Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven…

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

(Luke 6:22-23, 35-36 ESV)

I was in the midst of my morning time with the Lord, ( He has been working on me fiercely these past many years) as I began crying out to Him this morning I started my prayer in remembrance of His sovereignty. I started out acknowledging that I knew that nothing happened unless it first passed through His hands and was purposely permitted by Him. I also had to acknowledge to Him that knowing these solid foundational Scriptural truths did not make the reality of these experiences any easier… and He quietly and softly reminded me that they didn’t have to… that wasn’t the point of knowing them.

Pain is pain.

Hurt is hurt.

Truth doesn’t make it go away. Quoting Scripture back to myself doesn’t make it go away. Knowing God is sovereign over it all doesn’t make it easier to bare… but that’s the problem. Who decided that it was supposed to? Who told me that lie and when did I accept it as truth? The purpose of this lie was to cause me to doubt the love that my Creator God said He had for me.

There is only one who works to cause doubt, which leads to disobedience, which leads to deception, which leads to death… and that is the enemy of old. The one who first caused Eve to doubt, disobey, deceive, and die. I will not be his victim. I will learn from the examples that the Lord has given me in His Word. I will choose to learn from Eve’s mistake instead of following in her footsteps.

I am currently reading The Calvary Road by Roy Hession. In this book I underlined these two quotes:

1. If someone hurts and slights us, we immediately have the choice of accepting the slight as a means of grace to humble us lower or we can resist it and stiffen our necks again with all the disturbance of spirit that is bound to bring. All the way through the day our brokenness will be tested, and it is no use pretending we are broken before God if we are not broken in our attitude to those around us. God nearly always tests us through other people. There are no second causes for the Christian. God’s will is made known in His providence, and His providences are so often others with their many demands on us.
2. So the real test along the Highway will be- are our cups running over? Have we the peace of God in our hearts? Have we love and concern for others? These things are the barometer of the Highway. If they are disturbed, then sin has crept in somewhere- self-pity, self-seeking, self-indulgence in thought or deed, sensitiveness, touchiness, self-defense, self-consciousness, shyness, reserve, worry, fear, and so on.

Who was I to think that I deserved better treatment from the world than the Son of the Living God? I belong to the One that the world hates. I belong to the One that makes others uncomfortable. I belong to the Truth teller and frankly many simply have a hard time with truth. They prefer to live comfortably in their own well-developed lie.

The past many years the Lord has been removing scales from my eyes and fairy tales from my heart. He has been teaching me to love Him and trust Him in depths that few will follow Him into. I will continue to walk deeper still. As deeply plunged beneath the blood of His Son as His hands would bid me go… I will go. I will let Him rip out every ounce of pride and selfish desires that He will that I might walk in a manner that is worthy of service to Him.

Whatever wounds I might receive cannot compare with the ones that He bore for me. I am tired of walking around this mountain of doubt and I am ready to jump off the cliff of abandoned trust. I understand that I will bounce off trees and rocks and probably fall into a few ravines that I have to crawl up out of as I make this leap, but if it brings death in me and exalts my Christ, then let it be.  I want to grow to a place in my walk with Him that allows no thing or no one to disturb the peace of God in my heart, for He is my peace.

So when hurt comes, when pain comes, why not rejoice?

Why not rejoice…

Yes, Lord I will indeed learn to rejoice.

This morning I read a post from RZIM entitled, God in a Body. In the post Jill Carattini asks, “Far from a subject for another time or place, how might God be speaking to your physical existence even now? How does your body accompany your questions and encounters with God? In the dark and corporeal moments of Holy Week, consider Christ who walked among the world as a human body, who shared a last meal and washed the feet of his friends, who set his face toward the anguish of the cross. Consider the body of Christ, who suffered through the weight of Holy Week and now sits at the right hand of the Father as our advocate, offering his body for the sake of yours, calling you to physically come further toward him even now.”

This past week in our Colossians lesson Wayne Barber made a statement, he said, “the purpose of a body is to give visibility to an entity.” This statement of his really resonated with me. I know it has because this is the third time it has come to me as I shared with others.

So why did God come in a body?

Jesus, came in a body to give us visibility to the Entity of God.

Dictionary.com states that an entity is something that has a real existence, being or existence especially when considered as distinct, independent, or self-contained, essential nature.

