly

Something to chew on…

The assembly really is not just a congregation, not just the coming together of people for services, meetings, conventions, etc., but the bringing together of individual heart exercise in the appreciation of the Lord Jesus in such a way that the Father can see His Son’s features expressed in human lives. That is the true nature of assembly life…

…each brings his own apprehension and appreciation of the Lord Jesus and all are united together in the assembly, the Father can look down and see the various features of His Son. That is the testimony of Jesus on earth: that is Christ tabernacling among us. As each one follows on to know the Lord in private, personal life history, so new discoveries are made of the virtues and values of God’s Son, and these are brought together in assembly life. When we have made such new discoveries of the grace of Christ we can come together with other children of God and speak and sing together of what we have proved experimentally in a living way and so we become a collective and corporate representation of the house of God.

T.A.S.

You can read the entire article here.

The Fullness of Christ: a meditation

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to

walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

with all humility and gentleness,

with patience,

bearing with one another in love,

eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body and one Spirit

—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—

one Lord,

one faith,

one baptism,

one God and Father of all,

who is over all and through all and in all.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

And he gave the apostles,

the prophets,

the evangelists,

the pastors and teachers,

to equip the saints for the work of ministry,

for building up the body of Christ,

until

we

all

attain

to the unity of the faith

and

of the knowledge of the Son of God,

to mature manhood,

to the measure of the stature of

the fullness of Christ,

so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,

by human cunning,

by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up

in every way

into him who is the head,

into Christ,

from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,

when each part is working properly,

makes the body grow so that

it builds itself up in love.

Not I.

I own no rights to any of the images used in this post. If you do and disapprove of the images being used here, please let me know and I will remove them immediately. Thank you!

Let’s continue our study in Paul’s letter to the Romans.

If you are new to this study, please take the time to read over…

Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Our text for today is Romans 7:14-17

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

Now that we have reconsidered our perspective of God’s law we can see that the problems that we have with our interior lives (and exterior conduct) are related to the flesh and the sin.

As Paul points out;

I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

Notice that in this passage Paul states that this ” I”  is not the slave of the flesh, but rather this  “I” is of the flesh.

There is a more accurate translation which reads like this:

I am carnal, sold under sin.

It is when we present ourselves to the sin that we find ourselves acting out in ways which we  (hopefully)  despise.

This kind of behavior is mentioned in another one of Paul’s letters as well, and it reads like this…

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.

I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal.

For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

The above passage speaks volumes to the Church in this present hour if we would but have ears to hear.

For the moment however, I would like to point out the fact that in the above passage, Paul is directly addressing a church which is very young Spiritually speaking.

They have not yet come into the fullness of the expression of the Divine Nature.  Rather than exhibiting behavior which speaks of their maturity in Christ, they manifest behavior, even among themselves, which reveals their Spiritual immaturity,  hence Paul says; “…are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”

This kind of carnal behavior is divisive by it’s very nature.

(More on that soon.)

For now, let’s continue in our Romans 7 text and see how Paul explains what it is like to be a “carnal” man, one who is perplexed at how his outward behavior contradicts his innermost desire….

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

How many of us can relate to this passage? A better question might be, “Who cannot!?”

Paul’s struggle here was that he actually wanted to do the right thing. He wanted to obey Gods law.

Paul truly wants to be truly spiritual.

He did not want to sin. In fact, he hated the fact that he could not harmonize himself with Gods ways.

Maybe this is something that we should all check our hearts on from time to time.

“Do I truly desire to truly love, as God truly desires me to truly love?”

Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.

The above statement is key.

What Paul is trying to explain to us under the anointing of the Spirit is that when we find ourselves vexed over our own unlawful behavior, this in itself reveals that, however deep down and covered up it may be, our true self is actually in agreement with God’s government.

In fact, our true self is not the one responsible for lawless behavior.

Read on…

So now it is no longer I who do it , but the sin that dwells within me.

Oh my!

Did you catch that?

If we, even as children of God, find ourselves behaving in a way which we know to be wrong, knowing and agreeing that Gods government is the true and proper way, we must realize that it is not us who is orchestrating such erroneous behavior.

No, it is not us.

It is the sin which dwells in us!

