The Triune God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three in One. Our God is One.
Creation
One Command
Disobedience, Sin, and Death (all sin is against God, and carries a sentence of death)
God’s plan of Redemption is already in motion. (Even before the Fall of Adam)
The Law is given. To graphically show mankind is incapable of the perfection God requires for redemption and acceptance into His Holy presence.
Prophecy given of the Messiah, the Christ who will perfectly satisfy God’s requirements for mankind’s redemption.
Prophecy fulfilled in Bethlehem as a virgin gives birth to Emanuel.
Jesus, fully man, and fully God lives among us. At the age of 30 is baptized by his cousin John the Baptist (the herald of God). As he came out of the water, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit blessed and anointed him for the ministry he was about to undertake.
His perfectly sinless life, three years of ministry and proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven is the linchpin of all history.
His trial, his humiliation, his beating, scourging and finally crucifixion were part of God’s plan of redemption. On the Cross Jesus’ work was finished. Does that not move you? The magnitude of those words Jesus cried from the Cross, “IT IS FINISHED!”
He was buried in a borrowed tomb that man tried to seal in order to prevent God’s prophecy from being fulfilled… but on that third morning, the stone was moved and the grave was found empty! He is Risen!!!
And because He is risen and is alive we, who are his, shall be resurrected to everlasting life with him where he has prepared a place for us. In him we are sons and daughters of the Most High God.
His plan His life His work God the Father is satisfied His Mercy extended His gift given His Love in us His life in us
Do you see what He has done? Are you his? Are you in Christ? Where is your hope? If not in Christ, then in whom, in what?
John 14:1-6 Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The one I most constantly battle is The Flesh and its three agents:
Me
Myself
I
Try as I might, I am weak in the flesh.
Rom 7: (KJV)
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Romans 8:1-39 ESV — There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What a promise!
God is Faithful! Even when we aren’t.
We sing about it:
🎶Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be
Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me🎶
We talk about the faithfulness of God. But do we grasp it, and understand it and trust in Him as we ought? I’m guilty of forgetting and turning away from what I know of God’s nature. I too often look inward instead of remembering it is he that holds me, and not me who holds him. I have no power in myself to hold on… The Lord has all power (And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”)
Lamentations 3:21-24
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
God is faithful when we are not.
Christian, God gave his only son in order to fulfill the Father’s perfect requirements for the redemption from sin in order that by his Grace we who are being saved can be called sons and daughters, in Christ Jesus.
Every day I need to be reminded of this.
The Gospel is not just a means to an end, it’s not merely the means of salvation, but it is the very essence of life in Christ. It is the foundation of life in Christ Jesus, and there is no life without it.
We need to remind ourselves and one another of this truth daily, and worship El ’emunah, the Holy one who is Faithful.
I’ve lived long enough to realize that we have seasons in our lives. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Not just physical seasons but spiritual seasons as well. And recently I’ve began thawing out from a long hard, cold winter in my soul. I was too long alone in the wastelands of my frozen, ice hardened heart. I’ve been dark, cold and miserable.
Recently a Spring breeze has been warming my soul, awakening my stoney, cold heart. And a still small voice on that wind has been speaking “life” to my darkened mind. Remaining me whose I am. That I have been chosen by the Father and given to his Only Begotten Son. It’s all of Grace!
My soul is being revived! The love of God is crushing this heart of stone and replacing it with a heart that is tuning into Christ. His love and patience is breaking into the darkest corners of my mind with light, life, and truth. He is restoring my soul!! All I want right now is to be with him. To walk with him. I understand what Paul was saying now… to live is Christ! “In Christ” I get it now! To be in Christ as He is in The Father… my sin is blotted out because of what Jesus the Christ did on the cross in obedience to the plan of redemption he and the Father prepared before he ever created the first thing. That is the Sovereignty of the one who created everything that was ever created. He is the Sovereign God over all the Universe, over all Creation! And I am his! I am in Christ. His will, his plan, his workmanship!
Do you understand? Do you see?
What a savior!
He is my Lord, my redeemer, my God!
Ephesians 2:4-10 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
How can I be quiet any longer!? How can I not witness what He has done for me? I am a Child of Love, I’ve been adopted and am in Jesus Christ, God the Father’s accepted, saved by His Amazing Grace!!
I know whose I am but I often do not live like it. Take for instance, Life.
What is life? Is it just the living, the breathing, and being conscious? Yes, those are necessary in order to sustain life.
But what is life?
Is life what we do?
Is life who we are?
What is life?
When I was a younger man I didn’t think of these things. I took them for granted. I was… therefore I was alive. And if alive then I had life. I never questioned what life actually was/is. So what is life?
Genesis 1:26-27
¶Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and 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.
Genesis 2:7
…then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
So…
All these years I have misunderstood what life was. I was under the delusion that life is about me. It’s actually about God. Just as I have misunderstood the Bible. It’s not the story of man but of God. Man is secondary. Man is the result of the will of God. Life is the result of the will of God.
John 1:1-4
¶In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Are you beginning to see as I see?