In Colossians 1:15-19 the Word of God states, that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him…” and then in Colossians 2:9 the Word of God declares, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form…” Jesus Himself said that, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father;” (John 14:9). 

Jesus came to show us what He created us in His image to do in the very beginning. We were created to give visibility to the entity of God. We were created to display His glory. We were created to be who Jesus was as He walked this earth in real flesh and blood. So what does it mean to me that God came in a body just so that I could visibly see that He is indeed real and how does that correlate with the body that He has given me?

I watch Jesus.

Whether we like it or not what we choose to do in and with this body displays the essential nature of our being. The purpose of this body is to display our nature and beloved it does. Our bodies either display the depravity of our nature or the divineness of our nature. In the flesh Jesus displayed the divine, and He died so that we, in this body, could do the same.

To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature…

2 Peter 1:1-4

What is the divine nature that we are to display? Is it speaking in tongues and casting out demons and making grand displays of signs and power? Is it the ability to out wit and persuade others by our grand knowledge and charisma? Is it the ability to be stoic and stern and unbendable in our convictions? Are these the things that Jesus did in His body that drew others to Him? Is this how He displayed the divine nature of God in His flesh?

No it wasn’t.

The divine nature that Jesus displayed was grace and truth. The divine nature that Jesus displayed was submission to the Word and will of God. The divine nature that Jesus displayed was love, for God is love (1 John 4:16).

Jesus could have walked around and shot lightening bolts from His fingertips and fire from His eyes. He could have shook the earth with every step He made. He could have used the thunder of His voice to silence the roaring waters of Niagara Falls… but He didn’t.

although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:6-8

Instead he knelt down and gathered children into His arms. He stopped and noticed those that others stepped over on a daily basis. He listened to the cries of those who had so often been ignored. He spoke to those that others treated as less than stray dogs on the street. His divine nature was displayed through His heart of compassion, His gentleness, His kindness, His patience, His humility, and His self-control. This is the divine nature of God. It has been from the beginning…

The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin…

Exodus 34:5-7

Jesus displayed these things in His body all the way to the cross. The purpose of the body is to give visibility to an entity. It never stops doing that, even when faced with destruction, it can’t, for that is its purpose. The outside circumstances did not control the body of Christ, but His entity, the very nature within, controlled the body.

So what does God in a body mean to me?

The Scriptures tell me that when I believe on Jesus, then I am placed in His death, His burial, and His resurrection (Romans 6:3-5). The Scriptures tell me that it is no longer I that live, but Christ in me (Galatians 2:20). The Scriptures tell me that when I, by grace through faith, believe in Jesus and His gospel, then I am sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13), and my body becomes the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16).

In other words, God in a body.

My body.

The entity within is no longer my old nature (Ephesians 2:3), but in Christ I have been given a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17). I have been given Him within (Colossians 1:27). Therefore this body that once made visible me, my entity, and the nature of my sin now is to make visible the entity of Christ in me the hope of glory. God in a body, this body, my body.

As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

John 17:18-23

This is why Paul would write to Titus in 62 AD concerning the false teachers and false prophets of Crete…

They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him,

Titus 1:16

God does not just call our hearts, He calls our bodies to follow Him. If our hearts have truly been changed then our body can’t help but follow, because the purpose of the body is to give visibility to an entity and if you have been truly born again, then the entity, the essential nature within, is now divine. It is now love.  It is Christ in you. Therefore we too should be making known the mystery of God to others as Christ made it known to us, through grace and truth and love.

So take a look in the mirror. For once don’t look at the bags under your eyes or the wrinkles around your mouth or the blemishes on your skin. Don’t look at the skinny arms or bulging waistline or varicose veins or cellulite legs. Don’t strain to find the grey hair or run your fingers through the receding hairline. Instead look past all that to the deeds in this skin. What do they say about the entity that is being given visibility?

When I look in the mirror can I see Christ in me? Have I ever really been changed from within? Do I live what I say I believe?

Do others see Jesus in me?

Not long ago here in North Alabama we had some fisherman who came up missing. One of these two men was a member of a very popular local band. As I checked to confirm to my husband if this was who we thought it was I also discovered something disturbing. At least it was disturbing to me and my husband. As the group asked for support and prayers they also asked for positive thoughts, tweets, and FB shares claiming that this would send positive energy out into the universe.