Does that fly in the face of what you have been taught or what you believe?

Well, it is the word of God.

Yes, I know that there are passages of scripture which work to balance this reality out, but let’s first grab hold of this reality as it stands here.

You see, all that any human being can do is to work the will of their master, and there can only be one master at a time.

Jesus illustrates this truth here in Luke’s gospel:

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other…

The two paths from which we must choose:

The government of the sin (which is what the evil one would have us to choose…).

or…

The government of the Spirit.

We can either hate the sin and love Christ or we can hate Christ and love the sin.

Either way, we will be loyal to one and despise the other.

These are heavy words, but they are also very true words.

However…

heavy as they are, friends…,

Let’s not lose sight of the good news!

If we were to stop here without reconsidering the blessed work of Christ Jesus, the very work which we learned something about in the last three parts of this study, we would all be in quite a mess, amen?

We need to be reminded of the fact that the work of Christ has effectually covered our past sins and is available to us to nullify the power of the sin within us.

As we look to this blessed Truth with hearts full of faith we shall see that we express the nature of our True Master.

This is what Paul reveals to us in his letter to the church in Galatia:

I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…

Not I but the sin.

or…

Not I but Christ.

Whatever the case, it is not “I”.

Remember, Saints;

“WE (I) have    been    crucified    with    Christ”!

(To be continued….)

N.T. Wright on the Parousia

Update: My Personal Top 11

In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t written much here in a while.

I’ve been consumed.

Life can be very demanding sometimes, ya’know? But it can also be very rewarding.  There is something to that…, something holy.

It would take me a while to write about my more current thoughts and experiences….so that’ll have to wait for the time being.

Instead, I’m going give you some links to what I currently believe to be my most important writings from this blog:

Here are the first three installments of a study on Romans 6,7, and 8:

Don’t You Know?

Death and Remarriage

The Law is Good

(There is more to come in this series, so please stay tuned!)

Here is a little poetry:

All in the Family

This is basically my take on living the Christian life in general (not that I have ever done it, of course…)

Us or Him…?

An open letter to my most favorite denomination:

(This one almost didn’t make the cut, but I believe that it is still very relevant indeed!)

OPEN LETTER

Here is a two part admonition against being triple minded:

Be-think-do

Be-think-do-2

What is ‘the world’ anyway?

What Is the World 1

What is the World 2

What is the World 3

Thanks for reading…and please feel free to leave any comments!

Death and Remarriage

Recently, I posted a message using the sixth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome .  If you have never read that portion of scripture, do yourself a favor and read it.  It contains some rather life changing insights.

By the way, if you haven’t read the post that I’m referring to please check it out (if you feel so led, of course). You just might come away blessed.

Either way, here is a brief recap of the message:

In Romans 6, Paul was explaining how a person is always either under the influence and authority of the sin (as translated in the Young’s Literal Translation of the bible)–

which is simply the exchange of the reign of God in the heart for self-reign, as proposed by the serpent….,which ultimately leads to the death…(If you want to know more about this ‘original sin’ and it’s consequences, read Genesis 3.)

or…

…they are under the influence and authority of God which ultimately leads to eternal life (aka The Kingdom of God).

Anyway, in Romans 6, Paul goes on to explain how those who have been baptized into Christ should know that they have been baptized into His death–that they, themselves, were included with Christ in His death– and that they should therefore consider themselves to be dead to the sin. They are in a position of freedom based on Christ’s death, a position which they should have understood at baptism.

Main point?

By the death of Jesus we have been delivered from the kingdom of the sin!

SET FREE.

However Paul doesn’t stop there. Instead he wants the believer to see that not only are they free from the authority of the sin by the death of Christ, but that just as Jesus Christ rose from the dead and now lives unto God Himself, we should also consider ourselves to be ‘alive unto God’ and available for His service.

Second main point?

By the resurrection of Christ, we have been transferred into His Kingdom!

IN HIS KINGDOM.

At this point I would like to keep tracking with Paul so as to see how the Holy Spirit led him to further develop his thoughts on the new relationship in Christ. This study will not be as “interactive” as the last one. Instead I will be using cross references from other area of scripture to help broaden our understanding of what he is saying here.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Moving along to the next chapter, Paul is taking a different angle. He is shifting his focus away from the sin/God dichotomy and opening it up to the law/Christ dichotomy.

