Author: admin

Let’s Make This Personal

If you have made it this far in reading my blog posts, then you are probably sick of hearing me harp on and on about how bad the church is for wandering so far away from the gospel.  But listen, this isn’t a railing against the church so much as it is a railing against me.  This is personal.  That is why I am so passionate about it.

Look, this is what happened, in my own life as well as that of the church, we got cold and lazy.  The culture of the world started pushing back hard against the church and the gospel.  The world doesn’t want to hear it, it’s just that simple.   And the louder the world got about telling Christians to shut up and keep their religion to themselves, the quieter the church got.  You know what I am saying is true, because YOU got quieter.  We stopped being bold about sharing our faith because we didn’t want to be labelled as being judgmental or bigots.  We just wanted the world to like us, so we just focused on LOVING everybody.  The church quit talking about God’s judgement and His wrath and just started telling everybody how much God loves them.  Well, that’s true, but that’s only HALF the message!  We only wanted to proclaim the parts of the bible that the WORLD would accept.  That is crazy! But it happened just like that.  And now we have generations of people who profess to be Christians that don’t even know what the Gospel is, let alone defend it when it is questioned or opposed.

Somewhere along the way, things have to get turned around and I think that time is now.  Someone has to recognize the deficiency and do something to fix it.  My hope and prayer are that this change can start with us – you and me, learning together and then getting excited about what we discover and then telling others.  The road to Glory is paved with the bricks of the gospel.  There is no other road and we were not meant to travel it alone.  Point the way, friend.  Do not be content that your family and friends know Jesus.  Look around you.  A sea of humanity is lost and blind.  Lift up your head out of your hand-held devices and LOOK AT PEOPLE all around you!   Look at their faces.  Look at the shape their lives are in.  They are being devoured by the enemy unhindered!  If you are a Spirit-filled, bible-believing, born again follower of Jesus Christ then YOU have the answer!  You have to care! Do not let your love for mankind grow cold.  Let’s decide right here to stop being calloused and lazy.

Ok, enough about that.

IF you continue to follow my posts, then let me tell you things are about to get crazy exciting. Why, you ask? Because I think I am going to show you things that will revolutionize the way you see God, yourself and the world around you.  Hey, I have been a Christian for over 28 years, and I am finding out just how ignorant I have been about the gospel.  When God first started revealing these truths to me, I was blown away.  Sometimes I would just sit for a long time with my mouth hanging open marinating in my own “wow” moment.

I know scripture.  I have been an avid bible student for all my Christian life.  But sometimes we filter His word through what other teachers have taught us that may not be exactly correct.   Our view gets distorted and it’s hard to “unsee” through those lenses.   It’s like trying to put a puzzle together wearing your grandma’s glasses.  If we take the glasses off, we can see the pieces more clearly, put them together more correctly and see the whole big picture start to take shape.  All of a sudden, those difficult pieces that sat sidelined for so long start to fit in too.  When we get our understanding in focus, we get high definition revelation!

About ten years ago I decided I wanted to become an EMT.  Turns out I didn’t really like it and wasn’t all that good at it.  But I learned a whole lot of stuff that is still with me today.  One of them is the ABC’s of CPR.  Airway, breathing, circulation; over and over again that got hammered home because it didn’t matter what else your patient had going on, if he didn’t have those 3 very important things going on, it didn’t’ matter what else you did to help him. 

The gospel has got its own ABC’s that is foundational knowledge and we need to know it well, so we are going to hammer them home, too.  Not to overuse my puzzle analogy but, when I do a puzzle, the very first thing I do is find all the edge pieces and start putting that frame together.  Once I have that done, I organize my other pieces in order to start filling it in.  The ABC’s of the gospel is the framework.  All the other stuff are the pieces that fit together make up the whole message of the bible.

The gospel ABC’s have 6 basic elements, which we went over before, but like I said, we will go over again and again.  They are,

  1. The Virgin Birth of Christ
  2. His perfect, sinless life
  3. His death
  4. His resurrection
  5. His ascension
  6. And His promised return

In studying each of these elements in depth, we will have a foundation that all the other truths in the bible build upon.

Another thing. 

The good news is only good because of the bad news.   To completely understand and appreciate the wonderful, life giving message of the gospel, you also have to have a good grasp on the BAD NEWS! 

Not to put you on the spot, but do you know what that is?

Well, don’t feel bad because I didn’t either. 

The bad news boils down to one thing, we are all sons and daughters of Adam.  Adam lost something that we cannot regain on our own.  And I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that most Christians today probably do not know what that thing is.

We are going to discover what that thing is in our next study.  And when you learn of it, you will see how there is nothing you can do to earn your ticket into heaven, no matter how saintly you are.  You will see how important the works of Christ are and how we can apply them to ourselves.  You will understand that Christ came to do ONLY what He could do, and how it is impossible for us to achieve any of it without Him.  The message at the heart of the gospel is the “undoing” of what the devil did through Adam.  Christ came to do what I call the “re” words- redeem, renew, recover, restore, regenerate, reverse, reveal, regain, remedy- all that our earthly father Adam lost.  So, guess what, we are starting at the beginning of the Ol’ Glory Road and if you join me in my next post, have your bible out and turned to Genesis 1:1!

Praying you will join me!

The Essence of the Gospel

So far we have established that the modern Church is in a crisis. 

The word crisis is defined as a time of intense difficulty, trouble or danger.  But it can also be defined as a time when a difficult or important decision must be made, sometimes called a crisis point.  I believe both definitions apply to the critical situation in which we find the modern church.  The church today is not facing a time of difficulty, trouble or danger, it is already there.  We are in the midst of the crisis, but for the most part, the body of believers that identify as the church doesn’t even realize it.  The problem must first be acknowledged before a solution is sought, before a corrective decision can be made.

We have established that the cause of the crisis is the overall ignorance of the biblical gospel message.  This not only creates an identity crisis for the church, but it cripples the churches ability to fulfill its mandate to proclaim the gospel to all creation.  How can it proclaim that which is does not know? The gospel is not something that the church learns once and moves on from, it is necessary to be aware of it every day.  It should color the lens through which we view the world.

So, the obvious answer to the crisis seems to be to alleviate the ignorance, to enlighten and educate with the scriptural truth concerning the gospel.  I believe this with all of my heart. The gospel is that important because it is the power unto the saving of the souls of men (Romans 1:16).  The darkness of evil and sin ingrained in every human heart is the birthplace of every worldly problem.  The church wears itself out and drains its resources fighting against the symptoms of the disease (think abortion or sex trafficking) instead of attacking the illness itself (sin).  Sin is the cause, sinful acts that manifest out of that sin is the effect.  The gospel is the remedy for both.  

Now I am not excusing the devil from his part in all of this.   Of course, he is the power and energy at the source of evil, but he works through men’s hearts.  Sinful men willfully do his bidding whether they know it or not.  They work in tandem with each other because they are both darkened and in rebellion against God.  The gospel brings light and deliverance from the darkness.  It breaks the power that hold men in enslaved in deception.  The gospel is a big deal.  That is why it is so important that we rediscover what the fullness and truth of the gospel is!  

The gospel message is the key that unlocks the hope for all creation. It is not only the remedy for the sickness infecting mankind, it is the message of redemption from the kingdom and powers of darkness, it is the reversal of the curse over all creation, it holds the promise of restoration and recovery from the effects of the fall and rebellion.  The gospel is the good news of the undoing of all that the devil has done to steal, kill and destroy.  That is why the devil hates it.  It is why he has attacked not only the deliverers of the message but the message itself.  If the church is going to assume an effective position in the war, its going to have to fit itself with the right armor and ammunition. Knowing God’s word is the best place to start.  Knowledge is power.

With that being said, let’s begin by laying down the foundational elements of the whole gospel message.  I say it like this because one of the problems of modern-day preachers is that they do not preach the whole gospel.  They capitalize on one element and portray that as the message.   One popular preacher today tends to focus heavily on the cross.  Another seems to think the answer lies in the resurrection alone.  I am here to tell you that while those aspects of the gospel are important, it is not the whole gospel.   Each component is critical to the other.  You cannot remove, replace or emphasize any one part without negating the whole.  The message must start at the beginning and no where else and it must run its course until the very end. 