I wish I could say this thinking was limited to a rare few, but sadly in today’s modern America it is now common. I have lost count of the times I have seen this as I was scrolling through my news feed. So many asking for others to pray for them and send them positive thoughts. Sadly these words are even pouring forth from the lips and fingertips of those who profess to know Christ.

“The positive thinking movement and positive psychology derive from the New Thought Movement, at the origin of positive thinking.

This movement took place during the last part of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century mainly in North America.

Religious men (thinkers, philosophers, businessmen) started to write about the power of thoughts and positive thinking from a secular point of view.

The writing of several authors surrounds the origin of positive thinking. Their essays, poems and non-fiction writing were focused on the importance of thoughts and the mind: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ernest Holmes, Orison Swett Marden, William James,Emile Coue, etc.

The origin of positive thinking in our modern society is normally placed upon the publication of two books after the Great Depression in 1929: ‘How to win friends and influence people’, by Dale Carnegie, and ‘Think and grow rich’, by Napoleon Hill.

In 1952 Norman Vincent Peale published ‘The power of positive thinking’, which was a Christian version of positive thinking. Peale founded the ‘Guideposts’ magazine.

A great influence in the field of positive thinking is also Earl Nightingale, who published ‘The strangest secret’ in 1957, the first positive thinking audio recording.

It was initially created by Nightingale for his sales staff while he was away from the business. The strangest secret is “We become what we think about”.

Maxwell Maltz published ‘Psycho-cybernetics’ in 1960, in which he explains how the mind works and how to use positive thinking, and also proposes exercises to train the mind.

Positive thinking is applied to many different fields in the twenty-first century: in business and sales, in health, sports, children education, psychology, motivation and inspiration, self-image, or marketing.” (information gathered from a Positive Thinking Information website)

This positive thinking movement is rooted in an ancient Chinese religion known today as Taoism. Here is a little bit about this ancient religion:

“The lines above are the opening lines of the Dao De Jing (The Way of Power and Virtue Scripture, 道德经) that is the main religious text of Taoism. How to translate the words into English and what the words mean is obviously the mystery of Dao. The word Dao means Way. The Way of Life. The Meaning of one’s life. In usual Chinese usage, the word “dao” means path or road. Nowadays, the name Taoism is used as a general name for any kind of native Chinese religion or ancient belief. The term covers anything from Qigong or Tai Chi exercise, to ancestor worship, to belief in any of hundreds of gods or reputed immortal people, to martial arts, to healthful food recipes to Taoist philosophy.

On one hand, very few modern Mainland Chinese would say that they are Taoist if they were asked what their religion is. Usually, people identify themselves as without a religion or as Buddhists, Muslims or Christians. On the other hand, the philosophies and religious ideas of the many faceted Taoism are a part of Chinese culture itself and in the personal beliefs of hundreds of millions of people even if they identify themselves as Christian or Muslim. If they believe in Chi, the balancing of Yin and Yang, or venerate their ancestors thinking that their ancestors acknowledge or somehow need their veneration (that is, that their ancestors still exist), they can be called Taoists. Taoism is basically a term for China’s indigenous philosophies and religious beliefs, and as defined this way, it has always been China’s main religion that colors all the others.

Daoism is China’s oldest religion. At one time, the land called China was the home of numerous peoples with different racial origins. All these ethnic groups probably had their own special gods and religious beliefs. Over time, kingdoms and empires grew in various areas and started incorporating more and more people into them.” (information gathered from a China Highlights travel website)

Sometime between 52 AD and 62 AD a young man named Epaphras traveled to Ephesus. While there he heard the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed straight from the lips of a man named Paul. Epaphras believed on Jesus and was saved and he went home to Colosse and told those there about Jesus and the gospel bore fruit and many were saved.

Now Colosse was right slap dab in the midst of a world trade route. It was filled with people from many different cultures and religions, especially from eastern China. As a matter of fact it was actually a hub of eastern mysticism. Epaphras began to see an infiltration of this eastern mysticism into the doctrine of the church, it was called Gnosticism. Epaphras saw the danger, but being such a young believer he did not know how to fight it, so he ran to Paul for help. Therefore Paul wrote a letter to the Colossians. A letter that is just as relevant today as we now face the same exact spiritual cancer among our own.

