The Gospel in Leviticus

Study Guide, March 13, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

When the question comes up of what the Old Testament is about, oftentimes the answers go right to things like; The Ten Commandments, The Great Flood, or The Wars of the Israelites and the Nations, or about Moses and the Law, and so on.  Rarely do you hear someone answer that the Old Testament is really about Jesus.  It’s kind of like looking at one of those paintings that are made up of all kinds of different scenes, but together they combine to show one overall image. It’s kind of like that, only it’s even way more than that.  Here’s what we mean:In one particular encounter when Jesus was challenging the claim of the Pharisees that they were followers of Moses, Jesus said, “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.” John 5:45-46 NASU

Can you imagine their response when Jesus told them that Moses was writing about Jesus?  The central message of Moses writings was about Jesus!  They were the teachers of the Torah, but they didn’t even realize that the Torah was all about Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah!  Moses had been describing the ministry of the personage of the coming Messiah, the Christ!  And later on after Jesus’ Resurrection He pointed this out this same thing to some of the disciples on the Emmaus Road, as He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:25-27 NASU

The next time someone asks you what the Old Testament is about you can tell them that it’s actually about Jesus, ‘beginning with Moses and with all the prophets’. In fact, in the book of Leviticus, we have some preview pictures of the Gospel, as depicted in the Levitical offerings that the Israelites practiced for 1500 years, until these offerings were all fulfilled in the offering of Jesus Himself.  Or we could call them what the Apostle Paul called them: “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day – things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” Col 2:16-18 NASU So these preview pictures of the witness, the works, and the Person of Jesus were shadows of the Substance to come.  Or they were shadows of the Savior to come. And some of the most prominent shadows of the Savior were the offerings that Moses introduced and wrote about in the book of Leviticus, or we could say, in the Gospel in Leviticus. So let’s look.

Remember, a principle understanding that the people had about what was involved in order to have a relationship with God was this; forgiveness from God preceded fellowship with God. And ever since the Fall, when the sacrifice of an innocent was required to atone for or to cover the sin of the guilty, the people realized that these offerings, these sacrifices were ‘mediatory sacrifices’, so that they could be forgiven and have fellowship with God.  And an interesting definition of ‘mediatory’ is ‘that which provides a link between two parties or persons’.  In other words, when the people brought their offerings, especially like those of the burnt offering and sin offering and guilt offering, they understood these offerings were their ‘links to God’.  And of course, we know that these temporary links, these shadows, would one day become a permanent link, or these shadows would become the Substance in the Person of the Savior, the Messiah – Jesus.

Notice how that’s described in Heb 10:1-7- “The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That is why, when Christ came into the world, He said to God, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But You have given Me a body to offer. You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do Your will, O God – as is written about Me in the Scriptures.’” NLT  Again, these Levitical offerings were shadows, previews of the true Substance; of the witness and works and Person of Jesus Christ.  But still, they were necessary ‘links’ or ‘mediatorial works’ in order to have a relationship with God.

Another way to understand what sin did is to realize that sin ‘disconnected’ people’s spirit from God’s Spirit. In other words, their spiritual ‘link’ to God was broken.  And there was nothing they could do to fix it.  God would have to do something to fix it, or to repair the spiritual link between their spirit and His Spirit.  Actually, another thought provoking question to ask people is: “So, Who is your link to your relationship with God?  Who is your ‘Mediator’?” Most people don’t realize they have to have a Mediator in order to have a relationship with God, nor do they realize ‘Who’ this ‘Mediator’ is or ‘what’ a ‘Mediator’ is!  But we are clearly informed in 1 Tim 2:3-6 that we do need this ‘Mediator’: “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” NASU  Ever since the Fall of mankind into sin, no one is now able to come to God on their own…and in their own merits.  A human being can only come to God through the one Mediator between God and man, and that is the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Remember how the Apostle Peter stated that?  Let’s look at it in the Amplified Version for clarification: 1 Peter 3:18- “For Christ [the Messiah Himself] died for sins once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous (the Just for the unjust, the Innocent for the guilty), that He might bring us to God. In His human body He was put to death, but He was made alive in the spirit…”

No one can come to God on their own.  They have to be brought to God by Jesus, as their one Mediator between them and God.  Essentially, Jesus is mankind’s only ‘Link’ to reconnecting with God. And so all of these offerings that Moses introduced for the people to practice were their temporary links to God.  They were ‘mediatory’ sacrifices, foreshadowing the final sacrifice of the Mediator Himself, Jesus, the Messiah.

These five offerings combine to present the virtue and the value of Christ’s Person and His sacrificial work in five distinct aspects.  So First, the Burnt Offering.  Lev 1:3-4- “If the animal you present as a burnt offering is from the herd, it must be a male with no defects. Bring it to the entrance of the Tabernacle so you may be accepted by the Lord. Lay your hand on the animal’s head, and the Lord will accept its death in your place to purify you, making you right with him.” NLT  Right away this shadow or preview picture of the Gospel of Jesus jumps right out at us. And, of course, the unblemished animal is a picture of the sinlessness of Jesus.  And the subsitutionary aspect of the sacrifice pictures this: Rom 5:8-9- “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” NASU

The theme of the Gospel is that God accepts Christ’s death in our place, in your place and in my place, in order to justly pardon our sin and to also save us from God’s judicial wrath. Speaking of ‘wrath’…how many people do you think would answer the question – “So, when we become saved, what are we saved from?” with Paul’s statement – “We are saved from the wrath of God through Christ!”?  Most people who have a fair understanding of the Gospel would say that Jesus saves us from the penalty of our sins, and rightly so. However, not many would include “and from the wrath of God!”  There are some concepts that seem to have slipped off onto the bottom shelves of religion in our modern secularized world: concepts like – Repentance, Hell, and here, The Wrath of God.  But it’s clear that the Bible clearly teaches us about this wrath of God. Paul clearly points it out.  And So does the Apostle John. Many people know about John 3:16, but not many seem to know what John continued to say in John 3:36- “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” NASU

‘The wrath of God abides on him’.  How’s that for a sobering way to look at unsaved people around you?  Try it!  When you look at those who have not repented toward God and placed their faith in Jesus Christ to forgive their sin and to save them from the wrath of God, fill in this picture of this spiritual truth and reality.  We need to get real with the real teachings of God.  In order to see the unsaved in a Biblical way we need to see them with this ‘wrath of God’ still on them.  That’s what the Apostle John is telling us.  The unrepentant unsaved are already under the condemnation of the sentence of sin.

Be very clear on this; this is not a vindictive or a malicious thing with God towards people.  God so loves the world, but justice requires judgment against sin, for it was sin which killed the spirit that God had placed within mankind; it was sin that caused a curse on God’s creation and His creatures; it was sin that has destroyed the lives and corrupted the works of people and nations throughout history; and it was sin that caused God’s eternal Son to have to endure the sufferings of the Cross and to be put to death in order to remove sin’s eternal penalty from those who would repent of their sin and trust in His Son to forgive their sin and save them from the sentence of condemnation, and…to save them from the wrath of God upon sin.  God’s wrath is God’s judgment upon sin.  Oh yes, “For God so loves the world”, but God must judge sin.  And if the sinner doesn’t repent of their sin and come to Christ to have that sin penalty removed from himself or herself, then he or she will be condemned with their sin.

And once more, the fact is; they already are condemned.  What each person needs is that they need to get this condemnation removed from them by coming to the one Mediator between God and Man, the God-Man, Jesus Christ.  And when they do then the Lord will then accept Jesus’ sacrifice in their place.  And this wrath of God which fell on Jesus at the Cross will then not have to fall on them.  They are forgiven and ‘linked back’ to God forever, through Jesus, their Mediator, their Savior.  (And if you have any question about that, or are not sure about your own standing with God, you need to make sure by turning your life over to God in repentance and trusting in Jesus as your Savior by faith. And you can talk to Jesus about that even now. If you’ve kept Him outside the door of your heart, it’s time to ask Him in, while you still have time.)

The second offering was The Grain Offering. Lev 2:1-3- “Now when anyone presents a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. He shall then bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests; and shall take from it his handful of its fine flour and of its oil with all of its frankincense. And the priest shall offer it up in smoke as its memorial portion on the altar, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons: a thing most holy, of the offerings to the Lord by fire.” NASU

Do you remember Jesus’ words in John 6:48-50? “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” NASU  For those who knew the Scriptures, the more they heard Jesus talk, the more these shadows from the Old Testament took on substance; these pictures in the Old Testament sacrifices took shape in the life of Jesus being lived out before their very eyes.  Now, there was no shedding of blood in this offering, so it spoke of the perfections of Christ in His Person and in His works.

The third offering was ‘The Peace Offering’ or a ‘Thank Offering’.  Lev 3:1-2; 5- “Now if his offering is a sacrifice of peace offerings, if he is going to offer out of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without defect before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and slay it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood around on the altar. Then Aaron’s sons shall offer it up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering, which is on the wood that is on the fire; it is an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. NASU

Where have we heard that about Jesus, this aspect of being a ‘peace offering’? Rom 5:1-2- “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.” NASU  This Levitical ‘Peace Offering’ pictured the peace that we can each have both in our relationship with God and in our fellowship with God. Notice this, it is really amazing.  In the peace offering there was included a portion that was set aside for God and then a portion that was set aside for those offering this up to God.  What a great picture of God communing with His people, communing with us not just on a ‘God to Man’ level, but on a ‘Father with His children’ level.  God wants and desires and delights in our fellowship with Him as our loving God and Father.  We each need to spend a long reorienting our thoughts about God concerning this wonder about Him.

We’ll have to pause and look into the wonder and meaning of the fourth and fifth offerings next time.  But we do need to point out a preview about what we’ll study further next time in relation to these five offerings, and that is to realize that it took these five offerings to foreshadow what the substance, what the Savior, was going to accomplish in His life and death as the one Mediator and as the final sacrifice as the Lamb of God for them and for us.  It took all of these pictures to show the glory of the one picture of the coming Deliverer, Lord, Messiah, and Savior.

And it also shows us that even with all of the many things going on in these people’s lives and going on in the nations they had to deal with and going on in the world around them, still, the central focus was to be on what Jesus said it the Scriptures were all about:  “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”  Jesus is the central focus in all the Scriptures. Which means that Jesus is also to be the central focus of our own lives. Let’s make sure that He is, day after day.

Living Life Over Before It’s Over, Pt. 10

Study Guide, March 6, 2016

We recently had a really nice visit with Sharon’s parents in Myrtle Beach.  And we were looking at and talking about some of the artifacts they had brought back from their Mission work with the Asmat people in Irian Jaya, Indonesia.  And as we were marveling at how they could sculpt such intricate figures and designs out of hardwoods from their forest trees we were talking about how sculptors tend to see the figures in the wood even before they begin.  It’s an often repeated quote, even though it’s not certain of the exactness of it, but the quote goes that Michelangelo was once asked how he could sculpt such an amazing work as the figure of David out of a block of marble. And he said that he simply removed everything that didn’t look like David.

If you think about that, that’s not only a good way to think about how you go about sculpting figures out of marble or wood, but it’s also a very accurate way to think of how you go about revealing more and more of the image and character of Christ in a Christian’s life.  For when we talk about things like our need to represent Christ to others around us, we could very well think of that in terms of re-presenting Christ to others around us, by letting more and more of the image and character of Christ be revealed or to come through us.  It’s actually an important way to understand what spiritual growth and maturity is all about.  And if there is one thing we need to live out or to live over, before our life is over, it is to live out the Biblical process for spiritual growth or spiritual maturity, because this process is actually quite different from how many believers usually think about it.  Actually, it has more to do with how sculptors bring out these figures from rough cuts of wood or marble than many would even imagine.

The eyes of many Christians tend to fog over when they begin thinking about concepts like spiritual maturity or spiritual growth; like what is the process for this growth and even how do we measure this maturity?  Plus, much of their focus of Christian living then gets centered on their condition; focusing on what they have learned and what they have done, along with what they have yet to learn and what they have yet to do and not do and on and on.  And soon this track of learning and doing becomes their focus of measuring their maturity.  And although these efforts are undertaken with good intentions, they are often filled with lots of frustrations as they go round and round this track of learning and doing and hoping for self improving.  And it’s no wonder many become frustrated because Christianity is not a rehabilitation program nor is it a self improvement program … it’s a ‘living out the life of Christ’ in us process.

When we came to understand our need to give our lives to Christ in repentance and to receive Him into our life by faith, we also learned that our need was not rehabilitation; our need was total regeneration.  We needed a new birth of our spirit and an implantation of a new nature, a new self that was united to God Himself.  God birthed a new spirit within us, and that spirit was united to Christ’s own Spirit.  And then we learned that as far as our old self, in which sin resided, this old self was not set apart by God for improvement…rather it was taken to the Cross and was crucified with Christ. That’s why Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Gal 2:20 NASU

Remember, as our Substitute Jesus went to the cross alone, without us, to pay the penalty of our sins; as our Representative, He took us with Him to the cross, and there, in the sight of God, we all died together with Christ.  That’s why we may be forgiven, because Christ died for us, in our place; and that’s why we can also be delivered from our old selves, because we died with Him.¹ And God’s way of deliverance was to create a new self in us that was united to Christ Himself. 2 Cor 5:17 NASU – “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  A Christian is one who is ‘in Christ’ and Christ is ‘in him or her’.

Again, God is not working on helping you to be a better you or me to be a better me.  No, God is working on forming Christ in you, or even revealing Christ through you.  And that brings us back to the sculpture picture.  Think about it: In Christ God was made manifest to the world.  Now, in Christians, Christ is to be made manifest to the world.  In other words, the focus of my life now is not to be on the improvement of myself in order to be a better me for God to then show a better me to the world and others.  No, the focus of my life is now to be on Christ and not me, with the goal of revealing more and more of Christ through me.  It’s like the Sculptor working to bring out a particular image from within the material he is working with. It’s like God as the Potter working with us, His vessels, to bring out the shape or image of Christ from the inside of our lives to the outside of our lives.

This is the key work of God in our lives. That’s what the Apostle Paul was saying to us.

Take a look at that passage in Rom 8:29 NASU – “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son…”   Here is the primary answer to the question of “What is God’s will for my life?” The foremost thing that God has for you to do in life is to become conformed to the image of His Son. That’s what Paul revealed to the Galatian believers in Gal 4:19 NASU – “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you…” 

Again, in the Person of Jesus Christ, God was made manifest or revealed to the world.  And now, in the persons of you and me, Christ is to be made manifest or revealed to our world.  And so, just like with these pieces of marble or wood, we are now to simply remove from our lives anything that doesn’t look like the image and character of Christ, so that we cooperate with the Master Sculptor in letting Christ’s image and character be formed and revealed through us!

Okay, we get this! However, back to the process: in order to do this there must be a shift in our focus from this ‘condition’ of our life to the ‘position’ of our life.  In theological terms this is known as the difference between Progressive Sanctification and Positional Sanctification.  So let’s explore this…

First lets look to understand Positional Sanctification.  And we turn to Heb 10:10-14 NASU – for this: “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” 

What this is describing of course is that through the complete sacrifice of Christ the penalty for our sins was completely removed from us.  This is also known as Justification, where God can now declare us both ‘Not Guilty’ and also ‘Righteous’ in His sight because Jesus both removed our guilt and gave to us the merits of His own Righteous life.  This removal of the penalty of sin and the crediting of Christ’s righteousness gives us a secure standing or an eternally saved ‘position’ as a son or daughter of God’s, whereby we are completely set apart or ‘sanctified’ as God’s own child forever.

But along with our ‘position’ as a completely sanctified child of God’s, we are now also called to ‘progress’ in our life here on Earth as God’s children.  Our position as a Justified, Sanctified, Reconciled, and Secure child of God’s is complete.  And now God’s will is that our ‘practice’ or our ‘progress’ in righteous living should increasingly correspond to our ‘position’.  And we are to ‘progress’ in this cooperative work with God more and more throughout our lives.

Progressive Sanctification can be seen in passages like Rom 6:19 ESV – “For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.” 

This ‘leading to sanctification’ is referring to living our lives in such a way that we are progressively becoming more and more committed to living holy, set apart, lives for the sake of pleasing God and blessing others, as well as enjoying these blessing in our own lives.  This reveals that one clear way to help us better think about what spiritual growth and maturity means is that it simply means that we are to think of it in terms of ‘progress’ in our spiritual development and growth and experience.  And what we are ‘progressing’ in is that we are more and more reflecting in our life and conduct what we are in our ‘position’ as a child of God’s.

And with that we come full circle, because the key to real progress in the Christian life is to focus upon or to dwell twice as much, or even more, upon our ‘position’ in Christ than our ‘progress’ as a Christian.  Because it is in our ‘position’ in Christ that we find our union with God, our acceptance in the Beloved, our security for all eternity, and our purpose of maturity.  The fact that one of the key phrases in the Epistles is ‘in Christ’ tells us how important it is to both identify ourselves that way and to then seek to live that way.

Remember; ‘Whose’ you are is to determine and direct ‘Who’ you are.  The blessings of ‘belonging’ to God begin with the fact that you do ‘belong to God’.  And as such, you and I are not our own.  As we have said before, the house of our life is not a duplex, with us living on one side of the house and Christ living on the other side.  No, when Christ came into your life He declared it to be His temple.  And you and I became His priests of the temple.  And there is a particular image in this temple that God is trying to now unveil or reveal to the world around us, and that image is the image and character of Jesus Christ, the Owner of the temple and the Lord and Savior of your life.

Christian growth or Christian maturity doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it out to be.  It’s not like we have to run to and fro trying to gather up the materials and try to patch up or reform or rehabilitate or self improve our lives to look and be more like what we or others think a Christian should be.  No, we just have to turn our eyes more and more upon the One who has moved into our lives and made it His temple.  We just have to remove whatever there is of us that is keeping others around us from seeing Jesus in us.  We have to remove the veil of self-pride, and take down the walls of our self-defensiveness, and sweep away the debris of our selfishness, and make it easier for people to see past us and into the temple of our lives to see something of the image of Jesus Christ who now indwells us.  What we have to stop doing is to stop trying to show the world a better image of ourselves, and instead, to just try to point others to the image of Christ, Who has come to live in the home of our life and make us His temple.  What the world needs to see is not you and me, but Jesus in you and in me.  Let the Divine Sculptor carve away everything from and in your life that doesn’t look like the image of Christ.

And that is what others will then see as we turn our eyes upon Jesus and focus more and more on our position, on our relationship with Him, as His redeemed child and as His personal priest.  And as we go about our priestly duties of offering up our sacrifices of worship and service to Him, who dwells above and even within, then we will turn our eyes from the burdensome tasks of straining to grow spiritually and trying to grow personally to simply thinking about how we can better show others the King who came to live within us when we invited Jesus Christ into our lives to be our Lord and Savior.  The Christian life is kind of like inviting someone to come over to your house to meet and get to know the King who lives in your house as your honored guest for life!

This is what the Apostle Paul was writing to the Corinthians about in 2 Cor 4:5-7 (NLT)- “You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 

When we make Christian growth and maturity to be about trying to make better versions of ourselves, we set off on a course that is frustrating and wearying and confusing and becomes a heavy burden that God never intended the Christian life to be for us.  But when we let go of these shackles of trying to improve or renovate the old self that was crucified with Christ, and just let it stay dead, then we can turn our attention to the One who was raised from the dead, our Lord Jesus, and who raised us up with Him to walk in a newness of life.  And that’s a life of partnership between His priest, you and me, and Himself, as we share this temple of His, this body of His on earth.

Just think about that: Jesus lives within you and me. And the more we get to know our Lord who lives within our temple, along with all the glories and wonders of Jesus, the more we will then be able to forget about ourselves and let go of ourselves, along with all the frustrations and failings we feel about this and that in our lives, and to just live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave up His life for us.  You see, Our attention will turn from ourselves trying to spiritually grow, to us now trying to spiritually show others more and more of Jesus in and through ourselves.  And isn’t that just what Jesus was trying to get us to see and to enjoy? “I am the Vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit…” John 15:5 (NASU)

And isn’t bearing fruit a whole lot more enjoyable and less stressful than carrying a sack of burdens on your back of your failings and faults and expectations and on and on that you’re still trying to work out and work on?  The Christian life is not supposed to be that hard.  But we make it that hard when we focus on our condition of our life and on our feelings about ourselves and this, that, and the other thing, along with the frustrations ourselves and with others, instead of just dwelling on our position in Christ and our priceless privilege of knowing and serving the One who has come to indwell our temple now and to give us a new resurrected temple for our eternal dwelling with Him.

But we need to live with a focused faith: A faith that is focused on Jesus, who dwells in Heaven and also dwells in us, through His Spirit in us, so that we can then grow the fruit of Christ Spirit through us.  Friends, the heavy burden is us; it’s our self; it’s our old self in us.  But the joyful blessing is Jesus Himself, in us.  So that’s why we just have to get out of the way and try to forget about ourselves and to then focus more and more on Him, on Jesus and His life in us and on His way and truths that He wants to show the world through us.  And when we seek to let Jesus increase in us as we decrease in us, the more we will reveal Jesus through us, along with all the blessings that come to us and others.

And that is what spiritual growth and maturity is all about anyway.

And this is certainly something we need to try and live over and over… before our life is over.

1. Miles J. Stanford, Principles of Spiritual Growth, pp 72-73
2. Gleanings about ‘Position’ and ‘Condition’ from The Complete Green Letters, Miles J. Stanford, and from The Believer’s Bible Commentary, William MacDonald

Living Life Over Before It’s Over, Pt. 9

Essential, but not Obvious, Principles for Victorious Christian Living

Study Guide, February 28, 2016

How would you like to spend a little time in the quietest place on Earth?  At the Orfield Laboratories in Minnesota is a sound absorbent chamber that various companies use to test their products to find out just how loud they are.  NASA has sent astronauts there to help them adapt to the silence of space.  The thing is, this room is so quiet that the longest anybody has been able to bear it is 45 minutes.  At absolute quiet you begin hearing your own body, like your own heart beat, and even the sound of your lungs working, and other sounds of your body fluids in your organs and head.  And after awhile you become disoriented, and it can simply drive you crazy.

