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Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Righteousness, Peace and Joy

"for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,
but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
 Romans 14:17


He is my righteousness.
He is my peace.
He is my joy.


A new creation with the Messiah in me.


Righteousness in me.
Peace in me.
Joy in me.


Dead and hidden with ChristMessiah in God.


Rest and trust in the Life that is in me, by grace through faith.











Monday, July 29, 2019

"but it was not like that from the beginning"

"but it was not like that from the beginning" 2nd half of Matt. 19:8 I wonder how often we have made excuses and hindered the work of God by unbelief because we accepted something far less than what God had planned "from the beginning"?! This is just the start of what God is placing on my heart. The sermon on the mount represents the life of the Messiah lived through us, just like 1 Cor. 13 is a summary of what it looks like when His love, loves through us.

"For you died, and your life is now hidden with Messiah in God"

  May we be truly dead and may His Life be manifested through us. 

A friend adds this,

"what's true in Him is true in you and as He is so are we in this world... because He is our life....Father for simple faith like a child"

and this

"yes! he offers us a life that does not know how to lust, etc... doesn't have a grid for unforgiveness
it is glorious!!!"

another friend adds this

"Exactly, dear brother! Because we are so far removed from the "genesis" of everything we have little sense of what is appropriate for right now, and have created fantasies and illusions out of nothing."  and I would add, we have accepted a disconnect from the very words that Yeshua spoke about us, in fact whole schools of theology and denominations have been established whose philosophy boils down to, "Did God really say?"

Oh God we are so in need of Your grace and mercy!  Restoration and Redemption are the strong words on Your heart, Come Lord Yeshua!


Thursday, July 25, 2019

Lose The Excuses, Now!

Reviewing Isaiah 58 with friends, the problem the Lord was uncovering with Israel was having the right words but not His heart.  His heart reaches out, heals, forgives, gathers in the outcast, it is active and growing. 
The people had come to a place where they thought they could make God do their will.
They were trusting in acts done with a selfish motivation.


Enter the "sinner's prayer". 


The idea that you can pray a prayer and then go on living for yourself is not just foreign to the word of God, it is the exact opposite of Truth.


"My people have defamed My Name everywhere they go." is not just a lament over Israel, it is a current, up to the minute, cry of God as He sees a people who have allowed for a total disconnect between belief in God and acting and reacting under the control of the life of His Son. 


"That's just the way I am."  and other excuses like it, display a total misunderstanding of death to self, taking up your cross, and allowing the resurrection life of the Messiah to be the determining factor in your actions and reactions.  Behold all things have become new, is such great news, such powerful news, it must not be short circuited by excuses.


When we fail to be "in Christ" in the moment, we have the option to repent, we do not have the option to make excuses and go on living in opposition to what we say we believe. 


I wish I could convey the tone of this which is an urging us to recognize the incredible gift and beauty of having the life of the Messiah in us, available to us, to be a tremendous blessing to those around us. 


Much better than continuing to live with the disconnect and essentially telling the world that your God is a lie and people who claim to know Him are no different than any one else.

Monday, July 15, 2019

Can It Really Be This Simple?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9qzBR771bA&t=2130s

At 34:31 of this video for about 55 seconds Dan explains how to be a follower, a disciple of the Messiah Yeshua.
Again at 1:01:50 he practically demonstrates putting off and putting on.  "By grace through faith."


So I pray that we can grasp this by the grace of God.


We don't do discipleship, we become disciples by grace through faith.


Grace reveals a truth about Yeshua, and His life is the life that is in me, through faith.


The Messiah is like this...   The Messiah is in you - Grace...  The truth about the Messiah is the truth about me - through faith!


Jesus is not angry or impatient, He is in me - grace... Chuck is not angry or impatient because he is dead and his life is hidden with the Messiah - through faith.


Putting off is done by faith also.  I am not an angry, impatient man, Father I am being made and molded and shaped into Your image.  Self-centeredness will never rule my life again, the Holy Spirit empowers me to love like He loves.  By grace through faith.  Tender mercies and all the fruit of the Spirit is in me.  The old man is dead and behold all things have become new.  By grace through faith.


Can it really be this simple?

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Stephen Got It. Do You Get It?

"58 Driving him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 They went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out, “Lord Yeshua, receive my spirit!” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” After he said this, he died.  (literally fell asleep)  Acts 7 Tree of Life version


"7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Yeshua the Messiah is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace—not by foods that have not benefited those occupied by them. 10 We have an altar from which those serving in the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals—whose blood is brought into the Holies by the kohen gadol as an offering for sin—are burned outside the camp. [c] 12 Therefore, to make the people holy through His own blood, Yeshua also suffered outside the gate. 13 So let us go to Him outside the camp, bearing His disgrace. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come."  Hebrews 13 Tree of Life version 


The message spoken by Stephen through his powerful, miracle laden life was clear.  Spoken to the  self-appointed leaders of the chosen people, his strong message was Yeshua is Messiah.  That message does not leave wiggle room, and his audience knew it.  The message demands humble repentance.  Stephen was what the community of Messiah (no way I can use the word "church" here, this is too holy and that word is too screwed up) is called to be a body with no rights, a body willing to die that others may live, followers of the Way. 
Can we admit we are far removed from this reality? 
Can we acknowledge the need for humble repentance?
Can we put aside the gathering that frequently coddles self and promotes a self-centered prayer to get me to heaven?
Can we go out of the city and join Yeshua on His cross and Stephen in his stoning?
His life in us is a sacrificial love that cannot be defeated, even in death. 
And a man named Saul was watching...

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

God Sees His Son

"But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God [revealing His plan of salvation], and righteousness [making us acceptable to God], and sanctification [making us holy and setting us apart for God], and redemption [providing our ransom from the penalty for sin]," Amplified 1 Cor. 1:30
All God sees is His Son.  Jesus is the object of the Father's love and we are in Him.


Religion keeps us captive to one day, to the not yet.  Relationship releases us into the full enjoyment of the moment. 
We are dead.
His new life is in us, making us a new creation.
We trust His life in us.
We can do nothing without Him.
Our job is to say, "yes" to His yes, surrender and trust.


When we truly see how He sees us (in His Son) then we are free to see others in that way too.


(Thankful for a very fruitful conversation with a friend.)

Monday, July 1, 2019

I Am Sending You Out With...Nothing!

Our week with 8th and 9th graders at "church camp" was drawing to a close and the burden of knowing that many of the campers were returning to hostile environments was on my heart. Searching for how best to prepare them for the transition I believe the Lord reminded me of how He sent out his disciples while He walked the earth. He sent them out with nothing. Nothing. Doesn't seem like good leadership until you realize He was putting them in a place of dependence and trust on the Lord their God. He was putting them in a place of seeing His faithfulness, in every meal, in every bed to sleep in, in every cold cup of water, in every bath. His ways our not our ways.


His question to them upon their return is powerful, "Did you lack anything?". 


I sent you out with nothing.


Wasn't it grand to see that the Father provided everything?


Wasn't it beautiful to be in a place of total dependence on Him?


The contrast between His way and our way could not be greater or more striking.