Paul wrote,

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

Colossians 2:8

Beloved there is nothing knew under the sun. There is nothing new about this positive thinking movement nor the pursuit of knowledge as the answer to all things wrong in our world. It’s all rooted way back in the beginning with that conversation between Eve and the Serpent and the warning from God to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The greatest lies are filled with mostly truth, but just as there is not enough health in an apple to keep a drop of TIMET from destroying you, it doesn’t matter the amount of truth the lie contains, if you believe it, just as if you ate the apple laced with TIMET, you will die.

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Romans 1:25

*******

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Matthew 7:21-23

This is the way a false teacher and a false prophet work. They feed you mostly truth, but it is laced with a lie. If anyone preaches anything other than Christ crucified as your salvation, if anyone claims that you need Jesus and, if anyone declares to you that you need to go outside the Word of God to obtain growth in your spirit, if anyone claims that you need prayers and positive thinking, then beloved they lie.

You don’t need positive thinking, you need the Word of God renewing your mind (Psalm 119:97-99, Romans 12:1-2). In the letter to the Philippians, Paul writes:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Philippines 4:8 

But this verse is followed by:

The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:9

Positive thinking means nothing, practicing the truth of the Word of God however means everything.

Philippians 4:8 is also preceded by:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7

Do not be deceived (Deuteronomy 11:16, 1 Corinthians 6:9, Galatians 6:7). Do not be deluded (Isaiah 47:10, Colossians 2:4, James 1:22). Do not allow anyone to defraud you of your prize that is yours in Christ, if you are indeed in Him (Isaiah 29:21, Colossians 2:18)! Precious one, your prize is Christ and He is all and is in all. Absolutely nothing is needed outside of Him.

There is none true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable but Christ Himself.  Think on Him and all of His benefits (Psalm 103:2, Psalm 116:12). If you have Him you have everything and beloved the only thing that you have to send to anyone else to help in their time of need is Him.

Your positive thoughts are meaningless.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

Your prayers are meaningless if they are not lifted up in the Holy Spirit and laid in the trustworthy hands of Christ.

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

Romans 8:26

*******

Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Romans 8:34

You don’t need Jesus and an experience.

You don’t need Jesus and positive thinking.

You don’t need Jesus and a prayer cloth.

You don’t need Jesus and exercise.

You don’t need Jesus and a seminary degree.

You don’t need Jesus and a healthy diet.

You don’t need Jesus and an angel.

You don’t need Jesus and a vision.

You don’t need Jesus and an offering.

You don’t need Jesus and anything.

You just need Jesus.

In Him is everything.

Just take a moment and read through the book of Colossians and underline every single occurrence of the phrase, “in Him” and see for yourself.

Oh beloved, let us not send our “positive thoughts” out to anyone, let us send out the sure promises of our God!

For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but is yes in Him. For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.

2 Corinthians 1:19-20

*******

I am currently teaching through the book of Colossians. Oh friend I could write for days on the beauty of the truths discovered and revealed in the first two verses alone! I love this book. It is so very relevant to our present times.

I always begin my journey into teaching a new study by reading the entire book that I will be digging into several times before I even open the study guide. I was doing this one afternoon while I was waiting during our youngest daughter’s gymnastics practice. She began taking gymnastics this past August.

For a little background, we only allowed our two youngest children to focus on one sport because they also are involved in music and theatre. The sport our two youngest chose was softball. However, several years ago our Bekah began to desire to be a gymnast. We told her she needed to be sure, because once she began gymnastics, softball was over. She would be forsaking softball and turning only to gymnastics.

After wavering a couple of years, this past summer she hung up her cleats and picked up a leotard. She began gymnastics at eleven years old only knowing how to do a cartwheel, but we have watched her passion grow and increase for the sport. She practices every day… in the house… in the yard… we actually have had to get on to her to stand on her feet and not her hands when we are in public.

Even though she was now capable of these wowing stunts, there was something missing. Her heart still craved something to validate that she was indeed a real gymnast. The ability to walk on her hands and do back flips and splits and turn on a balance beam simply were not enough. There are many that can do those things, but they are not gymnasts.

Then it happened.

