Category: Fear

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We Are Crucified With Christ!

For August 8, 2021
Crucified with Christ may seem odd or masochistic, but it is not. It is the victorious, Spirit-filled life that allows God’s people to live free from the bondage of sin, guilt, shame, and unforgiveness through His blood,

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20 AKJV).

As members of His universal church, or the Body of Christ, we have experienced God’s love and forgiveness through Christ so that we can share it with others. In this way, we perform the “ministry of reconciliation” outlined in 2 Corinthians 5:18. God reconciled us to Himself through Christ and empowers us to reconcile with others. Here, the three-step process outlined in Matthew 18:15-17 can serve as our guide:

    1. Contact the offended person(s) for reconciliation.
    2. Use a mediator or mediators to help clarify the issue(s) to everyone’s understanding.
    3. Utilize appropriate local church leadership (i.e., pastors, deacons, elders, etc.), who are led by the Spirit to resolve the matter through the Word of God and prayer.1

Performing the ministry of reconciliation while taking heed to forgive (and forget) our past blunders will help us participate in a lifelong process of spiritual wholeness. This process will allow us to express more of the Kingdom Characteristics our Lord Jesus Christ outlined in Matthew 5:3-16.

By our humility, or being poor in spirit, toward Jesus Christ, we possess the Kingdom. This is when our repentance (mourn) results in God’s eternal consolation through His forgiveness of our sin.

With restrained human capacities under control (meek) we inherit a world where God reigns forever and satisfies our yearnings as we hunger and thirst for righteousness.

We are a people who show pity or mercy because we are the benefactors of His mercy. Now more than ever, we need to celebrate mercy to contrast the vengeance that is so widely practiced. Mercy is the noble, Spirit-driven capacity to demonstrate grace and forgiveness towards our offender, who is guilty of wrongdoing.

The Spirit  gives us pure hearts, which enable us to be peacemakers so that others can identify us as the children of God who abide in Him and will share in His majesty and splendor very soon.

The Lord Himself brings us His comfort when the world reviles and persecutes us or criticizes and mistreats us because we belong to Him. Even in the worst of circumstances, we can rejoice and be exceedingly glad because the rewards are great that await us in the Kingdom of Heaven.

In addition, we are the “salt of the earth,” and “the light of the world” as the Spirit  radiates the Fruit of the Spirit from within us to season and preserve those around us as His moral, spiritual instruments of grace and love.

Fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control with love as the centerpiece. Here, we are affable, courteous, and gracious as our joy yields a Spirit-suppled delight from our deeply fulfilling relationship with the Spirit , in whom we have all we need for this life and the next.

We create and preserve peace with others as Jesus, the Prince of Peace works through us. We are gentle as we impart goodness into the lives of those we encounter around us. Others witness our faith by our reliable dealings with people, as we express meekness or humble submission to the Lord’s will in everything. With temperance, we show self-control when the old nature craves attention as we continue to persevere in all things through long-suffering.

Christ is our ultimate example of righteousness. Now, we have taken the charge to be His living examples as the Spirit empowers right living in us and through us. Psalm 139:14 tells us we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God, and it would benefit us greatly to see ourselves from His perspective as the unique and significant parts of His wonderful master plan.

We are not mistakes or afterthoughts because God created us to fulfill His perfect, eternal design. Each day features a new opportunity for the Lord to “reset” our lives and circumstances to accommodate His perfect will for us:

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” (Lamentations 3:22-24 NLT)

Confident that our forgiving, omnipotent, loving and faithful God will provide His absolute best for us in every situation. Jesus taught that it will be our love that gives substance to our Christian witness and makes it an attractive alternative to a dying world, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35 NIV). We can emulate this perfect love by forgiving intentional and unintentional wrongdoings, showing mercy instead of judgment, and extending goodwill toward others in need.

Being crucified in Christ allows us to live rightly in the eyes of God and humanity. In God’s eyes, we are His children and can experience and express His glory. To humanity, we are the brilliant reflections of God’s practical and tangible love, which proves we belong to His Son, Jesus Christ.

We should never think it strange to be united in Christ. For only then can our loving, Eternal King transform us into receptacles of His grace and mercy to others around us daily. Won’t you live for Him completely today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

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No More Guilt And Shame!

For August 1, 2021
Guilt and shame are powerful weapons the Enemy (Satan) Satan uses to manipulate our past memories to perpetuate our feelings of insecurity. As a result, many of us yet fall prey to the lie that we can never be forgiven and remark, “God won’t forgive me…You don’t know who I am or what I’ve done!”