My prayer is that by the time we are finished with this study, you will understand why I say this so emphatically.  I pray we will all have a more precise awareness of the nature of God and our own standing before Him, because without that we will never value the gospel or its power.  Remember, the gospel is the message of one central figure, the person and work of Jesus Christ and that alone.

The Gospel has 6 key elements concerning Jesus Christ that are vital and indispensable, and these are:

  1. His virgin birth
  2. His perfect, sinless life
  3. His death on the cross
  4. His resurrection from the dead
  5. His ascension
  6. And the promise of His return

In the upcoming lessons, we will explore each one in depth and discover why they are so crucial to each other and to the message as a whole.  In so doing, we will discover the necessity of the gospel and why it is so important for the church to be grounded in it firmly.  And we will be able to discern the effects of the gospel in the world around us.  Gear up, we are going on a journey into the depths of biblical truth.

For whosoever wishes to save his soul will lose it, but whoever loses his soul for my sake and for the gospel’s will save it.                                                  Mark 8:35

The Answer to the “Gospel Ignorance” Problem

In my last couple of posts, I have presented the idea that the greatest crisis facing the church today is its ignorance of the true, biblical gospel message and that this problem carries with it some very clear and drastic consequences, especially in light of eternity. 

If this is true, then this is indeed a very big problem, because it is the mission and function of the church to declare the gospel to the nations, to the unbelieving world.  It cannot fulfill this mandate if the church itself walks in the darkness concerning the correct message of the gospel.  So, if this is the problem, how do we fix it?  

The solution may not be as simple as we would like to think. And the reason is because the modern church has not only distorted the essence of the gospel message, they have skewed the meaning of the word itself.   As I said before, the church thinks it knows the gospel.  They think they are sharing the gospel.  But if you would ask 10 professing Christians what they thought the gospel was, you would probably get 10 different answers.  In fact, during a discussion I had with a lady this week, who professes to be a Christian and says she reads her bible daily, suggested to me that the gospel is “different to different people”.  

Really?

 Have we now added the gospel into that pot of subjective, culturally relative soup that says, “what something is to me may not be what it is to you…”?  We have done this with truth, with Jesus, with justice… Now, is my gospel different than your gospel?

God forbid!

Unfortunately, it seems in our contemporary culture, that is exactly what we have done with many other basic biblical concepts.  We have taken words like salvation, atonement, and love and we have made them so egocentric that we have no clue as to what they really mean in a true scriptural context.  They sound so Christian, so churchy, but we have attached our own personal impressions and meanings to them rather than adhering to actual concrete, biblical definitions. This should not be. This is how cults get started. This is how deception is birthed. It all starts out of ignorance.

Not only do so-called Christians not know the gospel, they do not know why the gospel is necessary. They do not understand the true nature of God or their own state and condition.  And to make things worse, most of these misconceptions have been propagated from very big and very public pulpits all across our country.

The answer to the problem may be as simple as going back to the scriptures themselves and building a basic foundation on what the true gospel IS and why it is so important.

Before we get into that, let’s first discuss what the gospel is NOT.

First of all, the gospel is not about you (or me).  It is not the message that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.  It is not that God will give your life destiny or purpose and solve all of your problems. The gospel does not exist to make you healthy, wealthy and comfortable.   It is not simply the notion that you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.  The gospel is not your own personal testimony or how you live your life, no matter how righteous or holy it may be. While all of these things may be true, it is NOT the gospel.  It is not true that you can preach the gospel without using words, even though that sounds noble and wise.  Your life may be a testimony to the power of the gospel, but it is not the gospel itself. It may have a profound and powerful effect on you, but it is not ABOUT you.  The gospel is FOR you, but its message is not centered on you.   We are not the centerpiece, Christ is.  And any gospel that Jesus Christ is not the center of, is not the true gospel.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, a few fun facts…

The word gospel is the English translation of the Greek word “euaggelion” which means a good message.  The prefix “eu” means good. As an example, when we give a eulogy at a funeral, we are saying good words about the deceased, or when we are feeling euphoric, we are having intensely good feelings about something.  The root word “aggelos” is where we derive the English word angel, and it literally means messenger.  So, the word at its root means a good message, or good news.

The word gospel is often translated as a noun, referring to the message itself.  It also translated as a verb, referring to the act of announcing the message.   We get the word evangelize from this word euaggelion (can you see it now?).  An evangelist is anyone who carries or proclaims the good message, or good news.  Call me stupid, but I never saw before that “angel” is nestled right in the middle of that word. Makes perfect sense now, doesn’t it, knowing that an angel is a messenger from God?

The next thing we need to acknowledge is that the gospel is the gospel of God (Mark 1:14, Romans 1:1), in other words, it is GOD’S gospel.  It has its origin in and with HIM.  He, therefore, has authority of it. He decides what it is and what it is not.  We who are commissioned to proclaim this good news do not get the privilege of defining it.  God help any man who takes the essence of God’s gospel and perverts it to fit into his own twisted theology.    It is the good message of the restoration of mankind unto God, their purchase and pardon, the forgiveness of their sin, and rescue from the wrath of God.  It is not something men should profit from or use to build names for themselves.  No, it is God’s message.  It is God’s word and promise concerning His Son and His work to redeem men from the curse of sin and death. It is that and nothing more.  It is that and so much more.  It is that simple and yet deeply complex. 

I hope you stick with me through the next several posts so we can discover together the whole truth about the Gospel of God and His Kingdom.  I think it will not only amaze you, but it will grow your appreciation for God and what He has done on your behalf so that you may be with Him for all eternity.  My prayer is that once you fully understand the nature of the good message, you will be emboldened to proclaim it like never before.  It is why Christ came.  It is what He has appointed His church to do until He returns.

“…Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”                                                                     Mark 16:15

The Consequence of the Crisis

What Happens When the Church is Ill Equipped for Its Commission?

In my last post, I suggested that the greatest crisis facing today’s modern church was the widespread ignorance of the gospel.  Now, notice that I said the church has this problem, not the world.  We expect that the world would be generally unaware of the true biblical, gospel message, but… the Church?  Really?

Yes, really.

And if the Church is even somewhat illiterate to the Gospel, the consequences are no less dire.  An ill-informed Church promoting a distorted and diluted Gospel message has the same effect as not preaching the Gospel at all.  Its commissioned purpose is to proclaim the Good Message of Jesus Christ unto Salvation.  Without a pure gospel, can you have authentic salvation? 

Turns out, this is not a new problem for the church.

Even in the history of the early church Paul issues the same warning to the believers in Galatia.

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.  But if even we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!   Galations 1:6-8

Paul issued the same admonition to the Corinthian church.  He hotly chastised them for being so willing to accept “another Jesus whom we have not preached”, receiving a “different spirit” other than the Holy Spirit and accepting a “different gospel” which he had not delivered to them.   (2Corinthians 11:3-4)

Sadly, many so-called believers today have bought into the “inclusion and tolerance” gospel the world is advocating.  They espouse a Jesus of their own making; a one-size-fits-all savior that simply came to make the world happy, rich and comfortable in its own skin. They are not receiving, through this “gospel”, the rebirth and regeneration that only the Spirit of God can deliver.  Folks, this false spirit, gospel and savior will not grant us solid shelter in the coming storm. 

There is another consequence to this widespread lack of comprehension of the basic gospel message:

And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.   Mark 8:34-35

A church not schooled or confident in its basic, fundamental message will not risk life and reputation to proclaim it. 

To be completely sold out to the appointment, you must first absolutely buy into it with everything you are and everything you have. Sadly, much of the so-called church today has not done this.  They want to follow Jesus and keep their life.  Not only their life, but their BEST life, an ABUNTANT life, and a PROSPEROUS life.  This false gospel proclaims that this is the evidence of Gods blessing in their life when, in fact, the true gospel bids a man to come and die to himself.  This is the true evidence of the real gospel of Jesus Christ. That one would be willing to lay down his life for sake of Christ and His gospel message.

Now trust me when I say that I am not pointing an accusing finger at you or anyone else. I thought I knew what the gospel was, and it wasn’t until I felt the Lord strongly pressing into my heart that I needed to share it that I questioned my own comprehension of it.  After many months of hard study, I concluded that my own handle on the gospel had been shallow and weak which in turn, paralyzed my desire to proclaim it.   

And it did more than that.  It blinded me.

