Day 29 - Deep Abiding Joy

31 Days

toward

Abundant Life

If this is your first day here you may want to read here first

Day 29 - Deep Abiding Joy

"You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message 
in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit."
1 Thessalonians 1:6 

Today's post is going to brief and to the point.  Well at least that's my hope!  

I've herd some Christians say that God wants me to be happy.  I've looked that up in Scripture and I just don't see it anywhere.  At least not the way we define happy.  Happy is a feeling based on circumstances: if things are going my way and I get what I want I'm happy.  The opposite is true too: I'm not happy when things are not going my way and I don't get what I want.  Joy on the other hand is not based on my circumstances but rather for the Christian it is based on our relationship with Christ.  We have a deep abiding joy despite circumstances because we are a child of God's.  Read that verse above again.  It says the Thessalonians "welcomed the word in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit."   

Even in the midst of suffering (whether it's persecution for our faith or a trial) we can experience a deep abiding joy.  I'm not talking about the put on a fake smile and pretend everything is o.k. when it's not kind of thing.  I'm talking about a deep abiding joy that is there always even in the midst of great sorrow and pain.  It's the kind of joy that keeps you from sinking into utter despair even though everyone around you would completely understand if you did.  It makes it so one minute you may be crying and the next praising and thanking God for His salvation.  It's the kind of joy that comes from a surrendered heart!  It's the kind of joy that comes from knowing this is not your home and you are merely passing through.  It's the kind of joy that comes from looking forward to being home someday where there are no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain.  And it's the kind of joy that comes from passionately serving and loving Christ with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul, while you remain here!

Dear Beloved in Christ,  Today my prayer for you is found in Romans:

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, 

that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Romans 15:13

 Amen

Day 28 - Pursuing Holiness - part 3

31 Days

toward

Abundant Life

If this is your first day here you may want to read here first

Day 28 - Pursuing Holiness - part 3

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and 
let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, 
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before 
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down 
at the right hand of the throne of God."
Hebrews 12:1-2 

Sanctification is the process of growing in holiness that begins at the time of salvation and is not complete until the day we meet Jesus in heaven.   It takes time, it is not instantaneous.  It is a work of God's (vs 2 Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith), but we must cooperate ("....let us lay aside every weight, and the sin...let us run with endurance the race...looking unto Jesus...").  We won't ever be perfectly holy until we get to heaven.  On the otherhand Justification is your legal standing before God in Chirst at the time of your Salvation.  It is how God sees you in Christ now.   

 

One morning as I was praying and preparing for a Bible Study class I was teaching on sanctification the Lord (I believe) gave me a rhyme to help the ladies understand the process better.   This is how it went: 

"We all start from different places, we run different races, and progress at different paces."

 When we first believed in Christ...

We all start from different places...

Some of us had a better start at life then others.  Some of us had great upbringings and some of us had lowsy or abusive upbringings.  Some of us had excellent educations and others not so much.  Some of us were raised in middle class neighborhoods or better.  While others were raised in poverty or near poverty.  Some of us made good choices all along.  Others of us made one foolish choice after another.  Some of us have never uttered a swearword or atleast rarely.  While for others, every other word was a swearword.  Some of us looked atleast outwardly pretty good (looks can be decieveing) and others of us were very rough around the edges etc...   

Though we all start from different places we all begin the same way!  On our knees before a holy God feeling unworthy to even look up or ask for Jesus to have mercy on us!  Yet, we cried out Lord, have mercy on me a sinner!  We may have started from different places but we begin the same way...

We run different races...

 

Be assured if you are a child of His, He does have a plan and a purpose for your life!  But it does not look the same for everyone.  It's the race that is set before you, that you run (vs 1c"...and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...").  I am to run the race that is set before me.  My race does not look like your race and your race does not look like mine.  God's purpose, will, and plan for me is not the same as it is for you (though we all are to fulfill the great commission Matthew 28:18-20).  

We progress at different paces...

As said above sanctification is a process and it takes time.  It's also important to know and understand that not everyone progresses at the same rate.    For example some people are compeletely delivered from alcoholism at the time of their salvation and they never take another drink.  Others will have an ongoing battle with drink.  

We progress at different paces, but we should be progressing!  We are all a work in progress!  We should all be saying: "I'm not where I was, but I'm not where I need to be."  We can know we are on the right track if we are beginning to see our sin as God does and hate it.  If we long to be free of it then I think we are progressing.  On the otherhand if it does not bother us we should be worried about why it does not bother us.

Ladies, we need to stop comparing our Christian walk with anothers. The only one we should be comparing our self with is Christ.  Instead we need to be patient with one another, we need to come along side one another, we need to bear with one another, cheer one another on, spur one another on, etc...Why?  Because...

It's a process and it takes time!  The time and process is different for each of us because we we each have different places that we came from.   It takes time because God doesn't just show us all our sin at once (atleast for most of us) or we'd be overwhelmed in grief and despair.  However He does not leave us where we are at either.  His Spirit will be working in our conscience to purify us.  If we tune Him out and we are a true child of His, He will discipline us as a loving Father would.  