(Let’s see if we can get some tickets for that!)

Who doesn’t want to be at peace in their life?  Even as Christians, who have made peace with God having been justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we are still called to live in such a way so that God the Holy Spirit can then grow the fruit of peace in our lives.

Interestingly enough, to grow the fruit of peace calls for having a sound mind.  And to have a sound mind requires us to listen and learn truths from God about living according to truth.  And this requires tuning in, not so much to the obvious sounds we hear from our world around us or even from our own head and heart, like in that absolute quiet chamber, but tuning into truth from God in order to learn about true life and true living.  Even true peace in life calls for hearing from God and God’s Word.  But once again, these essential truths and truth principles are not obvious to the world, nor often even to God’s people.  So let’s identify some of them.

We know the Christian life is begun through what the Bible calls repentance and faith.  Jesus reminded those listening to Him: “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:5 NKJV Another way to describe ‘repentance’ is ‘surrender’.  We were going our own way, living life like our own master, until we repented and turned from sin and self to Jesus as our Master, and also trusted in Jesus as our Savior.  And in surrendering to Christ as our Lord and Savior we have victory over the bondage of sin and death.  Well, guess what?  Surrender to Christ is not only the key to victory over sin and death; surrender to Christ is the key to victory over self and all of life.  In fact, your greatest victory is your victory over yourself. But that is a victory that is only gained through your surrender to Christ. Daily surrendering to Christ is the only way to true victory in life.

One of the great hymns of the faith is ‘I Surrender All’.  Some of the words are: “All to Jesus, I surrender, All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live. Humbly at His feet I bow, Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me Jesus, take me now. Make me Savior, wholly Thine; May Thy Holy Spirit fill me, May I know Thy pow’r divine. Lord, I give myself to Thee; Fill me with Thy love and power, Let Thy blessing fall on me.”

What if you were to make that be your prayer every morning for an entire month!  Actually, they say you have to do something six weeks in order to make it a habit, but even a month of starting your day praying this way would set your mind and heart on a course of a fresh sense of living in victory…through surrendering to Christ each day.

So begin your day with a verbal prayer of surrender to the Lordship of Christ, and watch what happens.  Your degree of surrender will be the proportion of victory you will experience in your life over the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Similarly, your degree of resistance or neglect of surrendering to the Lordship of Christ will be the proportion of defeat you will experience in your life to the world, the flesh, and the devil.  1 Peter 3:15 “...but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.” NASU

Let’s move on to another not so obvious principle for victorious Christian living.  George Mueller, a Christian Evangelist and Founder of Orphanages in England, emphasized how much true faith is to be anchored on Scriptural facts.  He said, “We have to do with the Written Word, and not ourselves or our impressions. Impressions have neither one thing nor the other to do with faith.” He also said, “The province faith begins where probabilities cease and sight and sense fail. Once we begin to count on facts, our Father begins to build us up in the faith. God delights to increase the faith of His children.”

And how does faith come to us and then increase in us? Rom 10:17- “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” NASU Faith does not consist of a ‘leap’ onto a hope-so kind of landing – no, faith consists of one ‘step after the next step’ onto the rocks of certainty. Faith must be based upon certainty. Faith is not just positive thinking; faith is factual thinking. When the Apostle John was testifying of the faith of the Apostles he said this: 1 John 1:1-4- “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life — and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us — what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.” NASU

What was John’s point?  His point was that his faith was not based upon some feeling or fantasy or some impression or inclination; his faith was based upon a Person that he and the other Apostles had heard with their own ears and had seen with their own eyes and had touched with their own hands. Their God was the Word of Life that was now made manifest.  What’s that mean?  It means that their God was a God with skin on!  And He still has skin on! Remember after Jesus’ resurrection, when Thomas was having trouble with his faith? What did He tell Thomas to do? Right; “Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” John 20:27 NIV

Our faith is wrapped up in a God that has skin on.  Yes, Jesus is off planet right now; in Heaven, but He is still in His resurrection body and still has skin on.  Whatever else we have yet to learn about Heaven, one thing we know is that the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ is there; the same One that John heard and saw and touched; the same Lord and God that Thomas saw clothed in flesh and bone; the same Jesus that the Angels told the Disciples: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11 NASU

When we were standing on the Mount of Olives in Israel this verse became like a neon blinking light, because not too long ago Jesus ascended from there to enter Heaven, until one day He will descend to that same Mount of Olives in that same Resurrection body in the same way that He once ascended. And those that are there will watch Him physically return to that same physical place.  By the way, when you look up into the sky you need to realize that Jesus is up there or out there somewhere in a very real physical resurrected body, just waiting for the right time to return and make things right in His world.  He is even working on preparing a physical new capitol city, the New Jerusalem, that will be brought down to the physical New Earth.

Again, a very essential truth, yet not so very obvious, is that fact that Faith is not something based only upon spiritual revelations, but that which is also all wrapped up in physical realities. Even in our own fellowships, when we read the Word of God, we are hearing Jesus speak.  When we see other Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we see the living Temples of the Spirit of Christ.  And when we touch a fellow Christian we touch the ‘Body of Christ’ here on Earth, whose true head is Jesus Christ. It’s all spiritual truth, but it’s also a very physical reality.  Faith is about spiritual and physical facts.  We really need to bring our faith down to Earth, so to speak, in order to spiritually walk on solid ground.

And speaking of solid ground, in the second verse of another great hymn, ‘The Solid Rock’, we are called to a discipline that we don’t readily think of as a spiritual discipline.  In other words, this spiritual discipline is definitely not obvious to many, but still, is quite essential for living a victorious life.  The verse says this: “When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.”  What is this discipline? It’s the discipline of ‘Rest’.  And just how important is it to practice this discipline of ‘Rest’?

First of all, it’s important to know just how important this ‘Rest’ is. Matt 11:28- “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” NASU ‘Rest’

is a special gift of God’s grace that He gives to us as a result of coming to Christ; coming to Christ for salvation and also coming to Christ for sanctification.  In other words, this ‘Rest’ is a key component in both our new birth of our spirit and of our subsequent spiritual growth.  The prophet Isaiah pointed this out in Isa 30:15- “In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” NASU

A key part of the victory of Christ over this world of tribulation and struggle and sin and strife is this ‘Rest’ that Jesus won for us. John 16:33- “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” NASU Remember, Christ’s victory over this world has already been won. And as His heirs, His victory is our victory; victory over sin and death; victory over suffering and sickness, victory over trials and troubles, victory over destruction and even the devil.  Certainly, the battles against these things must still be fought in this world, but the victory over them all is ours and will one day be complete.  Victory is assured, and therefore we can ‘rest’ in that. Again, note carefully: This ‘assurance’ of final victory is to become our ‘assurance’ in the midst of present battles.  And this is part of what makes us ‘peculiar people’, for we are not as those who have no hope, but through faith in Jesus Christ we live with confidence, and we even die with assurance.

We live in one of the most ‘restless’ ages of history.  Knowledge is increasing, but wisdom is decreasing.  Every scientific or medical break-though seems to be countered by some social or material break-down.  It seems for every sin there’s a support group.  There’s a definite growing restlessness in the world.  But Jesus says to us, “I have overcome the world, and I will give you ‘Rest’.  And mark it down, the ‘Rest’ that Jesus gives really is different from all the ‘rest’.

This gift of ‘Rest’, this discipline of ‘Rest’ is not about lethargy or inactivity.  It’s not about complacency or isolation.  No, this ‘Rest’ is a condition in which your mind can feel at peace, and your heart can feel loved, and your soul can feel alive. You can have a present satisfaction because you have an assured future.  And even if present burdens aren’t lifted you have a ‘Burden bearer’ with whom you are ‘yoked together’, and so you can live with the sense like the Psalmist spoke about in Ps 46:1-3- “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.” NASU

Now, do not forget the ‘Selah’ here…for ‘Selah’ means ‘to pause and calmly think about that’.

So, think about it.  You know, ‘Selah’ is found seventy-one times in the Psalms.  It principally means ‘rest’.  And it involved not only the sense of marking a place to pause in the music of the Psalm itself, but it especially called the people to the practice of calm reflection on the message of the Psalm.  As one Bible Dictionary described it: “The ‘Selah’ reminds us that God’s message requires a peaceful and meditative soul which can apprehend what the Holy Spirit propounds or declares.”

So we could call it: The discipline of Selah.  That would be a good conversation topic with your family and other friends.  You could tell them you’ve been trying to focus more on practicing the discipline of Selah in your life.  And then you can go on with the rest telling them about this discipline of ‘Rest’.

But the point is, even though we all have to go through the same kinds of trials and struggles and sicknesses and sufferings as others in this world, as those who are ‘in Chirst’, we are to go through them differently, to go through them with a sense of ‘Selah’ about it all. Why? Because: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Rom 8:1-2…and because: “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom 8:31-39 NASU

Determine to do life differently.  Do life as a Disciple that practices these disciplines of Surrender to the Lordship of Christ, of acting in faith on the facts of God’s truths, and of doing it all with a sense of a soul at rest in the victory you share with Jesus, who has overcome the world.

‘Selah’

Living Life Over Before It’s Over, Pt. 8

Study Guide, February 21, 2016  – Pastor Clay Olsen

Prov 4:20-23- “My son, pay attention to what I say. Listen closely to my words. Don’t let them out of your sight. Never stop thinking about them. These words are the secret of life and health to all who discover them. Above all, be careful what you think because your thoughts control your life.” ERV

‘Be careful what you think because your thoughts control your life’.  Isn’t it ironic that one of the disciplines that people tend to think least about is this ‘discipline of thinking’? In fact, no doubt the most undisciplined area of life in people is this area of the thought life.  And we’re not talking about imagination and creativity or wonder and reflection and all of these great capacities that God equipped us with and intended for us to use.  We’re talking about the human habit of just regularly resorting to the practice thinking according to natural Humanism and falsehood instead of thinking according to righteousness and truth, and having a disciplined thought life; letting righteousness and truth guide them in their adventure of imagination and creativity and wonder and reflection and such.

As we have stated before: Life was never intended to be a ‘self-guided tour’.  Life was designed to be a ‘Holy Spirit guided tour’.  For if God the Holy Spirit does not guide your steps in righteousness and truth, beginning with guiding your thoughts, then you will surely fall into the ditch of Humanism and falsehood time and again in your walk of life.

Remember, the wisest man who ever lived said: “Be careful what you think because your thoughts control your life.” Proverbs 4:23 (Solomon)

A recent article was praising what they thought were some great thoughts about life, like:

‘Leap and the Universe will catch you’…I’m not sure about the Universe, but the ground will sure catch you.  Another one was ‘Make today so awesome that yesterday gets jealous’…I did like this one about the world in which we live:  ‘You live, you learn, you Upgrade!’  Actually, the Bible is the ultimate and final upgrade for life.  And this one was pretty good:  ‘Laugh loudly, laugh often, and most important – laugh at yourself.’ Right, take life seriously, but take yourself lightly.  And then there was this one: ‘Change your thoughts and you’ll change the world.’ Now they’re on to something!

So people can come up with some helpful and positive principles for living.  That’s fine. But God’s people are called to step it up concerning not only the source from which we are drawing out our principles for living, but also to step it up as to ‘Who’ we are first seeking to please in our lives, our God. And to please our God not only in what we do, but even in what we think.  What we are trying to get to is what the Psalmist got to in how he managed his thought life: “May my words and thoughts please You. Lord, you are my Rock—the one who rescues me. Ps 19:14 ERV  So the first question we need to be asking ourselves about our words and even our thoughts is not are these good thoughts for living, but are these thoughts pleasing to God?  Are not only the works of my hands, but also the meditations of my heart, or my thoughts, pleasing in the sight of my God? The Psalmist reveals to us that the Biblical discipline and goal for our thinking is to be this: ‘PGF’, or: ‘Please God First‘. Having ‘God Pleasing Thoughts’ is what we are to set as our goal of our thought life.  Remember, words and thoughts are ‘deeds’ just as are actions and works.  Our thoughts are ‘deeds of the mind’ and these ‘deeds of the mind’ are to be disciplined as much as our actions and works are to be disciplined.

Now, we are certainly free to think and do as we choose, however, we will be held accountable to God for what we have chosen to think and do.  Remember, we reap what we sow…and that includes our thoughts.  Free range chickens are good, but ‘free range thinking’ is not good! The Apostle Paul pointed this out as clearly as it could be stated: Phil 4:8-9- “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.  Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable, and excellent, and are worthy of praise.  Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” NLT

Paul describes having a disciplined thought life, or having a planned thought life. And if there is one area of life most of us need to focus on living out before our life is over it’s right here in practicing or developing a ‘Thinking Plan’…one that is guided by the ‘Thinking Plan’ that God has outlined for us here in Philippians 4 and elsewhere. In fact, this is how the book of Proverbs starts; by calling for us to develop this thinking plan in order to develop our mind the right way, or the ‘righteous way’. Prov 1:1-3- “These are the proverbs of Solomon, the son of David and king of Israel. They will help you learn to be wise, to accept correction, and to understand wise sayings. They will teach you to develop your mind in the right way.” ERV

What is the implication from this?  The implication is that if we do not learn from our Maker how to think wisely and to be teachable and to seek understanding and to commit to this habit for our minds, then our minds will not develop the right way.  In fact, not only will they will develop the wrong way, but they will develop in a ‘harmful’ way…harmful to us as well as to others. Note a later Proverb about this: Prov 15:32- “If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding.” NLT

How often have you heard the saying, “He’s his own worst enemy”?  Well, the thing is, many of us are our own worst enemy, simply because we do not practice a disciplined thought life, and as such our thoughts tend to trample over many good things; trample over the things that we are to be developing or growing in our mind and life.  These undisciplined thoughts are like a cattle stampede running through a field of crops…trampling over the things that are true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable, and excellent, and are worthy of praise.

I was thinking that we all need to learn some ‘Cowboy’ skills so that we can learn to lasso the wild steers and wild horses of our thoughts that are often running around loose in our minds doing more harm that we often realize.  We need to learn to break these unbroken thoughts in our minds, and then to simply “run off” from the ranch other critters, like wolves and such; the kind of thoughts that don’t belong there at all.  Isn’t that part of the implication we get from 2 Cor 10:5- “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” NASU

So we are to capture and control our thoughts in order to not only have an obedient life, but to have an ‘obedient thought life’. An obedient thought life?  My, this concept is simply foreign to the world, isn’t it? Isn’t it odd how the Humanistic mind will practice some form of discipline either in career training or athletic pursuits or personal health goals and such.  But when it comes to their thought life, there are no boundaries or disciplines at all!  Or, their disciplines are open to all kinds of falsehoods and deceit.  And they convince themselves that this habit is okay because they couch it in terms of: “Well, people have to keep an ‘open mind’, you know?”  But as has so aptly been said, “Most open minds need to be closed for repairs!” Actually, an ‘Open mind’ is really an ‘Unguarded mind’.  And we ought to know by now what the enemy of Man’s mind is trying to do. “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.” John 10:9 NLT  When the enemy of souls finds an unguarded mind he steals thoughts of truth, he kills thoughts about real life, and destroys the sensitivities of that person concerning the sovereignty of God over their life.  And when you look around at our culture of so-called ‘open-mindedness’, which is simply ‘unguarded minds’…how successful do you think he’s been?  How successful have Satan’s tactics been? He’s having his way with so many people, isn’t he?

Also, a so-called ‘Open mind’ is a ‘vulnerable mind’.  It is vulnerable to the sicknesses of false teachings and immoral activities.  Again, when you look around at our country which has swallowed the lie of keeping a so-called ‘Open mind’, which is really a ‘vulnerable and an unprotected mind’, how successful do you think our enemy has been in infecting those minds with falsehood and immorality?  This is part of the reason for the Biblical caution, the neon blinking sign, of “If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself…”!

The Bible doesn’t call for us to have an ‘open mind’, as if we have the ability to discern and decide and to evaluate all truth by our own completely trustworthy judgment.  What deception, what arrogance, and what a lie from the pit!  No, the Bible calls for us to have a ‘Humble mind’.  And a humble mind listens to what God says is the truth about the human mind and heart.  It is a striking diagnosis: Jer. 17:9-10- “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruits of his deeds.” ESV

What is more deceitful on Earth than the human heart and mind? Nothing! So for any human being to trust in his own heart and mind is the pinnacle of foolishness.  But our world, our own culture, says just the opposite.  The mantra of nearly all movies, television shows, and songs in our culture is:  ‘Trust your own heart’. But God calls out to us with this warning: Prov 28:26- “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.” NASU

A humble mind does not trust its own mind or heart to be the standard for discerning truth from error or for judging right from wrong.  No, the humble mind looks to God and God’s Word to help him discern truth from error and looks to God and God’s Word to help him judge between right and wrong.  The humble mind says “Yes Lord” to this: “Trust the Lord completely, and don’t depend on your own knowledge. With every step you take, think about what the Lord wants, and He will help you go the right way. Don’t trust in your own wisdom, but fear and respect the Lord and stay away from evil. If you do this, it will be like a refreshing drink and medicine for your body.” Prov 3:5-8 ERV

The person you should distrust the most is the one who looks back at you in the mirror each day.  We have a mind that is susceptible to great deception and we have a heart in which we are not to trust.  But what we also have is we have the Lord as our Savior and the indwelling Holy Spirit as our guide.  And He will guide us into all truth, His truth, and into the very mind of Christ. In the Bible we have the mind of Christ.  We have the thoughts of God.  This is the mind we are to learn from, and His is the heart we are to trust, and His thoughts are the thoughts we are to follow. And our thoughts are to then be taken captive and to be led by God’s Spirit that He has made to indwell us.  And when we do this, as the Proverb 3:8 tells us, “it will be like a refreshing drink and medicine for your body.”  Or as Jesus put it in His ‘Sermon on the Mount’, this way of thinking and living is what truly causes us to ‘be happy’.

Remember that catchy song a few years ago that was sung by Bob Marley, “Don’t worry…Be happy”?  It was a fun little jingle, but the basis for ‘being happy’ was a little hard to figure out, as some of the lyrics to the song said:  “Ain’t got no place to lay your head…Somebody came and took your bed…Don’t worry, be happy…The landlord say your rent is late, He may have to litigate…Don’t worry, Be happy…Look at me, I’m happy!”

I guess you can ignore life’s problems, but actually, life is not about ignoring life’s problems… it’s about facing them head on with God’s promises, thinking about life from God’s viewpoint and acting on God’s authority.  Again, life is not about going your own way, thinking that is the pathway to happiness.  No, you can’t get to the destination of ‘Be Happy’ without taking God’s road of ‘Be Holy’.  We should be singing: “Don’t worry…Be Holy…that’s how you, Be happy.”  But really, that’s what the ‘Be Happy’ Attitudes are all about. In Matthew 5:3-12 Jesus told us how to be happy: “Happy are the poor in spirit: for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Happy are those who are sad: for they will be comforted. Happy are the gentle: for the earth will be their heritage. Happy are those whose heart’s desire is for righteousness: for they will have their desire. Happy are those who have mercy: for they will be given mercy. Happy are the clean in heart: for they will see God. Happy are the peacemakers: for they will be named sons of God. Happy are those who are attacked on account of righteousness: for the kingdom of heaven will be theirs. Happy are you when men give you a bad name, and are cruel to you, and say all evil things against you falsely, because of Me. Be glad and full of joy; for great is your reward in heaven: for so were the prophets attacked who were before you.” BBE

So ‘happiness’ is directly connected with ‘holiness’, not only in our words and works, but also in our thoughts; in the discipline of how we think.  The key is this: Are we taking our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ? To live as a disciple of Jesus Christ requires thinking as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  It’s joining in with the Psalmist and each day consecrating the words of your mouth and the thoughts of your mind and heart in order to be pleasing to God first.  Remember, ‘PGF’! ‘Please God First’!  And when your thoughts are pleasing to God, you can be sure they will be pleasing to you, or they will be a blessing to you and also a blessing to others.

God calls us to develop a disciplined thought life, to have a ‘thinking plan’, a Biblical filter through which we can then discern truth from error, and to then judge with righteous judgment, which is using God’s Word and not our own opinions.  We are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, which includes our minds, so that we will not be conformed to the world around us, but transformed in the renewing of our minds.  And in doing so we can be sure that God is well pleased, and that He will gladly lead us in a life of worship and service throughout this life; before our life is over.

Isa 26:3- “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.” KJV

There’s No “I” in “TEAM”

Study Guide, February 14, 2016  – Pastor Clay Olsen

“There’s no ‘I’ in ‘TEAM’!  Anyone who has ever played a team sport probably heard their coach say that at one time or another.  And of course the point was about focusing on the progress of the team rather than the preferences of yourself, and about putting the welfare of the team above the interests of yourself.  Interestingly enough, that would be a good motto to add to marriage vows, don’t you think?  Like, “And I now pronounce you husband and wife…Oh, and by the way, just remember, ‘There’s no ‘I’ in ‘TEAM’.

But ‘TEAM’ is not only to be the focus in sports, but it’s especially to be the focus in marriage.  How odd though, that such a fundamental principle can become so easily neglected.  And yet, that’s not surprising, since one of the fundamental flaws of human nature is to default to ‘I’ thinking over ‘TEAM’ thinking and to being ‘self’ focused above being ‘servant’ focused.  If we each don’t regularly re-focus to serving one another for the sake of the ‘TEAM’, then we naturally default to focusing on serving ourselves for the sake of our ‘self-ishness’.