We cannot change our dysfunctional past; what we’ve done has been done, and what others have done to us, can’t be undone. We must let go of the caustic spiritual, emotional, and psychological baggage, and we need to accept and embrace our loving God along with the new identity He gives us in Jesus Christ by faith,

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1 John 4:16-18 NIV).

Unfortunately, many of us are yet imprisoned by our intense feelings of being beyond all hope and help because of our unfortunate past. Tragically, we can waste precious, non-recoverable time distancing ourselves from others; feeling distressed about not being forgiven, accepted, and embraced because of our past behavior.

Jesus’ perfect sacrifice covers our sin as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), who is fully capable to save “to the uttermost” all who come to God by Him, seeing He lives forever to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). However, forgiveness of sin alone leaves us deficient before our holy God. His righteousness must be satisfied also,

If God merely declared us to be forgiven from our sins, that would not solve our problems entirely, for it would only make us morally neutral before God. Such a movement is not enough to earn us favor with God. We must rather move from a point of moral neutrality to a point of having a positive righteousness before God, the righteousness of a life of perfect obedience to him.2

We have the ability to make two choices in this life. Either we can accept the Lord’s gift of forgiveness and receive its blessings, or we can reject it and become subject to God’s fierce wrath. Accepting the Lord’s gracious gift involves our repentance or to turn from our sin and turn to God by faith in Christ. Once we do, God forgives our sin and restores our fellowship with Him instantly,

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:12-13 NIV).

Through the blood of Jesus Christ, we can approach God expecting His acceptance as He exchanges Jesus’ perfect life for our imperfect one. Now when He looks at us, He no longer sees vile sinners. He sees the “clean hands and the pure heart” of His Son, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. We are now suitable for His eternal fellowship.

Much like condemned criminals, we stand before the Righteous Judge, as guilty condemned, helpless, and hopeless because of our nature and our sins. Yet, His Son intercedes by assuming our sin, guilt, and penalty, and we receive His innocence, righteousness, and glory,

The death penalty that Christ endured holds good for the believer, through his identification with Christ in His death; having been crucified as to his unregenerate nature, and justified from sin, he walks in newness of life in Christ.3

Instead of sentencing us to death, the Judge releases us with a new destiny. Now, with no troubling past, we are all the more aware that we matter to God. This is accomplished because tells us that Jesus Christ possesses all power in Heaven and in earth; including all power in Heaven and earth to forgive our sins. The Greek word used for forgive is aphiemi (Strong-G863), which means to let go, send away, to cancel, or to pardon.4

In Christ, our sin nature is canceled, let go, sent away, pardoned, and forgotten forever. In fact, our sins no longer define us. Instead, God defines us by His great salvation,

Through his life, death, resurrection, and exaltation, come deliverance from the guilt and power of sin and the gift of new life through the indwelling Holy Spirit. So the believer is saved by Christ’s work on the cross (Acts 4:12); he is being saved now by the work of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier (Philippians 2:12) and he looks forward to completed salvation in the life of the age to come (1 Thessalonians 5:9, 1 Peter 1:5).5

It is difficult for humans to forgive and forget, since we tend to demand retribution or keep mental and emotional records of wrongs when other people have offended us.

But this is not the case with God when we come to Christ. Although our fallen nature and sin offends Him far more than we could ever offend another person (we’ve disobeyed or ignored His perfect righteousness for us) yet, He keeps no record of our past. Neither does He impose a probation period until we “earn” His good graces—because the blood of Jesus washes all of our sins away. As Psalm 103:12 tells us, He has removed our sins as far as the east is separated from the west.

God looks beyond our past to extend His mercy to us—a people in need of restoration. Much like in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32), our Father no longer sees us as “dead and lost.” He sees us as “alive and found.”

Prompted by His great love, God restores us to full access to His Kingdom without restriction. In 1 John 4:10, love is defined by how God loved us enough to send His Son to be the payment for our sin. The Lord also directs our steps and takes special delight in every detail of our lives.

Liberated from our sinful past, our guilt and shame no longer define or confine us. Because nothing can separate us from God, nor can anyone or anything make us guilty before God,

If God is for us, who can ever be against us?…Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself…Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?…No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31, 33-35, 37-39 NLT).

Guilt and shame should never bind us again. For in Christ, our past is forgiven and forgotten forever. It is ironic how God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows those “secret” sins few people if any know about. Yet He is willing to love, accept, treasure, value, and forgive us forever. Won’t you give your life to the Lord today and experience the deep and lasting freedom only He can give us?

What a Wonderful Savior!

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Jesus Christ Is Our Answer And Solution!

