Freedom

Just a few more thoughts on Law VS Grace.  The SELF-Life is very deceptive, we either are SELF-Congratulating or SELF-Condemning, we are either “patting ourselves on the back” for a job well done or “kicking ourselves in the butt” for blowing yet once more.  This is why we MUST fix our eyes on Jesus and not lose sight of Him. (see Hebrews 12:1-2).

Consider what CS Lewis wrote about this.

"As long as we are thinking that way, one or other of two results is likely to follow. Either we give up trying to be good, or else we become very unhappy indeed. For, make no mistake: if you are really going to try to meet all the demands made on the natural self, it will not have enough left over to live on. The more you obey your conscience, the more your conscience will demand of you. And your natural self, which is thus being starved and hampered and worried at every turn, will get angrier and angrier. In the end, you will either give up trying to be good, or else become one of those people who, as they say, ‘live for others’ but always in a discontented, grumbling way – always wondering why the others do not notice it more and always making a martyr of yourself. And once you have become that you will be a far greater pest to anyone who has to live with you than you would have been if you had remained frankly selfish."

The Normal Christian Life part 6

Often Christians confuse their relationship to God’s Law, and thus “try” to live the Christian life as “they are suppose to do.”  Our relationship to the Law is through Jesus Christ, He has fulfilled the Law, He has satisfied the Law and I now am to live my life connected to Christ and allow Him to live through me, and He satisfies the Law (which is good and holy).  Notice it’s not me satisfying the Law, it’s me abiding in Christ and He fulfills all that God wills and wants to do in me.

So then I am able to say with Paul that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:13).  So then a comparison between the Law and God’s Grace might look like this.

The LAW  Says Do

GRACE Says Done

The LAW  Emphasizes What we do

GRACE Emphasizes What God does

The LAW  Lives out of The flesh (SELF)                                

GRACE Lives out of The Spirit (Christ-life)

The LAW  Draws on Our Resources                                      

GRACE Draws on God’s Resources

The LAW  Deals with External rules, regulations, standards    

GRACE Deals with Inner heart attitude

The LAW  Primary Focus Ought to, should, must            

GRACE Primary Focus Want to, desire

The LAW  Creates Bondage, duty, obligation

GRACE Creates Freedom

The LAW  Lives the life from Outside in

GRACE Lives the life Inside out

The LAW  Declares Do in order to be

GRACE Declares You are; therefore do

The LAW  Produces Guilt & Condemnation

GRACE Produces Acceptance & Security

The LAW  Leads to Defeat

GRACE Leads to Victory
                                                

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8

 Jesus is the Normal Christian Life, this really is how God designed it to be.

 Next Time: Motivated Spirituality

The Normal Christian Life part 5

God has provided for us all we need in Jesus.  He has given us a new nature and new identity.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17

But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. Romans 8:10

For in my inner being I delight in God's law;
but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. Romans 7:22-23

and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24

who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Philippians 3:21

But a Key Question, that we must ask ourselves (many do you know), if this is so true Why do I struggle with sin?  Why do believers often act as unbelievers? 

We can say that when an unbeliever acts in a sin, he is acting consistent with his nature.  On the other hand for the believer to sin IT IS CONTRARY TO WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST!  So what are we to do?  How are we to live?

We must first act in Knowledge.  This is why being in the Word is vital to living in Christ.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Romans 6:5-7
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. Philippians 3:9

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

Second we need to Reckon what God’s says as FACT… this is Belief, and without it not only can’t we please God, we are done for.

If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. John 7:17

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, Ephesians 1:17-19

And finally we Yield to Jesus Christ, who dwells in us.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. Romans 6:12-13

Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23

Consider the words of CS Lewis.

 “Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”  ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The Normal Christian Life part 4

This life in Christ is to be lived from the inside out, not the outside in.

 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:12-13

The exchanged life IS NOT a matter of trying but being, believing and claiming what Christ has done for us

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:1-2

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:12-17

Now God’s plan from all eternity was and still is the Exchanged Life.  You can tell a Christian’s theology by where they begin in the Bible and where you start makes All the Difference.