I saw her face as she was opening  the door. I am sitting there reading through Colossians and she, grinning ear to ear, jumps in the car and gleefully says, “Momma, look at my hands!”

“Momma, look at my hands! I got my first rips! Now I am a real gymnast!”

It wasn’t the ability to do the tricks that made her a gymnasts. It was the ability to be torn in the process and yet persevere and come back for more. It was the scars that she would bear on her body for all to see when she couldn’t do the tricks that would prove that she was indeed a gymnast.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

Colossians 1:24

Having just read this passage of Scripture, I asked her to show me her hands again so that I could take a picture of them. I felt this moment of hers was a beautiful illustration of what Paul wrote to not just the saints in Colosse, but also to the saints in Rome, and in Galatia.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Romans 8:16-17

*******

From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.

Galatians 6:17

When we go back to the very beginning of the church this was the frame of mind of all who believed in Jesus. If they were really His… they did not cry “woe as me” in their suffering for His name. No they instead rejoiced in their suffering.

So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

Acts 5:41

This is why when Jesus was here He said, “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). Then in Matthew 24:13 He warns, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” In the parable of the sower and the seed He taught, “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matthew 13:20:21).

You see my Bekah knew that a real gymnast was one that persevered through the pain of the rips. A real gymnast didn’t quit because they couldn’t just do the fun flips and tricks. A real gymnast had to learn to fall and to stretch and to grab hold of that bar again even when their hands are torn and sore.

Jesus proclaimed the same. A real believer would bear the scars. A real believer would be one who followed Jesus in the perseverance of their faith. A real believer was not just one that could do cool tricks and talk in flips and spin pretty words. A real believer was one who rejoiced and counted it all joy when their hands bore the rips of holding tightly to the raised bar of genuine faith in Christ.

A real believer would be one who learned how to fall and to be stretched and yet jump up and go again because from each trial they would grow. With each trial wisdom would come. With each trial our faith becomes even more firm and resolute. Not unlike my daughters hands… those rips will build callousness. Those rips though painful now will make her hands more strong, her skin more thick, and through them her hands will be able to bear up under more and more pressure allowing her to do more than she ever imagined she physically could.

Oh beloved of God… Can’t you just see our Jesus running up to His Father and saying “Father, look at my hands!” We know that He turned to Thomas who doubted and said, “see My hands” (John 20:27). Jesus persevered, even to the point of death on a cross.

Oh beloved are we willing to forsake all other things and pour all our passion into the One Thing matters? Are we willing to turn our backs to the world and our face to the Son and follow Him no matter the cost. He was willing to do it for us, might we honor Him by being willing to do the same.

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

James 1:12

I know most everyone likes to hear the stories and give the grand applause to a God who heals and delivers the way that we think He should have.

We don’t have that story.

I know most everyone likes to hear about how someone prayed the top ten healing Scriptures over their loved ones and circled them in prayer because that’s the book they were reading at the time and it worked.

We don’t have that story.

I know most everyone likes to hear about those that say they used the power of the blood and their spoken words to declare divine healing and cast out sickness and send it to hell and command health to enter the body of their loved one because by His stripes we are healed.

We don’t have that story.

I know most people like to hear the stories about how someone fasted and prayed and stood in the gap for a loved one and God said stop all treatment and trust in Me and you will be healed… and they did and they were.

We don’t have that story.

We prayed. We bought books. We fasted. We even got caught up for a moment in the bondage of speaking healing. We were that desperate. Beloved let me tell you that the weight of condemnation that can be poured out on you by the enemy of our souls when you watch cancer eat away three of your family members at the same time… it’s rough.

So we don’t have the story that is going to make others feel good and want a God that answers prayers. We have another story.

We have the story of a God that is still worthy of all our praise when He doesn’t answer your prayers. We have the story of a God whose grace has been sufficient thus far to carry us day by day and literally moment by moment when the next thought felt like more than you could bear on your own.

We have the story of a God who so loved us and the world that He sent His one and only begotten Son so that whosoever believed in Him would not perish but would have eternal life (John 3:16). We have the story of a God who came in the flesh to dwell among us and to die for us so that we could be justified (Romans 5:9), but then was raised so that we too could be made alive in Him, reborn not by flesh but by God Himself (Colossians 2:13).