For July 25, 2021
Our obsession with wealth, power, and influence is baffling; especially when we covet and pursue them when they are ephemeral and short-lived. Our human existence is fleeting with a shelf-life—for most of us—of less than one hundred years at best.

Nevertheless, we dedicate our lives to the acquisition of the bigger, newer, better, faster, and best thing we can get…often at the expense of others, as if those things we “lie, cheat and steal for” will last forever. Self-serving, self-fulfillment has become our modern-day obsession. However, the irony is that even if we were to possess all the wealth, power, and influence in the world, we would yet experience disenchantment because our transcendent spiritual dimension was grossly ignored and/or overlooked in the process of aquisition.

We yearn for eternal happiness and fulfillment in a world where there is no pain, sorrow, or disease and where all our wants, needs, and desires are satisfied completely. There with loving friends and family, perfect innocence, peace, tranquility, and safety abound, yielding a lasting, unabated, and complete satisfaction.

Before sin contaminated our world and everything in it, a blissful eternity was ours forever. But our ancestors’ disobedience, (a trait that we yet practice today), precipitated sin’s universal domination over our thoughts, words, and actions. As a result we are spiritually dead; certain to experience physical death, and are forever separated from our holy God.

God created us to be without sin to live forever in His perfect world. But because of sin, our world is full of sadness, pain, disease, trouble, and death. In other words, it is our nature to sin and die. (See: Romans 3:23, 5:14, and 6:23)

This fallen spiritual condition influences toddlers to defy their parents, while tempting teenagers to commit brutal murder and encouraging adults to commit unconscionable atrocities. Those who perform good deeds might ask, “How can I be a sinner?” We are sinners not because of our evil deeds. Our evil deeds reflect the spiritually flawed inner nature at work inside us at all times.

In our efforts, we cannot obtain fellowship with our holy God because He never fell from perfection; we did, and our tarnished nature offends Him. God is very particular about whom He “hangs out” with. It should be no surprise that His “no riffraff” policy remains today.

In our strength alone, we are helplessly and hopelessly in need of a Savior who can restore our fellowship with God. Unlike every human before Him or after Him, Jesus Christ was without sin, fully aware that His death would redeem fallen humanity and restore our loving, fellowship with God forever,

Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous (Romans 5:18-19 NKJV).

Here is how Jesus puts it,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17 NIV)

All of us will have to account for our sinful behavior before our Creator. Why not stand before Him in total reliance on Jesus’ perfect righteousness instead of our flawed self-righteousness,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  (Romans 8:1-4 NIV)

Jesus chose to redeem all of us, despite our sin nature, allowing us to embody His righteousness before God. He freely provides this for us not based on our sin-tainted “good deeds,” but by our faith in His perfect, redemptive deeds performed at Calvary’s Cross. Thus, to the Christian, our “good deeds” signify the presence of God’s Holy Spirit at work within us, after we’ve surrendered our lives to Christ; not our vain attempts to “earn” salvation.

Because of Jesus’ resurrection, God’s amazing grace, abundant mercy, and enduring, all-encompassing love remain available to all of us today,

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV).

Jesus Christ is the answer to our questions and the solution to our problems. Those of us who accept Him as our personal Lord and Savior will experience the abundant, spiritually fulfilling life He guarantees us today, as well as the blissful eternity He secures for us tomorrow. Won’t you trust in Him today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

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The Helper Is With Us—Today!

For July 18, 20216
The Lord then tells how certain dramatic spiritual changes will verify our union with Him as well as the condition of our hearts toward Him,

If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you…But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you (John 14:15-18, 26 NKJV).

Jesus’ Followers will love Him and adhere to His commandments. Thus, His standards for moral and spiritual living are not for our selective “picking and choosing.” We obey them because we love Him and desire to please Him.

In His human form, our Lord Jesus Christ could not be in more than one place at one time. The Helper ensures that everyone can experience the fullness of Christ around the world simultaneously,

[The Helper] makes it possible for Him to be united to, and to be present in each Believer, as perfectly and fully as if that Believer were the only one to receive Christ’s fullness. Each Believer has the whole Christ with him as his source of strength, purity, life; so that each may say: Christ gives all His time and wisdom and care to me. Such a union as this lacks every element of instability. Once formed, the union is indissoluble. Many of the ties of earth are rudely broken—not so with our union with Christ—that endures forever. Since there is now an unchangeable and divine element in us, our salvation depends no longer upon our unstable wills, but upon Christ’s purpose and power.7

Parakleteos (Strong-G3875) is the Greek word for our Helper and Advocate. It combines two Greek words, para (Strong-G3844) and kaleo (Strong-2564). Para means to “come alongside,” and kaleo means to “call or summon.”8

The Helper comes alongside to be our duly appointed representative of Jesus Christ. Only He can fulfill all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities appertaining thereto.