You’ve got to watch out for that ‘ishness’ when it gets into ‘self’.  It’s like a virus…the virus of ‘ishness’ that infects the ‘self’.  And like other viruses, there are no antibiotics for that.  Just like you have to put extra effort into good health habits to overcome a virus, the same is true of overcoming the ‘ishness’ virus in marriage.  It’s takes extra effort to practice good marriage habits to overcome the virus of ‘self-ishness’.

So let’s talk about some of those good habits or work up a ‘game plan’ for promoting the best interest and welfare of the team; of ‘Team Marriage’.  And of course, the first thing to remember is that the most important person in your marriage is neither the husband nor the wife; it’s the Lord.  Ps 127:1- “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it…” NASU Let’s get specific here: “Unless the Lord builds the ‘marriage’, they labor in vain who build it…” Remember, a Christian marriage is never a relationship between ‘two’ persons, but a relationship between ‘three’ persons, with one of those ‘Persons’ being the Lord Jesus Christ.  And He is the one whom the marriage is not only to be built upon, but He is also to be the primary builder.  Otherwise the last part of that verse kicks in…’they labor in VAIN’.

Often we think of ‘vain’ as meaning ‘prideful’ or ‘wasted’ and such, which it does.  However, in terms of building, a part that is considered ‘vain’ is a part that can’t be used to build what builder intended.  In home building, if the supplier delivers the wrong materials, those materials have been delivered in vain.  And the parts themselves were ‘vain parts’, since they can’t be used to build what the home builder is trying to build.

Be very clear on this: God intended to build something through your marriage long before you ever even met each other.  God had a blueprint for what He wanted to build in your marriage and through your marriage long before you ever got married.  Remember, God is a builder.  Even on Earth, Jesus was a Carpenter.  Do you think He wanted us to catch the symbolism of that? God builds things! And even in Jesus’ saving ministry what did He say He was doing? “I will ‘build’ My church!” God is a builder…a builder of Disciples as well as a builder of Husbands and Wives and their married lives.

So the first thing a married couple should be focused on is not what they plan to do in their lives, but on what God wants to build in and through their lives.  And the first obvious thing is that God is trying to build is His image and character into each life of the husband and wife. The not quite as obvious thing is what He then intends to build through their lives.  But be assured of this: if you are paying attention to cooperating with God in building His character qualities in your life, God will see to it that He will use you in building what He intends to build in and through your life.

Since God is a builder of your marriage, what does that make you?  That makes you a fellow builder with God, seeking to build what He is building.  You are a fellow builder of God’s seeking to first build up your spouse’s life.  And we’re not speaking about so much in physical girth as in spiritual growth. I’m definitely a bigger man than when Sharon and I got married, girth wise…but that’s not the point. Sharon has been a fellow builder with the Lord into my life in her counseling, encouraging, teaching, praying ministries and more for the building up of my life and in the building of this house of marriage that God had a plan for building even before we got married.

Which also makes building the house of marriage an adventure of discovery, because even though God has the blueprints for what He intends to build, He doesn’t show you all the details up front, does He?  Do you think He has a reason for that?  Yes, He does…and one of those reasons is so that His fellow builders, His married children, will have to work together on all levels in order to build what God intends to build.  The ‘Great Contractor’ has ‘subbed-out’ a lot of the building to us ‘Subcontractors’.  And we will have to work together for the sake of doing what our Great Contractor wants done.

Again, either building a strong house or building an effective team requires this central commitment to the goals of the primary builder or team owner, or in this case the Lord of our lives and Lord of our marriage.  And that leads to an essential habit.  And the word we often use for this habit is communication.  But we’re going to take that up a notch because when it comes to communication many times couples will agree to go further down the road of communication, but the the trouble is that they tend to leave by the side of the road the most important aspect of communication; and that is – Understanding.

It’s quite remarkable that when the Apostle Peter speaks to husbands about stepping it up in how they care for and relate to their wives he doesn’t say to ‘communicate’ more with their wives, he says “…live with your wives in an understanding way…” 1 Peter 3:7 NASU You see, the goal in your marriage is not just communication, but understanding. It’s like the old statement of: “I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I said, ” You know what I mean?

Maybe a better question is: Why is the ‘understanding’ part of communication the tricky part? Remember this: We tend to see things not as they are; we tend to see things as we are.  In Apologetics that’s called having a World-view, where we tend to look at things and understand things through a preconceived internal filter in our mind and emotions that causes us to form a belief or opinion or notion about things.  And we not only do that with the world of ‘beliefs’; we tend to do that with whatever and with whoever is in our world; like even with our own spouses. So that’s why the Apostle Peter tells us husbands to not just to seek to communicate more with your wives; no, he says you have to go deeper than that; seek to live with her in an ‘understanding way’.

Now, being an Apostle, he only spoke truth.  Therefore, he didn’t say it was possible to completely understand her…he said ‘live with her in an understanding way…’ Sure, all things are possible, but in the case of men and women fully understanding each other…that seems to fall under that part in the love chapter of 1 Cor 13:12 where it says: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” NASU  It’s like when Sharon and I are in Heaven, and I’ll say, “Oh, now I fully understand what you meant when you said…”

But the point is that we are to make ‘understanding’ and ‘living with each other in an understanding way’ be the goal of our communication. And that means learning more and more about each others way of thinking, feeling, and acting concerning the spiritual and physical, and the mental, emotional, and volitional areas of each others lives. And that means that we make ‘learning’ more about each other become a priority work, or team-work of our marriage. And that makes sense because the word ‘Disciple’ means ‘Learner’. So it makes sense that we would certainly be a Learner of our Lord and Savior and about our Lord and Savior and also then a Learner of and about our Spouse and Fellow Team-mate and Fellow Builder.

Here’s a fascinating Proverb: Prov 20:5- “A person’s thoughts are like water in a deep well, but someone with insight can draw them out.” TEV  So here are several helps in our goal of seeking to better live with our spouse in an understanding way; some helps in drawing out this water from a deep well.  Over the years in premarital counseling and in marriage counseling we have used some key questions for married couples to regularly talk about in order to help them better understand one another and to also then better serve God and others together as a team.  I’ll just give some of them and if you want to see more of them I’ll cite the source at the end in the study guides.  So here are some great questions for married couples, or even for the unmarried to keep, for if or when marriage comes along, or for good helps in counseling others. So here are the questions:

• What are some of the most important things we’ve learned since we’ve been married?
• How can I be more sensitive to your needs? (And after your spouse comes to off the floor…then you can talk further about that…)
• What has happened to us in the past year to make us draw closer together?
• Do you feel threatened when I disagree with you, or make a decision you don’t like? Do I give you a fair voice in decision making?
• How can we disagree on something without offending each other?
• Are there any habits or mannerisms in my life that bug you? (You might need to stipulate a cap on this, like only 5 at one time or something…)
• What should our priorities be for: our personal growth as Disciples; our development of our children’s lives; our material needs; our vocational goals?
• How can we encourage each other more?
• Are we being good stewards in the use of our tithes and offerings of our finances?
• What can we be doing to teach our children financial wisdom?
• What are some positive ways we can teach our children: to be unselfish; to be kind to others; to be responsible; to be committed to the Lordship of Christ in all areas?
• What values and practical skills should our children have learned before they leave home?
• What have you learned from your Bible readings lately?
• If someone came up to us and said, “Tell me how I can know God personally”, what would we tell them?
• Are we contributing to our church family in our time, talents, and treasures as we are able?
• How can we resist the materialism that’s swallowing up our culture?
• What were some of the highlights of your week?
• What have we learned so far about our next home; Heaven?¹

Again, the point of these questions is not the gathering of information from each other, but the continual pursuit of better understanding each other and building up your ‘Team’ mentality.  And by the way, your ‘Team’ includes ‘God’s Team’, or God’s church. For remember Jesus’ words? “I will build My church.” So that means part of your team building exercises include those things you do with and for your ‘Church Team’.  Studies have shown that 97% of broken marriages involved one or both partners who did not attend church regularly.  On the other hand, only one marriage in 57 of those who regularly attended church broke up.  Furthermore, only one in 500 marriages of people who were deeply devoted to God broke up.  And that devotion included serving God’s family and His cause.  It’s when we serve a cause bigger than ourselves, God’s cause, that our hearts enlarge. (And we’re not talking ‘inflammation’ here, but ‘inspiration’.)

And how like our God to design us in such a way that we thrive on inspiration, but we wilt from dissipation.  And dissipation includes the definition of ‘using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly’.  You see, When we are just going through the motions of marriage or of life in general without regular refills of ‘inspiration’ then we default to these effects of dissipation.  But when a couple makes it their goal to build what the Master Builder is trying to build; to build what the Lord God is trying to build in and through their marriage, then He refills them with the inspiration they need to stay on task and to provide that ‘joy for their journey’ that we know is their strength for living.

Remember that we pointed out in our Men’s Advance highlights that ‘Maintenance’ is not the purpose of living – Making the most of the times we’ve been given for the glory of God is!  And that applies to our marriage as well. Marriage is a gift from God, just like Singleness is a gift from God.  The point is; whatever you’ve been given from God, the maintenance of it is not the purpose of it.  The purpose of it is to join with God in making the most of it, not first for yourself, but first for the glory of God and then the gain of your spouse, the gain of your own family, the gain of your church family, and the gain of others.  And in doing so, you will be inspired by God and blessed with gain in your own life for joining with God in being a fellow team builder, for the glory of God and the gain of His Kingdom.

1. Dan Benson, The Total Man, pp. 157-163

Living Life Over Before It’s Over, Pt. 7

Study Guide, February 7, 2016  – Pastor Clay Olsen

How do things get so complicated in life? A lot of problems come from miscommunication. Even companies have to be careful of how they market their products, especially in translating them into foreign languages. Remember KFC’s long-running slogan of ‘Finger lickin good’? In Chinese that came out as ‘Eat your fingers off’! When an American T-shirt company wanted to promote a recent visit of the Pope they thought their Spanish T-shirts were saying “I Saw the Pope”, but it translated as “I Saw the Potato”! Now when Pepsi was promoting their soft drinks in Taiwan, they may have actually gotten an unexpected boost to their sales because they thought their advertisement was saying “Come alive with Pepsi”, but it was translating out as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead”!

But it’s easy for things to get complicated when you’re not clear on what you are actually saying. Even when it comes to the concept of Kingdom living, many people complicate their thinking and their communication concerning what Kingdom living in this world is all about. They tend to make it about so many things that they get a little overwhelmed and sometimes just check out a little bit from the call to ‘seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you’, as Jesus stated.

What if we could compact into just three things what Kingdom living is all about? Would that take some of the stress out of thinking through what all the Christian life involves and what Kingdom living in the here and now is all about? Sure it would. And, Praise God, the Lord has already done just that for us, as the Spirit of God directed the Apostle Paul to record it for us in Rom 14:17. Notice carefully: “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” NASU

There we have it: The Kingdom of God is about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. That’s the summation of what the Kingdom of God is about in three things. But many of us do have, as General Kemper once said to General Pickett, “You do have a talent for trivializin’ the momentous and complicatin’ the obvious!” That’s quite a talent. But how odd that many of us kind of have that talent! We tend to make life a whole lot more complicated than our God ever intended it to be for us. But to ‘uncomplicate it’ and to instead ‘simplify it’ does require prioritizing the ‘momentous’ and simplifying the ‘obvious’. And once again, thank the Lord that He has helped simplify this complicated life for us by specifically pointing out to us what the Kingdom of God is all about. But we do have to now prioritize it in our practice, or our lives will just go back to being complicated and all ‘mommicked’ as well. ‘Mommick’ is a great word that refers to everything from being ‘confused’ to ‘messed up’ to ‘slam wore out’, or to just being all ‘discombobulated’.

But the point is, we needn’t live ‘mommicked’ lives if we will prioritize the momentous and simplify the obvious. And that means focusing in on living by the Scriptural revelation of what Kingdom living is all about. It’s about righteousness, or righteousness in respect toward God; and about peace, or peace in respect toward others, and about joy in the Holy Spirit, or joy in respect toward our own experience, in relation to Christ’s Spirit within us, of course.

Now let’s get to it…It’s important to note that even the list of these three are prioritized for us. Righteousness comes first, peace second, and joy third. This is an amplification of Christ’s own words, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well” (Matt 6:33). One reason for much of the frustration of mankind is that peace and joy are sought without righteousness. But without the righteousness of God there can be no peace, and without the peace of God there can be no joy.

The righteousness that Paul is referring to here is the ‘practical righteousness’ of the life of discipleship for the Christian who has already received the ‘perfect righteousness’ of Christ for his or her salvation. One way to remember this is that our ‘standing’ with God is because we’ve been clothed in gift of Christ’s own righteousness, but our ‘walking’ with God is to be done through our giving the gifts of our service to God in practicing righteousness.

So we are to focus on practicing righteous living for the sake of our righteous King. In practice it looks like the original motto of the FBI: Fidelity – Bravery – Integrity. Now, we think of ‘fidelity’ as referring to faithfulness, like in a relationship between two people. But an additional definition of fidelity is this: ‘Accuracy with which an electronic system reproduces the sound or image of its input signal.’ When you think about it, what is God trying to do in you and in me? He’s trying to reproduce His image in us. Remember, the greatest compliment you can ever give another Christian is, “You know, I see a lot of Jesus in you.” When you are reproducing something of the moral excellence, something of the knowledge, something of the self-control, the perseverance, the godliness, the brotherly kindness, and something of the love of Jesus in your life in an audible and visible way, so that both God and others can hear and see that…then that’s when you know the King is greatly pleased and glorified in and through your life.

And the part about bravery? It takes a whole lot of courage to commit to trying to reproduce the character qualities of Christ in your life and trying to live righteously in the midst of an unrighteous world. It even takes courage to try to live righteously in the midst of God’s church in the world. And the reason for that is because there’s often so much of the world still living in the midst of God’s church!

How odd that consecrated Christians often feel so alone even in the midst of other Christians. Why is that? It’s because there seems to be far more ‘Cultural Christians’ than there are ‘Biblical Christians’. There’s a huge difference between ‘compromise’ and ‘consecration’. Sometimes consecrated Christians feel like Jeremiah when among His own people he said, “I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers, Nor did I exult. Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone…” Jer 15:17 NASU Sometimes you’ll have to sit alone or stand alone or walk alone even in the midst of God’s church because of your commitment to seeking the approval of God rather than seeking the approval of man or your old self. Choosing what God says is right over what others think ‘seems right’ will take you down the ‘paths of righteousness’. And that path really is the ‘road less traveled’.

But again, even this is not complicated, just consecrated. It just comes down to doing the right things, or the righteous things. It’s like a butcher who was asked what difference it made to him when Christ entered his life. He replied, “I stopped weighing my thumb.” He said that when he used to put meat on the scales his thumb pushed on the scales a little bit, too. After he received Christ and committed himself to righteousness in how he lived his life he stood back from the scales when he weighed the meats. In fact, he even added some meat to the former customers he knew he had cheated. (Story from Barnhouse’s Exposition on Romans)

So the Kingdom of God is about doing righteousness, for the sake of the King. And it’s also then about ‘peace’, both in personal experience and especially in relation to others. Remember the ‘Beatitudes’ of the Sermon on the Mount…or the ‘Be-Happy Attitudes’, as they are often called? Yeah, Jesus really honed in on this one in particular: Matt 5:9- “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” NASU Being a ‘peacemaker’ is actually another identity God intends for us to have of ourselves. And remember, your identity defines your purpose. So again, this helps simplify life for us. God has given us the mantle of being a peacemaker both in relation to others in their relationship to God and in relation to others in our relationship with them. Note 2 Cor 5:18-19- “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” NASU

There it is: God has laid the mantle of reconciliation upon us. Paul also calls it being an Ambassador for God, representing God to others and encouraging others in establishing and building the best relationship possible with God. And one thing that’s striking about this is that we have already been given that title. We have already been assigned that role. It’s like being a Witness. Jesus said, “You are My Witnesses”. You are My Ambassadors. Now we just need to adjust our attitudes and actions and communication to doing what God has already assigned us to be.

And then this role of being a ‘peacemaker’ also involves building a ‘cooperative’ spirit in our walk and talk with others, as opposed to defaulting to the ‘contrary’ spirit that lurks within our old self. Choosing to be a peacemaker with others also has a cathartic effect on yourself as well, or it brings a refreshing peace to your own soul as well. It’s like the proverb on being generous with others: Prov 11:25- “The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.” NLT How great of our God to make us like that; that when we seek to bless others the blessing returns back upon us.

Interestingly enough, sometimes peacemaking involves ‘establishing’ peace, and at other times peacemaking involves ‘enforcing’ peace. Officers of the Law are often referred to as ‘Keepers of the Peace’. Even what they carry in their holster is nick-named a ‘Peacemaker’, right? So establishing peace or enforcing peace is never about giving in to wrongdoing or wrongdoers; it’s about doing what is right, or again, doing the ‘righteous’ thing, which will allow for the right kind of peace to grow and flourish.

And when peace is promoted, notice what also grows. How about this Proverb: Prov 12:20- “Deceit fills hearts that are plotting evil; joy fills hearts that are planning peace!” NLT ‘Joy’ is the intentional blessing in the life of the believer who intends on practicing peace. And this ‘joy’ is not just some sort of side-benefit of faithfulness in living. No, this ‘joy in the Holy Spirit’ is a key component of Kingdom living. It’s a little preview of the standard experience of Heaven. And God the Holy Spirit produces it in the life of the Disciple who is trying to live righteously in an unrighteous world, and trying to be a peacemaker in the midst of a contrary world, because this ‘joy’ is not only a wonderful blessing, it is the very strength we need to be able to continue our cause.

Is this verse not one of the most inspiring verses of all time? Neh 8:10- “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” NASU What is our strength…our strength for dealing with the pressures of life; our strength for dealing with the problems of life, either problematic situations or problematic people? What is our strength for dealing with the day to day responsibilities of work or family or community needs? ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength! No wonder Jesus said to His disciples: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” John 15:11 NASU

This reference to having the joy of Christ was not foremost about them and us having the blessing of experiencing joy in our journey. It includes that. But it was a statement about the fact that this joy of Christ’s Spirit is the very strength we need to fight the good fight of faith all along the hard roads we will travel in our journey. ‘Joy’ is not a dessert on the plate of life. No, ‘Joy’ is the very bread of life! It is the sustenance we need to continue on day in and day out for living in fidelity and bravery and integrity and for being an Ambassador and Peacemaker and for overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil. The strength to do all of that is; the ‘Joy of the Lord’.

Of all the things you must guard in your life – guard your joy. For that is what the devil is trying to steal every day. Why? Because he knows the Scriptures, and he has found out that if he can steal your joy, he has stolen your strength. But we know the Scriptures, too. And along with that we know the Savior, and He is the Savior and Lord of our lives. And as we yield to His Spirit day by day, the Spirit produces His joy in as. And that’s what makes us strong; strong for our King, strong for our family, strong for our Brothers and Sisters in Christ, and strong in our mission to rescue the perishing and care for the dying.

Righteousness, peace, and joy…That’s what the Kingdom of God is about. And so that’s what we are to be about in our life now…before this life is over.

Living Life Over Before It’s Over, Pt. 6

Study Guide, January 17, 2016 – Pastor Clay Olsen

One of the fun phrases in theology is ‘Hypostatic Union’. It just has a nice ring to it. But the phrase points to a powerful theological teaching that refers to the fact that in one Person two natures were eternally united; that Person being, Jesus Christ. And the two natures that were eternally united were the nature of God in Christ and the nature of the human Jesus. And this union is a ‘hypostatic’ union in that both the nature of God and the nature of humanity remains distinct in Jesus Christ, and yet united just the same. This is ‘glorious’!

But we point this out because this union between the nature of God Himself with the nature of a human being, or with one of us, set the course for the hope of all future life for us in relationship with our God. And that is; because Christ united His life with one of us human beings, you and me, as human beings we could now have our life united with Christ. And the result is that we, who were separated from God by sin, or were basically incomplete human beings due to the fact that our human spirit was dead in sin, could now become united with Christ’s own Spirit and therefore become complete in our soul and our spirit through our union with Christ. Note carefully the revelation about this fact in Col 2:10- “So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” NLT

In our journey of looking into things that we are to focus upon and practice in our lives before our lives are over, another key concept concerns a reorientation of our minds to think of ourselves and live out our lives in terms of our ‘union with Christ’. A Christian is by very definition, one who has been eternally united in spirit with the Spirit of Christ and is thus now complete in his or her soul and spirit because of their ‘union with Christ’.

It’s interesting how we often refer to Jewish believers as ‘Completed Jews’, or as those who are Jewish by nationality and have also accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah. Well, in reality, for any of us Gentiles who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Messiah, we are now ‘Completed Gentiles’. Until we gave our life to God in repentance and received Christ into our life by faith, we were very much ‘incomplete’. In fact, any person on Earth who has not accepted Jesus Christ as his or her Messiah is still ‘incomplete’, since their spirit is still dead in trespasses and sin. Their soul; as in, their mind, emotions, and will, is very much intact, but their spirit is still separated from their Creator and Savior, and thus, they are not only incomplete concerning their salvation, but they are still separated from the life of God in Christ Jesus.

As Christians, we understand this concept pretty well, of our salvation in union with Christ. But what often needs a reorientation in our thinking is not so much about our union with Christ in our salvation, but the ongoing need to think and to live according to our union with Christ for our sanctification. In other words, our tendency is to understand that we are united with Christ in our position as a disciple, but we often tend to revert to disunited thinking and living in our daily practice. Or, in terms of Christ’s call to walk with Him as though we are ‘yoked’ together with Him, we tend to ‘unyoke’ ourselves from Him in how we think about ourselves, as well as how we live our life and carry out our daily activities. In other words, we pretty much just wander off down the furrows of life on our own as though we are not yoked to the Master at all. Or even another way to put this is that, in our yoke of salvation, we become ‘hinged’ to the Lord Jesus, but somehow, when it comes to our sanctification, we become ‘unhinged’ in our daily living and daily thinking. And thus, in one word we have a description for much of the conflict in many Christian’s lives – They have become ‘Unhinged!’