Life is a gift of God. When one speaks of the sanctity of life this is what they are talking about. Life is not man’s to give and therefore it is not man’s to take unless according to God’s Law.
Obviously I have much to learn about life.
At this point I see my learning is sorely lacking as to what life is and how I should regard it. I have only seen life as a series of circumstances and how they affect me personally. My life has been based on my reactions to the events of life and I haven’t stopped to think on what life is, and where life comes from. Right now I see through a cloudy, dimly lit, out of focus glass. I pray I will grow, mature and begin to see with more, and more clarity.
Yesterday at church, Pastor Kyle mentioned that when we are in distress and need clarity (at least this is what I got from what he said) we should give thanks in everything, and for everything be thankful. That caused me to think of the most basic thing of all,”Life.”
Now as scripture says, “the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” we see life is literally, God breathed.
Later, in the Garden of Eden, man disobeyed God’s one command and became spiritually dead, becoming separated from Adonai through his sin. Thus Death entered the world.
And so death reigns from then until now on the physical body. But God had, before creation, prepared for us a sacrificial lamb, without spot to take away our sin and restore us to himself: his son, Jesus, the Christ.
John 14: 6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the LIFE*. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
(*Emphasis mine)
All of John 14 is Jesus’ witness to the Truth, of himself, and of the Father.
Our restored life is in Jesus Christ, who is in the Father.
Again, “life” is a gift from God.
Yet how lightly we esteem it. How flippantly we care for it… how often we neglect and abuse it as if it were our own.
Anyone else with me?
Do you see what I see?
Do you understand what I’m trying to say?
God has to deal with me in degrees, as with an infant. I have to learn to crawl, and then walk before I can run. In this case I have a small taste of the truth and small understanding about life now.
So here is something I was given earlier as I was thinking about all of this. How do I start my morning? What is the first thing I do when I wake up?
I reach for my phone.
I check in on the world before I recognize the very one I claim is Sovereign Lord over all Creation, Adonai.
What if I change that?
What if instead of reaching for my phone I would recognize Adonai first and as Kyle said, give thanks. What if a prayer of Thanksgiving was the first thing I do every morning?? How would that affect my day? How would that change my life? My approach to life?
I found this Prayer
Morning Prayer
I give thanks unto You, Adonai, that, in mercy, You have restored my soul within me. Endless is Your compassion; great is Your faithfulness. I thank You, Adonai, for the rest You have given me through the night and for the breath that renews my body and spirit. May I renew my soul with faith in You, Source of all Healing. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who renews daily the work of creation.
Maybe seeing life as less about me, I will appreciate the life I have more… because I will see it for what it really is a gift from God.
I almost wrote a story for a contest. The prize was $20k. I laid it out in my head and almost wrote it down to submit.
In the end, I talked myself out of it. I know no one needs another voice cluttering up space on the internet with useless words.
Maybe I should have?
But I didn’t
And another opportunity to change my life passed me by without fanfare or notice.
It’s not that I have nothing to say… Lord knows I’ll talk your ears off if you’re around me very long. But that’s just diarrhea of the mouth, words being ejaculated without meaning or substance. I should have something to say, something of substance and worth. In the end it was the lack of substance, the lack of worth, and the lack of courage that kept me from submitting anything.
So tonight I was looking over some of the things that Liz is having to go through to prepare for college now at my Alma Mater, UNCG.
Of course my brain started wandering down through the halls of time dragging up memories. And I really tried, but I don’t have any really good memories. One or two half decent ones but it’s mostly just a blur. I have a few good Memories of Little League Baseball. But even they are overshadowed by the bad ones and my failures both on and off the field. Sports in general were not good to me. I did have a perfect record going in wrestling in highschool but then I won one. (Actually it was a forfeit) Eventually I did legitimately win a match. It was a bitter victory because it hit me that there was a bigger loser than me out there. I kept thinking, “how bad do you have to be in order to be beaten by me??”
For the life of me I can’t dredge up more than a handful of good memories. Fishing and hunting with Bill Harris are a few. Camping out in the woods, eating Beanie Weenies and farting all night with the four guys I grew up with, (two sets of brothers and me an only child… Keith and Greg, Bill and Craig) too bad we drifted apart. Rather I drifted away.
I was always so busy trying to get to the next stage in life… I never really lived life to the fullest where I was at. Now, as the song says:
“The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away
And only I am left on stage to end the play”
My children are all adults now. Yes, 18 is young but she’s still an adult and I’ll treat her as such. I have found people tend to rise (or fall) to the expectations you set for them. Treat them as adults they will be adults. Treat them as weak victims…they will become weak victims.
Reminds me of another song:
“Where do we go from here now that all of the children have grown up
And how do we spend our time knowin’ nobody gives us a damn”
Socrates at his trial said,
“The unexamined life is not worth living”
I would also include the life that has been examined and found wanting is also not worth living. It’s merely an existence to be endured.
So, as I look back, all I can see are the pot holes, the overgrowth, the failures, and nothing of worth. I never knew how to live so I’m saddled with a current mediocre existence bent on the necessary before the good, and the immediate rather than the best.