We have the story of a God that has gifted us with the hope of this gospel (Colossians 1:23). A hope that is an anchor for our soul and is sure and steadfast and set securely within the veil (Hebrews 6:19).

We have the story of a God who is worthy of our worship and allegiance even when we did not receive the promises we thought we should when we thought we should have received them (Hebrews 11:39). We have the story of a God who is still good when life is not.

We have this story.

Last night as I listened to Wayne Barber teach on the subject of false teachers and those who could be deceived he shared a list of the characteristics of those who are easily enticed by false teachers.

• those who have not made a determined commitment to obey God at all cost (Luke 9:51)
• those who are not trusting Jesus  (Romans 16:25)
• those who are not in the Word of God (2 Peter 1:12, John 17:17)
• those who rebel in trials instead of endure (1 Peter 5:10)

In the book of Luke when Mary is standing in the temple with the baby Jesus in her arms a man named Simon comes in the the Spirit to the temple and he blesses God and after the blessing he looks to Mary and he says,

Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed—and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

Luke 2:34-35

When the sword pierces your soul you discover the thoughts from many hearts… not just your own. When the sword is driving into your own heart and it’s stabbing pain is slicing deep within the recesses of your soul you will either fall on this sword and die or you will grab hold with both hands and allow God to use this sword to continue to circumcise you with a circumcision without hands (Colossians 2:11). This sword is cutting away the flesh and exposing the soul and revealing the heart and in this pain you will have to choose to either endure or recoil. You will discover in this moment if you really believe the gospel; if you really believe John 14:1-6.  You will discover if you really believe John 11:25 and Romans 8:18.

Is God real?

Is there really hope?

Have I really committed to following Jesus and obeying God’s Word no matter what? Am I really trusting in Jesus for everything and in everything? Do I love Him enough to endure this fiery trial or am I going to rebel against Him, because I really wasn’t following Jesus for Jesus, but for me and what I thought I would benefit from Him?

Is He and He alone enough?

When everything is taken away and all you have is Him will you still praise Him?

 

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to talk to a sweet new friend. The conversation was born out of shared priorities. The priority of being the ones to parent our children and the priority of following Christ in obedience. This lovely new friend  had children who were just now starting school and younger and I am here on the other end. I have crossed over to the other side where I have a child already married and two more that are heading into the preparations for graduating credits and entering college.

This new friend and I discussed how it really didn’t matter whether you homeschooled or public schooled or private schooled or how bad the school system was or how great it was… if you were willing to work hard you would and could succeed.

What it always boils down to is what is being invested into the heart of your child at home. You may not be able to change the school system, but you can change you.

Recently this video began circulating through social media. It says a lot…

I have just completed a study in the book of Titus. The second chapter of Titus is full of instructions to those who profess to be believers. Paul is very clear that if you do indeed belong to Christ, then these following characteristics should belong to you or at the very least be in the process of being developed in you.

Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. 

Titus 2:2

temperate néphalios: clear-minded, free from life-dominating influences.

dignified semnos: weighty, deeply respected because viewed as majestic

sensible sóphrón: sound, safe “inner outlook” which regulates outward behavior, a man who does not command himself, but rather is commanded by God‘

sound hugiainó: in good health; right, reasonable, sound, pure, uncorrupted

in faith pistis: belief, trust, confidence; fidelity, faithfulness

in love agapé: divine love, embracing God’s will (choosing His choices) and obeying them through His power,”loving” is always, defined by God – a “discriminating affection which involves choice and selection“

perseverance hupomoné: properly, remaining under, endurance; steadfastness, especially as God enables the believer to “remain (endure) under” the challenges He allots in life, a remaining behind, a patient enduring

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

Titus 2:3-5

Likewise urge the young men to be sensible

Titus 2:6

Did you notice the more detail given to the women? Older women are to likewise have the same character as the older men, but there is more.

Older women are not to be malicious gossips. The Greek word used here is diabolos and it means slanderous, a false accuser; unjustly criticizing to hurt (malign) and condemn to sever a relationship, backbiter. It’s the same word that we use for the Devil. Just let that sink in for a moment…

Have you ever met a devil in the church?

Older women are not to be a devil in the church. They are meant to be there to teach what is good. They are meant to be there to be someone that a younger woman can safely confide in and receive good sound biblical counsel from.