A note of caution:  while we are to not tolerate sin we are also to be careful how we judge each other (Romans 2:1; Romans 14:10,13)! You don't know what they had to overcome, how far someone may have already grown, or where their heart is at. 

Praying dear ones, that we will keep our eyes fixed on the author and finisher of our faith, and that we will lay aside every sin and weight and run "our" race with endurance!  To God be the glory!

Day 27- Pursuing Holiness - part 2

31 Days

toward

Abundant Life

If this is your first day here you may want to read here first

Day 27 - Pursuing Holiness - part2

 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke? 
 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 
 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 
 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

Isaiah 58:6-9 

 ³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Matthew 25:34-40

In both the Old and New Testament we see that the poor and oppressed were very important to God and that He upheld their cause.  God is the same today as He was yesterday!  We also, clearly see that He desires us to do the same and the fact that we do or don't is evidence of our love or lack of love for Him.  Don't believe me?  Then read the rest of Matthew 25:41-46.  Verse 45-46 say “...Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Those are not my words they are Jesus' words!  So clearly there is a connection between our behavior and true faith in Christ.  Once again I am not saying doing good deeds earns our way into heaven.  What I am saying is that it is evidence of our faith!  If we love Him we will care about the things He cares about and the way we know what He cares about is to read His Word!  

I've been on this journey with you ladies towards walking more and more in the abundant life that is ours in Christ for 27 days now.  It's been a true joy, blessing, and challenge for me!  I'm thinking this holiness thing is going to be the greatest challenge for me so far. When we ask God to make us look more and more like Him, He is sure to answer!  And Answer He did for me this Sunday in our ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship - a fancy way of saying adult Sunday school class).  

In our ABF we have been studying the book of Amos and in chapter 4 we learned that because of Israel's sin God was going to pass judgement and punish them.  What was their sin? They "oppress the poor" and "crush the needy" while they themselves are unconcerned.  As a class we were then challenged to consider that both coffee and chocolate manufactures purchase their products from countries that either pay their workers very poorly or use slaves many of whom are children (there are many more products that this is true of, our teacher just chose to pick on those two).  Then when we purchase those products we actually have slaves that work for us!  Ouch!  What's that!  I have slaves that work for me!  Yikes!  I never thought of that!

You should have herd the conversation I was having with God in my head as I was listening to the teacher.  "Lord, you had to let him speak on my two most favorite consumption items?!"  "Yes, I know I said I wanted to pursue holiness, but my two favorite items?"  "Couldn't You have picked on someone else Lord?"  "Yes, I know I did say I want to be holy and yes, I asked others to be brave with me, but...Yes, Lord I know I have to make some changes...I can't hide from what I know to be true."  "O.k. Lord then show me what I need to do so that I'm not contributing to the slavery of others."  "Or at the very least I'm contributing less."

As I came out of my fog of thought I heard our teacher challenging us to start with giving up one thing or we would be overwhelmed.  I thought "I can do that Lord."  I'll start with coffee.  I know I can find and buy Fair Trade coffee fairly easily and so I will start there!  However I knew that God was asking more from me and I needed to stop trying to argue my way out of it.  I was going to need to make some changes in my chocolate consumption and that one was going to be really hard.  Ladies, there is a cost to following Jesus!  Feeling my pain?!  I mean I really love me some Reese's!  You know what I mean?  I mean I'm really not liking the whole give up my favorite chocolate thing at all!  It will be a sacrifice!  Especially since finding good chocolate that's not produced in a country where they use slaves will be hard.  But now that I know there is no going back to the ignorance I once lived in.  Ladies, let me just say I'm not sure what going forward is going to look like for me.    Maybe it means less of my favorite chocolate and when I can find fair trade chocolate (if it exists) I buy that instead even if I don't like it as well?  I mean I'm just not sure I can go cold turkey...Lord have mercy on me...I've not completely wrestled this one through with God yet?  

What about you?  Is there something that you are consuming that you could consume less of or pay a little more for in order to insure that you are not supporting companies and countries that feel it's o.k. to force others to work for them? 

We also were challenged to participate in the IJM (International Justice Mission) Advent  Conspiracy.  If you want to participate by giving to them I will have more information on a later date on how you can do that.  Funny thing for me is that's not as sacrificial as is giving up chocolate...I'm pathetic!

Some final Words from God on the poor and needy:

‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, 
overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
Ezekial 16:47

The Lord enters into judgment
    against the elders and leaders of his people:
“It is you who have ruined my vineyard;
    the plunder from the poor is in your houses.
What do you mean by crushing my people
    and grinding the faces of the poor?”
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
 Isaiah 3:14-15

Take heart Dear Sister's!  He does see the oppression of the poor and needy!  He sees those who have been abused and neglected!  He does care!  It does make Him angry!  And you can be assured that He will in His perfect timing defend their cause!   

 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
Psalm 113:7

 I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor
    and upholds the cause of the needy.
Psalm 140:12

Won't you cry out with me!

Oh God -

“How long will you defend the unjust
    and show partiality to the wicked?

Defend the weak and the fatherless;
    uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
Psalm 82:1-4

Amen! 