And before I get sermonized, I get it. See, this is my lot in life. This is where I am, where I’m supposed to be. And I am trying to come to terms with my place in life.
Yes, I know who I am “in Christ Jesus,” that does not change who I am, and where I’m at in life. One is spiritual, the other is in the flesh or physical. My salvation does not change my past, put rose colored glasses on my past or improve my past. The facts of my past, and my rembrance of my past remain unchanged.
So tonight I waded through the wastelands of my memories hoping to find a few good memories to salvage and all I can come up with are counting the weenies in the beanies and all night farting contests. That’s about par for my life.
Have you ever really read the words to the hymns you sing? Read with meditation the words Robert Robinson penned in 1758. 263 years ago, yet still as powerful as the day they were written.(truth is like that you know)
“Come Thou Fount”
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it, Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit, Till released from flesh and sin, Yet from what I do inherit, Here Thy praises I’ll begin; Here I raise my Ebenezer; Here by Thy great help I’ve come; And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood; How His kindness yet pursues me Mortal tongue can never tell, Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.
O that day when freed from sinning, I shall see Thy lovely face; Clothèd then in blood washed linen How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace; Come, my Lord, no longer tarry, Take my ransomed soul away; Send thine angels now to carry Me to realms of endless day.
“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
Is this real to you?
Did Jesus pray for you? Are you his? Are you in him as he is in the Father?
Here is our sure and certain hope: that we are in Christ Jesus just as he is in the Father… because the Father has given us to him and all that the Father has given him… he has lost none!
Here in this verse we see that Jesus prayed for all of those whom the Father has given him… not just the 11 (12 counting Paul, the disciple out of time) but all those who believe because of the word that they preached from that point forward. Think about it… Jesus Christ, before going to the cross, prayed for every believer that was his.
Here we also see the truth of sanctification and holiness. Both of which are not works that we do, it’s not something we gin up and is accounted to us because of our efforts. Actually just the opposite, we do the works because of this reality… that we are being conformed to his likeness, that as we grow in Christ we become more holy because he is holy and our sanctification is the outworking of becoming more Christ like.
Our works are not what sanctifies us, our works are the result of our being sanctified. Our works are the results of our becoming holy just as he is holy. As we become more “in him” we can’t help but do those things that show outward authentication of who we are becoming inwardly.
If our Holiness and our sanctification were something that we could do something that we could work up then we would boast in it. We would be prideful in our boasting “hey look at me, look how sanctified I am, look how holy I am” but we know that there is nothing good in us. All we can boast of is who we are in Christ because of what he has done, because of who he is, because he has redeemed us to be his own!
If it was something that we did in and of ourselves how would we ever know that we had done it right enough, or well enough, or sincerely enough, or righteously enough, or that we did it with enough humility because at that point our humility would become boasting. No… it’s all Christ! It’s all him and it’s all who we are in him. What an awesome reality that it’s not what we do it’s what he has already done, it’s who he is and because of his love for us.
“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.“
Here again we see the reality and distinction of the resurrection. We see the reality of the finished work of Christ’s death on the cross; sin and the consequences of sin were dealt with and paid in full. Most Christians even, fail to fully grasp the enormity of this. It is seen as a one-time thing that saves them. Something separate from their daily life. I know I certainly have been guilty of this.
Christ was offered “once” so that we could benefit continually from his sacrifice, that we might live daily, in remembrance of what Christ did on our behalf so that we are “eagerly waiting for him.”
I know the world and the flesh have been defeating me for some time now. My eyes were focused on me, my thoughts were only on me, and all I could see was darkness. Then about a month or so ago a verse popped into my head and took root:
Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
And so began my climb out of darkness back into the light. That light is Christ, and Christ is the resurrection and the life. He is the Good News! It is the Gospel we need! Every single day! Especially we Christians!
How can we share what we don’t possess? If it’s not real to us, tangibly real to us, and precious to us… then what do we have to share? Some moral, self help, snippets? There’s no power in that! The power is in the Gospel of Christ! What Christ has done! When THAT is real to us, real in us…THEN we can’t help but share what Christ has done for us, and who Christ is to us.
Remember when you were first saved? Remember the joy? Remember how you were so grateful for what he did that, like the woman at the well, you wanted to tell everyone?? That’s the power of the Gospel of Christ in our everyday life! That’s our eager awaiting!
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
If there is no resurrection then our faith is in vain and we are left miserable for our life is only here and now. If life is only here and now then there is no consequence for how we live, if that is so, then we should live to fulfill every desire of our hearts here and now.
Aldous Huxley understood this. “I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning – the Christian meaning, they insisted – of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever“
But we have a sure and certain hope, expectation, evidence, of the resurrection. We are sure of our future resurrection because of the example of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. And with it, life beyond death. Life greater than our mortal minds can even comprehend.
Proving: That this life does have meaning. That it does have moral absolutes. That there are consequences. And that life is found in the one who has conquered the results of man’s disobedience to his creator (death, hell, and the grave)… Jesus Christ. That is Good News indeed!
