Holy Spirit

How To Rid Yourself of Doom and Gloom

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Today I woke up with a long list of grievances I compiled through the night of all the things that were wrong in my life.

Instead of realizing this was a tactic of the devil, I indulged in my black mood.

I vented all over my husband. I criticized the condition of our home. My children weren’t living up to my expectations. Even the cat was wrong today, if we had a cat.

I had no desire to pray on my way to work. Truth is, I was going to continue grumbling and enjoying my well-deserved pity party of one.

But then I reached into my book bag and pulled out an article on the doctrine of our Union with Christ. It was written fifty years ago by noted English bible teacher, Arthur Pink.

God met me there because when I finished it, my gloom was gone and I was rejoicing in the gospel.

Here’s what I learned that changed my heart:

1) Those old saints knew their stuff and preached it. The deep truths, mostly forgotten today because they might offend, are the only prescription for a healthy heart.

2) The doctrine of the Union with Christ is central to our understanding of who were are as Christians. Without it, we see ourselves as individuals tied to a lifeline to Christ, much like an astronaut twirling in space who is attached by a cord to the space capsule.

3) We view Christ as a solo act, independent of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and separated from the people he came to save. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

4) Christ and his people are inseparable – it is an eternal union that began before the foundation of the world and made known and enjoyed in time.

5) It is the foundation for all the other blessings we enjoy in Christ – the new birth (regeneration), the forgiveness of sins (justification), the remodel of our lives (sanctification), and our new bodies (glorification).

6) This union is so real and vital and intimate that God has never viewed us apart from Christ! And God never sees Christ apart from his church. He is the head of the church.

4) We are told in Scripture that Jesus became flesh for us; when he died on the cross, we died with him; when he was buried, we went into the tomb with him; and when he was resurrected, we were raised with him.

We have never been alone!

We are never alone now.

And we will never be alone in heaven. We belong to Jesus and that union is secured for an eternity.

All of these blessings come to us through the gospel and by faith in Christ.

He secured them. He merited them for us. He has given them to us.

Ephesians says we are seated with him in the heavenly places. That’s because Jesus is there, and where he is, that’s where we are, too.

Go out and tell somebody you have a new address!

 

 

 

 

 

 

How To Have a Silent Conversation

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 8 Comments

I spend a lot of time counseling people with problems. The nature of what I do requires a fair amount of talking. Giving counsel and encouragement has become a way of life for me over the years.

Every once in a while however, something different happens. Like today.

Polly calls me every month. She is a woman with learning disabilities. She admits to not being able to follow directions or retain information. Consequently she’s unable to hold down a job.

Today was another one of those calls.

She told me she was being evicted and needed another place to live.

She exhausted that theme, and then launched into describing the conflicts she was having with her older sister.

She spoke for twenty minutes.

When she finished, I prayed for her.

“Thank you. You are a delight to talk to,” Polly said and hung up.

I smiled.

I had said nothing to her. All I did was listen.

And then this thought came to me, maybe from the Holy Spirit.

“You showed more grace and love in your listening than anything you could have said.”

It made me think.

Perhaps the Lord would make more of an impact on people through my silence.

Most people don’t want to be fixed.

They want to be loved.

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

Who’s Doing The Work?

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Who is responsible for your maturity in Christ? Is it all about you and your obedience or is all the Holy Spirit’s doing?

Do you have days when you feel you’ve done nothing but blow it as a Christian? You haven’t loved well, you ran out of patience, you didn’t think about God for an instant.

What does God think of you when you’re in that condition?

“Return to your baptism everyday,” Luther said. Remember you died in Christ, were buried in him, and were resurrected in him. All your sins are forgiven and washed away. God sees them no more.

Paul would say,

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” – Romans 6: 5-7

You have been set free to live as a believer in Christ.

Before faith, you were a slave to sin. You couldn’t love or serve God. The only things you could do were to:

1) live in darkness

2) provoke God’s wrath

3) heap judgment on yourself

But God, who in his mercy called you from death to life, who gave you the gift of faith to believe in Christ and him crucified, now enables you to freely love and serve him.

You are a freed slave learning to live as a free man or woman in union to Christ.

How does this work out in daily living?

Justifying faith is God acting upon you – you are a passive recipient. He changed your heart, he made you capable of believing the gospel. You didn’t produce that yourself. You had no power.

Sanctifying faith is accomplished by the Holy Spirit who causes you to desire God and enables you to obey God. This new action will result in your good works.

You will produce fruit.

So if you’re worried about how you’re doing, don’t be. Looking inside your heart will demoralize you. It’s not pretty in there.

The solution is to keep looking to Jesus.

He’s the author of your faith, and to God who will give you everything you need to keep loving and serving him.

How To Witness Badly

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Today on the subway a young woman gets on juggling two bags and a purse and sits across the aisle from me. She turns and asks, “What church do you go to?”