Because I did not understand the POWER of the gospel to transform the world around me, I was willfully unaware of it’s LOSTNESS.   I had no desire to reach out to people who were obviously held in the bondage of their own sin because I did not see it as such.  Instead, I would create a safe distance from people whose dysfunction disrupted my life, even in the simplest of ways.  I had to learn what it meant to “love my neighbor as myself” and recognize that all men everywhere were my neighbors.  I had to be CONCERNED with their souls and not put off by their sins. I loved myself enough (even in my own sin) to receive salvation through the gospel of Jesus Christ, did I love them enough to share it?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…(Romans 1:16).

You see, it’s not that the Church today isn’t busy.  Oh, it is.  It is busy fighting hunger, fighting social injustice, fighting against abortion, same sex marriage and government corruption. The church is busy fighting with itself over heresy, doctrines, worship techniques and territories.  The Church is busy trying to make a name for itself.    It’s busy fighting the issues and as a result it is tired, battered and bleeding.  All because it forgot its true purpose-

To declare the Gospel!

The source of every woe and plight of mankind is the nature of his heart and his loyalty to his kingdom.  A man is devoted to the kingdom of darkness and its culture because his own heart is darkened by sin.    Of course, we want to end all of the issues the Church is fighting against, but should’t the real solution be to change hearts so that men would not WANT to do them? Proclaiming the true gospel message carries with it that power of transformation, the power to deliver from darkness, and the power to break free from blindness and demonic strongholds. 

We, as the Church, have to be willing to proclaim this message of the Gospel to our lost and dying neighbors at any cost. 

Can we even call ourselves true followers of Jesus Christ if we are unwilling to do this?

 I urge you, if you have never done this, examine your own heart and mind and ask yourself, what am I willing to die to for the sake of Christ and the gospel? Am I willing to sacrifice myself for the sake of my lost and dying neighbor? What is prohibiting me from sharing the gospel? Is it fear? Is it because I am afraid of rejection or because my own ignorance will be exposed? My guess is, it is all of the above.

What is the answer to this crisis?

Each individual, everyone who claims to follow Christ, must make it their own responsibilty to know the Gospel as it is presented in the Word of God. Search it out. Study it. Pray that God gives you a passion and desire to know it and then to share it. Pray that God opens your blind eyes to see the sick, lost and dying all around you and pray that He gives you a heart to love them.

Friends, we do not have time on our side. The storm approaches. The fringe of it is already here. People you love may stand unprepared to face it. We must get our own feet planted firmly in our faith and in the word of God so that we can fulfill our commission proclaim the Gospel!

That is worth fighting for!

The Greatest Crisis of the Church Today

I believe the church today is in a crisis of epic proportions.

Now, not many of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ would disagree with me, but they may be surprised to know what I think the real nature of the crisis is.

It is true that there is no lack of conflict that could create crisis for the modern church; whether it be the increasingly humanistic worldview of the present-day culture, religious persecution, or the threat of government overreach, I do not think they are the origin of our current crisis situation.

In my opinion, the most pressing and dire crisis of the church today is its ignorance of the gospel.  Yes, you heard me right.  The biggest obstacle keeping the church from fulfilling it’s greatest and most foundational commission – is ignorance of the gospel.

And this is how I think we got here.

In the early 2000’s, somebody decided we needed to make churches “seeker friendly”.  There was the idea that if we made church feel more like the world, it would attract more people who were considering Christianity as a viable choice in the smorgasbord of world religions to choose from.  As recruitment methods, we threw out the etiquette of dressing in our Sunday finest, hipped up the music and provided donuts and coffee to go along with their watered down, non-offensive, “Jesus loves you” messages.  Now, nearly twenty years later, we have a whole generation of people who call themselves Christians but really do not have a clear, hard and deliverable handle on the true gospel message. 

Oh, they think they do. Only it does not line up entirely with the gospel found in the Word of God. 

Now, there are plenty of resources out there, if you care to search them out, that will lay out for you the ills and contaminations of the counterfeit gospels.  And I applaud them.  Such as these would include the social gospel, the prosperity gospel, and the green gospel, not to mention the versions of the gospel that would attempt to blend thoughts and practices that have their source in the occult.  Trust me when I tell you that they are out there. And if you are not rooted deeply in the Word of God, it would be easy to buy into some of them. They SOUND good.  They have a warm, fuzzy feel to them.  They are inclusive.  They appeal to human plight and woes.

But they are poisonous. And they are benign.  Powerless and ineffective to offer any authentic hope.

I am not going to here address all the counterfeits.  What I am going to do, however, is to attempt to show you the True Gospel presented to us in the bible, and to prove to you how necessary it is for the church to have a good, strong purchase on it.  Without that, we will not be competent nor compelling to accomplish our mandate to preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations.

Without a clear, commanding grasp on the gospel, we will be afraid to share our faith, fearful that we are not able to refute arguments and disputes that go against what we believe.  Without a good understanding of the gospel, Christians will not even see the need to share their faith.  They will not have the confidence to say “Jesus is the only way” if they do not understand WHY He is!  They will have no defense when the world calls them bigoted and judgmental as they take a stand against the tides of lawlessness invading our culture or stand for biblical principles in their lives.

How many people reject a gospel they have never heard?  They have never heard it because the Christian community at large does not have the confidence to share a core belief concept that even they do not understand.

And how many people are lost and dying in this world because of the ignorance and apathy of a church whose sole commission was to proclaim its only remedy and hope?  The world goes along its merry way down the wide path to destruction blind to it’s NEED for a different way.  In fact, the church, for the most part, is skipping along the down same path!

Guys, we have got to shake out of this apathetic slumber we are in and start being concerned for our neighbor.  

We must fulfill the greatest commandment of the Law;

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart,

And with all your soul,

And with all your mind.

This is the great and foremost commandment.

The second is like it,

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:36-40

Do you LOVE the enough to share the gospel with them?

To love your neighbor is to be concerned with his eternal life. 

To love your neighbor is to recognize that the guy you passed at Walmart is your neighbor.  The waitress that served you your breakfast is your neighbor.  The mailman is your neighbor.  Your NEIGHBOR is your neighbor!

Let’s dive into the word of God and discover the true gospel message.  Let’s work to educate and equip ourselves to reach a blind and decaying world with the only HOPE it has in Jesus Christ!  The time to act is right now.  Time is running out.  No crisis the world faces today is greater than the crisis of ignorance of the Gospel!

An Open Letter to a New Believer

A couple of weeks ago I had the wonderful privilege of participating in The Converge Movement.  If you are unfamiliar with Converge, it is a local 2 day youth conference sponsored in part by Teens For Christ and other area ministries and businesses.  I use the term “conference” rather lightly, because at its core it is exactly what it claims to be, a movement – and it is a powerful one at that, propelled along by lots and lots of prayer, countless hours of hard work, organization, and relentless commitment to the service of the Lord.  It draws hundreds of young people in grades 8 through 12 from all over the area, actually all over the world.  Their theme and hearts cry is to unify the local body of Christ under the banner of “One mission, One body, One God”.   They have just completed their 7th year and I would say they have quite a momentum going. (To learn more go to convergemovement.com and check it out).

Throughout the conference the Gospel is presented many times in many different ways. At the end of the event, an “altar” is opened and everyone is invited to respond to the call and stirring of the Spirit, to come and receive Christ as their Savior.  It was truly a miraculous sight to see so many people, young and old alike, boldly and publically stepping forward to receive eternal life.

During this past few weeks, I have thought a lot about those new converts and what they must be thinking and feeling in these early hours of their new life.  I offered up prayers of strength and protection for them, knowing they now have a formidable enemy they didn’t have before, one who hates that they have abandoned his dark kingdom for the Kingdom of Light.  I wondered if they understood the challenges that lay before them and the changes that would inevitably take place within them, and I wondered if they had someone they could turn to for support.  I pray they do.  I pray that God will send people into their lives that can answer the questions they will certainly encounter.  And I pray they are good, solid Christians that will lead them in Truth. 

I would like to offer this blog post in the form of a letter to my newly reborn brothers and sisters in Christ, and to anyone else who may not fully understand what happens next after accepting Christ as their Savior.

And who knows, maybe you have been professing Christianity for a while. If this is true and you are still reading, keep going. Perhaps this is a good time to do a little reflective evaluation and ask yourself , “Do I fully understand and exemplify the principles explained here? Am I a good example for a new Christian to follow? Would a young believer come to me for support and guidance?” I certainly hope that if God places one of His newly born children in the midst of your world, you would reach out to support,encourage and disciple them. After all, that is the essence of the Great Commission.