In this instance, Paul is going to show us why the believer can live according to and in union with Christ rather than living according to and in union with the law.

On to Romans chapter 7…..

Or do you not know, brothers  —for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?

In this very first verse, Paul is stating that a person is bound to the Law so long as they live. In this passage, he is simply echoing the word of His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Read them as recorded in Mathews Gospel account (5:17-20):

`Do not suppose that I came to throw down the law or the prophets — I did not come to throw down, but to fulfill;

for, verily I say to you, till that the heaven and the earth may pass away, one iota or one tittle may not pass away from the law, till that all may come to pass.

`Whoever therefore may loose one of these commands — the least — and may teach men so, least he shall be called in the reign of the heavens, but whoever may do and may teach [them], he shall be called great in the reign of the heavens.

`For I say to you, that if your righteousness may not abound above that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye may not enter to the reign of the heavens.

Now those were Jesus’ own words as spoken to his disciples. In light of them, let’s keep tracking with Paul:

Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.

Now we have the specific example that Paul was led to use;

The Law of Marriage.

Once again, Paul is not coming up with any new doctrine concerning the law nor the law of marriage. Instead, Paul’s thought is in total harmony with what Jesus has already shared with His disciples  (as in Matthew 5:31-32):

`And it was said, That whoever may put away his wife, let him give to her a writing of divorce;

but I — I say to you, that whoever may put away his wife, save for the matter of whoredom, doth make her to commit adultery; and whoever may marry her who hath been put away doth commit adultery.

Now don’t let the “whoredom clause” throw you off. Jesus said that it was a legitimate reason to put away ones wife.

In that instance, she doesn’t need her husbands help to make her an adulteress– she has done a fine job of it herself already!

Paul, once again, is in harmony with Jesus on the matter:

Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

The only difference between what Jesus shared and what Paul shared is that  while Jesus makes it clear that the law remains intact ‘…till that the heaven and earth may pass away’ , Paul informs us that there is one way and only one way to be free from the law:

DEATH.

Likewise, my brothers,

you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

Can I get an amen!?

Once again, Paul is referencing the union that we share in and with Christ Jesus.

In Romans 6, we discovered that by the death of Christ, we died to sin. This death to sin allows us  freedom from it’s rule over our lives, and the resurrection of Christ affords us a new life which we may now live unto God.

And for what purpose?

“… the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life”.

And now in this first section of Romans 7, we see how that, through the body of the crucified Christ, we have died to the law–not simply to be free and single to wander aimlessly–but so that we might be joined to Another, that is the Risen Christ!!

And for what purpose?

“…that we may bear fruit for God”.

Now to let Paul finish out his thought:

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

Here, Paul is describing what life experience is like when we are…

a) “in our flesh”

b) with our “sinful passions” which are…

c) “aroused by the law”.

resulting in…

d) they  worked “in our members” to produce “death”.

There is always some kind of fruit.

I love it that Paul has no reservations about stating the fact that the sinful passions of the flesh are aroused by God’s law!!

…and it’s not that the law is a bad thing, it’s that there is something ‘bad’ in our mortal bodies, something which we inherited from Adam….(but we’ll get to that later).

But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

Alas, Paul’s thought comes to a beautiful climax where we discover that since we died with Christ in baptism, and have been set free from law (which is the strength of sin), we may now serve…

IN THE NEW LIFE OF THE SPIRIT!!

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this last verse! In times past I have somehow gotten caught up in a viscous cycle which went something like this:

Now that I am a Christian I should be able to serve the law and fulfill the written code (rather it be the commands of Moses, Jesus, Paul or anyone else)….I desire to ‘do the right thing’, but I continually find myself doing the very things that I shouldn’t….

Again, it’s not that the written code is a bad thing.

No, it’s a holy thing….

But we’ll get into all of that in the next installment of this series.

Till then, walk under His grace, and not under the law.

~Peace~

Dr. Tod Bolsinger interviews N.T. Wright

I am increasingly impressed with what brother Wright has to say to the Body of Christ.