We often turn to that word as a description of someone who seems to have, as they say in Australia, ‘They’ve gone off the boil’. But in terms of the Christian life, it actually applies to anytime a believer reverts to thinking and living as though they were not yoked together with Christ for both their salvation and their sanctification. They’ve become ‘unhinged’, and so no wonder their yoke has become hard and their burdens have become heavy. Which as you recognize, that is the opposite of the way Jesus said it is supposed to be for the believer who stays hinged in the yoke with Him and united in his walk with Him. Matt 11:29- “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” NASU

The first signs of an ‘unhinged’ life are when you no longer find rest in your soul, and God’s yoke no longer feels easy at all, nor do His burdens feel light. Again, these are signs that you have either taken Jesus’ place on His side of the yoke, trying to be in charge of your own life, or you’ve become unhinged from the yoke and thus unstable in your ways.

Now, this is not to say that discipleship is easy or that the burdens of life aren’t heavy. But it is saying that unless we stay hinged in the yoke with Jesus as both our Savior from our sins and as the Lord of our daily lives then we will not experience the rest that we are intended to experience nor have the strength to bear the burdens we must bear as we carry out God’s will and walk in His ways. We must stay ‘hinged’ to the yoke with Christ in order to stay on task in walking down the furrows of His will for our lives and experiencing His rest for our souls as we carry the burdens we must bear.

Realize this: As Matthew Henry put it: God has for us both a helmet of salvation for our heads, and also a yoke of discipleship for our necks. And if we resist either, well, as Jesus said to Saul, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” To resist the the ways of God’s predetermined plan for our lives is both foolish as well as harmful. Prov 15:32- “If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding.” NLT

Jesus put it another way when He was teaching His disciples about their true identity and how they were to think and live. John 15:5- “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” NASU Now, if we can animate this scene a little here…You can break off a branch and set it on the ground, but hard as it might try and as much as it might strain, apart from being united to the vine, it’s going to produce ‘nothing’. Oh, it might produce frustration or even stir up some dust, but it’s not going to produce ‘fruit’. Only union with the vine can produce ‘fruit’, or those things which have lasting value and lasting blessings.

And that leads us back to our need to have a united mind, which then enables us to think with a united mind. Otherwise we are left with a ‘divided mind’. And what did the Apostle James say about that? James 1:5-8- “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” NASU

James packs a lot of punch into a few statements here. Now remember: God is not reluctant about leading and guiding us here. We don’t have to convince God to love us and to find pleasure in being our Shepherd. He does love us and He loves leading us. But we have to trust Him to lead us and guide us once we ask Him. Plus, when we ask God for wisdom, that is not to be like asking God to sign off on our plans we have already made for our lives, but to better understand His plans for our life that we have already ‘signed off’ on ourselves. That’s like my college Pastor used to say that many Christians come to God with their plans for their life all outlined and ask God, “Now, Lord, would You just sign Your name here on the bottom?” Rather, we are to come to God with our name already signed to a blank page and say, “Lord, would you now please fill out Your plan for my life?”

How many plans are you trying to follow in your life? Or, whose plan are you trying to follow, God’s or your own? Remember, James says it can’t be both, for that’s being a double-minded person, or one who is now unstable in all of his or her ways. You see, you will either live anchored to the Rock or tossed about by the waves like both James says and as the Apostle Paul put it: “…tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming…”Eph. 4:14 NASU

A point we are making here is that not only do we need to orient or reorient our thinking to think in terms of our union with Christ for the sake of producing the fruit in our life that lasts and has lasting blessing, but also for the sake of protecting ourselves from both the damage that results from having a ‘double-mind’ and from the deception of a scheming enemy. Life is tough enough in itself. We don’t have to subject ourselves to even greater frustrations and conflicts and crises that come from double-minded thinking or double-minded living. We may have to endure the harsh confrontations from a world that is living in rebellion against God, but we don’t have to expose our lives to the harmful results that come from an undisciplined life on top of that. To bring harm to yourself is just flat out foolish. James has already warned us about that. We don’t have to expose our lives to that. Like Jesus taught us: It’s entirely possible to walk in the yoke with Jesus in such a way that even though life is full of hard things, something in the experience of it all will be ‘easy’ as well. Jesus reveals that it is entirely possible to walk with Him in such a way that even though the burdens of life are constant and heavy, something in the experience of it all will be ‘light’ as well.

And what is that something that will make our yoke easy and our burdens light? That something is this mystery of our ‘union with Christ’. Again, we need to orient or reorient our thinking about that fact that ‘in Christ’ my life is no longer about ‘me’; it’s about ‘we’. As Paul stated in 1 Cor 6:19-20- “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” NASU You see, that is both your identity and your purpose. Your life is now a shared life; a life that is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God; a life that is now united to the Person of Christ, who is both Lord and Master of your life and who has eternal plans and purposes for your life.

One thing this means is that when you or I think and act independently from this united life that we share in union with Christ, then no wonder our ‘soul rest’ becomes unraveled and life’s yoke feels hard and our burdens seem heavy. We’ve become ‘unhinged’. Plus, remember, we do not live in a world that is neutral toward God’s sheep.

We live in a world of wolves. And the safest place for sheep is when they are yoked to their Shepherd. Now, granted, a sheep and its Shepherd yoked together is kind of an unusual picture, but just go with it for now. Our connection with our Lord is what we’re after here. The mindset of us being ‘hinged to Jesus’ is what we’re after here. It’s reorienting our thinking to ‘We’ instead of ‘me’; to ‘Us’ instead of ‘myself’; to my life ‘belonging to God’ instead of belonging to me.

It’s kind of an odd way to put it, but years ago I heard it said that once Christ comes into your life and makes you His disciple, He ‘ruins’ you for anything else. That does sound odd, doesn’t it? But it was meant to be a little ‘tongue-in-cheek’ way of saying that once Christ comes into your life, He comes in as Who He is; He is Lord and Master, and you cannot go back to living as though you are the master. You’re not. And things cannot be as they were before or cannot be contrary to the Master’s will, without some regrettable fallout. Remember – ‘double-minded’, ‘unstable’, ‘unhinged’, ‘tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming’… These are not good things. Wise men and wise women do not expose their lives to harmful and foolish things like these. Good things don’t result from bad thinking. Good thinking, right thinking, thinking that revolves around your ‘union with Christ’, is the kind of thinking that we are to use as we think about anything and everything in life. This is the kind of thinking that is ‘yoked’ to the Master. And when you stay committed to staying yoked to the Master and keep abiding in the Vine is when the Master then produces the strength of the Spirit working through your life and produces the fruit of the Spirit growing in your life.

And this is the commitment we need to make to our Lord Jesus over and over…before our life is over.

Living Life Over Before It’s Over, Pt. 5

Study Guide, January 10, 2016 – Pastor Clay Olsen

We’re going to start with a little interactive exercise taken from a American Folktale called “That’s good…no, that’s bad”

When I do thumbs up you say “Oh, that’s good.”

When I do thumbs down you say “Oh that’s bad.”…

It was my friend Hank’s birthday just last week. (Up..Oh, that’s good)

Not really, you see everyone forgot. (Down…Oh, that’s bad)

Not so bad, everyone felt guilty and they decided to throw him a big party. (Up…Oh that’s good.)

Not really, you see, the party was supposed to be in New York, but Hank was in California. (Down…Oh that’s bad.)

Not so bad, luckily a friend insisted to fly Hank to the party. (Up…Oh that’s good!)

Not really, you see, the airplane ran out of gas halfway there. (Down…Oh that’s bad.)

Not so bad, there were two parachutes on the plane. (Up….Oh that’s good.)

Not really, you see, Hank’s parachute didn’t open. (Down….Oh that’s bad.)

Not so bad, there was a haystack right underneath him. (Up….Oh that’s good.)

Not really, you see, the biggest pitchfork you’d ever see was sticking out of the haystack.(Down….Oh that’s bad.)

Not- not so bad, he missed the pitchfork. (Up….Oh that’s good.)

Not really, you see, he also missed the haystack. (Down….Oh…That’s bad)

Not so bad, he landed in the swimming pool! (UP……Oh, that’s good!)¹

(It actually ends with the missed haystack, but I just thought it should have a happy ending!)

But, why did we do that silly little exercise? We’ll, because we’re continuing our look into living our lives over before they’re over. And one of the points we left off with was learning to delight in the things in which God delights. And so, if we are going to learn to delight in the things in which God delights, we will have to learn to discern the difference between what seems good in life, but is actually bad instead. And we don’t have to go far in the Bible before we see just how crucial this is.

Gen 3:6- “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” NASU So one of the earliest lessons we are to learn is that ‘good’ is not determined just by what is good to your senses, but by what is also good for your soul. Regardless of how good this fruit was to the senses from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it was deadly to the soul.

Our first parents were never intended to learn about good and evil through their experience. They were to learn about it through God’s revelation. And then through God’s revelation they could experience the good and avoid the evil. And it is the same for us. That is exactly what the Apostle Paul cautions us about in Rom 16:19- “For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.” NASU God does not intend for any of us to learn about good and evil through our experience…rather, we are to learn of it through God’s revelation. We don’t have to experience the evils of idolatry to learn that idolatry is wrong. We already have the revelation on that: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”, says the Lord. Nor do I have to sip a cup of arsenic to know that it will do some really bad things inside of me. This we are to learn about through the medical revelation concerning arsenic.

Okay, we’ve pretty much got that down about things that are evil. But what still trips up many well meaning Christians is not so much about being foolish about what is evil, rather, what often trips them up is not being wise about what is good. Many get caught up in what ‘seems to be good’ when they’re supposed to be evaluating whether that which ‘seems to be good’ to their senses will also be ‘truly good for their souls’. It’s only when the ‘good for your senses’ is also ‘good for your soul’ that it then results in gain for you and blessings to God and others as well. For otherwise, what may seem to be good to your senses, but not good to your souls will result in loss for you and others, and thus, not be good after all.

One example from history about this involved a General in the Civil War named General Jeb Stuart. He served as the ‘eyes and ears’ of General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. His purpose was reconnaissance for General Lee, keeping him as informed as possible of the movements and activities of the opposing forces. But during the crucial days of Gettysburg, General Stuart got sidetracked in capturing wagons and supplies. And by the time he got back to Lee’s camp with all these things he thought were really good, he learned that in his decision to go after all these so-called ‘goods’, that he had left the army in a really bad position. Lee was in the dark about crucial information he needed for deciding what his army next needed to do. Some historians believe that this failure in duty led to the defeat of Lee’s army at Gettysburg.

Each of us has a special role to live out in God’s plan. As we talked last week about how short a time we actually have in life to live that out, what we have to stop and evaluate from time to time is this: Are we simply off capturing supply wagons that seem good to us, or are we actually living out God’s purposes for our lives? For remember, ‘good’ is only ‘truly good’ when it also results in gain; gain for the purposes of God, and gain for the blessing of others, as well as ourselves. Good is not just what ‘seems good’ to the senses.

We are so immersed in the world of the senses. We talk so much about the five senses of life; sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch, that we forget about the most important one: Discernment. Discernment is the sense that God wants us to develop and to use often, to use regularly, to use daily. Listen to Prov 2:1-5- “My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, Make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.” NASU

What’s the key to developing this sense of discernment? Well, here’s where it comes back to where we started. To develop our sense of discernment calls for a reorientation of our lives to ‘delighting in the things in which God delights’. God’s Words must become to us as silver and hidden treasures. And the more we treasure God’s commandments the more we develop our sense of discernment, and the better we will become at discerning not only the difference between good and evil, but the difference between good and truly good. For remember, good is truly good when it results in godly gain.

Does this sound complicated? It’s not. Learning to discern between good and evil and even between good and truly good is not complicated, but it is profound. And it will have a profound effect on how you think about what God delights in and in what you will then delight in as well. Case in point: Do you remember when God sent Saul on a mission to judge and deliver the Israelites from the evils of the Amalekites? In order for God’s complete justice to be carried out all possessions of the Amalekites were under a ban from the Israelites. However, Saul failed to discern between what seemed good to him and what was truly good according to the Words of God. And so as Saul reported to Samuel of his seemingly successful mission he said in1 Sam 15:13-23: “Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have carried out the command of the Lord. “But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed.” Then Samuel said to Saul, “Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said to him, “Speak!” Samuel said, “Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.’ “Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” Then Saul said to Samuel, “I did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. “But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.” NASU

I’ve always thought that was one of the most amazing statements by Samuel; when Saul comes up and says to him, “I’ve carried out the command of the Lord.” And then Samuel says, “Well, then what’s that sound of the bleating of sheep in my ears?” Saul had neither learned to delight in doing God’s will nor learned to discern the difference between what seemed good and what was truly good. C.S. Lewis pointed out that discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong; it’s knowing the difference between right and what seems right. Or we could also say that discernment is not knowing the difference between good and bad; it’s knowing the difference between good and what seems good.

And did you notice that word ‘insubordination’? That’s a word we often associate with the military. Guess what, although we are children of God we are also His soldiers whom He depends upon to carry out His purposes and to advance His kingdom. In other words, it means that much of discipleship is just doing our duty. But since we are also God’s children, doing our duty is not just something we do out of sheer resolve, rather, we learn that doing our duty is not only that which brings delight to God, but that which will brings delight to us as well. In a testimony of the Psalmist which was also a prophecy about Jesus he said: Ps 40:8- “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.” NASU I remember one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Warren Wiersbe is: “If you make duty your delight, and then you will be able to find joy in all things.”

That’s one of the overlooked abilities that God has implanted within us, that, because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have the power to choose those things in which we will find delight. And as we choose God’s Will and choose to do our duty in carrying out God’s Word we will find not only that it will become our delight, but it will also become our desire. It’s like our memory verse of the week of Ps 34:8- “O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” NASU Now, granted, because of our old nature that lingers within us, which often craves for the pleasures of the senses over the blessings of the soul, the things of the Lord, like righteousness and justice and wisdom and knowledge and obedience and service are acquired tastes. But like the Psalmist says, the more you taste of the Words of God and the ways of God the more they will become a delight to you. And you will come to find that the things in which God your Father delights in will also be the things in which you delight in as well. And these are the things we are to learn about and to then live out in our lives…before our lives are over.

Remember: The key element of joy is learning to delight in the things in which God delights.

1. Dotsub.com Chandler telling “Oh, That’s good…no that’s bad” story, An American Folktale

John’s Epiphany

Study Guide, December 27, 2015 – Pastor Clay Olsen

‘Epiphany’ remembers the coming of the wise men bringing gifts to the Christ-child, and in so doing, or in this epiphany, they ‘reveal’ Jesus to the world as Lord and King.

‘Epiphany’ also describes a ‘manifestation’ or even a sudden insight into the reality or into the essential meaning of something significant.

The epiphany of Jesus as the Messiah of the world was certainly a revelation, a manifestation of eternal significance.

We also need to look into the Apostle John’s Epiphany about Jesus.

Rev 5:1-10- “And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” NKJV

This scroll was nothing less than the title deed to Earth itself!

 

What was also lost in the Fall was man’s inheritance of the Earth, because to be given an inheritance you have to first be a rightful heir. And since sin separated man’s relationship with God, mankind forfeited his inheritance.

 

Acts 2:22-25- “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know — this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.” NASU

 

As John looks on this scene he is reminded of just how critical that promise of

Gen 3:15 would be: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” NIV

 

Whereas the ‘First Adam’ lost the inheritance of the Earth, the ‘Second Adam’ would regain it, or rather ‘redeem’ it.

This inheritance was lost to mankind at mankind’s very beginning. Rom 5:12- “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…” NASU

 

Not one human of Earth or even one Angelic being of Heaven was worthy…except One… “…the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”

 

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. “ John 1:29 NASU

 

It’s very possible that the one elder who identified Jesus as the Lion from the tribe of Judah may have been Judah himself, since he’s putting the puzzle together for John here. Remember that prophecy of Gen 49:10? “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” NASU

Daniel’s vision was like a preview of this event that John witnessed of the Son of Man being presented everlasting dominion rights over the whole world and new kingdom.

 

Dan 7:13-14- “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.” NASU

John says that he saw these golden bowls in Heaven, and what was in them were the prayers of God’s people that God had kept and collected and were all represented still, still there in Heaven.

 

It’s clear that God wants us to know how much our prayers mean to Him.

 

“And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”

We’re supposed to be practicing ‘servant leadership’ now in our character and conduct and in our service to God because part of God’s plan is to grant us special service assignments as ‘kings and priests’ to our God in His coming Kingdom.

Gifts From The Greatest Giver

Christmas Slide Guide, December 20, 2015

1. God Himself

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave (us His best gift ever) His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” KJV

John 1:12- “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name…” NASU

This is the gift we are to tell others about, this gift that every person needs and that God is waiting to give to ‘as many as will receive Him…receive the gift of God Himself into their life!

2. A New House

John 14:1-2- “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” NKJV

The Bible speaks not only of us having a dwelling place in the New Jerusalem, the capitol city of the New Earth, but also of us having many dwelling places, since we will be given various service assignments all over the New Earth and no doubt in the regions of the New Heavens.

3. A New Body

God has given us His promise that He is going to give each of us a new body that will be so amazing that it will take eternity to discover all the potential talents and abilities we will get enjoy in using our new body.

Our bodies will exist in eternal ultimate health.

There will be no natural or supernatural disasters; No cancer, heart disease, diabetes, violence, accidents — or death.

4. A New Life

2 Cor 5:17- “…anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

Col 3:1-4- “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory.”

Titus 3:4-8- “When God our Savior revealed His kindness and love, He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of His grace He declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.”

1 Peter 1:23-24- “For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.”

Rom 6:13-14- “…you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.” NLT

‘I am an instrument of God’s to do what is right for the glory of God.’

That’s how we can make God’s gifts to us keep on giving through us.

What Child is This

Study Guide, December 13, 2015 – Pastor Clay Olsen

One of the most profound questions ever asked was in the title of a Christmas Carol – “What Child Is This?” You remember the question: ‘What Child is this, who, laid to rest, On Mary’s lap is sleeping? Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping?’ Of course, the great answer in the song is that ‘He’s the King of kings salvation brings, Let loving hearts enthrone Him.’ And that should be the great response of all people: They should enthrone the King Jesus in their hearts and minds as their Lord and Savior.

And yet the question of ‘What Child Is This?’ really leads us to a further quest to discover as much as we can about this Child who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And the more we discover the more we will want to and see the need to enthrone Jesus more and more in our lives.

So let’s go back, not first to Bethlehem, but back to the Garden…the Garden of Eden. Because it was in Eden that we are told that Christmas was coming…not in those exact words, but…well, let’s take a look. Gen 3:15- (Speaking to Satan, and in the hearing of Adam and Eve, the Lord said) “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” NIV This amazing passage is what is referred to as the ‘Protoevangelium’, or the ‘First Gospel’. God is informing our first parents and all humanity after them that the crisis that had just occurred in creation and the curse that would follow due to sin and Satan would be corrected and conquered by the offspring of a woman, a human being that would one day come into the world. And even though Satan would strike His heal, this human being would crush Satan’s head, picturing a complete and total victory over Satan and deliverance for God’s people.

So from the very beginning, God put mankind on ‘Messiah Alert’, on ‘Deliverer Alert, on ‘Savior Alert’. Think about it: Now, it doesn’t say, but Adam and Eve may have thought this Messiah might be one of their children. And then their children probably thought this coming Messiah might be one of their children, and on and on it went. And as the years passed more and more clues were revealed as to the Messiah’s identity, as to how they would know that this child, this person would be the One. But the point is, from that day on all mankind was put on alert that there would come a time when this seed of a woman, this offspring of a woman, this human being would come into the world to conquer sin and Satan. The entire Old Testament can be summed up by saying all who were followers of the One Creator and God were on a continual ‘Messiah Alert’. They were on ‘Messiah Watch’.

And here’s another ‘of course’…Another ‘of course’ is that ‘of course’ this human being would have to be more than just human, because no human being can conquer Satan and remove the curse of sin. Only God can do that. So not only do we have the revelation of the First Gospel in the Garden of Eden, but we also have the revelation of the Incarnation. There was coming a time when One would come into the world who would be both human and Divine, and would be the Conquering Messiah, the Christ, the Deliverer, the Savior. Which, another ‘of course’ is just what Paul revealed happened that first Christmas: Gal 4:4-6- “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”” NASU

Another discovery and clue came through Jacob while he was giving his last blessings to his sons. And when he came to Judah, by the Spirit of God he said this: Gen 49:10-12- “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, He washed his garments in wine, And his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, And his teeth whiter than milk.” NKJV This Promised One, the Messiah, would come through the line of Judah. ‘Shiloh’ was a reference to the Messiah, the One to who all rule and authority belonged, and thus the words in the song; ‘The King of kings salvation brings, Let loving hearts enthrone Him.’ In fact, His rule is characterized by a paradise-like environment, as in: ‘Back to Eden’!

Later the prophet Isaiah elaborates on this theme and speaks about what it will be like when this ‘Shiloh’ has taken up the scepter over all the Earth. Isa 11:6-9- “In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all. The cow will graze near the bear. The cub and the calf will lie down together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm. Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.” NLT

Can you imagine, living in a setting like this? Even the entire animal kingdom is going to be at peace with each other. Keep that in mind the next time you are watching a National Geographic nature program, where the animals are fighting and attacking each other and, well…you get the idea. But imagine walking through the Jungles of the world in the coming Kingdom. It will be like going to the Petting Zoo! When the Prince of Peace takes up the scepter to rule over His world, He’s going to make His world like it was when He made Eden.

