Live in Christ: by TA Sparks

Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Romans 5:18

The whole subject of spiritual power is most important. So many Christians find themselves involved in a continual struggle to live up to what they know to be God's standard. For them Christianity is a manner of life composed of various rules and regulations. They know what ought to be and what ought not to be, and they therefore struggle to attain to this level of living. Their consciences play a large part in this constant effort, and for this reason they suffer many fears and fail to experience the promised joys. Life for them has become a strenuous business, fraught with much disappointment and many failures. They may from time to time have a sense of attainment and success, with much resultant gladness, but with the fluctuating emotions of the soul, things seem to collapse and go all wrong. So it is that people find the Christian life burdensome; they long to know real victory, true deliverance and the joy of the Lord, whereas they experience the ups and downs of a constant struggle. The Christian life depicted in the New Testament seems so different from their actual experience that the devil is never slow to pounce in with his suggestions that a life of constant victory is quite impossible, so that all their hopes are but unreal dreams. Satan wants God's people to despair of knowing His power.

But there is an altogether different life, different because it is based on the entering into something already completed in Christ; not something to be attained to but rather that which has already been accomplished. It is not a standard to be lived up to, but a Person to be lived with. It is impossible to measure the vast difference between these two kinds of life. The former is one of self effort and defeat, while the other consists in enjoying the reality of Christ the power of God. 

Faith and Holiness Linked to Christ's Return By A. W. Tozer

 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  1 John 3:2

  The Bible does not approve of modern curiosity that plays with the Scriptures and which seeks only to impress credulous and gullible audiences!   I cannot think of even one lonely passage in the New Testament which speaks of Christ's revelation, manifestation, appearing or coming that is not directly linked with moral conduct, faith and spiritual holiness.

   The appearing of the Lord Jesus on this earth once more is not an event upon which we may curiously speculate - and when we do only that we sin!  The prophetic teacher who engages in speculation to excite the curiosity of his hearers without providing them with a moral application is sinning even as he speaks.

      There have been enough foolish formulas advanced about the return of Christ by those who were simply curious to cause many believers to give the matter no further thought or concern.  But Peter said to expect "the appearing of Jesus Christ."

   Paul said there is a crown of righteousness laid up in  glory for all those who love His appearing. John spoke of  his hope of seeing Jesus and bluntly wrote: "Every man  that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he  is pure."

       Are you ready for the appearing of Jesus Christ?  Or  are you among those who are merely curious about His  coming?

Living above it All: by TA Sparks

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore. Psalm 125:1,2

Mountains? And the Lord like the mountains? What is that? It is fortification, it is strength, it is protection. And what is the point of fortification if there is nothing against which to be fortified? Away back in Old Testament times, when the people came into the land, the remarkable thing is that they occupied the higher places more than the lower. You will find that their towns, cities and villages are almost all of them upon some high place; the reason being that their enemies, who had chariots and horses, had their strength on the level, in the plain, but they could do nothing with chariots and horses against mountains. And therefore the safety, security and fortification of the Lord’s people was by being on high places.

That is a parable. If the enemy can get you on to his level he has beaten you. So he must pull you down, he must get you down, he must get you to accept something less than God’s full place and mind for you, and then he will undo you. That is what he has done with the church, speaking of the church now in very general terms. He has pulled it down to this world level; he has reduced it to the level of things here, and he has absolutely disintegrated it, broken it up and divided it and robbed it of its power. The church which is revealed to us in the New Testament is always on high ground.... In Ephesians, it is “in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” It is a great power to be on high ground, it is a great defensive, protective factor; the enemy can do little with you if you keep up there and refuse to come down. Nehemiah found that to be so, when they said, “Come down and let us confer”; and he said, “I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down” (Neh. 6:3). It is a principle operating.

