Tired of Sin Getting the Best of You?

A believer still fights with sin; daily. The Bible talks about overcoming the power of sin in Romans 5:12-8:39. This is a section of Romans that you should read again and again. In this section Paul talks about the sin that dwells in him (7:17, 20, 23), and the Spirit of God that dwells in him (8:9, 10, 11). He also describes the daily choice of the one you present yourself to obey (6:1-23). You must make a daily choice to place yourself under the Spirit’s authority or you will automatically fall under the power of sin to obey its lusts.

One of the most instructive passages about this choice is found in Luke 2:51-52 where it describes Jesus as a boy and simply says, “And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them…and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” This means that as a 12 year-old boy, Jesus already was able to recognize, respect, and submit to the authority that the Father had placed Him under. Jesus had authority because He recognized, respected, and submitted to the authority in His Life!

Recognizing, respecting, and submitting to the authority that God has place in your life is a conscience decision. If you do not willingly make that decision you will automatically fall under the power (authority) of sin in your life. You don’t even have to think about it. You will just automatically stay under it, deceived into thinking that you are in charge, when in fact, you are simply a slave to the sin that dwells in you.

God has put in place authority for you to be under in creation, in family, and in society in order to teach you how to willingly, daily, and consciously be under His authority in your life by the Spirit Who dwells in you. When you begin to recognize, respect, and submit to the authority in creation, in family, and in society, you will be more prone to recognize, respect, and submit to the authority of His Spirit, Who dwells in you. A person under authority has it! Once you have it, then there is a power in you that is greater than the power of sin and you rise above it.

Isn’t it amazing how a huge 747 sitting on the runway, full of passengers, is able to fly? How does it overcome the law (power) of gravity? By a greater law (power), the law of aerodynamics. When the plane hits a certain speed, with the design of a particular wingspan, and with proper guidance, it overcomes the law of gravity. It doesn’t strain for it, or try harder and harder for it; it simply rises with it. The Spirit of Jesus does not have any trouble overcoming sin. And He lives in you, if you died with Him on the cross, God also raised you up with Him on the third day. You have authority (power) over sin!

Does that mean you are sinless? You don’t have to worry about being perfectly sinless for a while. What it does mean is that you are able to sin less and less. Progress toward perfection is what you should experience as the Spirit of God dwelling in you reveals more of more of the sin the dwells in you and you experience more and more of His power in you as you repent by recognizing, respecting, and submitting to His presence in you. This is bad English but good theology. Don’t try it until you get tired of sin getting the best of you.

Are You a Thermometer or a Thermostat?

A thermometer changes its temperature with the environment. A thermostat sets its temperature and then influences the environment around it.

Far too many of God’s people are like a thermometer. When it gets hot around them, their mercury goes up too. When it gets cold around them, they get that way too. When it gets mean and nasty…they do too, boring… they do too, exciting…dry…they do too.

But God designed us to be more like a thermostat. Our temperature is set by the Holy Spirit in union with our spirit on Love, Joy, Peace… When the temperature is hot around us, we cool things down; when it is cold, we warm it up…. We influence the environment rather than reflect it. Jesus called this being His witnesses in the world.

How to switch from being a thermometer to becoming a thermostat.

·        Get new “mercury,” by receiving a new heart. When you receive Jesus Christ He gives you His Spirit. He lives in you, with you, through you, as you, in the world around you. He reflects the Father, not the world.

·        Keep your mind stayed on the Lord by staying in His Word each day. As you keep a verse in your mind and review it throughout the day, your “setting” will remain on Him.

·        Keep your “filters” changed by spending time with God each day in prayer, in His Word, and by serving Him. Our lives get clogged with the world by just living in it, but time with God will keep the filters clean and unclogged.

·        Be obedient to the Lord rather than to the world, the flesh, or the devil. As you obey the Lord, His Life is experienced by those around you.

No one ever walks into a cool house on a hot day and talks about how wonderful the thermostat is. But they will talk about how wonderful air conditioning is. As you walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, those around you will experience Him and will praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

Being Used

When was the last time you used somebody? I hope you never have. So, why do we think God does that; use people? Who ever heard of a child going up to his father and saying, “Daddy, please use me today.” Or what parent tells their child, “I want to use you today.” That sounds sick because it is sick. How ridiculous. And yet we hear that in our prayers all the time, “God, please use me today…” Why do we pray like that?

We may pray like that because we want to be useful to God and not a hindrance to Him.  But why would we think we are a hindrance? What child thinks she is a hindrance to her parents?

Being useful is something that a tool is, or a car, or a computer, or a phone, or a building, or a piece of money, but we should not think of people that way. We certainly should not think of ourselves that way. We are not tools or things. So why do we think of ourselves that way in relationship with God, our Heavenly Father who loves us more that we can ever imagine? Do you not know that through faith in Jesus Christ you are a child of God, a joint heir with the Lord Jesus Christ?