Now, the Messiah’s sovereign rule in His second advent was not to be confused with the Messiah’s salvation sacrifice during His first advent, but still, the prophets and the people then, and the church and the world now needs to know just ‘Who’ it is that we are talking about when we sing songs like ‘What Child Is This?’ He’s the One that goes by a number of majestic titles, like what we read in our Chapel By The Sea memory verse and then with the additional revelation of verse 7: Isa 9:6-7-For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.” NASU

It’s like Isaiah saying, “Just so you know who it is exactly that we’re talking about when we say ‘This Child’, as in ‘The Child’ that God told Adam and Eve was going to come through the seed of a woman; Yeah, ‘This Child’ is also our Mighty God and our Eternal Father!” He’s the One that comes through the family of Abraham, and through the line of Judah, and in the genealogy of David. And besides that His birth will be a ‘virgin birth’.” Figure that out.” No, Isaiah didn’t say, ‘Figure that out’…

But the point is, the whole Earth was put on ‘Messiah Alert’, so that when the Messiah arrived and someone asked ‘What Child Is this?’, they would absolutely know! In fact, there were over a hundred prophecies made about Jesus even before His birth! What more was necessary to put the the people on alert for watching for His coming?! From the first revelation to our first parents about this coming child, what should have been first in the minds and lives of every person on Earth was to find out as much as they could about ‘What Child Is This?’ And interestingly enough, the same is to be true of us today. Foremost in our mind and life should be the discovery of everything that we can learn about and then live out in answer to the question of ‘What Child Is This?’

‘What Child Is This?’ Remember, As Mary looked at ‘This Child’ that had been made in her, she was also looking at the Creator who had made her. The Apostle Paul made that crystal clear when he later wrote: Col 1:15-16 – “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. He created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether they are kings or lords, rulers or powers—everything has been created through Him and for Him.” GOD’S WORD

How strange that so many people around the world this Christmas will sing about and talk about ‘This Child’ in the manger without understanding the fact that ‘This Child’ is also the Sovereign Creator of all things in heaven and on earth, including them! This is the One who made them! He is the ‘Weaver’ of Ps 139:13-16- “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” NLT This is what those living even a thousand years before ‘This Child’ was born understood about ‘Who’ ‘This Child’ would be. He would be the Messiah, who was both Savior and God.

And speaking about what the Psalmist knew about the Messiah, David was granted one of the most amazing experiences ever, in that he was allowed to hear a conversation between God the Father and God the Son and then he recorded the words they said for all mankind to read. Look at this:

Ps 110:1-7- “The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet. The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Your enemies.” Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew. The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside; Therefore He will lift up His head.” NASU

David said that the Lord, the Father, said to his Lord, the Messiah, that He is going to be given all rule and authority over all the the world. And, of course, by calling the Messiah his ‘Lord’ David revealed that the Messiah is both God and Man. David also revealed that the Messiah would not only be King over all the Earth, but that He will be the eternal High Priest. This unity of Priest and King would be a unique order and would end the line of Aaron’s priesthood. Remember, this is exactly what Hebrews tells us, that Jesus became both our final High Priest and the final sacrifice. And as the promised Messiah King He united both offices in One Person. That’s why we are told in Heb 4:14-16- “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” NASU

‘What Child Is This?’ He’s the Conqueror of sin and death and Satan. He’s the Mighty God, Creator, Prince of Peace. He’s the Great High Priest, the one Mediator between God and man, and the final sacrifice for removing our spiritual death sentence from us. He’s the promised Messiah, the Anointed One of God, who would deliver us out of the kingdom of death and darkness into the Kingdom of life and light. He’s the coming King who reminded us that all authority has been given Him in Heaven and on Earth to rule and reign. And soon, He’s coming back to do this very thing because He’s the King of kings and Lord of lords.

‘What Child Is This?’ Indeed!

Living Life Over Before It’s Over, Pt. 4

Study Guide, November 29, 2015 – Pastor Clay Olsen

(We don’t have study guides, but since this is a series, we’ll add this one to the next one when we get to that one in our the next study in this series.)

I recently had the joy of putting together a treadmill out of the box. Tempting as it was to do the usual ‘guy thing’ and just start slapping the parts together, I chose to follow the step by step instructions in the manual. That’s always more time consuming at the start, but it does result in the parts actually fitting together and working. I suppose that’s why they call it an instruction manual. But it did lead me to a conclusion: Machines work best when you follow the instruction manual. To which we could add: “Yeah, pretty elementary my dear Watson.” Well, here’s the irony: since this is so obvious a principle for machines, why then is this so oblivious to human beings concerning how we were best made to work?

Actually, there are several reasons, and we have talked about them many times in our studies together. So what we are going to do in this study time today is to discuss not the negative reasons why people reject or neglect following God’s instruction manual for their lives, but to discuss another marvelous benefit from practicing one particular instruction for our lives given to us by our God.

Again, being made in the image of God also implies that we were made to live according to that image, otherwise, it’s like jamming parts of a machine together that do not belong together and expecting the best results. The Bible calls that ‘Foolishness’. On the other hand, even when we do intend to try to live our our lives according our design of being made in the image of God, even that requires more that just good intentions; it requires learning and then following God’s instructions in the Owner’s Manual.

So here’s one particular thing we are instructed to learn and then to do. And when we do learn it and then do that more and more, we will then find ourselves discovering something which is mostly still a ‘secret’ to many people, even Christians, and that is the ‘secret of joy’. And so what is this secret of joy? Since we have been made in the image of God, the secret of joy then is learning to delight in the very things in which God delights. And when we do learn to delight in the very things in which God delights it’s like connecting the right parts in the right way so the the machine, this human machine, we could say, can then operate the way in which we were designed to operate, and to then function the way we were intended to function. (Remember that old ‘Do Lord’ song…’give me umption in my gumption…help me function, function, function…?)

Notice first the instruction of Ps 37:4- “Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” NASU My, doesn’t that sound like a good arrangement? He will give you the desires of your heart? We’re all in on that deal, right? Well, just what is the deal? Or, rather; so just what does it mean to delight yourself in the Lord? How do we go about following that instruction?

That’s where we get back to the secret; the secret of joy, because delighting yourself in the Lord is related to this secret of joy, which is learning to delight in the things in which God delights. To delight yourself in the Lord is to delight in those things in which God delights, and by doing so your life then becomes more and more aligned to the image of God in which you were made. And by aligning yourself more and more into the image in which God made you, you then function more and more according to purposes for which God made you, thus reaping the benefits of doing life by the instruction manual for your life, of which one of those benefits is – Joy!

So our next step is to learn what those things are in which God delights, so that we can then learn to delight in those same things, thus aligning our mind and heart more and more to the image of God in which we were made, and thus…experiencing delight and joy. But before we explore more about this let’s point out one thing more for us to ‘ponder’ about what it means to delight in the Lord. To delight in the Lord is not wanting more of the things of this world, but wanting more of the things of God. So now, what are the ‘things of God’ of which we are to want more, and to delight in more?

Recently we opened up a passage in Jeremiah concerning God’s desire that we understand and know Him. And in this passage God revealed something more about Himself, particularly about something in which He Himself delights. And the implied instruction from it is that we are to not only come to understand this about God, but we are to also then come to understand that this is exactly what we are to act upon since we now better understand this about God.

Okay, here’s the passage again: Jer 9:23-24- “Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.” NASU

And now here’s what we mean. We are instructed to delight ourselves in the Lord, and three of the things in which God delights are; lovingkindness or mercy, justice, and righteousness. The prophet Micah has an amazing insight about God that is very important for us to understand. So I’ll give it in three versions for clarity purposes.

Mic 7:18- “Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy.” NKJV

Mic 7:18- “There is no God like you. You take away people’s guilt. God will forgive His people who survive. He will not stay angry with them forever, because He enjoys being kind.” ERV

Mic 7:18- “Who is a God like you? You forgive sin and overlook the rebellion of Your faithful people. You will not be angry forever, because You would rather show mercy.” GOD’S WORD

God’s mercy toward us has been described as God withholding from us what we deserve, like judgment. And God’s grace has been described as God giving to us what we don’t deserve, like His love and favor. But think about it: Mercy is God’s starting point with us and with others. It is only when God’s mercy is spurned that His justice steps up. In fact, we see that God delights in showing mercy to those who don’t deserve His mercy. He enjoys being kind to those who don’t deserve His kindness. God would rather show mercy than having to mete out justice. So the point, since this is something in which God delights, and since we are to delight in this something as well, can we say that this is true about us? Can we say, “I would rather show mercy to those who don’t deserve my mercy…I enjoy being kind to those who don’t deserve my kindness…I would rather show mercy than to have to give out justice.” Can you say that? (Again, there may be a need for justice, but the point is, what do you start with? Is mercy your default starting point, like it is with God? Do you delight in showing mercy like God does? If not…well, we have just identified how far out of alignment we are with practicing acting in the image of God in which we were made. We have identified what we need to adjust in our lives in order to obey the instruction of ‘Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.’ Remember, we are to deal with and treat others based not upon who and what they are, but based upon who and what we are. God deals with and treats others based upon who He is, and He delights in showing mercy. Yes, if His mercy is spurned then He deals with them in justice. But He starts with what He delights in first; and that is being merciful. And that is to be true with His children as well. Mercy is to be our starting point…unless something else is needed, and we’ll get to that in a moment.

Again, make note of this: Right delight leads to right desires which leads to right results; wrong delight leads to wrong desires which leads to wrong results. We cannot live contrary to the instruction manual for our life without reaping contrary and conflicted lives. Remember a very important Proverb here in connection with instruction from God: Prov 15:32- “If you refuse to be corrected, you are only hurting yourself. Listen to criticism, and you will gain understanding.” ERV Giving into God’s ways is the only way that God can give you what your soul really craves. Resisting God’s ways only results in harm to your soul and to your life.

(Am I trying to bless you with this or scare you with this? Yes…as they say, “Just sayin’”)

Now then, on to justice. God reveals to us that He does delight in justice. In fact, the prophet Micah informed us that doing justice is one of the requirements of a disciple of the Lord’s. God created a just world. And when injustice invades His world, justice must be done to correct it. ‘Justice’ is a law of the universe as surely as is ‘Gravity’. The Old Testament prophets were champions of social justice. Their message instructed families as well as nations to defend the defenseless and protect others from those who would treat them unjustly. And they warned those who practiced injustice to expect God’s judgment directly from God or indirectly through God’s people. For as we stated; whenever mercy is spurned, then justice must be done.

God’s instructions about justice on Earth came very early in man’s history. Moses’ instructions on how punishment was to fit the crime became an example for justice throughout history. The famous legal principle of lex talionis, ‘the law of retaliation’, is based upon the Biblical principle that made sure the guilty offender was punished, but not punished more severely than the crime demanded. The murderer was to be put to death, but the penalties for other crimes had to suit the offense. But mark it down: Just and swift penalties were to be dealt to those deserving that justice be done.

You know, Throughout history many Christians have failed to obey God in doing justice as much as others have failed in showing mercy. Showing mercy and doing justice is not an ‘either or’ principle; it is a ‘mete out to others what is needed’ principle. Wisdom is to discern what is needed, be it mercy or be it justice, and then act on that need. Many of the perpetual problems in our society are due to the leaders failing to do what God requires; and that is to do justice. One fascinating verse from Eccl 8:11 is: “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.” NASU You see, in the case of a nation, for instance, when justice is not executed swiftly upon offending members of that nation, the result is that it emboldens the offenders and breeds greater offenses.

That’s also why the Apostle Paul gives such specific instructions to the church to carry out church discipline for overt sins and offensive church members. In fact, church discipline is no doubt the least practiced discipline of the Christian Church as a whole. If the Church were to follow the instructions of the New Testament for church discipline in America’s churches two things would happen: 1. It’s members would be much more careful about their testimony and behavior towards each other in the church and towards a watching world outside the church, and 2. There would be much smaller churches in America. We live in a very ‘authority antagonistic’ – ‘in your face’ – don’t tell me what to do’ culture that makes Biblical correction and rebuke very very difficult, both outside the church and inside the church. But we are still required to ‘do justice’ wherever it’s called for.

The Apostle Paul put it this way: 1 Thess 5:14-15- “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.” NASU The word ‘unruly’ means ‘careless’ and ‘out of line’. It was used to describe a soldier who was insubordinate and insisted on doing things his own way. Now, of course, a church is to encourage the church members in their individual development and their creativity in ministry and service and such, but there are some things disciples are to have in common, like a dedication to Biblical morality and the practice of trying to live and act more like Christ, and practicing the habits of brotherly kindness in how we speak and act toward one another, and in our commitment to guarding the unity of the Spirit and to avoid divisiveness in how the members treat and talk to one another in the membership, and so on.

Without having these Biblical standards and these Christian disciplines a group simply resorts to cultural compromise and chaos and loses it’s distinctive witness to a world that needs Christ and Christ’s call to live under the authority of the Bible as His disciples.

Well, as you can tell, this study is going to be continued. But let me wrap up today by just pointing out that the modern church is not accustomed to thinking in terms of doing justice and carrying out discipline quite as ‘matter of factly’ as previous generations did. I’ll close with the example of a rugged Frontier Preacher named Peter Cartwright. At one time he won a election for the Illinois legislature over a man who would one day become President; Abraham Lincoln. But before that Peter Cartwright often preached in some rough areas of the countryside and usually had to deal with frequent thugs and hecklers in the crowd. And at one of those meetings a certain thug kept heckling him and yelling that he was going to whip him. So Peter Cartwright stopped the meeting and asked the people to wait, and he invited the thug to meet him in the woods. And there he applied a bit of frontier justice onto the heckler…and then returned to a very polite crowd to continue his preaching.

Well, Ecclesiastes tells us that there’s a time for everything, right? ‘A time for peace and a time for war’…we just need to discern what time it is. And now, it’s time to close.

But for now, think about it: The secret of joy is learning to delight in those things in which God delights. And the more things we discover that God delights in and then make adjustments in our lives to align our delights with God’s, He will give us the desires of our hearts, since we will be desiring more of the same things that God desires for us…and one of those things is; ‘the fullness of joy’. And that my friends, is ‘Priceless’!

1 Sam 15:22

22 Samuel said,

“^aHas the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

As in obeying the voice of the Lord ?

Behold, ^bto obey is better than sacrifice,

And to heed than the fat of rams.

NASU

1 Chron 29:17-18

17 “Since I know, O my God, that ^aYou try the heart and ^bdelight in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things; so now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to You. ¹

NASU

Ps 40:8

^{8 a}I delight to do Your will, O my God;

^bYour Law is within my heart.”

NASU

Prov 11:20

²⁰ The Lord detests people with crooked hearts,

but he delights in those with integrity.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

Prov 15:8

⁸ The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked,

but he delights in the prayers of the upright.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

Prov 23:26

^{26 a}Give me your heart, my son,

And let your eyes ^1bdelight in my ways.

NASU

Jer 9:23-24

; ²⁴ but let him who boasts ^aboast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who ^bexercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I ^cdelight in these things,” declares the Lord .

NASU

Hos 6:6

⁶ For ^aI delight in loyalty ^brather than sacrifice,

And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

NASU

Mic 7:18

¹⁸ Who is a God like You,

Pardoning iniquity

And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?

He does not retain His anger forever,

Because He delights in mercy.

NKJV

Ps 37:23-24

^{23 a}The steps of a man are established by the Lord ,

And He ^bdelights in his way.

²⁴ When ^ahe falls, he will not be hurled headlong,

Because ^bthe Lord is the One ¹who holds his hand.

NASU

Prov 3:12

¹² For ^awhom the Lord loves He reproves,

Even ^bas a father corrects the son in whom he delights.

NASU

Giving Thanks, By Faith

Slide Guide, November 22, 2015

Col 2:6-7- “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” NASU

The only way that we can prime the pump so that our lives will then ‘overflow with gratitude’ is by choosing to practice this virtue of ‘giving thanks’, by faith.

Rom 1:20-21- “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks…” NASU

We’re going to look deeper at another wonder about the way our God has made us.

Ps 92:1-7- “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim Your unfailing love in the morning, Your faithfulness in the evening, accompanied by the ten-stringed harp and the melody of the lyre. You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what You have done. O Lord, what great works You do! And how deep are Your thoughts. Only a simpleton would not know, and only a fool would not understand this: Though the wicked sprout like weeds and evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.” NLT

Matthew Henry: “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Praising God is good work: it is good in itself and good for us. It is good, for it is pleasant and profitable, work that is its own wages; it is the work of angels, the work of heaven…”

Even human beings in general benefit from this amazing general grace of God when they engage in the practice of ‘giving thanks’ and incorporate a grateful attitude into their lives.

“31 Benefits of Gratitude”

Having things from the material world is not the problem. What turns the material world into ‘materialism’ is when the the things of the material world ‘have us’.

“…the effect of giving thanks is good. It is a desirable state of mind. It tends to happiness, contentment, peace. A gloomy mind makes all things around more gloomy; an unthankful mind is an unhappy mind; a murmuring, complaining, dissatisfied mind makes its possessor wretched, and all around him miserable. It is good as it is due to God. For all His favor we should be thankful—and all that we enjoy is His gift… ”

For every good benefit that God has built into the practice of us ‘giving thanks’ there is an opposite injury that comes from the neglect of this habit of gratitude.

James 1:17-18- Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” NASU

Psalm 92 is the only Psalm designated for the Sabbath: “A Psalm, a Song for the Sabbath day”.

‘As soldiers march best to music; Christians live best in praise.’

Our church family service times together are to be permeated with thanksgiving.

And they are to be filled with this understanding of how foolish it is to not recognize how good it really is to give thanks and praise to the Lord for His great works and of all He has done for us.

We are the recipients of the greatest love ever shown through the salvation by our Lord and Savior. We are the children of God’s mercies, and His mercies are new every morning. We are the objects of His great works…

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim Your unfailing love in the morning, Your faithfulness in the evening…”

Living Life Over Before It’s Over, Pt. 3

Study Guide, November 8, 2015 – Pastor Clay Olsen

In our Men’s Fellowship last Saturday we talked about one of the great quotes by G.K. Chesterton: “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.” It sounds kind of odd, even funny, but it really makes sense. It’s really a call for us to not get so stressed about the outcomes of things in life and just get on with putting some effort into trying to do what’s worth doing, even if we don’t do it all that well for awhile, or ever. And even in the Christian life it helps to remember that God doesn’t call us to results; He only calls us to faithfulness and perseverance. So we needn’t worry about messing up while trying to do worthwhile things, but we do need to get on with being diligent about doing worthwhile things; diligent, meaning; putting forth extreme effort, by faith and in reliance upon the Holy Spirit, of course.

In connection with this, in our study times, we started considering some things in our life that are worthwhile; things that we have done or tried to do; things that maybe we should try to do over, that is, do them over before our life is over. And one of those things for many of us to do the ‘Gospel conversation’ over, meaning; to change the way many have thought about and talked about the ‘Gospel’ with the unsaved world around us all. Much of the conversation between the church and the world about the Gospel needs a do-over, before this life is over.

And the reason we point this out is because there is both a great deception upon the minds of the unsaved, the unregenerate people of this world, and there is a great confusion in the discussion about the Gospel among irreligious as well as religious people of this world. And oftentimes even in witnessing to the unsaved world Christians neglect clearing up both this great deception and this great confusion. And as a result the irreligious unsaved and the religious unsaved go away still deceived and confused.

One of the greatest deceptions in the world, among even the religions of the world, is that people do not know what their basic problem in life is, and thus, they do no know what their basic need in life is either. Nearly every person on Earth, from the Eastern religions of Buddhism and Shintoism and Hinduism to the Middle Eastern religions of Islam and even Judaism to the Western Native religions and even the Social Gospel Churches, all begin with this world-wide deception concerning the basic spiritual condition of man.

What is the basic spiritual problem about man in which most people are deceived? Many religions will identify and admit to some sort of sin problem. That is why most of the religions of the world include some actions of sacrifice or some methods of offering sacrifices to atone for sin. And these sacrifices are usually then accompanied by some set of good works that they are to perform in order to merit their reward of whatever concept they have of life after death; from Nirvana to Valhalla to the Celestial Heavens and so forth. And, again, even among the Social Gospel and Liberation Theology churches, the teaching about salvation is related to a combination of forgiveness plus the doing of good works which is supposed to then equal the reward of meriting a place in Heaven. But again, each religion is starting from this world-wide deception of the belief that man is basically spiritually good. And therefore they then act on this world-wide confusion that all they are then in need of is the combination of getting some forgiveness for what has been bad in their life and then improving on what could be better in their life through the merits of some good works in their life. However, in doing so they are completely rejecting or neglecting God’s revelation about what their real problem is and what their real need is which can only be solved and met by receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

The thing is, mankind’s problem is way past any discussion about religious good works or improvements in their religious practices. Here is the critical point about the Gospel revelation. Both the deception that man is basically good and the confusion that man can get better through good works is resolutely refuted and completely corrected by the clearest revelation by God through the Apostle Paul concerning the basic spiritual condition of every person on Earth. Eph 2:1-10- “In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. At that time you followed the world’s evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God. Actually all of us were like them and lived according to our natural desires, doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds. In our natural condition we, like everyone else, were destined to suffer God’s anger. But God’s mercy is so abundant, and His love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience He brought us to life with Christ. It is by God’s grace that you have been saved. In our union with Christ Jesus He raised us up with Him to rule with Him in the heavenly world. He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of His grace in the love He showed us in Christ Jesus. For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do.” TEV

Contrary to nearly all human understanding about the spiritual condition of man, man is not basically good; rather, man is basically dead – spiritually dead. This is where the Gospel conversation starts. The Gospel is about how spiritually dead people can become spiritually alive by having their spirit united to the life of Jesus Christ. Yes, we need forgiveness from God because of our sins, but we also need something from God which is central to the Gospel; we need spiritual life.