As our Comforter, He “seals” our reclamation to secure our heavenly home (Ephesians 4:30). Here, He keeps our thoughts and desires focused on yesterday’s redemption, today’s salvation, and tomorrow’s bliss through Christ.

As our Advocate, He is our perfect guide to give us direction, purpose, and meaning as Almighty God in Spirit. As the Holy Spirit, He purifies, strengthens, encourages, reveals, and keeps us forever.

He is also our Teacher, who brings to our minds those precious and unforgettable teachings that reinforce how wonderful our Lord continues to be,

Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light (Matthew 11:28-30 NLT).

The Holy Spirit has not for the world, but for Followers of Christ exclusively. He cannot live inside those who reject God’s love and forgiveness through Christ. Sin-skewed, temporal minds will never appreciate our Lord’s presence, power, and wonderful spiritual blessings (1 Corinthians 2:14).

For we who know Christ and await His glorious appearing (2 Timothy 4:8), and possessed by God’s almighty, Holy Spirit who continues our Lord’s perfect work inside us—to answer our every question, solve our every problem, and supply our every need…if we yield to Him as the Bible teaches,

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take (Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT)

Won’t you trust in Him today?  What a Wonderful Savior!

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God Desires Our Eternal Fellowship!

For July 11, 2021
Heaven is the eternal place of perfection where there is no selfishness, depression, doubt, fear, worry, or stress because God is present in His full glory and holiness. Each moment forever, we will experience His gentle, loving presence, without the anxieties and fears associated with our sin-scarred earthly existence,

God can be known in personal experience. A loving Personality dominates the Bible, walking among the trees of the garden and breathing fragrance over every scene. Always a living Person is present, speaking, pleading, loving, working, and manifesting Himself whenever and wherever His people have the receptivity necessary to receive the manifestation.9

Impossible world, you say? Not really. Such how it was after God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden with everything they could ever want or need forever. Let’s explore the actions of the loving Creator Genesis according to 1:1 (AKJV), “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

This foundational passage of Scripture does not defend the existence of God. It merely presents a personal God, who is a loving, caring Creator and Sustainer of everything that has or will ever exist. Words cannot describe the vastness of God adequately, although one writer offers this illustration,

[Our  Lord God is the] Good Being, a fountain of infinite benevolence and beneficence towards his creatures. The Being whose purposes and actions spring from Himself, without foreign motive or influence: he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, and most spiritual of all essences; infinitely benevolent, beneficent, true, and holy: the cause of all being, the upholder of all things; infinitely happy, because infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made: illimitable in His immensity, inconceivable in His mode of existence, and indescribable in His essence; known fully only to Himself, because an infinite mind can be fully apprehended only by itself. In a word, a Being who, from His infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived; and who, from His infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind.10

Could not such a Being create all that exists today? Could He not also preserve and sustain it? God continues to do all these things and more as Nehemiah 9:6 (NLT) tells us,

You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you.

Instead of expressing Himself as an impersonal, ambiguous force to be reckoned with, the Lord chooses to fellowship with the human species—the pinnacle of His creation. He fixed our incomparable destiny forever in the Garden of Eden as we thrived in His loving, holy presence as He supplied our spiritual, physical, emotional, and psychological needs abundantly.

Our Lord has designated us as humans to be separate and distinct; creating us “in His image and likeness.” As such, we can have loving, joyful, fulfilling, fellowship with Him forever. Genesis 1:26-27 (NLT) indicates,

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Our creation was most distinctive,

It is clear that man, as God made him, was distinctly different from the animals already created. He stood on a much higher plateau, for God created him to be immortal, and made him a special image of His own eternity. Man was a creature with whom His maker could visit and have fellowship and communion. On the other hand, the Lord could expect man to answer him and be responsible to him. Man was constituted to have the privilege of choice, even to the point of disobeying his Creator. He was to be God’s responsible representative and steward on the earth, to work out his Creator’s will and fulfill the divine purpose.11

Through His creation, we see God’s majesty and design to ensure our happiness and well-being in the most intricate detail. Thus, as Genesis 1:31 tells us, God’s creation is “very good!”

Just think! The entire universe, with its galaxies, solar system, and our earth, including everything in the sky, underwater, and on land, was not created for eternal fellowship with God. Only you and I were created to fulfill this uniquely wonderful purpose, and through our faith in Jesus Christ, can we achieve our full potential as forgiven and free Citizens of His eternal Kingdom. Won’t you trust in Christ for salvation and eternal fellowship with God today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

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