If you have time, especially if you are unfamiliar with Bishop Wrights work, take a few moments to listen in:

 

{By the way, I have been working hard to cook up an actual post of my own…..which is currently stewing on the proverbial back burner.

I want to serve it up hot and fresh, but not until it’s seasoned just right….with the meat falling off the bones (hopefully no one will choke!!).}

EXODUS

Does this song speak to you?

It certainly does me.

All praises to Jah!!!

CHRIST IN Y’ALL

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that it’s one thing to read a book about ‘Christianity’ or some aspect of the faith and then another to actually live it out.

In fact, it is because of this that I must confess my own love/hate relationship with Christian books in general.

I love (some of) them because they can express the encouragement of a fellow believer in Christ or work to challenge or enlighten an area of my understanding.

And the hate?

Well, because like I said, it’s an altogether different matter to put into practice the things written.

Watchman Nee was bright enough to realize that although he believed in everything he wrote in The Spiritual Man, he also knew that once those same truths were read and assimilated into the memory, that they would actually only be understood on the surface level of the mind, thus resulting in a false sense of understanding and wisdom.

He actually regretted writing that book.

Furthermore as a Christian ‘writer’ (or blogger) myself, I know all too well how easy it is to write about something wonderfully profound while having very little experience of the actual matter myself.

But this is not always the case, and it is not the case with the book that I present to you today:

Christ in Y’all: Following Jesus into Community

Rather than simply expounding upon the truths  found in scripture concerning Christian community or the Church, Neil Carter followed his Lord and his heart , choosing instead to live those truths out in the wonderful and yet tumultuous trenches of close knit church life.

GIVING HONOR WHERE HONOR IS DUE

It is with nearly ten years of life as a brother in Church Life under his belt that Neil Carter offers his thoughts, reflections and insights to anyone seeking something more of Jesus Christ.

And how can I speak so assuredly of brother Neils credentials?

I’ve been here in Lithia Springs with him for almost five of those ten years.

I know this brother.

While there are many folks out there who might be very correct and very ‘right’ in their words regarding ‘how to live the Christian life’  (or even how it can’t be done), there truly aren’t that many who have the kind of experience that this brother has acquired living in church life simply as a brother.

And it’s not so much that he has simply  ’stuck it out’  in this particular way of life. It’s how he has done so considering all of the circumstances involved in doing life the way that we do it.

More importantly, to me, is that while Neil Carter writesfrom a place of experience in Church Life, I believe that he lives from an experience which runs even deeper than that.

Neil is a smart guy, but he’s not only a good scholar and writer,  he’s a good person.

How can I tell?

The way that he interacts with his family is probably the first giveaway.

Guess what?

He’s the husband of one wife.

He’s not a violent man.

He doesn’t drink.

He is leading his children into the ways of the Lord.

His children are well mannered.

He is patient and thoughtful.

He is discerning.

He cares.

Neil Carter has sought to walk in the light which he has received, and that, brothers and sisters, means a lot to me.

I listen to people like that, and If the Lord happens to be speaking to you about delving deeper into what it means to be the church or even what it means to be a Christian, I suggest that you give this book a once over.

But I get to walk over to his house and talk shop.

(You can stop blushing now, Neil.)

So….

I really haven’t actually reviewed the book for you have I?

Hmmm. I guess not.

But you know what? There can sometimes be a great gulf between a mans message and the man himself.

Today I have presented the man, and I encourage you to read his message.

In this case, they  are one and the same.

After all, isn’t that what it’s all about….?

…presenting The Man?

Live.

IT’s been a little while since my last post so I figure it’s time to take a minute to update the ol’ blog.

I really don’t have a whole lot to say right now other than I have been enjoying life in a very fresh yet very normal way.

I don’t feel that I have any ‘messages’ to share here at the moment…except for maybe this:

Life is for living….not thinking about…and not writing about.

One of the most significant promises that we have made to us in Jesus involves Life. A Life that is more real than what we now know to be real.

I’m not talking afterlife. I’m talking NOWLIFE.

Saints….,

LIVE.

Do not worry about past failures.

Be forgiven and also forgive.

Do not be anxious about the state of the world.

Trust the Lord.

We only get one shot at this thing here.

Make it count.