Day 26 - Pursuing Holiness - part 1

31 Days

toward

Abundant Life

If this is your first day here you may want to read here first

Day 26 - Pursuing Holiness - part 1

 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matt 5:48 (NIV)

On day 24 of our 31 days Journey toward the abundant life I said we would spend a few days honestly looking at the command to "Be holy, as (He)  is holy"(1 Peter 1:16).  You might have recoilled at the thought.   Thinking that though it was true in the Old Testament when we were under the law now we live in the time of grace.  It is true that we are saved by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8-9) and that we do not need to earn our Salvation nor could we if we tried. However though we don't earn our salvation or have to work in order to keep it, it's also true that if we truly love Christ we will desire to do the things that please Him.  

As well Ladies, the 1 Peter 1:16 verse is from the New Testament and so is the verse that we started with today.  In fact it is the very words of Jesus.  I don't know about you, but when Jesus speaks I listen.  It seems to me that we can not deny the words or just brush them aside! It also seems to me that we can't just say He was speaking to the really spiritual only.  No, those Words were meant for all His children.  Take a look at the Amplified version of Matthew 5:48:

You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of 

godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height 

of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48 (Amplified Bible) 

Wow!  It sounds good right!?!  I want to be perfect: completely mature, and godly in mind and character!  Don't you?  When I think of perfect I don't think of the world's view of what a middle aged married mother should look like.  I think instead that being perfect would mean everything I'd do, think, and say would be as Jesus would.  Don't you think that would be ultimate perfection!  To love, live, and speak with all wisdom and discernment.  As well as knowing when to overflow with grace or when righteous anger is in order.  To see everything from His perspective not my fleshly paradigm.  Oh, if I could be free of my fleshly paradigm!  Yes! I'd love to be perfect.  Yet, at the same time I know in my flesh it has been impossible for me to be perfect.  What am I to do then, give up?  By no means!  Perhaps a key to how we pursue holiness can be found in Colossians chapter 3.

 

"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

 "Set your hearts on things above" just what does that mean exactly.  It's repeated in this verse twice (second time it says "minds") and so we can know it's important.  I think that in order to set our  hearts & minds on things above we first need to know what they are.  The one reliable source that we have for that is the Word of God (the Bible).  Therefore ladies we need to be reading it through and through so that the Word can purify our hearts and minds transforming us.  As we read the Word of God setting our hearts and minds on things above we are to no longer to be consumed with the things of the world.  In Verse five of the same passage the Apostle Paul gives us further instruction.

"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: 
sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. "
Colossians 3:5(NIV)

Here the Apostle Paul says we are to put to death "whatever belongs to" our "earthly nature."  Dead things are dead! Right?! That means dear sisters that we go cold turkey!  Not a little dabbling here and there!  It's not even o.k for us to hold onto our idols or secret lusts just a little bit!  It's not o.k.!  We must utterly remove them, put them to death.  Not to earn or keep our salvation, but because our sin grieves God,  grieves the Holy Spirit and puts a wall between us and God.   Neither do we remove them because were afraid of God's wrath.  Though He may discipline!  But if He does it's as a loving and good Father would, not as an angry and abusive one.   

In the book of Ephesians the Apostle Paul gave the Church of Ephesus a similar instruction:

 

"If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the 
truth is in Jesus:   that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the 
old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and 
be renewed in the spirit of your mind,"
Ephesians 4:21-23 (NIV)

Here the command for us is to put off our "former conduct." Ladies, let me remind you that these words are from the New Testament not the Old.  Therefore they are for us today!  Also, the Apostle Paul is writing to churches (believers).  That most likely means that many (or atleast some) of them who having accepted Christ as their Savior continued in their old behavior.  They needed to be told that they no longer should!  That they now have a new identity with Christ (child of God), a new home (heaven), and a new paradigm (framework) in which they view their circumstances and life while here.  As such they are to no longer behave in the same way instead they are too "put on":

 

"and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge 

according to the image of Him who created him, "

Colossians 3:10 (NKJV)

"Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, 
kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; ¹³ bearing with one another, and 
forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as 
Christ forgave you, so you also must do.  ¹⁴ But above all these things put on 
love, which is the bond of perfection. ¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your 
hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the 
word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one 
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your 
hearts to the Lord. ¹⁷ And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name 
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

Colossians 3:12-17 

Dear Sister's what is God asking you today to finally put to death?  What behavior do you need to stop flirting with?  What conduct do you need to put off?

As for the lovely list of what we are to "put on," I know it can seem impossible and hard.  That's because on our own it would be compeletly impossible.   However we are not alone!  We who know Christ and are known by Him have the Holy Spirit indwelling us!  

 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Philippians 4:13

"as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and  godliness, 

through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,"

2 Peter 1:3 

Dear God, on our own we are incapable of living a life that pleases you!  We thank-you for Your Holy Spirit and for the transforming and stregthening work You have already begun in us and will complete.  Today Lord, help my Sisters in Christ put off their former conduct!  Then help them to put on  tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another as Christ forgave them.   May they also put on love and let the peace of God rule in their hearts. Let the word of Christ dwell in them richly in all wisdom.  And whatever they do in word or deed, may they do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."