Dear Child of God,

Allow me to proudly welcome you to the Family ! 

I cannot tell you how happy that I am that you have decided to take this bold step of faith and proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior! Congratulations!

I hope that you will seek out someone in your life that will help you as you take your first steps in your new life as a Christian. I hope that you can find a good bible believing church (if you don’t already have one), that has good pastoral leadership and loving, people that will come along side you as you begin the greatest journey you will ever experience.  

I remember getting “saved” the first time was when I was very young. It was with my neighbor girl and we were in my bathtub taking a bubble bath.  I do not know why this time sticks out in my mind except that I felt extremely happy that my friend “saved me”.  I also remember my “religious” grandma being very concerned for me as a young child that I pray and ask Jesus “into my heart”, so I did.  I remember one time my whole Christan Youth Crusaders class threw ourselves at the front of the altar after a particularly frightening message about the eternal horrors of hell.  Then, when I was a little older the pastor of our small country church did one of those “close your eyes and bow your heads and quietly raise your hand” kind of invitations and… I did, but mostly because my friend standing next to me did it first. 

The point I am trying to make is, I got “saved” a lot before I came to an honest understanding of what it actually meant and what I was really doing.  

As I look back , I realize that these were all moments God was using to prepare my heart for the time when I was mature enough to truely and sincerly answer His call on my life.

I think this type of thing might happen to a lot of people.

Maybe this has even happened to you and even now you still aren’t sure what all of this “being saved” business really means or how you feel about it. 

Several years ago, the Lord helped me to understand that salvation is more of a process than a singular event.  It is so much more than saying a simple prayer and signing a commitment card. It is not just making a mental acknowledgement, praying out of an emotion like fear or guilt or going along with what your other friends are doing. It is a decision that should change the course of your life.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to share with you four words the Lord gave me that helped me to remember the process of salvation. These are words that appear often in your bible, words that Jesus Himself used when referring to the authentic Christian life and what it should look like in all of its stages.

BELIEVE RECEIVE KNOW GROW

When you invite Jesus Christ to come into your heart, you are asking Him to not only “save” you from an eternity in Hell, but to be the Lord of your life.  It is true that some people only want the “fire insurance” aspect of the relationship, but I can assure you that Jesus wants much more than that. He wants to be in an intimate, personal, loving relationship with you.  He wants to live His life IN you and THROUGH you.  He wants to save you from the bondage of sin in your life NOW.  Let’s go through each of these aspects so that we have a clear understanding of what each one means and how they work in the process of being born again and maturing in Christ.

BELIEVE

The first step in entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the step I assume you have already taken; to Believe that Christ is who He says He is, as He is revealed in the Word of God; it is believing the Gospel message.  Sadly, even many professing Christians today do not fully understand the Gospel. 

The Gospel message is simply this:

  • Jesus Christ existed as God in eternity past.
  • He came to earth being born of a virgin, conceived not by a human, earthly father but rather by the Holy Spirit of God. 
  • He lived a perfect, sinless life, obedient to the Law and will of His Father.                                
  • He willingly laid down His life at the cross as payment for the sins of mankind.
  • He rose again on the third day, resurrected by the Spirit of God.
  • He ascended to the right hand of the Father to intercede for all who would believe in Him.
  • He will come again one day to judge the earth and to receive His Bride, the church.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “but the righteous man shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17

Believing is the same as having faith in something. If you believe what the bible says, you have faith in it. The bible says “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves , it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8.

You also have to believe what the bible says about YOU, and that is that you are a sinner. You already knew this too.  You have already felt the weight of your sin. That was the driving force that led you to Christ in the first place, to that place in your heart where you knew you needed to repent of those sins and ask Him for forgiveness.  It’s a beautiful thing to come to that place.

“But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while 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.”     Romans 5:8-9

RECEIVE

Once you have come to Christ believing, the next thing you did was to invite Christ through the Holy Spirit into your heart, or to RECEIVE Him into your spirit.    When you were born into this world, you came into it with a dead spirit. This is a condition all men are born with because of the sin of Adam. When Christ died on the cross, He paid for that sin. And when you accepted Christ as your savior, you were acknowledging that you accepted His payment for YOUR sins. With that sin debt removed, it made a way for the Holy Spirit to come into you and to dwell within your spirit. Your spirit is no longer dead, but has received eternal LIFE! A truly miraculous event has occured! You are now a new creation!

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”  John 14:16-17

“As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and You have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing  Teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, And just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”  1John 2:27

KNOW

Now some people get this far and think that’s all there is to it.  But believe me when I tell you that you are only getting started! Jesus didn’t come to give His life on the cross just to save you from the fiery doom of hell, He came to walk in a relationship with you right now.

But knowing the Lord involves much more than merely knowing about Him.  You cannot know Christ apart from His Word because the bible says that He IS the Word of God. (John 1:1-2)  

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”  John 17:3

God deeply desires for you to know Him!  If you make a commitment to meet Him daily in His Word, He will be faithful to meet you there.  Enter into regular conversation with Him through prayer.  Learn to hear His voice speaking to you in your heart.  Understand that knowing Him and obeying Him go hand in hand. You cannot claim to know God and His holiness and goodness and yet walk in darkness and sin.

“By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.   The one who says, “I have come to know Him” and does not keep His Commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”  1John 2:3-6

Knowing Him and His Word will also help us when we are under attack from our enemy.  There is power in His Word, and as God’s sons and daughters, we have the authority to proclaim its promises over ourselves. The devil is not happy about the decision you have just made. He will come at you with both guns a’ blazing to make you doubt everything that has just happened to you.  You must fill your heart and mind with Truth to counter those attacks. 

GROW

Before you became born again, your sinful flesh had no competition.  It just ran the show of your life without conflict.  But now there is a new Life within you and its desires are contrary to your sinful self.

Growing involves submission to the Spirit of God living within you.  Every time you act according to the will of God and not according to your own selfish desires, you are growing.  Growing usually involves suffering because it involves discipline, either your own self-discipline or the corrective discipline delivered from our heavenly Father.  Growing strong in the Spirit requires growing weaker in your flesh.  And your flesh is a whiny baby. It will cry and demand its way and tell you it’s going to die if you don’t satisfy it.  You must yield to the Spirit within you and suffer through until you have gained dominance over your flesh.

“For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake…”  Phillipians 1:29

Growing strong in the Spirit will produce fruit of the Spirit. Doing is the fruit of believing.  Doing out of obedience to the Spirit is submission and growth.  You will harvest the fruit of whatever you sow into; the flesh or the Spirit.

“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” Galatians 6:8

The reward is that as you mature in the Spirit, God will reveal more and more of Himself to you.  He is a good and loving Father.  His desire is not for your good, but for your best! He is more wonderful than you can ever imagine. Undergoing discipline that will refine and sanctify us is a small price to pay for being in an intimate, loving relationship with Him!

“He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”  John14:21

The Conclusion:

Believing, Receiving, Knowing and Growing is something that happens in an instant, AND it’s something that happens over time.

Being “saved”, is simply the first step in the process of your salvation; it is the redeeming, restoring and renewing work that takes place throughout your whole Christian life.  Your “believing”, or faith, will increase over time, enabling you to “receive” deeper spiritual insight and knowledge as you mature in your faith.  You will come to “know” Christ in a way that increases your trust in Him, “growing” stronger in the Spirit and in relationship to Him.   And while being saved does guarantee you an eternal home in heaven, you don’t have to wait till then to enjoy the richness of God’s glory and presence! Praise God for His grace and unending love towards us! Walk confidently, brother and sister, in the newness of life that you have receieved through your faith, and remember that you have been joined by the Spirit to a whole new, awesome family that walks the way of the road to Glory with you!

The Anatomy of Salvation

It may seem strange to think of something like salvation having an anatomy.

Salvation, in and of itself, really does not have a true anatomy.  It does, however, affect our anatomy- our whole being of body, soul and spirit.

Anatomy is the study of the parts and internal workings of living organisms, especially as revealed by the dissection and separation of those parts.

What I am going to attempt to do is to dissect and separate all the parts that make us human beings- the parts that are seen and those that are unseen-and examine how each part works in relationship to the others.