Some Christians Start at The Fall in Genesis 3:6-7.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3:6-7

When you start at the Fall you see Christianity and history as redemptive, with man at the center.  The main point is to get a person “Saved” because they are lost and separated from God.  Now while this is true to a point, we must go back even further than Genesis 3.

Some Christians Start at The Creation of man in Genesis 1:28

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Genesis 1:28

When you start here you theology often carries a dominion aspect, that we were meant to rule over the earth.  This theology too is man centered.  Now while this is true to a point, we must go back even further than Genesis 1:28.

There are those who begin at Genesis 1:1.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
It is here that God is at the center and history = His Story.  All is seen as God’s sovereign work.  This also is true and closer to the truth, because it places God at the center (He is ALWAYS at the center of everything).

But believe it or not we need to go further back than Genesis 1:1.  You might be asking yourself how is that possible.  Consider what the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. Ephesians 1:3-10

It is at this starting point that God is at the center and we discover that God’s Ultimate Purpose is His Fatherhood to us as followers of Jesus.  And it is from here that we discover what the Father has in store for us as His children.

Follow-Up to Abiding... by Chambers

As a follow up to my last blog consider the reading from Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest for June 14^th:

Get Moving! Abide in Me . . .

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me John 15:4 (ESV)

In the matter of determination. The Spirit of Jesus is put into me by way of the atonement by the Cross of Christ. I then have to build my thinking patiently to bring it into perfect harmony with my Lord. God will not make me think like Jesus— I have to do it myself. I have to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). “Abide in Me”— in intellectual matters, in money matters, in every one of the matters that make human life what it is. Our lives are not made up of only one neatly confined area.

Am I preventing God from doing things in my circumstances by saying that it will only serve to hinder my fellowship with Him? How irrelevant and disrespectful that is! It does not matter what my circumstances are. I can be as much assured of abiding in Jesus in any one of them as I am in any prayer meeting. It is unnecessary to change and arrange my circumstances myself. Our Lord’s inner abiding was pure and unblemished. He was at home with God wherever His body was. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek, submitting to His Father’s plans and directions for Him. Just think of how amazingly relaxed our Lord’s life was! But we tend to keep God at a fever pitch in our lives. We have none of the serenity of the life which is “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).

Think of the things that take you out of the position of abiding in Christ. You say, “Yes, Lord, just a minute— I still have this to do. Yes, I will abide as soon as this is finished, or as soon as this week is over. It will be all right, Lord. I will abide then.” Get moving— begin to abide now. In the initial stages it will be a continual effort to abide, but as you continue, it will become so much a part of your life that you will abide in Him without any conscious effort. Make the determination to abide in Jesus wherever you are now or wherever you may be placed in the future.

The Normal Christian Life part 3

What am I really saying is that ONLY Jesus can live the Christian life in us.  So then what are we to do?  Let Him live through you as you learn to abide/remain in Him.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:1-8

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 2

Corinthians 2:14

Now in Christianity there are different approaches that have been developed to TRY and live the Christian.  Consider some of the more popular ways to be a Christian and follow Jesus.

Option #1: Living the Christian Life through self-effort.  This is one extreme that involves self-effort & willpower (very aggressive).  This often leads a believer to be critical of others who don’t try as hard (self-righteousness) and leads to either faking Christianity and putting up a good front or walking away saying I tried it, it doesn’t work

Option #2: Living the Christian Life through no-effort.  This is the other extreme and is sometimes called letting go & letting God (very passive).  Like my friend who needed work and just sat by the phone waiting for someone to call him with a job.  Now mind you he didn’t send out any resumes for work but was just sitting tight waiting for a call, you can guess how many calls came in.

Option #3: Living the Christian Life through a come & go relationship.  This is the most common approach to Christianity and says: “Lord help me remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that You and I together can’t handle.”  This often leads to having a 2-sphered life, one sphere being secular, the other being spiritual.  When I go to church or Bible study I’m spiritual, the rest is secular… come and go, back and forth.