I tell her.

“How nice to see people reading the bible on the subway. I do that, too.”

“How nice,” I say. I don’t want to talk. She’s interrupting my quiet time. I hate it when other passengers talk, so I want this to end.

“Where are you from?” she asks.

“Argentina,” I say, keeping my answers to one word, hoping she’d get the hint.

Her face goes blank. A few seconds later, she says, “That’s not in this country, is it?”

Holy cow.

“It’s in Latin America,” I say.

“Where do you work?”

“In San Francisco.” Okay, that’s a three-word answer.

“What do you do there?”

Hmm…do I really want to get into this?

I notice others around us have put down their books to listen to the exchange. The woman next to her has overflowed into the young woman’s seat. She’s a regular commuter. Every morning she gets on with a phone stuck to her ear talking at full throttle with her mother about her woes at work. I’ve written her notes reminding her of the no-phone rule. I’ve glared at her. Nothing’s worked. One time I gave her a gospel tract, thinking that would quiet her. She sneered at me, shoved it down into her purse, and kept talking.

“So what do you do in San Francisco?” the young woman asked again.

“I work for an organization,” I tell her. How lame is that.

“What do you do there?”

Now I’m ticked. This woman has no boundaries.

“I work for a missionary agency and we tell people that Jesus is the promised Messiah,” I say loudly.

Her seatmate smiles.

A man behind her sits bolt upright.

“Do you have conventions?”

“No.”

“How do you find people to talk to?”

“On the streets.”

“Oh,” she says. “How does that work?”

“It’s tough.”

“What makes it so tough?”

“Most people, including Jews, resist the truth that Jesus is the Savior of the world and without him they don’t have a relationship with God.” I say in one breath. “Here’s my card.”

We screech into the station. She slips my card into her purse, grabs her bags, and gets up.

“Okay thanks,” she says and gets off.

The talker and the man behind also get off.

I slump in my seat. Shame on you! You could have engaged her. You could have asked her who she thought Jesus was and have everyone listen in.

Then I smile.

I remember.

When God wants to use you to speak the gospel, He’s gonna get the job done even if it’s done badly.

 

Why Doesn’t God Answer Me?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Have you ever wondered why God sometimes doesn’t answer your prayers?

Well, you’re not alone.

Not all of Jesus’ prayers were answered either.

C.S. Lewis has some stunning thoughts on the subject:

It would be even worse to think of those who get what they pray for as a sort of court favorites, people who have influence with the throne. The refused prayer of Christ in Gethsemane is answer enough for that.

You’re in good company if you have prayers that have gone unanswered.

It’s also the experience of every Christian. Paul didn’t have his prayer answered for the thorn in his flesh. Instead, he learned that God’s grace was sufficient for him, especially in his weakness, so God’s strength could show through.

If you’re struggling with this, here are 4 things to comfort you about unanswered prayer:

1. God hears every prayer

2. Every prayer will be answered in its fullness when Christ returns

3. Even if your prayer is answered here and now, it still is not fully realized until the Kingdom comes

4. The Holy Spirit, which God has given you as His guarantee of the coming Kingdom, is God’s promise of all your hopes and dreams for yourself, your family, your ministry, the masses of people who don’t know Christ that you have been praying for — all will be fulfilled in Christ.

God invites you to trust him because he’s up to something far more grand!

Jesus Is A Happy Man

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Do you know that Christ is happy in his exalted state in heaven?

Every day, if that is how time is measured in heaven, he looks around and sees the results of his death on the cross for his people.

First, he sees the conversion and the salvation of sinners.

Second, he looks over the amazing expanse of heaven and sees it populated with the people he died and shed his blood for.

Third, he looks down on our world and sees so many coming into faith, taking baby steps in grace, others advancing in their faith, and still others strong as warriors in their faith, and this brings pleasure to his soul.

Fourth, he sees those arriving in heaven, having finished the race, and he rejoices!

Jesus is fully satisfied with his own sacrifice!

And if he’s satisfied, so is God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

They rejoice together!

There is joy in heaven over you!

Why IsThe Good News Really Good News?

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If it’s been a while since you’ve read the book of Romans, I recommend a re-read. Especially chapter 1, although the entire book will change your life.

Verses 1 through 7 is one large, explosive sentence that will rock your world.

Paul, who wrote the book, calls himself a slave of Jesus Christ. Where was his self-esteem?

He was called to be an apostle (a sent-one). Who called him? God did. Paul didn’t appoint himself like so many do today.

Paul was set apart for the gospel of God. That was his job description. He didn’t have to forge a career path, or construct a vision for his ministry.

And what gospel was this that Paul was set apart for?

The same gospel that the prophets preached in the Old Testament concerning Christ, the Messiah. This gospel was not a new message for New Testament people, but an ancient message promised to God’s people from Genesis all the way through to Revelation.