Understanding these things help us to live a successful, Christ centered life and have a deeper appreciation for the gospel.  It will also help you understand what happens to you when you get saved, or accept Christ as your Savior. You will have a better grasp of how your salvation affects all aspects of you, and how that brings about the change the bible calls sanctification.

 We will learn how each of these three elements- the body, soul and spirit- are connected to one another so completely that you cannot separate them without causing a death.

                                                                     Death, in its very essence, is separation. 

I warn you that this is no quick study.  But the investment will offer eternal rewards if you take the time to sow into your heart and mind the seeds of Truth revealed in the bible!

So without any further delay, let us go to the operating table to begin our dissection and examination process and reveal the anatomy of our salvation!

THE SOUL

The very first thing that is vital to understand is that man was created to live in the realm of EARTH.

When God created Adam, He formed him from the dust, or the elements of the earth.  He breathed into him the life force of the earth, which is the soul (Genesis 2:7).  Adam was created as a being that was made to inhabit the earth and nowhere else.

The soul is the part of you that gives life to your physical body.   But the soul is more than just life, it is a specific life, it is YOUR life.  It is the part of you that makes up the essence of who you are as a person; your personality, your will and desires, your emotions, your intelligence, and your overall personal character. Your brain is a physical organ but your mind is the higher level thoughts that are birthed and processed there.

The bible says that your soul is identified in your blood.

Leviticus 17:14 says “For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life.”

The word translated life here literally means soul.  Your soul is intrinsically connected to your blood, and your blood is a vital component to every cell in your body.   Only life on earth has a soul.  Only life of the earth has blood.  Therefore, any life of the earth that has blood also has a soul. Any living creature with blood possesses a living soul.

                  Yes, this means animals have souls.  But their souls are not equal to that of a man.

 Man was created as the highest form of soul, created in the image of God to have dominion over all other life and creation of earth.  

Your blood is your personal identifier.  Your blood is specific to you.  It carries in it your personal DNA which reveals not only that you are a human being, but also whose human you are; by exactly which parents you came from, and which parents they came from and so on.  It can reveal which genetic defects or diseases you are likely to inherit from your parents.  It can tell you which physical characteristic came from which parent (like red hair or blue eyes).  Everything about you is handed down to you from your parents in your blood.

Your blood is the source of your life.  It carries immunities and disease fighting elements in it.  It carries your very breath in it (oxygen).  That breath that God breathed into Adam on the day He created him gave him all that he needed to live and breathe and exist on the earth. 

Then the LORD God formed man of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (souecame a living being (soul). Genesis 2:7

Every cell of your body is dependent upon the components supplied in your blood.  Separated from it, your body would die.

THE BODY

Your physical body is the earthly house for your soul.  It is also uniquely YOU having traits and characteristics passed down to you from your parents.   It is the tangible part of your being.  It is also your identifier in that you have a body that is uniquely yours; no other person on earth has a body exactly like yours.

 It is a living organism that is animated, or brought to life, by your soul.     When the soul separates from the body, it causes the body to die. The body then decays and returns to the dust that it was made from.

Your body can be viewed as a vehicle for your soul.  It executes the commands that your mind wills it to do.  If you are thirsty, your mind tells your body to get something to drink.  It is also programmed to do things that your mind doesn’t consciously think about, such as breathe or digest food.

It is made up of matter and energy and was created to live in the realm of time and space.  It is made OF the earth in order to exist ON the earth. It is made of matter and energy and is subject to the physical laws of the earth (such as gravity, relativity, thermal dynamics, etc.).

 The body that we live in right now is considered temporary.  The bible calls it a tabernacle or a tent (2Corinthians 5:1-4, 2 Peter 1:13-14).    In our present state our bodies are not made to live forever, as those of us over 50 are well aware. Things start to wear out and break down.  We get weaker as time passes. 

In the same way that your house has doors that allow people and things to get inside, your body also has doors or “gateways” that allow access for things to enter into and affect your soul. 

These gateways are your five senses.

The organs of your body that carry information into your mind and heart- the eyes, the ears, the skin, the mouth and the nose- are access points into your soul.  Basically, every outward part of your body acts as a conduit to the innermost part of your being and can influence it either positively or negatively. 

Your body and soul are so intrinsically connected that what happens to one innately affects the other. What you see, what you hear, what you touch, what you put in your mouth or in your nose- can have a very real consequence to your soul.  Trauma and sickness, illicit drug and alcohol abuse, and sinful sexual behaviors are examples of things that you do with your body that can produce very wounding effects on the soul.  And, in the same way, when one’s soul is wounded it can manifest in physical ways, such as a sickness of the body.  

When we commit our bodies to sinful behaviors, we risk opening the doors of our “house” for demonic influence.  It is an invitation for evil or unclean spirits to enter into your soul and set up strongholds in your life.   They look for, and even create, opportunities for themselves to have a legal right to stake a claim in your “house”.  

We can also open up the doors of our soul to sinful influence when we do not control our emotions.  For example, when we give our hearts over to lustful thoughts, to anger and revenge, to covetous desires and feelings of discontent, we are providing opportunities for evil spirits to stake a claim in our lives.  These are all desires of the fallen flesh.  Some may argue that these feelings, especially the ones of the sexual kind, are natural.  Yes, they are very natural.  But your nature is broken and corrupt.  Even without the influence of outside forces, we have an inherent bent towards the things that are sinful and hostile towards God. We have to act in ways that are contrary to our nature if we want to live free of sin and evil influence.   

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”  Romans 6:12-13

This body and soul combination is what the bible often refers to as the “flesh”.  Sometimes we think this just means the body, or your skin, but most of the time it is referring to the physical body and the soul.  The bible tells us over and over that to live a life pleasing to God we cannot live our lives according to the flesh.

“…the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 6:7-8

THE SPIRIT

As soul is the life force of earth, spirit is the life force of heaven. It is the life giving energy of the beings that belong to heavenly realm.

God is a Spirit (John 4:24).  Celestial beings (like angels) are spiritual beings.  Celestial beings do not have souls because they were not created to live in the realm of earth.  They do not have physical bodies or blood.

                 They have bodies that were created to live in the supernatural realm.  They have varying degrees of power, authority, function and glories. Spirit beings also have personalities, intelligence and a free will. They not bound by the natural laws of the earth but they can interact with the realm of earth.  In order to exist in the heavenly realm, or have the ability to partake in the kingdom of heaven, you must be spirit (1Corinthians 15:50).

THE FIRST SON OF GOD

When God created Adam, He formed his body from the dust and breathed into him his earthly life of soul, but He also imparted unto him life in his spirit.  Adam was God’s son.  He was made complete and perfect in every way; alive in body, soul and spirit.

Adam was made in the image of God.  This means that he was meant to represent or reflect God on earth, to rule and reign over the realm of earth as God ruled and reigned over the realm of heaven.  As the Son of God he had authority over all creation.   Adam could commune with God constantly, walking in His presence in perfect unbroken fellowship. The Spirit of God had a union with Adam’s spirit.  In this way, the will of God was never a mystery to him. 

But Adam was also created with a will of his own.  He was not created to be a robot, simply operating in mechanical style to perform the will of His Creator. 

No, God created Adam for fellowship, for community and for love.  Love is not supposed to be mechanical or programmed.  It must be exercised from a free will.  For Adam to truly be created in the likeness of his Father, he had to have the freedom to choose and that meant that Adam had to have mastery over his own will.

Adam was God’s son.                    That is who he was.

But he was also granted the position as the ruler over the earth,
yet under the ultimate authority and sovereignty of God the Father. This means that Adam was subject to the laws established by God.

When Adam partook of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 3), he disobeyed the one law that God had set for him.  He usurped the authority that God had granted him.

Instead of obeying the will of God, Adam listened to the voice of the serpent, his wife and his own lustful desires. He willfully trespassed on property God told him was off limits.  He overstepped a boundary that God had established for him.                                                

This is known as sin.

God had warned Adam and Eve that on the day they ate of the forbidden tree they would die.  Genesis 2:16-17

And when they disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden a death did indeed occur.  The Spirit of a perfect and Holy God could no longer dwell within them because of their sin.  It had to separate from them, causing them to die spiritually.

Adam and Eve should have died physically that day also.  In other words, their souls should also have been demanded of them.  But God, in His mercy and grace, allowed a substitute to die in their place.    A life was given as a substitute for their life.  That innocent life covered their sinful ones just as its skin covered their nakedness. (Genesis 3:21)

It was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ.