One of the clearest statements about the Biblical Gospel is attributed to Ravi Zacharias, who was trying to clarify this very deception about the spiritual condition of man and the confusion about what Jesus came to do about it all. And this is how he summarized what the Bible is saying to us all: “Jesus did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live.”

This is the message that cuts right through all the religious deception and confusion by the various religions of the world about there being different religious paths to Heaven. This is the message that reveals to everyone that the way to Heaven is not a path at all. Why? Because the Gospel message is not about religious behavior, it’s about being brought out of spiritual death into spiritual life. It’s about Jesus bringing spiritual life to the spiritually dead people of Earth. That’s what the Apostle is declaring to us: “But God’s mercy is so abundant, and His love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience He brought us to life with Christ.” The Gospel is not about walking some pathway to Heaven. Again, the spiritual condition of man is way past that. People without Christ in their life are already spiritually dead. What they need is spiritual life, and spiritual life can only be found in Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Life-giver.

Something we must realize is that the enemy of our souls has the world deceived into thinking that they already have spiritual life since they believe they are basically good. And then he has them confused by thinking that all they need from God is some help; some help with a dose of forgiveness now and then and some help with their good works. Even for many who claim ‘Christian’ as their religious faith, they think of Jesus more as their ‘Helper’ rather than their ‘Life-giving Lord and all sufficient Savior’. They are still thinking as though they are basically good and simply need be sorry before God for what they’ve done wrong and with His help they will try to do better. They think they are right with God because they are trusting in God’s grace and their works. But for one thing, the Apostle Paul said that is impossible because our works cancels out God’s grace. It’s either one or the other. Speaking of our salvation the Apostle says this: Rom 11:6- “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” NASU

If a person is depending upon a combination of some help with forgiveness from Jesus plus trusting in the merits of their own works for their salvation, the Apostle reveals to them that they have just canceled out God’s grace for their salvation. They are still trusting in what God says cannot save them; their works. The Scriptures clearly state that we can only be saved by God’s grace through our faith and not by our merits or works.

Again, one of the reasons the Gospel conversation needs to be clarified with the irreligious unsaved or the religious unsaved is because of this humanistic belief that people have that they are basically spiritually good people. This deception is deeply rooted within the sin nature of mankind. And so what people then do, in relation to their idea about being right with God, is that they continually compare their relative goodness with what they see in others when they are considering if they are good enough concerning whatever religious beliefs or affiliation they have. And in this comparison with other religious people they often will not see much of a difference, nor much of a need to change either what they believe or how they are living. And so they conclude that they are probably all right with God and do not need whatever some ‘Christian’ might be offering to them.

What they need to understand is that what the Biblical Gospel is revealing to us all is that mankind’s problem is way past a discussion about religious beliefs or works and behavior. What they need to understand is what sin did to their spirit. Most people of the world do not know what ‘Sin’ did to the human spirit. If you were to ask people on the street what ‘Sin’ did to our human spirit, how many would answer: “Sin killed our human spirit and left us spiritually dead.” None would give that answer unless they had learned this Biblical truth about sin. This is not something that the natural man knows, since this truth can only be discovered through the revelation of God concerning what sin did to our human spirit. Sin killed the spirit of every person on Earth and has left everyone spiritually dead. Therefore, what every person on Earth is in need of from God is to have their dead spirit brought back to life again. And the only way that can happen is for them to turn to the only source of spiritual life, Jesus Christ, and receive Him into to their life to raise their dead spirit to life again in union with Him. Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life!

The Gospel is about asking the One who was crucified and who died in my place because of my sins to remove my spiritual death penalty from me and to bring my dead spirit back to life in union with Jesus’ own eternal life. The Gospel is about raising the spiritually dead back to life again through the mercy of Christ’s death as substitute for my eternal spiritual death and through the grace of Christ’s gift to me of His own eternal life. My trust, therefore, is not in anything of my own merit or works, but only in what Christ has done through His sinless life and sacrificial death in order to bring my dead spirit back to life in union with Jesus’ own eternal life.

I’m not trusting in my works because no amount of good works could ever bring my dead spirit back to life. Do not overlook this critical point. Whenever the conversation about salvation turns to the issue of good works it needs to be turned back to the fact that dead people can’t bring themselves back to life through their good works. Let’s state that again: The reason that ‘good works’ cannot save anyone is because no amount of good works can bring a spiritually dead person back to life again. One who is spiritually dead can only come back to life through uniting himself or herself with the only source of life, the Lord of life, Jesus Christ.

Look at how Paul explained the issue of the Law in terms of why the works of the Law could never bring salvation: Gal 3:21-22- “Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” NASU

The reason that the Law of works in the Old Testament or the good works of anyone who has ever lived since that time have no power to save anyone is because good works have no power to impart life to a person’s dead spirit. Like we said: No amount of good works can ever bring anyone’s dead spirit back to life. And that is what we are talking about when we are talking about the Gospel of Salvation: How can anyone whose spirit is dead because of their trespasses and sin have their dead spirit brought back to spiritual life again? There is only one way; and that is by the Life-giving Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ, coming to unite His spiritual life with the one who is spiritually dead, re-birthing his or her dead spirit with His own spiritual life. That’s why Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born-again.” Our dead spirit must be birthed into spiritual life.

Again, The issue with the unsaved around us is not about what church they go to or what religious beliefs they have or what good works they have done. No, the issue with the unsaved people around us is that they are spiritually dead, and therefore what they need, what everyone needs, is spiritual life. And they can only get spiritual life through the Spirit of Christ.

Much of why many Christians are uncomfortable about witnessing is because the conversation often turns into a discussion about good works. And even when the Christian tries to clarify that salvation is not based on our good works but on God’s saving grace, still, since most people think they are pretty good already, the conversation often bogs down right there. They might even like the part about God’s grace, but somehow they just sort of add whatever is said about God’s grace to their own opinion of their good works and off they go. That is why the Gospel conversation needs to changed, because a world that believes that they are basically good will also believe that they are basically ‘OK’ with God, and so they think of themselves as basically already spiritually alive. But God says that apart from being united to Christ’s Spirit they are basically dead in trespasses and sin and will remain that way forever, regardless of their good works.

The enemy of the souls of mankind has both deceived and confused the minds of the unsaved. The Gospel of the Bible is the only revelation that proclaims that sin has killed the spirit of every person on Earth and they are spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. And unless their spirit is brought back to life again through receiving the Life-giver, the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they will enter an eternity as spiritually dead people and will forever be spiritually separated from God in a land called Gehenna Hell.

That’s the bad news. But the good news is; the Gospel is: “But God’s mercy is so abundant, and His love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience He brought us to life with Christ…For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it.” The Gospel tells us that anyone and everyone can have their dead human spirit brought back to life, if they will receive the Lord of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ, into their life as their Savior, as their Life-giver! That’s what ‘Savior’ means, Life-giver. Maybe we should start this change in the Gospel conversation, this ‘do-over’, by talking more about Jesus as our Lord and ‘Life-giver’. It might turn the Gospel conversation back to helping people understand that being right with God is not a matter of religious works and deeds – it’s way beyond a discussion of ‘works’; it’s a matter of ‘life and death’! It’s a matter of the spiritually dead coming back to spiritual life in union with Jesus Christ, who alone is the Life-giver. We need to reveal to the world why in fact Jesus came to Earth: ‘Jesus did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live.’

Living Life Over Before It’s Over, Pt. 2

Study Guide, November 1, 2015 – Pastor Clay Olsen

We have begun to look into some Biblical precepts and principles that we have the opportunity to try to put into practice in our lives before our lives are over. And one of these has to do with this very aspect of ‘understanding’. In fact the wisest man that ever lived said this: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” Prov 3:5-6 NASU

I would have to say that I have stumbled over that counsel a number of times. But today I have another chance to try it over again…no doubt, again and again. But the point is that the if the wisest man who ever lived could not trust his own understanding, why should I…why should any of us think we should even try? That is something we should understand about ourselves. And that is, we naturally think we know more than we actually do know. We are easily deceived by the world, the flesh, and the devil and therefore must constantly be relying not on our understanding, but in all our ways we need to be relying upon God’s Word, seeking to understand all our ways through the lenses of the Word of God, relying upon them and being led in them by the Spirit of God.

Speaking of ‘understanding’, would it surprise you to know that along with seeking to be loved by those whom God has created and redeemed, that what God seeks most from us is to be understood? Really….One of the most amazing personal and emotional statements the Lord ever said about Himself is found in Jer 9:23-24- “Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.” NKJV

It is safe to say that God is the most misunderstood Person in the world. Now, if anyone in the world can deal with that, it’s God, of course. But still, at least God’s people should seek to make it easier on Him. Jesus expected to be misunderstood by the world when He came into the world. But we find out that Jesus expected that those who would become His children out of this world would come to understand and know Him more and more and better and better. That is what He wanted to see happen in His relationship with His people.

Remember when Jesus was teaching the Disciples about going to Heaven before them to prepare a place for them there and that He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one could come to the Father, except through Him? Notice carefully what happened next: John 14:8-11- “Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”. Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.” NASU

Even through this written account you can feel the sadness in the words of Jesus to Philip, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me?” What is something that God really wants out of our relationship with Him? God wants you and me to come to understand Him, to seek to understand Him more and more, better and better. It means more to God than we can even imagine. But knowing how much that it does mean to God should cause us to make it one of the highest priorities of our lives.

Now, certainly, we will come to understand God more and more throughout all eternity. But the point is, our goal in this life should be to pursue understanding as much about God as He wants us to understand about His Person and His character and His expressed desires, before this life is over. And if ‘understanding God, in His Person, character, and desires has not been a priority goal of your life so far, then God has told us to do this part over in our life before our life is over. Make seeking to understand and know your God more and more become a central part of your worship experience of God. And realize that this is a great source of delight that you and I can give to our Maker and our Savior. And really, how amazing it is to realize that we can bring delight to the heart of our God in giving Him something that He has told us that He really wants in a relationship with us. He wants us to try to understand and know Him as much as we can in this life, before this life is over. And we each can do this!

And as we do this, as we set out to know and understand our God better and better, there is something else we should know and understand about ourselves. Henry Ward Beecher was a minister in the late 1800’s. He’s quoted as saying things like: “We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves… Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul… Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a loving heart.” So, yeah, pretty insightful Brother there. But he also reminded us all about a particular tendency we have when it comes to seeking to know our God. He said that our conceptions of God tend to proceed out of our perceptions from our own personalities.

Perhaps if we just let him speak for himself we’ll get the idea better. Here is Henry Ward Beecher talking: “Some there are who are far more sensible to physical qualities than others. The sublimity of power is to their thought one of the chief Divine attributes. God is omnipotent. That idea touches them. He is omniscient. Their eyes sparkle when they think of that. He is omnipresent. They have a sense of that. He is majestic. He has wondrous power. According to their conception He is God of all the earth. None can resist His might. That is your sense of God. If you only have such a God, you are satisfied. Another person wants a scientific God. He says, “I perceive that there is a law of light, a law of heat, a law of electricity; I see that everything is fashioned by law; and my idea of God is that He must be supreme in science; that there are to be found in Him all those qualities which science is interpreting to me.” His God will be just, generous, faithful; but He will be just, generous, faithful after the fashion of a Faraday (or some other (scientist)… Another man conceives of God from the domestic side, It is the mother nature that he thinks of — the nature that is full of gentleness; full of kindness; full of sympathy; full of sweetness; full of elevated tastes; full of songs; full of all manner of joy-producing qualities. Another, who is an artist, will feel after the God of the rainbow — a God of beauty. So every person will be dependent upon the most sensitive parts of his own soul for his interpretation of God. What is it that makes one flower blue and another scarlet? No flower reflects all the light. If a flower is purple it absorbs a part and reflects the rest. If it is blue it absorbs some of the parts and reflects others. The same is true if it is red. And as it is with the colors of flowers, so it is with our conception of God. What you are susceptible of, and what you are sensitive to, in the Divine nature, largely determines what your conception of God is. Each individual puts emphasis on that part of the character of God which his own mind is best fitted to grasp. For instance, God is said to be a God of justice, of truth, and of benevolence. Now, which of those elements is first? Which governs the others? If God is first sternly just, and then suffers and is kind, that is one sort of God. If He is first loving, and then in the service of love is stern, and severe even, that is another kind of God. I hold that the emphasis which you put upon the Divine attributes determines the character of God in your mind.”

(H. W. Beecher; from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)

The thing is, that we tend to limit the things we come to understand and know about God because we tend to limit our search according to those things we have come to understand and know about ourselves, like our own interests and temperament and personality and such. Yes, God plans to use our particular temperament and interests and personality as a testimony to this world, but we should not allow these things to limit what we come to understand and know about our God, otherwise we will then be doing what the world tends to do, and that is; fashion God in our their own image rather than re-fashioning their lives more and more into the image of God.

Certainly, the needs of our personality and temperament often drive us to God. If we are drawn to God through our love of history or science or art or music or medicine, then wonderful, but let your love and your temperament and personality be a doorway by which you enter into God’s world, not a limitation through which God must come to you in your world. Do not make your needs and desires and your temperament and personality become the terms in which you look to God for your happiness. Rather, let your needs and desires and your temperament and your personality drive you to God with the goal of opening yourself up to living your life according to His terms, and finding your happiness by His terms.

Plus, God reveals that the very source of our happiness is related to our understanding and knowing God. Look again: Go back to what God said: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me…” Here is something important to understand about what it means ‘to glory’ in something. We generally tend to think of ‘to glory in something or someone’ as meaning to give honor and credit to this or that or to them. And it includes all this for sure. But ‘to glory in something or someone’ also has the particular meaning of ‘to depend upon this particular thing or this particular someone as your source of happiness’.

Do you see what God is saying to us? God is revealing a critical piece of information for us to understand about our very makeup or design. You see, We were not created to depend upon or to look to any particular set of strengths of ours or to any special wisdom of ours or to any acquired riches of ours as our source of happiness. These have no power to confer happiness upon our souls. Rather, God is informing us that we were created to reap happiness when we look to God with the intention of seeking to understand and to know our God deeper and deeper and better and better. You see, Our personal happiness is directly dependent upon how much we depend upon understanding and knowing God as being our very source and pathway of happiness! Besides, God alone has the power to confer happiness upon our souls. And He does so as we glory in, as we depend upon, understanding and knowing God in His Person, character, and expressed desires as our source of real happiness. Personal strengths, and individual wisdom, and acquired riches can be blessings to enjoy and to share with others, but the waters of happiness for refreshing the soul have one source from which we are to drink. And that source is the pool of understanding and knowing God Himself.

The headwaters of human happiness are understanding and knowing God. Drink from these and your very soul will be refreshed. Enjoy the other things of life as gifts from God, but realize that what God enjoys, what blesses God, is your pursuit of understanding and knowing God. And in your pursuit of this holy habit, God will bestow happiness on your soul. Some of the ancient Christian writers referred to this happiness of the soul as ‘a mystical experience’. Yet, by ‘mystical’ they weren’t referring to some ‘other-worldly’ kind of thing, but ‘mystical’ in it’s normal definition of ‘Having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding.’ So in this sense we can each have a mystical experience, which is really just a majestic experience in our relationship with our majestic God, since the experience of depending upon understanding and knowing God as our source of daily happiness is way beyond the ordinary understanding of people around us who are simply living life according to their own understanding.

How this plays out in day to day life is that, since we have come to understand how much it means to God for us to try to understand and know Him better and better, now our daily devotional Bible reading will be overlaid with this holy pursuit, this goal of understanding and knowing God deeper and better and more and more. Our daily works and activities and interactions with others will now be overlaid with the intention of better understanding and knowing God through the experience of it all. Our church family worship and service will be overlaid with gleaning from it all for how it helps us come to understand and know our God better and better. And just our day to day activities with our family and friends will now be overlaid with looking for ways that can help us understand and know God better and better through it all.

And as we learn to ‘glory’ most in understanding and knowing God, we will find ourselves glorying less in the things of this world and even our own selves. And in this ‘mystical majestic’ experience with God we will find our true freedom for our mind and emotions and our soul happiness.

Remember this about how each of us are made. My personal happiness is not based upon how much I am getting out of life. My happiness is based upon how much I am getting into God…into understanding and knowing my God deeper and deeper and more and more.

 

“Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.” Jer 9:23-24 NKJV

 

Living Life Over Before It’s Over, Pt. 1

Study Guide, October 25, 2015 – Pastor Clay Olsen

Sharon’s father was mentored by a fellow Marine named Bob Boardman. In turn, Sharon’s father kept ‘passing it on’, mentoring others himself. Bob Boardman had fought in the South Pacific during WW11. In 1943 while carrying a wounded comrade from their tank that had been shelled and was on fire Bob was shot in the throat by a Japanese sniper. From then on he could only speak in a ‘husky whisper’. It wasn’t just a whisper, but since he was a tough marine, it was a ‘husky whisper’.

During the war he had become a Christian while reading through a Gideon New Testament; which is an example of how wonderful the Gideon Bible ministry has been through the years. After the war Bob was discipled by a man named Dawson Trotman, who many know as the founder of the Navigators Ministry. Bob then became full-time staff with the Navigators and committed to overseas missions. And guess what people group he chose to go witness to and serve? Right. He went to Japan to serve the Japanese people as the ‘Whispering Missionary’. He had lost friends and even his own voice by the hands of the Japanese, but he went back to tell them they had a Savior Who loved them and was waiting to give them His gift of forgiveness and eternal life in union with Him.

It’s an amazing testimony, and you can find out more about Bob Boardman on the internet. But when Bob was 59 years old he wrote an article for the Navigators entitled, ‘If I Could Live My Life Over’. You can also read that. And in the article he talks about things like; he would stand more boldly upon his God-given calling, and not be so fearful. And then he said that while they were young he would spend more time with his children in worship, in spiritual disciplines, and in just enjoying life. He would be quicker to turn from temptation and sin. He would be more systematic and single-minded in following a lifetime personal Bible study and Scripture memory program. He would be more determined in his one-to-one discipling ministry. He wrote that he would welcome trials and even failures as mends and as builders of his poor character. (What a humble self-image by this great man.) And he wrote that he would be more considerate, kind, tender, and communicative toward his wife, his children, and his fellow workers.¹

Pretty impressive! And, again, you can read what he wrote about each of these things in the article, as we have posted how to find it in our Study Guides. But now here is where we are heading with this. As we stated, Bob Boardman was 59 when he wrote this article on if he could live his life over. He lived another 26 years after this and died at age 85. The point being; much of what he wrote about doing if he could live his life over he did live over before his life was over. That is a description of ‘Biblical wisdom’.

Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses. And in this prayer he prays this: Ps 90:12- “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.” Holman Bible

About this prayer Barnes Commentary says, “The prayer is, that God would enable us to form such an estimate of life, that we shall be truly wise; that we may be able to act “as if” we saw the whole of life, or as we should do if we saw its end. God sees the end—the time, the manner, the circumstances in which life will close; and although He has wisely hidden that from us, yet He can enable us to act as if we saw it for ourselves; to have the same objects before us, and to make as much of life, “as if” we saw when and how it would close. If anyone knew when, and where, and how he was to die, it might be presumed that this would exert an important influence on him in forming his plans, and on his general manner of life. The prayer is, that God would enable us to act “as if” we had such a view.” (from Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc.)

God can enable us to act as if we see the whole of our life even to its end, and then act indeed on how we form our plans and how we conduct the general manner of our life, or conduct the specific manners and actions of our life. What we have in this prayer of Moses and instruction from God is a call for us to live life over before its over! We are called to look as much or more at how our life will end up than how it’s going now, and then make the most of today while it’s still called ‘Today’. We are called to live today as if we were at the end of our life writing an article on ‘If I could live my life over.’

Well, no doubt we could each start on a list like Bob Boardman did, and you may already have or now will, but in the coming study times we have together we’re going to point out some specific Biblical principles we each need to practice in living out today, again, while it’s still called ‘Today’. And the first one goes along with what Moses prayed about; living life as though we saw its end, not only the end for us, but also for others who have not repented unto salvation. And why is this important? Let’s look.

Recall another Psalm that spoke about the need to see people the way God sees people, particularly unsaved people. In Psalm 73, a Psalm of Asaph, he starts by looking at people through his own eyes, but he finishes by looking at people through God’s eyes. In Ps. 73:2-9 Asaph wrote, “My feet had almost stumbled. They had almost slipped because I was envious of arrogant people when I saw the prosperity that wicked people enjoy. They suffer no pain. Their bodies are healthy. They have no drudgery in their lives like ordinary people. They are not plagued with problems like others. That is why they wear arrogance like a necklace and acts of violence like clothing. Their eyes peer out from their fat faces, and their imaginations run wild. They ridicule. They speak maliciously. They speak arrogantly about oppression. They verbally attack heaven, and they order people around on earth.”

That’s a pretty depressing sight. What was going on? Well, as Aspah looked at the unsaved around him through human eyes, or through his natural and temporal understanding, he became envious of their prosperity and their seemingly pleasurable lives…until he saw them through a different sets of eyes. Notice what he wrote then.

Ps 73:17-19- “Only when I came into God’s holy place did I finally understand what would happen to them. You put them in slippery places and make them fall into ruin.