Or maybe we think He needs us to do stuff for Him. He can handle everything without us, always has, always will. He doesn’t need us. I think that when we pray like that, “O Lord, use me…” it reveals a need in our lives, not His. I want to be useful. This need is based upon a performance mentality rather than a love relationship.

God loves you for who you are, not because of how useful you are. He doesn’t want to use you; He wants you to love Him and trust Him and join Him today in what He wants to do in you, with you, through you, as you before the watching world around you!

Rather than pray, “…use me…” ask the Lord to include you in what He wants to do around you. Or, if you are praying for someone else, rather than praying, “…use him/her…” pray, “God, show us what You are doing. Here am I, send me…send them…send us, Lord. We volunteer!”

I believe if we could hear God answer the prayer, “Lord use me…” He would say, “My child, I don’t want to use you, but I do want you to be with Me today in what I am doing. Let’s do it together; you and Me. I will teach you as we work together. It will be fun. Let’s spend some time together today. Don’t worry about the project. I’ll take care of everything related to that. I want you to know Me and My love for you. This is more important to Me than completing some project or being useful.”

Next time you hear someone (or yourself) pray “Lord, use me…” don’t judge them or criticize them (or yourself), but rather simply add your prayer, “Lord, thank You for your great love; show us what You are doing. We want to do that too, with You.” AMEN!

Get Over It

If you don’t get over it, you never will; Duh. One of the things we get hung up over is being upset over someone or something. There are several tried and failed ways of getting over it and there is one way the Bible reveals.

One of the tried and failed ways sounds like this, “…stuff it down… suck it up… get busy…it will soon take care of itself… it’s not that big a deal in the big scheme of things…just ignore it…” The reason this has failed is seen in a fact that builders of large projects know very well; if you fudge an inch here, it will be six feet off down there, and will become 20 feet off before the project is complete. Life is a bigger project than any building on earth. Holding on to being upset will only get worse and worse and worse. You can’t manage “upset.” It will grow on you.

Another tried and failed way is to blame other people. A problem comes up and we think all we need to do is to find who is to blame, knowing it is never you.  Remember the guy in John 5:1-17 laying beside the pool of Bethesda for 38 years? Jesus asked him if he wanted to be made whole. What did he say? “No one will help me…someone always beats me into the water.” He blamed others for the condition he was in. Adam did the same thing in the garden, “…the woman that You gave me, she made me eat.” Please.

When you constantly blame others you make yourself the judge in order to avoid giving an account for your actions. You refuse an inalienable responsibility; you must give account to God. He created us with a response-ability. Blaming others is the first and most basic sin and character flaw.

Then there is the old, hash-it-over-with-others-you-and-I-are-friends-I’m-giving-it-to-you, method. This is also called the shared offense syndrome. When you hash over your upsets with friends, what you are really doing is trying to get support for your ill feelings and your right that “they” (those who are to blame) are wrong. You try to justify your actions which have been directed by hurt feelings. Feelings are very real and can be very wrong and misleading. When you share your offense with others, it grows larger in them and spreads.

There are others, but what is the one way to get over being upset that the Bible reveals? One simple word, repent. Simple, but not easy. Repent means you make a course change because you have gotten off course. One of the first things you learn in driver education is that you cannot keep your hands still on the steering wheel. You must always be making slight corrections because the car will drift. If you don’t correct it immediately, and carefully, the drift will put you in the ditch or into the path of an oncoming vehicle, a head-on path. After you learn how to do this you don’t even notice it much, but you are constantly making slight course corrections. This is what it means to repent.

Repentance is constantly making corrections because you have your eyes on the road (the Way, the Truth, the Life), and your mind on the destination (Colossians 3:1-4).  In the Bible everything leads to repentance; God’s kindness to you leads to repentance (Romans 2:4), godly sorrow leads to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10), miracles are for the purpose of pointing you to repent (Matthew 11:20ff), instead of saying “Wow, did you see that,” we are to say, “Woe is me for I am undone…” Current events are to lead us to repent (Luke 13:1-9). Good, bad, or boring, like driving, we are to be constantly making corrections. Repent. This will get you over it.

I'm Looking Forward to All of This Being Behind Me...

Have you ever heard someone say that? What’s crazy is that it is already behind you!

There are several ways people look back. Some look back with a longing to go back. Back to “the good old days.” They usually say something like, “…it was so much better back when you-know-who wasn’t around…” or “...back before you-know-what happened…” or “...back when things were different…” Of course, things are different every day.

Others will look back with regret. This sounds something like, “…if only he would not have…” or “if only they would have…” or “…if only it would have been different…”

Still others will look back for fear of looking forward. This sounds like, “….but we have never done anything like that before…”

The Bible teaches us that there is only one way to look back; with gratitude. We can always look back and say, “Thank You, God! You are so good and have been so good to me!” Looking back with gratitude recognizes that the blessings that God gave you in the past are still with you today because they are eternal, like God. God and His blessings are related that way. Nothing that changes can change that. The only way to lose the blessings of the past is to lose your grateful heart for them today.