Because of that substitute, Adam and Eve were allowed to continue on in the earth alive, but their relationship to God had changed dramatically. 

Because the Spirit of God has departed from Adam, Adam is no longer considered Gods son.  I know this is hard for some people to understand, but scripturally, the only time someone is called the son or daughter of God is when they possess the Spirit of God.  Adam, when he had the indwelling of the Spirit of God, he was the son of God.  When he lost it, he became the son of the evil one (John 8:44, 1John 3:12).  Adam was no longer alive spiritually.  The curse of sin and death is attached to Adam and will be passed down to all his offspring (Genesis 3:17-19, Romans 5:12).

Mankind has inherited this spiritual condition from Adam, since ultimately we are all his sons and daughters.   We are born into this natural world alive in body and soul, but dead in spirit.  We are born separated from God.

We HAVE a spirit, but it is without the heavenly life it was created for. 

Thankfully, God made a Way for us to be BORN AGAIN of the Spirit!And friends, this is REALLY GOOD NEWS!

To understand how all of it works, we have to go back to the idea of the value of life being connected to the blood.

The Old Covenant (or the Law of Moses), established a way for man, through Israel, to enter into relationship with God, albeit in a diminished way.  God set forth the terms (the 10 Commandments), that if men would follow them, God would dwell in their midst.  Of course, men would not be able to follow them all completely because men are inherently sinful, so God also established a sacrificial system so that men’s sins could be dealt with effectively enough to keep them in good standing before Him and so that His Glory could dwell on the earth as a testimony to all mankind of His Power and Presence.

God allowed a substitute payment for the sins of men in the sacrificial death of an animal.  The life of that animal, however, was not an equal payment.  The life or souls of an animal are not equal in value or worth.  But it was all that was available because the souls of mankind were corrupted by sin. The animal blood was at least innocent blood. So the blood, or life, of the sacrificial animal could act as a temporary covering until a man could be born that would offer His soul, or life, for the payment for the sins of men.

Jesus Christ was that man.

Christ came as a man, born into the realm of earth through a woman with a body of flesh and blood and a soul.  As Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, He was also the Son of God.  He was the Son of God just as Adam was the first son of God.  But even more than that, He existed as God long before He came to earth to be born of human flesh.  John 1:1-18.

Jesus was born of a virgin, meaning he did not have Adam as His father, He was born without the curse of sin and death attached to Adam through his blood. 

And Jesus did what Adam failed to do.  Jesus never trespassed against God.  He obeyed every commandment, every law and every directive from His Father.  He not only obeyed the Law of Moses, but He fulfilled it.  He never once acted according to His own will, but always obeyed the will of God through the Spirit that lived in Him. It was the very reason He came to earth, to do the will of His Father (John 4:34, 5:19, 5:30, 6:38).

In this way, He reversed the effect of Adams sin.  He reversed the work of the devil (1 John 3:8).

Christ was sinless in both ways; without inherited sin and without committing an act of sin.  Because He was without sin, the Spirit of God could come upon Him and remain (John 1:32).  He and the Father were one (John 10:30), as Adam and the Father were before Adam’s fall.

Christ did what Adam failed to do. He came to regain what Adam lost.

When Christ died on that Cross, He died for every son and daughter of Adam.  He took the penalty that is due us; both from the sin we inherited from our fallen earthly father and from the sin that we commit by willfully disobeying the laws of God.

He did for us what we could never do for ourselves.

He died for us, in our place; a man’s life in payment for the sins of men, an equal payment. The Old Covenant is finished, or completed.  No more animal sacrifices need ever be made again.  Christ fulfilled the Law of the First Covenant and established a New Covenant in His perfect blood; in His payment plan.

But there IS something that you do have to do.   There is a work that you do need to perform.

You have to Believe it. You have to accept it Personally

In doing this you have to acknowledge two things. 1. Who you are. 2. Who Christ is.

You have to recognize that you are born as a son or daughter of Adam into sin, dead in spirit and eternally separated from God.  It is not just an issue of what you have done (although it is also this) it is an issue of who you are.    This heritage makes you bent toward sinfulness, naturally desirous of things that God detests.  It is ingrained into your nature to lie, cheat, steal, and be disrespectful, selfish and proud.   Sin reigns in your mortal body.  No matter how hard you try, you can’t conquer it. You have bad habits, flaws in your character and do things you know are bad for you.    You sin because you are a sinner.   You have to come to a place that you recognize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior.

Then you have to recognize that Christ is that Savior.

The next step is to humble yourself at the feet of Jesus and repent of your sinfulness.  You acknowledge before Him who and what you are.  If you are unwilling to do this very important step, you may as well save your breath. The first step in gaining eternal life and salvation from your sins in Jesus is repentance.

Once you have done this, you simply have to come to Him IN FAITH and ASK to receive Him as your Lord and Savior. The bible says that the only work you have to do to earn your eternal salvation is to BELIEVE (John 3:16,18, 36, 6:29).  Yep, that’s it.  No fancy rituals, no special ceremonies, absolutely nothing except believe that Christ is Who He says He is and believe that He did what needed done to make your life right before God on your behalf.

Putting all the pieces together

Now that we understand what the body, the soul and the spirit are, we need to understand how they affect each other when a person gets saved, or born again.

At the moment you ask by faith to receive Christ as your savior, the righteous blood of Jesus, or His LIFE, is applied to your life.  It is as though your sin debt has been wiped clean.   God now looks upon your life and sees the perfect, righteous life of Jesus instead. 

GETTING A NEW SPIRIT

Because your sin is removed, the Spirit of God can come in and unite with your spirit!  It can come into you and remain forever one with you, and in this way you are considered a new creation, alive in a way you have never been alive before!  (2 Corinthians 5:17)   And because you now possess the Spirit of God within you, you are once again considered the son or daughter of God (Romans 8:14-16).    The Spirit of God has just brought eternal LIFE into your spirit.   You have been BORN AGAIN.   You have received what the bible calls salvation, you have been saved from eternal death.

TRANSFORMING YOUR SOUL

Your soul goes through the process the bible calls sanctification.

Before your spirit has any sort of life in it, there was no competition for the fallen soul.  The spirit was sort of “absorbed” into the fallen nature of the soul and offered no resistance to the sin in your life.  But now that there is a new, Holy Life living in you, there is a conflict.  Now you have a resistance to the old, sinful, fallen flesh (or soul).

There is a reason we call the Spirit of God the “Holy Spirit”.  It is not just a title or a name, it is also His function. 

He comes to perform a work in you- to make you HOLY. To set you apart from the world and to transform you into the image of Jesus Christ.

You must understand that the flesh does not readily submit to this transformation.  In fact, it will object wholeheartedly! (Galations 5:17) It will resist your attempts to submit to the will of the Holy Spirit.  It has had its way for a very long time and it does not readily submit to a new master in the house!

But you have a choice to make: To walk (or live) according to the desires of the flesh (the sinful nature) or to walk according to the desires of the Spirit of God now living within you. (Galations 5:16-25)

Walking in the Spirit will lead you in obedience to the will of the Father, just as it did Jesus.  Walking in the Spirit involves separating yourself from the demands and desires of the world and your old, sinful nature.

“For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.” Romans 6:19

 Sometimes (most of the time) this involves suffering! We have to be willing to suffer the pains of “denying the flesh” in order to enjoy the rewards that Life in the Spirit produces.  The rewards include having a rich and intimate relationship with your Father in heaven, overcoming sin and escaping the spiritual and physical wounding that comes with it.

You must nurture the Spirit within you.  Praying and reading your bible feeds your Spirit.   It is the food it needs to grow and develop and become strong against the pull of the flesh and the world.

Praying and spending time reading the Word is like spending time with Jesus.  The Word of God and the Spirit of God work together to reveal the Person of Jesus Christ to you and in you.  To neglect the Word and prayer is to neglect your relationship with Christ.  To deny time with Christ is to deny yourself spiritual growth, strength and power.

As you grow in the Spirit, your flesh will become weaker.  Certain sins in your life that you once found hard to get freedom from will eventually lose its grip on you.  For some, this freedom and transformation comes quickly, for others it takes years.  Sometimes this involves a process of evicting demonic squatters that think they have the right to territory in your soul.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to you so that you can recognize their influence in your life. Then, if necessary, deny them residency and demand that they get out! Shine the Light of God’s Glory in the dark recesses of your heart and mind.