Sadly I think we have lost this in many of our churches. We have so segregated our churches for what we think are relationship building purposes that what we have instituted is the blind leading the blind and we have watched our families fall into the pits.

Younger men need older men to watch and learn from and younger women need older women to teach them and to listen to their frustrations with understanding and calmness. The older women are to teach the younger women what is good. They are to encourage the younger women.

The word encourage here in the Greek is sóphronizó and it means being radically-moderate, i.e. living as God defines true balance,(literally “living in divine moderation“) is moving in the “bigger picture” transforming someone to be “radically-balanced” according to the Lord’s will. This radical-moderation requires a complete perspective that is eclectic, combining the legitimate extremities of truth from both sides of a matter.

Now younger women, I ask you, how important is it that you have someone there to help you see BOTH sides of an issue when it comes to your husband? How easy is that in the first years of marriage? Shoot, the first decade of marriage! How much of a difference would it have made in your marriage had you had someone who was willing to teach you how to be balanced and how to see both sides, instead of just agreeing with you and even fueling you on? I was blessed to have parents and other godly women in my life that were willing to sit me down and help me see both sides. This made all the difference in our marriage.

The older women are to be there to encourage us how to love our husbands. The word love here in the Greek is philandros and it means loving friend, the special affection of a woman for her life-time mate (husband), embracing him as her “calling” (stewardship) from God.

Oh precious woman of God, has it ever occurred to you that your husband is your calling from God? First and foremost he is your calling. To show the love of Christ to him, to build him up and edify him, to be his friend as Christ is yours. This my dear is a very great challenge in our day. The enemy has set us up to fail this one and to even do so as we use the excuse of serving others in the ministries of our church. I know this one well.

The older women are to encourage us to love our children. The word love here is philoteknos and it means to be fond of… Yes young mother holding that sweet precious bundle of joy, there will come a day when you will need someone to help you be fond of that not so sweet anymore child! The possibility of our lack of natural affection to our very own flesh and blood has become painfully evident in this day of ours as mother after mother chooses boyfriends and drugs and careers over their children.

The older women are to teach the younger women to be sensible, pure, and workers at home. That phrase “workers at home” means more than you think, so please do not skim over it with an antagonistic feminist dismissal. The Greek word for this phrase is oikourgos and it means guard of the home.

Women of God we are to be the guard over our house. We have been designated by God to stand with our sword wielded and with our trumpet of alarm ready to sound. We are to be the ones who know not just the doctor appointments and school schedule but the one who knows what is going on in the spirit realm of our home. We are to be teaching our children the Word of God and teaching them how to live out the Word in prayer and in choices.

God has gifted women with an intuition into the hearts of their children and their husbands and He has called us to intercede on their behalf before His throne. He has called us to do so not just in prayer, but in practical action. This is not saying we cannot work outside the home, but if working outside the home causes us to neglect this calling then beloved I don’t care what we do and how much money we make and how many charities we give to, we are not in the will of God.

When we look at the book of Titus it’s pretty clear that the first fruits we are to bear as believers is in our own homes. If we are not bearing fruit in our homes, then any we portray to bear outside its walls, even within our community or church, is just for show. It’s the fruit of the Pharisee.

Beloved of God… what matters first is what you are investing in the lives of those in your home. This is your Jerusalem.

*******

After watching Kelly Clarkson’s performance on American Idol last night, I had to add this video clip to this post…

Home first. Always.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Titus 2:11-14

Last night I completed a study in the book of Titus. As Wayne Barber shared in the video Titus is easily broken down by its three chapters. This is a short and to the point letter of instruction and encouragement to Titus from Paul. The church in Crete was in a mess… and it didn’t take long for it to get in a mess.

This letter was written around 62 AD. Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead around 30 AD. So either the church in Crete was never right side up or we better be warned because it only took thirty years for it to get flipped upside down. This is why we must constantly examine ourselves (Psalm 26:2), our church (2 Corinthians 13:5), and the doctrine being preached (1 Thessalonians 5:21) to see if we have strayed from God’s Word and His purpose.

Right doctrine leads to good deeds and good deeds meet pressing needs and that bears fruit, beloved. Are we bearing fruit? Good fruit that is, we all bear fruit, the question always should be, what kind are we bearing?

