John the Baptist, Messenger of Grace

Tonight, John 1:6 jumped out at me.  “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”  I’ve always overlooked that verse, thinking it simply transitioned the story and introduced a new character.  However, the more I though about it, the more depth I found in that simple verse.

Gary Wiens, from Kansas City, was speaking here this weekend.  He taught on God’s commitment to manifest His name on the earth through humans.  I loved an illustration that he used.  He said that for hundreds of years before time, the Father was gazing at one aspect of Jesus’ nature.  He was going, “Oh how I love this about My Son!  It is perfect!”  Then He took that one little facet of Jesus, and He created a human life around it.  He created me!  Each person was created to manifest a different facet of God’s character.  That is why He places so much value on each human life, it is precious to Him.

From grumpy to humility

Earlier today I was reading Robin’s blog  where she mentioned being grumpy and I wondered when it would hit me.  Well I didn’t have to wait long!  I could hardly bring myself to say a word at work tonight, and now I’m afraid if anyone disturbs me I might just bit their head off.  That’s definitely not the character God is trying to build in me.  But I’ve asked Him to teach me humility, and seeing my grumpy sinful heart keeps me desperate for Him.  Earlier today I was able to spend several hours studying Song of Solomon, and it relates to this.  That’s one amazing book!

Fighting in the Mind

In the previous post, Importance of Holiness, I said that next I would talk about how to live it out and fight the mental battle of purity.  But I’ve realized since then that I really don’t have many original ideas, I just have the testimony that it works!

The best thing in the battle for my mind has been to pray in the Spirit as much as possible.  Praying constantly for a week has brought up so many issues in my life that I’m now dealing with, and freed me to love God more fully.  I’m so in love with Holy Spirit!  He is the very person of God living inside of me.  He is always near, always loving, always encouraging, and always leading me back to God’s heart.

So the testimony I want to share happened about a week ago.  Basically I had an argument with my dad, yelled, and went away feeling worthless.  So many painful memories had been triggered and my heart felt broken.  I was consumed with anger, half at my dad and half at myself just for feeling angry.  My world was spinning and I had nothing to cling to.  After half an hour of trying to calm down and crying out to God for help, I remembered a blog I had recently read about saying no to entertaining thoughts that lead to sin.  I recognized at that moment that I had the choice to meditate on my anger, or surrender it to God.  The blog had said in that moment of decision to say the name of Jesus out loud, then pray in tongues.  I knew that turning to God in that very moment was my only choice.

When I began saying the name Jesus, it was like light shining on the darkness of my heart and exposing the filth.  My anger was so strong and I could tangibly feel it clash with the name Jesus.  I’m not sure if I have ever felt such a battle rage within me, but I forced myself to keep saying His name.  Then I prayed in tongues.  In tuning myself with the Spirit of God, I could feel how I had quenched Him.  But I could also feel Him weeping with me.  Some how, His tears led me back to the Father’s tender heart of love.  He touched my heart and healed my pain.  God’s faithfulness proved stronger than the anger which had held me bound moments before.

That is the faithfulness of Holy Spirit, to be near even when we have defiled ourselves.  In those times, He comes in tenderness and leads us back to God.  The only suggestions I have that will help win the battle in your mind is to turn to God in prayer during the moment of temptation.  He will be there, even if you feel filthy and separated from Him by your sins.  He is faithful.  He is near.  Say His name for there is power in the name of Jesus!

Importance of Holiness

This past month, I have been trying to live a life that is pleasing to God.  That means living holy unto Him.  Yeah, I have tried to live for Him most of my life, but it’s something amazing to take it to the next level.  The battleground has really been my mind.  Realizing that my thoughts in each moment count to God and trying to keep my mind fixed on Him has been a challenge.  So here are some of my thoughts on living a life pleasing to God.

We have been commanded by God to live lives of holiness, set apart from the word.  But we live in a country submersed in unrighteousness.  On every side, we are surrounded by things that try to take our eyes off God.  We have gotten used to it thinking that it’s ok we are distracted by these things.  After all, our Christian friends do the same things.  We pray and spend time with God, so it’s all good!  Right?

Well no, it is not alright.  There are reasons that God has called us to be set apart from the world.  We are called to know Him and live a life walking with Him in holiness.  But our sinful nature is in opposition with Him, holding us back from perfect Love.  Our struggle with sin should not discourage us, for in this struggle there is great opportunity.

Firstly, we have a chance to show God our love and give Him a gift.  As we fight sin, we are sacrificing things out of love for Him, and He loves our sacrifice.  He is worthy of wonderful gifts, and we have nothing to give Him except a life set a part and devoted to knowing Him in holiness.

Secondly, when we acknowledge the areas where we struggle and begin to fight for victory, we come to the end of our strength.  It is so important that we realize how weak we are.  Not only does that work humility in us, but it also teaches us to trust completely in the power of God.  God’s power conquered sin and death on the cross; can it not also conquer the sin in your life?  A powerful verse for people contending against the sin is 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  When we reach the end of our strength, God’s perfect strength will come through for us.

This leads up to the third point, as we struggle with sin, we learn God’s faithfulness.  When we trust completely in Him, He will always come through for us.  That may not always look the way we expect.  Sometimes His faithfulness will come through after we have stumbled and sinned.  When our conscious is seared and we feel as though we have failed, God’s faithfulness will appear in love and mercy.  He is faithful to forgive us time and time again, never angry or disappointed that we have sinned, but always ready to forgive in love.

The best part of a life contending against sin is the freedom it brings to our hearts.  We become alive on the inside and freed to love God and enjoy God’s love.  It is an adventure lived out moment to moment.  Jesus becomes a part of our daily lives and it is wonderful! 

It’s easier to talk about the importance of living for God than how to do that.  Next time I’ll try to share several things that have helped me in living it out. 

Frostbite

I recently had a dream where I was sleeping next to something cold. In the dream, I woke up from a deep sleep without feeling in my feet and discovered they had frostbite. I was scared and wanted to go to the hospital, but my parents said I was fine. They found some ointment that was for frostbite and told me to wash in soap and water then use the ointment. I was persuaded that the stuff would work and began to scrape off the gray, dead skin.

In church the next morning, I started considering the dream. I think it represented the opposite of “sleeping with a heart awake” (Song of Songs 5:2). Not only was I asleep, but my heart had grown cold. There are deadly results to a cold heart. When a heart grows cold, rotting flesh begins to cover the body. As I thought about the ointment, my pastor said the phrase, “You can’t just put a band-aid on it.” I have no idea what the context to that was, but in my mind it fit right in with what I was thinking. The issue of sin clinging to my life cannot be handled with a band-aid and a little cream. I need to go to the Great Doctor, only God can awaken my heart and cause the dead flesh to be removed. I need Holy Spirit’s constant power to overcome compromise in my life.

Many church leaders would give the same advice as my parents in the dream. “Just wash it off and cover it up.” The washing is a part of it. We must constantly be washed with the Water of God’s Word by spending time reading and studying it. But the disease will only be removed by coming before the Doctor for healing. As we spend time in God’s presence through prayer and worship, He will give us victory over the rotting sin in our lives.

I keep seeing these areas of compromise in my life. I want them to all be removed, not so that I can brag about anything, but so that I can love Jesus more fully. I know that He loves me the same in my immaturity as He would if I was perfect. But my desire is that there would be nothing that gets in the way of me loving Him. I want to be whole hearted in love for my Bridegroom. This is the reason I fight against sin, so that I can love Him completely.