Do not fear. Stand firm in your faith. He who is in you is GREATER than he who is in the world!  And do not be concerned that if you fail and fall into sin again that you have lost your salvation.  All you have to do is confess your sin and repent of it (meaning to turn away from it) and start again anew.  Remember, the transforming process of sanctification takes time and diligence.

THE PROMISE OF A NEW BODY

As if this wasn’t enough, the new birth brings with it good news for your body also. 

After Jesus died on the cross for the sins of mankind, He was resurrected by the Spirit with a new body! Because of this, we also can look forward to a new resurrected body that is fit and equipped to inherit the kingdom of heaven. 

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body, it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy,We shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. (1Corinthians 15:42-44,48,49,50)

The bible says that when this happens, Death is swallowed up in victory!  And God gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Amen!  This is indeed great news!

TO SUM IT ALL UP

Can you believe this all started out as a simple anatomy lesson?

  To be honest, it took me years to figure this out and only then by the grace and tutoring of the Holy Spirit.  Once I understood how my body, soul and spirit all worked in relationship to each other it helped me to live a more successful Christian life.  I was able to recognize the difference between the work Christ had done in my spirit and the work He was still doing in my soul.  I was able to be to be more compassionate to others as I realized they were dealing with the effects of their own wounded souls.

It helped me to understand the whole gospel in ways I never had before; the virgin birth, the life of perfect obedience, His death on the cross, the resurrection and His ascension.  In new ways I was able to appreciate the value of Christ’s blood and the power it had to wipe away my sins.

Understanding all of those things compelled me to worship Him in a deeper, more personal way. 

And in the process of it all, I came to be healed of things I didn’t even know were broken.  And friend, we are all broken in some way. That is the real beauty of it all.  He comes to us in our weakness.  He comes to restore us. 

Christ came to redeem all the things that Adam lost.  He reclaims our place and position in the kingdom of God as His sons and daughters, He restores our power and authority, He renews us to eternal life- whole and complete once again in body, soul and spirit.

Let all the earth praise Him for the Good things He has done!

But When the Fullness of Time Came, God Sent Forth His Son…

As I was attempting to start my bible reading this morning, I was thumbing through some old notes I had taken from studies earlier in the year.  I came across something that I had written that I not only thought was profound, but perfect for the Christmas season.  I wanted to share it with you.  

But when the fullness of time came,  God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that we might recieve the adoption as sons.        Galations 4:4-5    

The essence of the Christmas story is summed up in the above verse.  The Christmas message is the gospel message.   

We all know the story.   

“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth,  to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the ]descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.  And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”  But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.  The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;  and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”  Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”  The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.  And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month.  For nothing will be impossible with God.”  And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”     Luke 1:26-38

Christ was to be born in the flesh, born as a man from the seed of a woman.  He was a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), and David, according to every prophesy foretold and every promise.  

He was born of the seed of the woman.  A prophesy fortold from as far back as Genesis 3.  He is the seed of the woman who is to crush the head of the serpent.   He could not be the son of Adam.  Adam had been cursed with death (Gen. 3:19). Every one born of Adam would carry that curse.  But not Eve.  She did not inherit that curse.  That is why Adam named her EVE, “because she was the mother of the LIVING.”  The only problem was, all children born unto her would have Adam for a father.   All children born of Adam would die.  Death would perpetuate through the seed of Adam. 

Christ did not have Adam for a father.  God was His Father. The curse of Adam was not passed down to Him.  He was born of the seed of the woman only. He would be the ONLY one born in such a way.   

Mary was of the “house” of David; the lineage of David.  And she found favor with God. This word”favor” is the same word translated as grace in the Hebrew.   Why was Mary favored?  I think it was because Mary’s heart was humble.  She had purposed in her heart to be a servant of God long before the angel of God came to her bearing his announcement.  

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”

The Greek word translated  to “come upon”  (eperchomai) could also mean to come in to.  The word “overshadow” (episkiazo) means to cast a shade upon, to envelope in a haze of brilliancy, to invest with a preternatural influence.  

Think about it this way.  The Holy Spirit came upon the whole of Mary.  It encompassed her.  It covered her, became one with her.  Much like a husband would “cover” his wife.  Mary became the bondservant of the Lord, humbly offering herself basically as a wife would her husband. She submitted to Him fully, surrendering to His will.  She knew exactly what she was doing, what was being asked of her.  She was not unmarried and pregnant.  She was, in a sense, married to God, in order to bear His Son.  In her was the representation of Israel, wed to God in covenental relationship. 

Mary’s “blood seal” (the medical term is hymen) of her virginity had not been breached.  It remained intact, as she “knew no man“.   But God knew her.  Not in a physical way, but in a spiritual way.  The way God knows us when we accept Him and invite Him into our hearts to dwell as Lord and Savior.  He “comes into us”.   Mary believed Him.  She recieved Him and and came into her and concieved new life, the Life of the Son of God within her. 

It is the same thing that happens to us.  We believe Him, we recieve Him and the life of the Son of God is manifest within us.  

Mary’s blood seal was not broken until the Son of Man EXITED her birth canal.  Joseph, obedient to the word of God, entered into marriage covenant with Mary, took her into his house and gave her his name, but he did not “know” her (have sexual relationship with her)  until after Christ was born.  In a way, Joseph submitted to being Mary’s second husband.   Once Mary had bore the Son of God and gave Him the Name above all Names,  she was free to bear sons for Joseph’s name.  (And I will add that at this point, Mary could no longer be considered a virgin.)

I think the Holy Spirit came upon Mary at the conception of Christ and never left her.  I think He stayed with her the whole time of her pregnancy.   Why do I say this?  Because Luke 1:41 says that the baby in Elizabeth’s womb when she heard Mary’s greeting.  She stated “blessed are you among women, AND blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

“May it be done to me according to your Word...”

And the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us…     

  In a way that we may not fully ever understand, the Word of God entered Mary’s womb.  It joined with her seed.  At that momentof conception the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Word made flesh. 

The life of the Spirit of God joined the life of the human race, entering into the realm of time and space within the confines of a body of flesh and blood.   A body specifically prepared for a specific purpose.  

For a perfect sacrifice.  The sacrifice to end all other sacrifices. 

In my next post, I want to consider what it meant for Christ to be “born under the law” and what that means for us. 

Until then, I pray you are blessed and humble before the Lord this holiday season as we are reminded of the miracle of His birth and the gift of eternal life found in His Name!  Amen! 

   

How Do We Get Home From Here?

GLINDA-  It’s all right.  You can get up, she’s gone.

The Munchkins all rise and start to move toward Glinda and Dorothy as Glinda speaks to them.

GLINDA- It’s all right.  You can all get up.

GLINDA- Pooh!  What a smell of sulphur!  I’m afraid you’ve made rather a bad enemy of the Wicked Witch of the West.  The sooner you get out of Oz altogether, the safer you’ll sleep, my dear.

DOROTHY- Oh, I’d give anything to get out of Oz altogether! But which is the way back to Kansas?  I can’t go the way I came.

GLINDA- No, that’s true. The only person who might know would be the great and wonderful Wizard of Oz himself!

DOROTHY- The Wizard of Oz?  Is he good or is he wicked?

GLINDA- Oh, very good, but very mysterious.  He lives in the Emerald City, and that’s a long journey from here. Did you bring your broomstick with you?

DOROTHY- No, I’m afraid I didn’t.

GLINDA- Well, then, you’ll have to walk.  The Munchkins will see you safely to the border of Munchkinland.  And remember, never let those ruby slippers off your feet for a moment, or you will be at the mercy of the Wicked Witch of the West.

DOROTHY- But, how do I start for Emerald City?

GLINDA- It’s always best to start at the beginning, and all you do is follow the Yellow Brick Road.

DOROTHY- But… what happens if I…?

GLINDA- Just follow the Yellow Brick Road.

And the camera pans down to Dorothy’s ruby red clad feet to show us that she is standing at the point of the spiral shaped beginnings of the Yellow Brick Road inlaid within the midst of Munchkinland.  All the Munchkins gather around Dorothy as they point the way to the Emerald City and to the Great and Mysterious Oz, and her only hope of getting home.  “Just follow the Yellow Brick Road…”

 

We all have buried deep inside of us a desperate desire to go home.