The ONLY Option: In the New Testament, and trust me once you see this you will see it everywhere in the New Testament, the ONLY option that God has provided for  for Living the Christian Life is for Jesus to live His life through you and you abide in Him.  And guess what it’s the best option because it’s God’s idea not man’s.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

What we need is for a spirit or wisdom and revelation, how else can we know apart from God telling us.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, Ephesians 1:17-19
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Colossians 1:9

The Normal Christian Life part 2

So when we invite Jesus to come and live in our hearts, that is exactly what he does.  Remember He said:

Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23
Jesus’ Life is God’s substitution for the “SELF” life, and we must find our identification with Christ… He does not necessarily give New Life (like that could be separate from Himself), He Gives us Himself, and He is the Life (intrinsically He is the Way, the Truth and the Life)

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:11-13

Jesus also gives us Freedom from the Law of sin & death because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:14

Now in light of these truths in Jesus…

 We must Believe (Reckon) despite our “feelings”

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. Romans 6:6-13
To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ--their Lord and ours: 1 Corinthians 1:2

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light Ephesians 5:8

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, Philippians 3:20

We must Believe and Realize that the basis of our Justification (salvation ) is also the basis of our Sanctification

I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Galatians 3:2-3
But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. Galatians 5:5

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:16-25

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, Colossians 2:6

And Realize the Brokenness of our own resources and efforts (We are UnWorthy but not Worthless)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24

When we begin to understand what it means to live the Christian life, only Jesus can do this, it Humbles us without degrading us and Elevates us without inflating us.

The Normal Christian Life part 1

One of the most difficult and lastly learned things in following Jesus is that He has really come to live in and through our lives.  To grasp our True Identity in Christ is essential in understanding the plan of God.

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27

During the 19^th & 20^th centuries there was a growth of an experiential approach to the spiritual life that is based on the believer’s new identity in Christ.  Identification with Christ in His crucifixion and resurrection means that our life has been exchanged for the life of Christ.  This approach to spirituality moves from a works to grace orientation and from legalism to liberty because it centers on our acknowledgement that Christ’s life is our life, or rather our life is His.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

It has been called….

“the exchanged life” Hudson Taylor, FB Meyer

“the abiding life” Andrew Murray
“the victorious life” Billy Graham
“the highest life” Oswald Chambers
“life on the highest plane” Ruth Paxon
“the normal Christian life” Watchman Nee
“the fullness of Christ” Stuart Briscoe
“the saving life of Christ” Ian Thomas
“the overflowing life” FR Havergal
“the Christian’s secret to a happy life” Hannah W. Smith
“the larger life” AB Simpson
“the victory over darkness” Neil T Anderson

The Normal Christian Life: Our New identity

The substitution of Christ’s life for the “SELF” life

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9-10

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; Ephesians 4:22-24
to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Our identification with the Cross of Christ

By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:2-11

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:5-6

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4

Being Conformed thru Discipline part 9

Just a few more thoughts about Practicing the Disciplines, that put us in a place to see and be with Jesus.  These are NOT a list to go through, but a way of life that will increase our understanding of Christ’s power and presence in our lives.

Fellowship

Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Submission & Guidance

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Simplicity, Stewardship & Sacrifice

Psalm 62:10 Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

Luke 9:23 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

When we are truly in this interior simplicity our whole appearance is franker, more natural.  This true simplicity… make us conscious of a certain openness, gentleness, innocence, gaiety and serenity, which is charming when we see it near to and continually, with pure eyes. O, how amiable this simplicity is!  Who will give it to me?  I leave all for this.  It is the pearl of the Gospel. -Francois Fenelon

Simplicity is Freedom.  Duplicity is bondage.  Simplicity brings joy and balance.  Duplicity brings anxiety and fear. -Richard Foster

Simplicity is an uprightness of soul which prevents self-consciousness.  Verily such simplicity is a great treasure. -Francois Fenelon

Worship & Celebration

Revelation 4:8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."
Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'

Today’s man… worships his work, works at his play, and plays at his worship.

To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God. -William Temple

Service

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.
For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Witness

Colossians 4:5-6 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

The present benefit of spiritual discipline is a fulfilled, God-blessed, fruitful and useful life.  If you get involved in spiritual gymnastics, the blessings of godliness will carry me into eternity.  Although many people spend far more time exercising their bodies than their souls, the excellent servant of Jesus Christ realizes that spiritual discipline is a priority. - John MacArthur Jr.

Next time I’d like to talk about my favorite and most exciting part of following Jesus… The Exchanged Life.

Colossians 1:27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.