They are suddenly destroyed. They are completely swept away by terror!” GOD’S WORD

Suddenly Asaph saw these people whom he once envied with pity toward them now…and why? Because he saw what was about to happen to them. Once he replaced his partial temporal picture of life with God’s complete and eternal picture of life it changed everything Aspah saw after that. And it will be the same for us. To see life, to see people of this life accurately and realistically, we must see life not as this partial temporal picture before us, but see it as it really is, see the complete eternal picture that is all around us. We must see life from God’s eternal point of view and not from our own temporal point of view. And if we have not been looking at life this way then one thing we need to live out in the rest of our life that we have before us, or before this life we have is over, is replace this partial temporal picture of life with the complete eternal picture of life…the picture that God has revealed to us about what’s really going on in this life and what’s really going on in the next, in life beyond death.

In fact, we need to see people around us the way that Asaph began to see them. Concerning those who do not fear God, or concerning those who have not surrendered their heart and lives to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, we need to look at them not just in terms of what’s happening in their lives, but in terms of what’s about to happen in their lives. For what is about to happen to the unsaved person is more important than anything that’s happening to them now or has ever happened in their life. As Asaph saw, they are on the verge of complete ruin and utter destruction. Mark it down: What’s going to happen when a person’s life comes to an end is more important than anything that’s ever happened to them before.

I’ve been thinking about Steve Jobs, the brilliant mind behind Apple computers and the IPad and IPhone and on and on. I didn’t see the movie about his life and I don’t know what was revealed in it about his faith. But concerning his faith, what’s written about him is that he rejected his Christian upbringing at age 13. In the post-sixties he traveled to India and came back embracing Zen Buddhism as his faith. One article about this said that traces of the Eastern religions have made it into the pockets of millions of Westerners thanks to the ‘deep influence’ of Zen Buddhism in the life of the late Steve Jobs. The article also said that many are still trying to make sense of his final words, “Oh wow, Oh wow, O wow” that his sister related to the New York Times. He had professed uncertainty as to whether God exists, and is recorded as saying, “I’m about fifty-fifty in believing in God.”² We pray that perhaps before he left this life that he had embraced the Savior and Lord Jesus that he had earlier rejected, and perhaps had a ‘thief on the cross’ like experience…but we don’t know.

What we do know is this; that what is happening now in the life after death of Steve Jobs is more crucial and important and significant than anything that ever happened in his life in his career with Apple computers. Again, we pray that Steve Jobs did repent toward God and surrender in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior before he left Earth, but if he did not…well, either way, the need for every person on Earth to do this would be the most important thing that he would tell others that they need to do in their life while they still have a choice. And if he hadn’t received Christ as his Savior in his life, he would now want to warn others and say that this is what he would do if he could live his life over.

We know that to be sure because of the testimony we already have of an unsaved rich man after he died. Luke 16:22-31- “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. (This is a different Lazarus than the Lazarus of Bethany that is resurrected.) And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. ‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house — for I have five brothers — in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” NASU

Note carefully, this was not a parable that Jesus was teaching. This was a historical account of two people, no doubt two people who were known by some those to whom Jesus was speaking. Jesus was opening up the veil to show us what happens for the saved and the unsaved right after we leave Earth. It is a picture of what’s is going on right now in the lives of both the saved and the unsaved since they left Earth. And it reveals this to all of us: What happens then and forever after is more important than anything that’s ever happened in our life before.

Plus, it even shows the danger of people rejecting the authority of the truths of the Bible. Like Abraham said to this unsaved man in Hades, that if his brothers were rejecting the most powerful witness of the Scriptures, then they would continue to reject any other witness, even if someone were to rise from the dead. Even today, after Jesus Christ has risen from the dead as a witness to the whole world, people continue to reject the witness of both Jesus and the Scriptures that are calling all people to repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. That’s the danger of hardening your heart against the Words of God.

But the reality is that every person on earth is but a heartbeat away, one breath away, one step away from entering either Hades or Heaven. What happens when you do leave Earth is more important than anything that is happening in your life now or has ever happened before. That’s how God sees people. That’s how Asaph learned to see people. And that’s how we are to see people if we are looking at them through the lenses of the Bible, looking at them realistically.

We have mentioned before, but it bears repeating here, that wisdom is living your life not forward, from where you are now to the end, but living your life backward, from the end to where you are now. For the believer, it’s living your life the way you will wish you had lived your life when standing before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Well, in our study times to come we’ll explore some more of the precepts and principles from the Scriptures concerning living our life over before it’s over.

1. Bob Boardman, If I Could Live My Life Over, discipleshiplibrary.com
2. Joshua Little, What do Steve Job’s final words mean? New York Times, faithstreet.com

The Burden/The Blessing

Study Guide, October 4, 2015 – Pastor Clay Olsen

The Bread

One of the reasons we look forward to our devotional communion service is because it’s a time when we slow down and reflect upon the wonder of our Great Savior and our great salvation. And at once we are reminded of the uniqueness of it all. The Biblical way of salvation is unique. And since it is, for one thing, that means that people can’t rely on their own understanding about it. In our membership orientation we review some of the natural ways people think about salvation that are wholly apart from Biblical revelation about it. In the notes Rick Warren outlined some of these ways. One way is Salvation through heritage. That’s where people just assume that since their parents called themselves ‘Christians’ then they must be a Christian, too.

Or another way is Salvation by sincerity, like as long as you are sincere about your beliefs, you’re probably fine. Well, a person can sincerely believe a bridge ahead is still there, but if that bridge is out, and they ignore the sign, then they are sincerely in a heap of trouble. Or there is Salvation by subtraction, like “Well, I don’t do this and I don’t do that…I don’t drink or cuss or chew and I don’t go around with girls that do.” And on the other hand, there’s Salvation by Addition, as in, “If I just add some religion and some religious works to my life, I’ll be okay on the scales of good deeds over bad deeds.” The thing is, God doesn’t measure our salvation by our works on a set of scales. He measures it by what we did about Christ’s works throughout His life and His sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary. And then one more is Salvation by association. They think that as long as they have some church affiliation, they must be a Christian. Years ago in his concerts Keith Green used to say, “Going to church doesn’t make you anymore of a Christian than going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger.”

The point is; Biblical Salvation is unique. You cannot reason it out; rather it comes to us through revelation. Listen how the Apostle Paul describes it: Rom 8:1-4- “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” NASU

Here’s an amazing way to describe our salvation:’What we could not do, Jesus did. And what should have been done to us was done to Christ for us.’ Remember, the Law demanded obedience to God in all things; words, thoughts, and deeds. And as James reminds us, James 2:10- “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” NASU In other words; “Uh…Oh!” For that describes everyone, for all have sinned and have fallen short of the righteous standard of God, or fallen short of keeping the whole Law.” That means that all have sinned. And the wages of sin is what? Rom 6:23- “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” NASU

Note that two things are contrasted here: ‘the wages of sin’, which is eternal death, and ‘the free gift of God’, which is eternal life.’ So how does anyone get out from under this bondage of this eternal death penalty and into this freedom of this gift of eternal life?

“Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

‘In Christ’ was a favorite phrase of the Apostle Paul’s. Notice some of the statements he made about being ‘in Christ’:

1 Cor 1:30- “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”

2 Cor 5:17- “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Gal 2:16- “…nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

Gal 3:26- “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” NASU

You see, the Apostle makes it very clear that there are only two ways to try to have a relationship with God; two paths of salvation: One is by the ‘works of the Law’ and the other is ‘by faith in Christ Jesus’. And there is not a third, like a mixture of works and faith, for as Paul said, (and we’ll state it in three different versions for clarification)

Rom 11:6- “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” NASU

Rom 11:6- “And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.” NLT

Rom 11:6- “But if it is by grace (His unmerited favor and graciousness), it is no longer conditioned on works or anything men have done. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace [it would be meaningless].” AMP

Pretty clear: We come to God through faith in Christ and His works for us. It’s the merits of Christ’s life in which we trust, not in the merits of our our own life, for Christ’s merits are without sin and ours are stained with sin. And in trusting in the merits of Christ’s life to fulfill the Law for us and trusting in the sacrifice of His death to pardon our sins we receive His free gift of eternal life which we don’t deserve in place of the eternal death which we do deserve. For as the Apostle stated: “The wages of sin is eternal death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!”

That’s why we call Him ‘Savior’. He saved us not by the works of our hands, but through the reach of our hand of faith because of His great love and grace freely given to us. ‘By grace’ is God’s hand reaching down to us, and ‘through faith’ is our hand reaching up to Him.

 

The Cup

One of the things which troubles conscientious Christians, of which we all are to be, goes back to what Paul said in Romans 8 – “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did…” What troubles conscientious Christians is not the part about being condemned by God, since we know that Christ is our Savior from final condemnation. Praise God! No, what troubles conscientious Christians is more of a ‘self condemnation’, knowing that even in our walk of faith we still fall short of being all we should be and of doing all we should be doing. And it’s this ‘self condemnation’ that becomes a heavy burden that steals our joy instead of enjoying the blessing of being free in Christ and living with the sense of that freedom.

Maybe we can see where we’re going here by listening to some commentary by Dr. John Walvoord on Romans 8. He writes, “The question naturally arises, ‘Must a believer spend his whole life on earth frustrated by ongoing defeats to indwelling sin? Is there no power provided to achieve victory?’ The answer to the first question is no and to the second, yes. In chapter 8, Paul described the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God who is the source of divine power for sanctification and the secret for spiritual victory in daily living. But first Paul reminded his readers that therefore – since deliverance is “through Jesus Christ our Lord” – no condemnation awaits those who are in Christ Jesus, as a result of their faith and identification with Him. They are justified, declared righteous, and therefore stand in His grace and not under His wrath, and possess eternal life. Christ is the sphere of safety for all who are identified with Him by faith.”¹

What a wonderful answer to that question of “Must a believer spend his whole life on earth frustrated by ongoing defeats to indwelling sin?” And here is a wonderful release from that burden that conscientious Christians often carry in relation to their frustration over the presence of sin in their lives. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is in Acts 15 where the Apostle Peter is clearing up some confusion about mixing Law thinking with Grace thinking. And he says this: Acts 15:7-11- “At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows: “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe. God knows people’s hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith. So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.” NLT

Note this very carefully: God is not looking for perfection from you in your fellowship and service and works for Him. For that has already been accomplished for you by your Savior. Jesus was perfect in all things of the Law for you. Jesus performed all of the requirements of the Law for you. Remember, it is in His righteousness that you are now declared ‘Righteous’. That is your standing, your position, your identity before God.

Remember what Paul said about that? Phil 3:9- “…and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith…” NASU Your standing with God is secure since you are clothed in Christ’s righteousness for you. So now it is your walk with God that you are to focus on. But in your walk, even as you conscientiously seek to walk steadily with your Lord, there will be times that you will stumble. And hopefully not severely, but stumble in some word, thought, or deed, in what you did do or what you didn’t do. And how you respond to this stumble will determine if your continued walk with God will be a burden for you or a blessing to you. Here’s the key: it depends upon in whom you believe. Remember this: ‘To be disappointed in yourself is to have believed in yourself. To be disappointed in yourself is to have depended on yourself.’ As those who have been redeemed by the works and the power of Jesus Christ for our salvation we are to continue to believe in and depend upon the works and the power of Jesus Christ for our sanctification; for our ongoing development as a follower of Jesus Christ.

Remember, the Law revealed that no one could perfectly keep the Law, except for the Perfect One, Jesus Christ. That’s why we are called to believe in Him and not in ourselves. For as Peter said, “So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?” Peter is reminded them and us that no one could ever perfectly perform the righteous requirements of the Law. Again, that’s why we needed a Savior. And that is also why we need to know that God is now not looking for perfection in you, rather, He is only looking for perseverance in you. And by the grace of God, we can do that. We can persevere for God.

Conscientious Christians are unnecessarily burdened when they expect the wrong thing of themselves. When you expect perfection in yourself in your walk with God you will only find the burden of frustration. But if you expect perseverance in yourself in your walk with God you will enjoy the blessing of freedom in your service and works for your Savior. And as you confess your stumbling to God and accept His forgiveness you will sense Him lifting you up again to walk further with Him as you persevere in your worship and service for Him. He will change your burden of your falling into the blessing of your getting up again and walking with Him further, offering your works for Jesus, but rejoicing most in Jesus’ works for you.

 

The Heidelburg Catechism: “Against any perfectionism we are warned: Even the best we do in this life is imperfect and stained with sin, rendering all obedience imperfect at best.”

Thank God for His grace, accept it, and enjoy the freedom of living in God’s pleasure over your perseverance for Him.

 

1. From Bible Knowledge Commentary/New Testament Copyright © 1983, 2000 Cook Communications Ministries

A Peculiar People

Study Guide, September 20, 2015 – Pastor Clay Olsen

‘Let’s forget about ourselves and concentrate on God and worship Him.’

In speaking about connecting with God and changing for the better, we have often said that one of the clearest ways to do that is by living out the identity or identities which God has given us. And one of the most striking identities that God has given us is found in 1 Peter 2:9. And the King James Version puts it like this: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…” ‘Chosen generation’…my; ‘royal priesthood’…wow; ‘holy nation’…great; ‘peculiar people’…wait…say what?

‘Peculiar’? What do many people think about in connection with someone being ‘peculiar’? Right, they associate things like, ‘weird, odd, bizarre, off-the-wall’ and so on. And although some of us are rather comfortable with those descriptions anyway, generally, this is not the kind of personal identity most are striving for in their life. But the point is, being ‘Biblically peculiar’ is this the kind of personal identity that we as Christians are to strive to live out, especially since God has already identified us a being a ‘Peculiar People’! And so since we are ‘Peculiar People’, just what does that mean, Biblically?

Actually, even the classic definitions of ‘peculiar’ are pretty honorable. ‘Peculiar’ is defined as: ‘Beyond or deviating from the usual or expected’; ‘unique or specific to a person or thing or category’; markedly different from the usual’; characteristic of one only; distinctive or special’. Now, don’t you feel better about being described as a ‘Peculiar People’? ‘Unique, distinctive, special’…Yeah, that feels really good, doesn’t it? Well, Praise God that He thinks of us, His children, in such encouraging terms!

But there was one other description about being ‘peculiar’ that we need to flesh out a bit, and that was; ‘Markedly different from the usual’. In a article from Our Daily Bread Dr. Joseph Stowell was commenting about this aspect of the Christian life as ‘being different’. And he said: “Most of us don’t want to be different. We want people to like us, and the safest way to do that is to blend in. But following Christ has never been about blending in. Following Christ means to be like Him, to respond to life and to relate to people as He did. It’s a little risky and uncomfortable to be different. But that’s what being an “ambassador for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:20) is all about—bringing the wonderful difference of your King to bear on the territory you’ve been assigned: your home, your office, your friendships. Representing the King is not just our calling; it’s a great honor.”¹

So yes, it is a great honor and it’s a great calling to represent Christ. And we do this by becoming more like Christ. We have each been called not to be like everybody else, and contrary to pop psychology, nor to even ‘just be yourself’. No, we’re called to a much higher goal than to be like others or just be ourselves. We are called to be like Jesus! Note the command: Eph 5:1-4- “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.” ESV

So now we have the goal of being peculiar, or the example of being different; it is to be peculiarly different like Jesus was peculiarly different. Particularly in what ways? Well, in that passage in Ephesians the Apostle Paul gave us some examples. And if you noticed, these examples primarily had to do with morality. Which, in our culture, whenever you act in the courage to obey this instruction of God’s here, as in, “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving”; whenever you commit to obeying this in our society, mark it down, you will be peculiar. Why? Because sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthiness and crude joking have become the norm, not the exception. And even many people with some church connection either get confused about these things or many even get caught up in some of these immoral habits. And when confronted about it they often say things like, “Well, but wasn’t Jesus called the ‘Friend of Sinners’? Well, sure He was, but Jesus was never a friend of sin! Sinners had a friend in Jesus, but their sin never did. Jesus was always confronting sin in those He befriended, never condoning it.

The classic example of that is when the religious leaders brought the woman to Him that had been caught in adultery. By the way, I always wondered, “Why didn’t they bring the man as well?” Perhaps he was one of them…remember that part about, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone?” Anyway, Jesus’ response to her helped her to realize that Jesus did not see her as an enemy, rather He responded to her as a friend. But as a friend, what did He say? “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” John 8:11 NASU Jesus did not condemn her for her sin, but at the same time He did not and could not and would not condone her sin. He identified ‘sin’ as ‘sin’ and instructed her to repent of it.

Morality is, no doubt, one of the most misunderstood and twisted issues in our culture today. Our culture has become so steeped in sin that they cannot separate the activity of sin from the identity of the individual. And since many who are practicing sin in their lives no longer see nor accept any prospect of their practices as ‘being sinful’ they also will no longer accept any instruction that there can be such a thing as not condemning the sinner, but not condoning the sin. And when Christians try to clarify that there certainly is such a thing, in fact, that is just what Jesus did in not condemning the person, but not condoning the sin, they then just reject the Christian himself or herself as simply being a ‘bigot’ or a hateful person and they default to just writing them off as simply being ‘judgmental’ and ‘hateful’ and someone who goes around condemning people. How ironic that both the religious leaders in Jesus day and many immorally hardened people of our own day are actually the ones who are being judgmental and who are condemning any who dare to say to them like Jesus, “I do not condemn you for this, but go and sin no more.”

But regardless of the religious Pharisees then or the cultural Pharisees today, just like Jesus never condoned sin, neither can we, who are called to be like Jesus. We can never condone sin. Because like Jesus, the true friend is the one who seeks to help sinners come out of sin and to help them from ever being condemned because they will not repent of their sin. Or to be even more accurate, until a sinner repents of their sin and puts their trust in Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior they are still under condemnation. True friends are those who do the loving thing by trying to help them get out from being under that condemnation. However, again, many who love darkness rather than light will reject that description of friendship and love, and will charge them with being hateful and unloving.

And that is the cultural quagmire in which we find ourselves today. But it does not change our calling: “…Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people…” Pray for the courage and the contentment to be different for God’s sake, to be peculiar for God’s sake in the midst of a dark, decaying, and spiritually dying world.

Here’s a help in being Biblically peculiar people in the midst of culture that is conforming more and more to sin and immorality and the idolatry of self-hood. In all matters of morality, whenever the question or issue of morality comes up, make it clear to others that morality was never to be decided according to a person’s culture or by their civil courts, but by their Creator. Morality was never intended by God to be decided by anyone’s opinion, but by His revelation. And if someone asks you for your personal opinion about a moral issue, remind them of the fact that morals are not about man’s opinions but about God’s revelation, which has already been decided by God. It’s like the laws of nature, the laws of morality have already been determined, already been decreed. Regardless of anyone’s opinion, the laws of gravity are already settled and cannot be altered just because some people might want them changed. The Sun is going to continue to rise in the East and set in the West, regardless of anyone’s opinions about it. In the same way that God has decreed these laws of nature He has decreed the laws of morality. They are not open for change because of man’s opinions about them.

Be very clear on this in your communication with others: Morality has already been decreed by God; morality is not to be decided or altered by man. And God’s decrees about morality have already been revealed to mankind in the Word of God. Follow them and be blessed – forsake them and be cursed. Regardless of what societies choose to practice or to make into unlawful laws, when it comes to morality, the only thing that people can choose is the blessing or the curse. The consequences of sinning against God’s laws have already be determined.

The goal of Biblically peculiar people is to become more like Jesus, the Friend of sinners, who neither condemned people nor condoned their sin, but sought to help them find deliverance from the condemnation of sin. That’s the goal. And so what’s the purpose? The purpose of Biblically peculiar people is just what the Apostle Peter revealed: “…that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” We are peculiar people with a purpose. You can say you are ‘Peculiar with attitude’ if you like that better, so long as your attitude is to carry out this purpose!

But think about that again: “…that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” One of the things that causes Biblically peculiar people to lose sight of their purpose is that they stop rejoicing over their redemption and so they lose their attitude of gratitude. And in doing so, they then stop showing forth the praises of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. The day we take for granted what it cost for Jesus to rescue us from the condemnation of our sin is the day we stop showing forth the praises of Him who called us out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of light and life. It’s also the day we stop acting like ‘peculiar’ people and instead start acting more like the carnal people around us; the worldly people around us.

A key mark of Bibically peculiar people is for them to live with the sense that they belong not to themselves, but to the One who loved then and gave up His life for them. And only the Cross can give you that sense day after day. That’s brought out in a song called “Lead Me to the Cross”, written by Brooke Fraser of Hillsong. It says, “Lead me to the cross where Your love poured out, Bring me to my knees Lord I lay me down, Rid me of myself I belong to You, Lead me, lead me to the cross.” You see, the Cross is not just the place that you go to in order to be delivered from your sin and receive Jesus into your life. The Cross is also the place you return day after day in order to be delivered from your self and to rejoice in the fact that you now belong to Jesus.

Peculiar people know that they belong to Jesus. Peculiar people know that when they look at others, but for the grace of God, there go I. Peculiar people know that Earth at best is a battlefield, Heaven at the least, is joy beyond measure, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is their Savior who has said to them, “I have redeemed you and you are Mine. I have called you by My Name. You are precious in My sight, and I love You.” Knowing this is cause to give God daily thanks and it creates the desire in us to “shew forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.” In other words; it’s what ‘Peculiar People’ do!

Titus 2:11-14- “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all impurity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” KJV

1. Dr. Joseph Stowell, Dare to Be Different, Our Daily Bread, Feb. 2008

Steward of God’s

Slide Guide, September 13, 2015

‘Steward’ : ‘Someone who manages property or other affairs for someone else.’

Isa 65:17-19- “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem, and take delight in My people.”

Isa 65:21-22- “They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of My people; My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.” NIV

Private property, industry, and social and cultural work activities will all be central features of life even on this New Earth.

“Economics is the management of the property that ultimately belongs to God over which He has placed a steward and over which that steward will be held accountable”?

Economics has been disconnected from the real world over which the Creator of Economics reigns.