Our True Foundation: by TA Sparks

Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. Ephesians 4:15

We know of many children of God who have been the Lord’s children for years and they have been working for the Lord many of them, and yet they have come to a standstill; they have come under an arrest. Why? Well in some way, at some point, somehow, something of themselves, their old self has come up, has come into evidence, and has come into the way. It may be some of their old mind, some of their old will, some of their old affections, desires and feelings. They are in their own way somehow. They are in the Lord’s way. What is needed is not that they should die again, but that they should come to accept their once-for-all death in Christ in relation to whatever that may be that has come up, and let it go and be set free from that law of sin and death. “Repentance from dead works.” That is exactly what the apostle is saying to these Hebrews: "You have come to a standstill. You simply ceased to go on. You went so far, now you have got to a certain point and for years you have not budged a bit from that position. You have never got past foundations, you are not going on to full growth. You have not settled it once and for all that you died when Christ died. You ended the whole system and order of the old creation religiously and otherwise when you came to Christ. Christ is the end of the law and Christ is the end of the old creation, and He is the beginning of everything new. Do not be wearied at repetition of old truths, they are very important as foundations, and this is foundational."

We are destined, whether we now accept it or not, whether we like it or not, we are destined to discover that God’s foundation stands. This is true, and no one will ever get through in relation to God and His things while still bound by the old creation, on the old creation level. This new way of Life is so narrow that we cannot take ourselves into it, we have to leave ourselves behind. 

True Humility: by AW Tozer

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 14:11

Watch out, Christian brothers and sisters, for the danger of arrogance, in assuming that you are somebody, indeed! God will never let you ‘high-hat’ somebody else if you are a Christian. He loves you far too much to let you get away with that. You may ask: “What will the Lord do, then, if I get arrogant and presumptuous, full of pride over my victories and successes?” Well, the Lord will remind you of His own example of lowliness and humility, and He will rebuke and chasten you in His own way. Our Lord Jesus Christ would not allow any success or temporary honour to lead Him astray. The blessed Lord had no servants. He arrogantly bossed no one around, though as God, He properly commanded others. He was the Lord, but He never took the tyrannical attitude toward anyone. One feels that it is very good spiritual advice that we should never tie ourselves up to acting according to public opinion. And never consider any honors we may receive as being due to us because of our superior gifts or intelligence. That is false pride. In that day of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the crowd acclaimed Him and cried, “Hosanna!” but on the very next Friday many of the same crowd joined in the shout, “Crucify Him!” Humility is a blessed thing if you can find it. Early church fathers wrote that if a man feels that he is getting somewhere in the kingdom of God, that’s pride—and until that dies, he is getting nowhere!

Freedom in Christ is at the Root of American Freedom

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

The very freedom we enjoy this July 4^th is rooted in the Gospel.  This is not to say that all founders were believers, but to read their writings, even of the Deists (Jefferson, Franklin) God’s Word is liberally quoted.

When as a nation we try to export the American experiment of Freedom, we miss the underlying worldview of what we were founded on, and fail to see the worldview of the countries we wish to export to are in contradiction to the teachings of God’s Word, the Gospel and the concept of Freedom.

We further fail to treat our foundations as valuable and easily discard them while enjoying the good fruit it has brought us.

When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Psalm 11:3

So what are we to do?  How should we celebrate this July 4^th?

“God shed His Grace on thee”

"We must not forget that our human rights are derived from the Christian faith. In Christian terms, every single human being whoever he or she may be, sick or well, clever or foolish, beautiful or ugly, every human being is loved by his Creator, who as the Gospel tells us, counted the hairs of his head." Malcolm Muggeridge

The Scriptures are filled with the idea of Freedom and Liberty… Live Free in Christ.

Liberty cultivates relationship and love between Christians

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. Galatians 5:13

Genuine Christian liberty is practiced in an atmosphere of service and motivated by love. the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? 1 Corinthians 10:29

Liberty frees us from the curse of the law

The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them."  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." Galatians 3:12-13

Liberty frees us from the fear of death

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil--  and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15

Liberty frees us from the bondage of other men

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 1 Corinthians 9:19

Liberty frees us from corruption

that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Romans 8:21

“ It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and Bible.”  President George Washington

July 4^th What a Wonderful Day of Freedom!

Jesus Christ What a Wonderful Eternity in Freedom!!