Somehow, we know innately that this world is not our home, we ultimately do not belong here and we feel uneasy and discontent here no matter how appealing it may be at times.  Yes, we may have love and beauty and creature comforts in this world, but something of a Greater Love draws us, Something or Someone more beautiful than this existence can offer.  Sometimes it’s hard to explain, we can’t seem to put into words the dissatisfaction and longing we feel so deeply in our hearts.

 

Home.

Home to the love that loves us so completely in spite of our flaws.  Home to the love that shelters us in the worst of storms.  Home to the One who sits by our side and patiently waits for us to awaken from the illusion of our dreamy false realities.  Home to the arms that will encompass us in a perfect and consuming Peace; safe and warm and satisfied.

But how do we get there from here?  We can’t go the way we came.

And it’s a long journey from here.

Where do we find our Yellow Brick Road?

Which way to the Great and Powerful, this Mysterious “Oz”, who is our only hope of ever finding home?

The deeply ingrained longing for “home” is real.  It is a desire that transcends us; in other words, it doesn’t originate with us. That desire was planted there by our Creator.  It is a desire for Him and will only be satisfied in Him.  The problem we face is that so much of the world today not only doesn’t know Him, but they do not even entertain the possibility for His existence.  The world tells them that there is no Emerald City and there is no Great and Powerful Oz.  You can follow the Yellow Brick Road all you want, but it leads to nowhere.  What a hopeless state they are in!  It’s no wonder that so many people are committing suicide!  It’s no wonder so many today are escaping their realities with drugs and alcohol, or with pornography or video games or online shopping.  They know the craving is real.  They just have no idea how to satisfy it.  No matter with what they try or how much or how often, still they find themselves empty; hungry for a home they don’t know how to find.

But friends, I am here to tell you there is a Way.  There is a hope.  There is One who made a way for us to satisfy the desire for Home, Who indeed IS our Home.  And there is a Road that leads us there.

 

It’s simple to find.  And you do not have to start at the beginning.  You can start from wherever you are!

 

Your journey Home begins with your first believing in the Truth that there is a God who made you, who formed you intentionally and who desires to be known by you.  In this way, God our Creator is not like the Wizard of Oz who was “mysterious” so as only to hide the fact that he was not who he portrayed himself to be.  The Wizard of Oz was, in the end, just a man like everyone else.  Our God is not at all like anyone or anything else.  He is Who and What His word says He is and through His word He is revealed and knowable.  John 1:1-5, 9-13.

And that Word became a man, but not a man like anyone else (John 1:14). He was also God revealed to us in human form, clothed in flesh and blood, entering time and space in order to bridge the great divide that separated us from Him.  That great divide is the sin that we are born into, sin that we commit and sin that we cannot escape or deliver ourselves from.  Our sin is what separates us from our Home.  But the Word that became a man -Jesus Christ, came to pay the penalty for our sin, to die in our place, to satisfy the righteous requirements of God in our stead.  Because He did what we could never do for ourselves, we now have access to the “Great and Powerful” God, the only hope of ever satisfying the deepest longing and hunger of our souls.

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“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.  If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.  John 14:1-6.

 

Our hearts long to be at home with our Father.  The only way to get home is through Jesus, who indeed IS the Way.  When we trust in the work He did for us on the Cross by shedding His perfect, sinless blood, our faith in that work gives us access to the Father.  The Holy Spirit comes like a dove and lights upon us and sinks down within us and takes up residence in our spirit.  He unites with our spirit in a way that resembles a marriage, we are made one with each other.  When God looks upon us, He sees that union and the holiness that is bestowed upon us through the Spirit.  We come to KNOW Him.

 

In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:20-21

 

It is no longer us He sees, but the Spirit of Christ within us.  Our identity has changed.  We are made a new creation.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.  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.    2Corinthians 5:17-19

 

It really is a marvelous mystery!  And one you do not have to fully understand to reap the benefits from.  You only have to trust that it is true and accept that truth within your heart.  God performs the rest.

 

The next step in the process of going home is to follow.  Just as Dorothy had to follow the Yellow Brick Road, we have to follow Jesus.  Following Jesus is in every sense following the “Glory Road”.   Following Jesus and His commands keeps us in the center of Gods perfect will for our lives.  No matter where you are in this world; in a field of poisonous poppies or in the middle of the haunted forest surrounded by flying monkeys, if you are on the Glory Road you are going the right way.  God’s eyes are on you.

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.  Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.

 Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  John 14:23-27

 

 Following Christ means reading His word.  Following Christ means surrendering your will to His.  Following Christ means to live according to the Spirit and not according to our own sinful desires. And even that is something we cannot do in and of ourselves, but only as the Holy Spirit empowers us to do it.  Praise God that He has provided every need we have.

If we do these things according to the prescribed plan of God, we will find our way home.  In fact, we will find that we are already home in Him.   We will find that our desperate, unexplained longings are satisfied in Him.  The things of the world will, over time, fade away.  And we will rest in the hope that we will experience an eternity with the God of all creation, Who formed us for His good pleasure, to enjoy the riches of His Grace and Mercies, living in the Presence of His Glory forever!

Way better than Kansas!

Seeing Christ in Yom Kippur

Today at sundown the Jews will celebrate Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year.  It was the one day of the year when the High Priest could enter into the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies behind the veil where the Glory of God dwelled above the Mercy Seat in the Tent of Meeting or in the Temple.

The Priest would ready himself meticulously, performing all the requirements of cleansing and covering in order to present the offering for the entire nation of Israel for the year.  On this day, he represented the whole people.  He brings the blood of the perfect sacrifice in order to atone- or cover- the sins of the Nation for the entire year.

It was a rigorous ordeal.  It was a big responsibility.  If he were not prepared according to the mandates required by God, it could cost him his life.

And what were the requirements of the people this day?

To humble their souls before God.

 

“On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord.

You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God.

IF there is any soul who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people.

As for any person who does work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.

You shall do no work at all.  It is to be a perpetual statue throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from the evening until  evening you shall keep your Sabbath.”     Leviticus 23:26-32

 

The Day of Atonement is a day that points to Jesus Christ.

Now of course, I am not Jewish, but the more I study the Word of God the more I come to appreciate the Feasts and Holy Days of the Jews.  I see Christ in all of them, which indeed is their whole purpose.

In this picture of the Day of Atonement, we see Christ as our High Priest, as the perfect sacrifice, and as our perfect rest.

“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.” Hebrews 4:14-15

Christ is our perfect sacrifice, the unblemished Lamb; as the Son of God, born without the inherent sin connected to the seed of Adam.  This sacrifice done once and for all.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;  

and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.  

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,  how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?  Hebrews 9:11-14

 

Christ is our Sabbath; our resting place.

Because of Christ’s finish work on the Cross, we no longer toil for our salvation, it is completed in Christ.   There is no longer any work to be done except to believe in that finished work.

 

“Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.

Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”   Hebrews9:23-28

“After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 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.    Hebrews 10:14

Since the work of God is wrought in Christ Jesus, since all is fulfilled on our behalf to satisfy the judgement of God in order to make us clean and holy before God, what is left for us to do?

To humble ourselves before the living God and recognize what He has done for us.

I am not Jewish, I know, but I love and know the God of the Jews, the God that presents Himself in the Hebrew Bible (The Old Testament).   I see Him throughout it as I study His Word.  I see how it points to the New Covenant established and completed in Christ.

My offering before God on this day is to humble my soul before Him.

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

                                                                                      Hebrews 10:19-22               

What God desires of me is to actually do what He has provided me the ability to do; to enter into His Presence, to worship Him and commune with Him in the fellowship of His Holiness.  Oh God, I pray that we never lose appreciation for what He has done in order for us lowly, sinful souls to do that!  In Christ we are made clean!  In Christ we are prepared and clothed in order to enter behind the veil and into the Presence of His Glory!  We can do that every day, any moment, within a moment.   All because of the work Christ did!  We can rest in His mercy and in His love for us.

Today I choose to honor this special day that foreshadowed the coming of the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice that atoned for the sins of mankind, for the sins of mine- and yours if you choose to accept Him as such. Today I choose to humble myself before Him, to lay my very life at the foot of the cross where He bled and died for me.  Will you join me today in recognizing this holiday that may have started with the Jews but had its finish for the church?  It is not just theirs to celebrate, but ours as well.

Praise God for it!