With all of the things that are changing in your life, know this; Being thankful is the only way to keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Being thankful is the only way to mature in Christ-likeness. The only way to look forward is to be able to look back with a thankful heart.

Being thankful does not ignore the problems and difficulties of the past. Being thankful enables you to see that you were not alone during those problems and trials; God was with you and got you through it, victoriously and He is still with you today.

Try this; “I’m looking forward because I know that God has taken all of this that is behind me and has formed Christ in me with it. Thank You, God. You are awesome, amazing, and all-together GOOD!!!”

The Prosperity Gospel is Bankrupt and Needs a Bailout

Have you ever heard of the “prosperity gospel?” What is that? It refers to the all-American message of success and accumulation, and it is bankrupt and needs a Biblical bailout! Praise God!!!

In our culture, success is usually measured by a lot of education, as in at least a college degree, if not post graduate degree; a good paying job, with benefits; a mortgage; good looks (usually meaning you have a membership at a health club regardless of whether you are healthy or not); two cars, some degree of recognition in the community (not with the police); and of course, storage space, for all of the stuff you don’t need but still hold on to just in case you might need it (we get attached to our things). In our culture “success” means that you do not struggle much; you have plenty of leisure time; things happen easy without delay or much effort. This is the American gospel of the abundant life, the prosperity gospel…and it has just about gone belly-up-bankrupt.

The Bible uses words like prosperous and abundance in a different way. Psalm 1 describes the blessed man as one who is prosperous, “…whatever he does, prospers.”  The Hebrew word for “prosperous” is saleah (pronounced say-lee-ah). It has the basic meaning of being victorious over an enemy. It is built on a root word that means to break through, as in breaking through an enemy’s defenses. This has nothing to do with the accumulation of things. It has much to do with trusting in the strength and provision of the Lord God Almighty for victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil! God says, “…no weapon formed against you shall prosper.” Isaiah 54:17

This is the kind of blessing we need in America, a blessing of victory over sin and the sinful lifestyles that have destroyed the foundations upon which our nation was built. But the blessing of prosperity, of victory over the enemy, does not come without repentance from the way of the ungodly, from associations with the wicked, and from a disrespect of authority that is so prevalent in our country. The break through that is needed will not happen until we meditate on God’s Word and sink the roots of our faith deep into Christ, receive the Holy Spirit as our life and daily nourishment, and present ourselves daily at the cross where the death sentence of the flesh can be carried out.

Another interesting use of this word, saleah, prosper, in the Old Testament is when David was anointed as king, when he was just a boy, by Samuel; 1 Samuel 16:13. It says that at that moment the Holy Spirit rushed upon David. He prospered David.

May the Holy Spirit prosper you in 2012!

Knock Off Everything That is Not a Horse

Michelangelo was one of the world's greatest artists and sculturers. He kept students around him constantatly who wanted to learn his talent. The story is told of how one day he stood with a student staring at a block of marble. The student said, "Master, what do you see?" Michelangelo said, "I see a magnificent horse. Can you see it?" The student just stared, wanting to, but not seeing what the artist could see. Finally, the student asked, "So how do we begin?" Michelangelo said, "We knock off everthing that is not a horse!"

This is exactly what God is doing in your life everyday, knocking off everything that is not Christ! But He will not do it without you. Everything good in your life, everything difficult in your life, everything triumphant in your life, everything tragic in your life, everything is a tool in the hand of God to form Christ in you, with you, through you, as you, in the world around you, for His own glory.

This is something to know, as James 1:2 instructs us. We do not rejoice in trials, we rejoice knowing something in the trials. What do we know? We know that the trial is in the hand of God. He is in control of it and He knows what He is doing with it in our lives. Not only do we rest in knowing that God has this thing under His control, we also know that God is using it to chip away everything of Adam in our lives. In Christ, we are in the creation, the new humanity, Jesus Christ. As we received our sin from Adam, in Christ, we receive our righteousness, God's righteousness, by faith in Jesus Christ. We are born from above and receive new life, a new spirit, from God. Jesus made this possible on the cross as evidenced by the empty tomb. But even in Christ, we still have much of Adam on us that needs to be chipped away. Some would call it the rough edges. The Bible calls it the flesh. It is death and it has no part in the new creation.

So how can I join up with what God is doing in my life today? Present yourself to the Lord everyday through prayerfulBiblestudy. The computer does not recognize this word, but it is one word in the Spirit, prayerfulBiblestudy. You cannot separte these. If you do, you will come up short of presenting your whole self, body, soul, and spirit, to God. Follow the lead of the Holy Spirit in your life as He convicts you, strengthens you, teaches you, and assures you. He will give you wisdom by His power at work in you, knocking off everything that is not Christ. It may be painful, but He is also the Comforter. Blessed be His Holy Name!