Jesus Christ was both God and man. His human lineage came from David and his identity as the Son of God was declared according to the Spirit when Jesus was resurrected from the dead.

It was this gospel that Paul was commissioned to preach to the Gentiles.

Have you been called to belong to Jesus Christ? Has God revealed his Christ to you as the solution to your sins and separation from God?

If the answer is no, re-read Romans 1: 1-7. Then pray this prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you for paying my debt, bearing my punishment on the cross and offering me forgiveness and new life. Knowing that you have been raised from the dead, I turn from my sins and receive you as my Lord. Amen.

If the answer is yes, you do know him as your Lord, know this: it is God who loved you to this. It is God who called you to be a saint (set-apart one).

This was God’s idea, not yours!

Go out and tell someone!

Leave me a comment if you prayed to receive Jesus today.

How To Get Rid of Yourself

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 4 Comments

Is your self-image on the floor? You don’t like yourself and you’re certain others don’t either? You work yourself into a frenzy trying to be popular and liked, but you only fail. Is there any hope for you?

There’s good news for you. You’re not hopeless. There is a way to a healthy self-image but it’s not what you might think.

The pundits and psychologists will be happy to give you a list of rules (or a formula) for how to fix yourself. It goes like this:

1. exercise

2. eat right

3. only spend time with positive people

4. read or listen to inspirational teachers

5. do something for others

6. believe in yourself

That last one is particularly difficult if you don’t like yourself.

Have you seen a common theme with the all this?

It’s all about self.

Whenever you turn into yourself, you’ll have trouble. That’s because there are no answers there.

The rules don’t hold the answers either. Neither do the pundits and the therapists. They’ll either drive you to despair because you can’t live up to their recommendations, or to pride because you do live up to them and you feel superior to others. Either path is full of self.

The answer lies in the gospel.

The gospel doesn’t lie to you. It agrees with you. You are messed up. In fact you’re a sinner!

But the gospel doesn’t leave you there.

It tells you to repent and acknowledge that your whole life needs fixing. Why? Because it’s not God-centered.

Jesus came into the world to clean up the mess, die on the cross to pay for your sins, to fill you with his Spirit, and to take you to heaven.

What does this do for you?

It humbles you.  It makes you grateful to God. Now you can love him and serve others out of that gratitude.

You still might be asking, “But when all my sins and failures come back to haunt me again, how can I maintain a healthy self-image?”

You don’t need to feel better about yourself!

You don’t need to feel worse about yourself!

What the gospel does is get you off of yourself!

You are a new creature in Christ, your life in now hid with him in heaven. That’s your new image.

You no longer have to live a self-centered life.

Jesus rescued you from that treadmill.

Go out and shout for joy!

Get Over Yourself

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Quit looking  at your sanctification to prove to yourself (and to others) that you are a Christian.

You are a Christian because of the gospel. God found you. God saved you. God changed you.

You are united to Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. Everything that Jesus is you now are, too. Since Jesus is holy, so are you by virtue of your union in him. And it’s the Holy Spirit in you that continues to make you holy.

What did you do to accomplish that? Nothing. It’s a gift.

What are you doing now to sustain this? Nothing. It’s a gift.

What are you doing to insure your safe arrival in heaven? Nothing. It’s a gift.

You’re probably thinking by now, “But wait a minute, what about obedience?”

What about it?

Are you obeying God because you think it’s your way of working toward holiness? Are you obeying God because if you don’t you feel guilty? Are you obeying God because it’s your duty to do so, otherwise how can you call yourself a Christian?

You are a Christian because of what God has done to you. You are a Christian because you are in Christ. God put you there. And you are holy for the same reasons.

It’s out of this new relationship in Christ that we live out our holiness. How? By living a life of gratitude to God and loving our neighbor.

And lo and behold, we are obeying the two greatest commandments!

Quit taking your spiritual temperature. Look to Jesus who has done it all.

And relax.

How Do We Live?

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According to 1 Peter 1, our futures are secure. We have an inheritance to end all inheritances. It’s in heaven, reserved for each one of us, and nobody can rob us of it. Not only that, but God guarantees our safe arrival so we can receive it. He preserves us by his power while we live out our lives here one earth. So knowing we are heirs to his kingdom, how do we live? You would think Peter would tell us to get out there and become missionaries, or get busy feeding the poor, or dedicate ourselves to endless hours of prayer or serving the church. He does none of that. Instead he says we are to intentionally live holy lives that reflect the character of God. How do we do that? It means a renewed mind in God’s Word, and a knowledge of Christ and his gospel, and an understanding of our justification and sanctification in Christ. It’s believing and rejoicing in the answer to question 60 from the Heidelberg Catechism (see below). Armed with those truths, we can refuse to conform to the culture of the day, we can struggle against sin and unbelief, and we can rouse ourselves in the Holy Spirit to be conscientious about our lives as Christians.