America needed a Statue of Liberty on one coast, but America also needs a Statue of Responsibility on the other coast.’

Every human being is responsible to God, for what each person is doing in relation to God’s mandate to manage some of His stuff, His stuff on Earth, over which all belongs to the Lord!

Even within mankind today, though fallen and in need of redemption, you can see this glimmer of this creative desire to work together and do and build great things.

(Show PIC of building here)

Something within the human spirit longs for making things, for building things, for creating things, and that they can take joy in these accomplishments, in these works, and also in sharing them with others.

God implanted this design for work and labor and reward and accomplishment within man before the Fall of man into sin.

One of the results of sin in the mind and hearts of most people is that sin disconnected man doing his works for the glory of God.

“Your work matters to God: So make your work an offering to God.”

“Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Col 3:22-24

As a Christian, you are a Steward of God’s. And everything you do matters to God, especially any work which honors God and blesses others.

Dr. Tackett: Work matters so much to God because God Himself is a Worker.

John 5:17- “Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” NIV

The point we want to focus on today is to really settle in our minds this fact that in whatever we do or are doing now, we are ‘Stewards of God’s’. We are to think of ourselves this way; to have this ingrained into our psyche about our personal identity. We were created to be Stewards of God’s in everything we do, from our family to our careers.

“Well, I am a Steward of God’s and I serve God and others as a Teacher in Middle School.”

How odd that one of the primary identities that God has given us is at the same time one of the least understood.

(Show Pic of USS Intrepid here)

For most people there is a real ‘disconnect’ between this concept of man’s work from man’s worship.

Part of the reason for that is because one of the results of the curse is that sin separated the sacred from the secular in the minds and hearts of people.

Neither worship nor the sacred was ever intended to be separated from work or from the secular.

“Well, I’m a steward of God’s and I work at Lowe’s in Morehead City where I serve God and others in the Electrical and Hardware departments, which God considers to also be a part of my worship and service to Him as well.”

God never intended our worship to be disconnected from our work nor the sacred from the secular. Again, it all matters to God. We just need to be sure that we make it all count for Him; count for His sake!

Work: A Preview of Things to Come

Study Guide September 6, 2015

Several new inventions and technological advances are now on the horizon. And here is one that will be a welcomed breakthrough for all the beach lovers around here…how about instead of having to slather on hand-fulls of sunscreen each time you go to the beach you just take a ‘sunscreen pill’ instead? Then, this one sounded really great. Imagine you are out hiking and badly cut your leg or arm in a fall or something…and you just reach into your bag and pull out your Laser pen which instantly seals up your wound.

This one was kind of crazy: Let’s say you are on vacation, but a meeting at the office comes up and you have to be there. Instead of flying back for the meeting, you call on your holograph phone and it projects your image to your fellow employees and their office phone projects their images to you at the same time. Meeting done…back to the Links…And then this one was fascinating, and I think there’s something like this around already, but it’s a speech to speech translating device that lets you communicate with someone of a different language. It’s like having a portable translator.

And here’s a strange one…you might want to start carrying around a heavy duty fly swatter because they are working on insect like robots that can spy on people. I can see that becoming both something really helpful, for like the military, or really bad, for like hackers and such.

And of course, cars are getting really smart, like communicating with each other to prevent crashes. And Volvo is working on a crash proof car. Then imagine that your car’s computer had an owner detection system, so that when it detected your approach it could not only start up, but even remember what temperature you prefer and what music you like and set that up for you. Plus, it might even be fitted to start up a hot cup of coffee in the cup holder waiting for you when you get in.¹

But the point is, just think about some of the amazing things that mankind, even in man’s unredeemed and fallen condition, has been able to create and continues to create. Why is that? Gen 1:26-28- “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” NKJV

To be created in the image of God includes being created with the innate inclinations of God, particularly in relation to this proclivity for creating things. In other words, the Creator created human beings with the intention that they would continue to exercise their God given creativity to steward all the Creator’s creation. Continue it how long? We’ll talk about that. But the thing is, with all of these remarkable inventions of man throughout history, these are simply previews of what redeemed man is going to invent and create when the curse is finally and fully removed from God’s redeemed people and from God’s redeemed world. In every area of life, from entertainment to engineering, from technology to travel, from music to media, and on and on, this God designed creativity that God placed within man will be one of the main features of life on the New Earth and in the New Heavens.

We talked a little about this in our study Wednesday night on the Truth Project, as we explored this area of ‘Labor’ or ‘Work’. And I’ll be gleaning a bit from that excellent study by Dr. Tackett as we expand on this subject of the Labor or the Work of man.

But think about it: We often wonder why the Universe is so immense. Why so many physical places beyond what we can even see and imagine? Well, when God’s people are able to utilize all their creative abilities, unlimited by sin and the curse…well, as the saying goes; “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” Literally, the sky is the limit for what God’s stewards are going to come up with, are going to create, once the limits of the curse are gone, and, especially since we have been made in the image of the One who loves to create, we will really get on with our proclivity for ‘creating’.

How is that different from most people’s idea of what Heaven is going to be like; or what is really going to be going on in the new world; or what the activities of Heaven will include? Is Heaven just an existence filled with resting and lounging around? No, Heaven’s not going to be filled with a bunch of ‘cloud potatoes’. No, on the contrary, Heaven will be filled with this fulfilling of this call by God for His people to exercise ‘dominion’; the management and development of all His works. And so once again, whatever mankind has been able to create and invent so far is going to seem like child’s play compared to all that God’s stewards are going to be doing and dreaming and inventing and creating in the coming Kingdom.

Randy Alcorn, in his excellent book on Heaven, said that in Heaven God is going to ‘unleash’ our creativity, not confine it. What a great way to put it; ‘creativity unleashed’. He then said, ‘As a musical novice, I might even compose something worthy of Bach. And (then) what kind of music do you suppose Bach will compose?”²

Brother Alcorn went on to point out that now we use the arts, including drama, painting, sculpture, music, and much more to provide enjoyment and entertainment and especially to praise God. So don’t you think these will continue to provide enjoyment and entertainment and be used to praise God even more in Heaven? C. S. Lewis said, “When you painted on Earth…it was because you caught a glimpse of Heaven in the earthly landscape.”³ All the beauty of the Earth, and all the wondrous things of the arts and sciences and technologies and so on, are like glimpses we are getting now of things to come in the land of the New Earth and the New Heavens. These things on Earth, these abilities on earth, these talents on earth, these creative expressions of our innermost image, this image of God in which we were created, are all like previews of the things that will really thrive in Heaven, once we are free from the sin stunted effects of this old earth, which is still under the curse.

And then think of games and hobbies and sports. It could be that your favorite sport is one that is yet to be invented in Heaven. Often when I’m talking with someone about playing sports in Heaven they say something like, “Well, I don’t know. What challenge will there be if we’re all perfect there?” Whoa! Time out! What a huge misconception of what we will be like in Heaven. Perfect? In what are we perfect? Thankfully, we going to perfect in our holy moral nature, but in everything else, like in our learning and in the developing of our talents and abilities and so on, we will continue to grow and to further develop in all of these and more. Remember, only God is perfect in all things and in all ways. Only God is perfect in knowing all things; His omniscience, and only God is perfect in all power; in His omnipotence, and so on. So we will be like God in our moral nature, but we’ll have a long way to go in our development of everything else, like our knowledge and abilities and power and such. Praise God, we’ll have perfect health, as in free from sickness and disease, but your resurrected body is always going to benefit from a good workout or a helpful practice session in whatever you are doing in Heaven.

But again, the point we are making is that all these sporting events and artistic displays and even engineering feats on this present Earth have come out of this original creative implantation within us when God made us in His own image, His own likeness. And the thing is, most people of this world don’t even realize that’s why they are drawn toward or driven to do the things they do and to make the things they make and to dream the things they dream about creating, whatever those things might be that they are on the verge of creating. Who put those desires within them, and why? You see, Most people do not connect their inner talents and gifts and abilities as being those very things which the Creator placed within them when He said, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth.” Gen 1:28 AMP

God’s plan for those He created in His likeness included being His stewards over all that He created, and this plan was never altered nor rescinded. In other words, the plan remains, and it will remain throughout eternity. Once this interruption of the reign of sin and death is over, the original plan of God’s will unfold and God’s redeemed people from every tongue and tribe and nation of this Earth will be given complete dominion and stewardship over the New Earth and New Heavens.

Think about it: Those of you that are good at Engineering, why do you think you are good at engineering? Could it be that God designed you to do those things in engineering that would bless others in this world now, and also do those things in the ages to come in the new world that will be part of those things God said that eye has not yet seen nor ear yet heard, all that God has planned for those who love Him? Could it be that things you will one day build or design in the New Earth and even into the New Heavens are part of those things beyond our imagination now? And what about those of you who are craftsmen and artists. Recall what God told Moses about the way He had planned for the building of the Tabernacle: Ex 31:1-6- “Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. “I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. “And behold, I Myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are skillful I have put skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you…” NASU Just like God placed those skills of craftsmanship and artistry within these servants of God for the purpose of building the tabernacle, God has placed certain skills within you for the purposes for building that which honors God and blesses others now, and on into the Kingdom of Heaven.

As Pastor Robert pointed out in our study, that this is all simply part of God’s design as He told us in Eph 2:10- “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” NASU And what’s the time-frame on this? Is there a 20 year or 40 year or 90 year limit on these good works or on God’s plan? Did God create us for time or did He create us for eternity? Right, He created us for eternity and He designed us with an eternal plan of good works in which we should walk. That’s one of the reasons Jesus told us His parables about the Kingdom of Heaven so that we would understand how important our faithfulness is now; that we would understand that our faithfulness in doing good works now for God affects our privileges of getting to do more and more of these good works and great things that God planned for us to do in the coming Kingdom of Heaven.

There are many unimaginable opportunities ahead for us. There are skills and interests and abilities that we have just now only experienced in part, but we will fully get to experience them all in Heaven…if we are faithful in these little things now, so that we will be rewarded with being given the privileges of the greater things ahead in the coming Kingdom.

And here is one help that can help us keep this focus in mind. In the Truth Project series Dr. Tackett pointed out that at the end of every composition of Johann Sebastian Bach he would write three letters: ‘SDG’, which stood for ‘Soli Deo Gloria’, meaning: ‘For God’s glory alone’. That commitment to God’s glory can also keep us focused on how we are to do whatever we do in the use of the talents and gifts and abilities that God has implanted in us to do these good works that He planned for us before the beginning of the world and on into the never-ending new world to come…this new world that is just on the horizon now. Imagine that; we can make what is coming even more glorious by doing everything we are doing now to the glory of God.

‘SDG’ – Soli Deo Gloria

1. Jason Wire, 23 Incredible New Technologies You’ll See by 2021, matadornetworking.com

2. Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 403

3. Ibid, p 406

Gold Digging in the Mines of the Bible, Pt. 8

Study Guide  August 30, 2015

Did you hear the news reports this week on the finding of gold off the coast of Florida? The gold was from a ship that was on it’s way to present the gold to King Philip of Spain 300 years ago, but it wrecked and sank just off the coast of Florida. A salvage company discovered 350 Spanish gold coins just 16 feet off shore. The find is estimated at four and a half million dollars.

As God’s people, we have something far better than even 350 gold coins because we get to dig up hundreds of gold truths out of the Word of God. And this gold is far more valuable than all the gold in this world. These are eternal truths that we get to have and to know and to enjoy both now and throughout eternity. So let’s examine another one today as we continue digging for gold in the Bible.

One of the odd traits about us all is that we tend to make the Christian life harder than God intended it to be. For an example: in 2 Peter 3:18 the Apostle instructs us: “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” NASU So the Apostle gives us the clear command to ‘grow’…to grow in both the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so we, as conscientious Christians, set out on this quest of spiritual growth. We take charge of this need to grow. And we naturally think that in order for this spiritual growth to happen we will need to do this and to read that and to attend such and such and to avoid these other things…and then we think, “By doing all of these I will grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.” In other words, in learning this command to grow our focus naturally turns toward working on growing, and so we then get on with this work of growing, as Peter commanded us to do. It’s a noble intention, but is that what Peter meant?

But could it be that when Peter commanded us to ‘grow’ that he intended for us to know that this process of spiritual growing is directly connected to the process of spiritual filling which then leads to the process of spiritual flowing which is what would actually then cause our spiritual growing? The answer to that question is: ‘Yes’. So now lets explore the answer.

It’s important to realize that what Peter was instructing us about in his command about ‘growing’ is related to what Paul instructed us about in his command about ‘filling’. And what Paul instructed us about in his command about filling is related to what Jesus informed us about in His revelation about ‘flowing’. Do you remember in a previous study we spoke about Jesus’ great invitation of receiving Him as Messiah, as Savior, and then do you remember what He said would happen in and through us? He said when a person did receive Him then this would happen: John 7:37-39- “On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink! The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were going to receive…” Holman Bible

Think about what Jesus said here: ‘…streams of living water flowing from deep within him.’

And so another question: Could it be that growing in the Spirit of Christ in us is related to this flowing of the Spirit of Christ through us? Or how about this? Could it be that this growing in the Spirit of Christ in us is related to this flowing of the Spirit of Christ through us which is dependent upon this filling of the Spirit of Christ in us? Absolutely!

Part of the point we are making here is that one of the reasons we tend to make the Christian life harder than God intended it to be is that when it comes to this concept of spiritual growth, we tend to set off on the ‘growing’ instead of first focusing on the ‘filling’ and then acting on the ‘flowing’. In other words, it is when we focus first on spiritual filling that we can then act on spiritually flowing, and as we do we can then experience spiritual growing. However, mark it down; you cannot experience spiritual growing without spiritual filling and spiritual flowing. Why?

Let’s ask another question in order to answer that question. Let’s personify a ‘branch’ for a moment. What is the primary focus of a branch, on the fruit that its bearing or the vine to which it is connected? Well sure, a branch delights in its fruit, but its foremost focus is on abiding in the vine, because if there is any weakening of this interaction between the branch and the vine the fruit will fail as well. You know where we are going with this, don’t you? John 15:4-6- “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” NASU

One of the major problems with most Christians is an identity problem. Their true identity is a ‘Branch’, but they tend to default to a ‘Vine’ identity. But regardless of how much a branch tries to usurp the identity and activity of the vine, it can’t. And thus, when is does, inner and outer conflict is inevitable. Remember, our union with Christ is the key to our salvation, but our communion with Christ is the key to our sanctification, or our spiritual growth as Christians. Apart from this communion, this fellowship, this abiding in Christ; what did Jesus say? “…for apart from Me you can do (what?) nothing!”

That’s rather stark, isn’t it? ‘Nothing?’ What is ‘nothing’? Remember also our study on the ‘Ecclesiates experiment’? The Ecclesiastes experiment showed that all the gain in the world of power or pride or possessions for purposes of self gain and self glory was vanity…emptiness…wasted days…or essentially, ‘nothing’. As Paul spoke to the Corinthians about the wise use of their talents and time and treasures he used the words ‘loss’ and ‘gain’. This ‘loss’ of the usefulness and this ‘loss’ in our fruitfulness is what Jesus was warning us about in leaving Him out of our focus and attention and communion and abiding and fellowship. For if we did, the result of our efforts would be loss, vanity, wasted days…or as He put it: “nothing”. Contrary to the popular idea that life is short so live for today…no, life is eternal so live today with eternity in sight. Live today in a way that what you do today will last, not just for today, but for every day; for all eternity. Live today in communion with, in fellowship with, and in dependence upon Christ, abiding in Him so that He can then bear His fruit through you.

Another way to break this down is to realize that essentially, every person has a blackboard of their life. And at the end of each day on that blackboard is written either ‘loss’ or ‘gain’. And no, we’re not talking about our body weight here. That’s a different blackboard. No, this blackboard is more like that of the Ecclesiastes wording, as in: ‘Another day wasted’ or ‘Another day of bearing fruit.’ For most people in the world at the end of each day is that message: ‘Another day wasted.’ Unfortunately, for some Christians, because they are not abiding in Christ, nor fellowshipping with Christ, nor communing with Christ; they too, have written on their blackboard; ‘Another day wasted.’ Remember what Jesus said? ‘Apart from Me you can do ‘nothing‘…meaning, nothing of lasting value; nothing of eternal gain; nothing of eternal reward; nothing God was trying to accomplish in and through your life; essentially, ‘wasted.’ However, for communing Christians, for abiding Christians, for those Christians who are seeking to be filled with the Spirit so that they can flow with the Spirit and thus grow in the Spirit, at the end of the day the message on their blackboard is: ‘Another day of bearing fruit; a fruitful day.’

Stop asking if your day was successful; Start asking if your day was fruitful? Contrary to our culture’s thinking, life is not measured by ‘success’; life is measured by ‘fruitfulness’. Now, if by success you mean fruit, then fine, but you see what we mean?

On our trip to Virginia there were two places that we saw signs that said, ‘Not I, but Christ.’ One was in the sanctuary of Thomas Road Baptist church. That was great, and we would expect to see a sign like that there. But the other was on a giant sign above a road side business near Danville, Virginia. And that was more like a surprise, but what at great statement to the world of where the focus of these believer’s lives were; their goal was to honor Christ in every area of their life, whether worshipping in a church or working by the highways of life: ‘Not I, but Christ’. That’s John 15 thinking; that’s branch thinking; that’s being filled with the Spirit in order to flow with the Spirit by which you then grow in the Spirit. Again, it’s about focus.

We often hear Heb 12:1 quoted: “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” NASU What a great picture of the Christian life! And so we set off on this great race, running the race that is set before us. The problem is that as we’re running the race we are looking around at others who are running, and we’re comparing our run with their run, and we feel good about our running or bad about our running based upon how others are running, not realizing we have just run into a trap. It’s the trap of comparing ourselves by ourselves, which Paul reminds us that they who do that have just acquired another title… “Fool”. To compare your spiritual growth to others spiritual growth is foolish…we’ve been fooled into thinking foolishly. And then another trap we fall into is that we set off running, but instead of looking up we’re looking down, down at ourselves, and as such we then fall into either self pride or self pity, but either way, we’re fooled again. What we’ve forgotten is that to ‘run with endurance the race that is set before us’ is only part of the instructions. The main part of the instruction is what comes next: Heb 12:2- “…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” NASU You see, If you are running the Christian life without your eyes fixed on Jesus you are either going to run off the road or get run-down.

So often we have our eyes fixed on others or on ourselves, but not on Christ. Warren Wiersbe often says, “If you look to others you’ll be distracted; if you look to yourselves you’ll be discouraged, but if you look to Christ you’ll be delighted.” You see, not even this call to spiritual growth is to be about us setting off to do whatever it takes to grow stronger and smarter or spiritually rougher and tougher. Yes, spiritual growth should include gaining strength and wisdom and perseverance and toughness and so on. But we have to get our focus right or everything else will go wrong. And the focus is not, “I and Christ’ , but “Not I, but Christ.” It’s what Paul said was his goal: Phil 3:10- “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” NASU Paul’s goal was not to experience more of his own life, but to experience more of the life of Christ in him. It was to lose self and gain something better; gain the power of the resurrected Christ; gain the fellowship of suffering for the sake of Christ, and of even being conformed to His death, if that’s what ‘Not I, but Christ’ resulted in. So be it; for it was all better than anything that Paul could ever be or do on his own. When Paul thought of growing in the Spirit, he first thought of being filled with the Spirit so that he could then have the working of the Spirit flowing through him.

And that’s the kind of growing that the Apostle Peter was also talking about. For it was Peter that said, “Set Christ apart as Lord in your heart.” (1 Pet. 3:15) This is the same as the “fix your eyes on Jesus” in Heb.12. And this is the same as “For it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave His life for me” of Gal.2:20.

So now what happens if when you read this command to ‘Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’ that you think of it in terms of ‘Flow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’? How does this affect your focus? Right, it turns the focus onto letting Christ, letting the Spirit of Christ, flow through your life and move through your life and have more of your life, thus growing His work and influence in and through your life.

And do you also see how it affects how you see and think of yourself? You no longer see yourself as the source. You no longer think of yourself as the vine. You see yourself and you think of yourself as a beloved branch on the Vine of Christ. And you think of your main duty as not being the production of fruit, but of abiding in the Vine, who then produces His fruit and grows His fruit through you, the branch. It is a major shift in your focus from ‘the strain of trying to grow’ to ‘the release of letting yourself flow’. Your focus is not as much on the growing as it is on the flowing, the flowing of these spiritual waters of life that God has poured into you. Your focus now is not so much on how can you spiritually grow in obedience to this command to grow, but on how you can yield more of your life to the filling of God’s Spirit so that the Spirit of Christ can flow through your life as His branch, and thus bearing the fruit that He is trying to grow in and through your life. And as Christ, the Vine, works His works and grows His fruit through you and me, His branches, we find that not only are His spiritual waters now flowing more and more through us, but that we are also experiencing more and more spiritual growth in us.

‘Fix your eyes on Jesus’…’Be filled with the Spirit’…’You are the Branches’… To obey God’s command to grow we have to get our eyes off of ourselves and onto Christ. To obey God’s command to grow we have to seek to be filled with God’s Spirit and not stay full of ourselves. To obey God’s command to grow we have to think and act like a Branch and not the Vine. And when we do, we finally learn what Jesus meant when He said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matt 11:28-30 NASU

Here is a suggested motto for your thinking: ‘Through me, not from me.’ ‘Through me, not from me.’ In order to grow spiritually you must flow spiritually. And in order to flow spiritually you must be filled with the Spirit. And it all starts and ends with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and perfecter of our faith.

(‘To grow’ speaks to your intention. ‘To fill’ speaks to your yielding to the source of your growth; God’s Spirit. And ‘To flow’ speaks to the process of letting God’s Spirit work through you, which results in ‘spiritual growth’.)