Last week I had the opportunity to go over the points of doctrine in the book of Titus. Titus is a mainly practical book, but the doctrine that is laid out in its three chapters is pertinent to the health of every church. It would be on this doctrine that Titus would stand as he worked to flip an upside down church back right side up.

The points of doctrine are found in Titus 1:1-3, 2:11-14, and 3:3-8. I encourage you to take the time to read it and not just know it, but internalize it and live it… because if you are not and can not, beloved you know not the grace of God. We will live out the doctrine we truly believe and Paul makes it clear to Titus that those who truly are of sound doctrine will have evidence of sound deeds. Those deeds are described throughout the rest of the book of Titus and Titus 2:11-14 teaches us why and how this is true.

“For the grace of God has appeared…“

In our modern day American society we throw our heads back and sing loudly the beautiful words, “amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…” and boldly proclaim that we are under grace and not the law, I fear that many have made grace a “feel good” and in doing so we have done the worst and turned it into licentiousness (Jude 1:4). Grace is not a feeling.

In John 1:14 we learn that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw His glory, full of grace and truth. The grace of God appeared when Jesus Christ entered this world as the one and only God-Man. Then after His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension  for those who have believed, the grace of God which appeared to us was received by us (Romans 5:17). This grace empowers us and enables us to walk and live as children of God.

For the grace of God has appeared…

• instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present age.

What age is that? This one. This. One. The age you are in. The age between the cross and His coming again. What is godly and ungodly is not determined for us by man, it is instructed to us by the grace of God. There is nothing that our society can try to convince us is right or wrong that can sway those who are children of God. It doesn’t matter what is determined okay by the standards of man, we are held by the standard of God. Those who belong to Christ have received the grace of God and this grace comes along side of us instructing us how to live.

That word instructing in the Greek is paideuó and it means discipline, educate, train, to more severely chastise, to cause one to learn, under development with strict training, so they mature and realize their full potential (development). This requires necessary discipline (training), which includes administering chastisement (punishment). In other words the grace of God has not appeared to make suggestions and recommendations to us that we can choose to obey, ignore, or twist to meet our own desires. The grace of God means business. If we are indeed God’s child, then He expects us to act like it.

My husband and I have three girls and these three girls are instructed and taught by us. They were and are expected to obey our instructions and teachings regardless of where they are and who they are with and if at anytime we come to learn that they are not doing so, well its time for a reminder with necessary discipline and punishment. The Scriptures make it very clear that God disciplines His kids (Hebrews 12:4-11). 

•  looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ

When I wandered away from the Lord and was lost for years in the world of the prodigals there would be a many nights and a many times when out of no where this thought would come to, “What if He came tonight?” What if He came tonight and this was how and where He found me? The thought of it terrified me! Now I ask you, where did that come from? It came from the grace of God.

Think about it. When you were a kid, was your behavior and choices affected by the realization that your parents could walk in at any minute? At work, does your attitude and efficiency adjust when the boss is on site? At home does the house look different when company is being expected? Yes! Of course it does! Our Lord tarries and the grace of God is there with us instructing us to stay awake and focused and looking, because if He came today and found you where you are and how you are, would you be ashamed? Oh precious one, don’t get caught ashamed (1 John 2:28).

• who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. 

If you belong to Christ, truly belong to Him, then you should be zealous for good deeds because that is what He redeemed you to do. The word zealous is zélótén and it means one who is eagerly devoted to a person or a thing, with the genitive of the object: with the genitive of the thing, most eagerly desirous of, zealous for, a thing,  to acquire a thing. Jesus came to bring good news, to set the captive free, to make the blind see. He met pressing needs… even from the cross (John 19:26-27). Therefore if we are His costly, treasured, specially chosen then we too should do likewise… even from our own crosses if need be.

Good deeds are not something we are “called to do” they are what we cannot help but do! The grace of God and the love of Christ compels us…

For the grace of God has appeared… 

Therefore…

be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable,gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:1-7

Our deeds do not save us, but by our deeds we testify that we are saved. Our deeds represent what doctrine we actually believe. If you want to know what someone really believes, look at their deeds.

Look at your own beloved… are you an example of good deeds? Your life is supposed to attract people to a very precious message that you carry.

Does it?