" He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Cor 5:21
Really read this verse. Today's comments will be short because I believe this verse is so powerful and thought provoking. God made Christ "to BE sin", not just to take our sins on Himself, but He became sin itself, the nature of sin, the heredity of sin, He took it all on and put it in Himself to bring mankind back to the beginning, before the fall of man, so that we might commune and walk with God individually without judgement. Then the verse goes on to say that CHrist did this that we might become the rigtheousness of God...not that we could be seen as righteous but that be would become righteousness itself. We are to be the embodiment and vessel of God's righteousness. How powerful and awe inspiring are these statements to you? Really take it in. How humbled I am this morning.
BLessings to you and yours.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Regneration
When it pleased God...to reveal His son to me." Gal 1: 15-16
Allowing the Lord Jesus to regenerate our nature as individuals and move into a place of complete surrender to His nature, His spirit, namely the Holy Spirit is a daily sacrifice and battle in a Christian life. The Redemption that Jesus Christ is able to give us is able to put into each of us His nature, replacing the sinful nature that was born into us from the first fall of mankind. We are to strive daily to come to the place where we are at the edge of our needs and limitations and then recognize God's effort to place into us the nature of Christ. It took one man to first sin and create the human condition. God allowed His own spirit to be made man in Jesus Christ to redeem us from it. The Holy Spirit is here to teach and guide. We must be still, listen, know and follow. Allow yourself to be broken and remade into something slightly more beautiful each time.
Blessings to you and yours.
Allowing the Lord Jesus to regenerate our nature as individuals and move into a place of complete surrender to His nature, His spirit, namely the Holy Spirit is a daily sacrifice and battle in a Christian life. The Redemption that Jesus Christ is able to give us is able to put into each of us His nature, replacing the sinful nature that was born into us from the first fall of mankind. We are to strive daily to come to the place where we are at the edge of our needs and limitations and then recognize God's effort to place into us the nature of Christ. It took one man to first sin and create the human condition. God allowed His own spirit to be made man in Jesus Christ to redeem us from it. The Holy Spirit is here to teach and guide. We must be still, listen, know and follow. Allow yourself to be broken and remade into something slightly more beautiful each time.
Blessings to you and yours.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
We Can't Stay in the Moutain Top
"..Jesus took them high up on the mountain apart by themselves..." Mark 9:2
This study is one that allways makes me a bit nervous. Because I know that the calm and peace that is surrounding me now cannot last and a new trial will begin. Right now things in my life a very peaceful and relatively calm. I do not know if I am on the "mountain top" but I am certainly on my way up and most certainly am not in a spiritual valley. However we cannot stay in peace time forever. Right after Jesus took his disciples on the mountain, he took them back down and they lifted up the demon possessed people in the village of the valley. So is our spiritual life. The same God that watches in our trials is the exact same God that holds us in the storms and the same God that celebrates with us in our triumphs. The key is to let him celebrate with you, recognize His power and praise Him in each everyday triumph. He loves to be loved. and just like us its the "little" things that count. You may find that your BIG victories get bigger by loving Him, snuggling up and cuddling Him in the smallest of ways on a daily basis.
Blessings to you and yours.
This study is one that allways makes me a bit nervous. Because I know that the calm and peace that is surrounding me now cannot last and a new trial will begin. Right now things in my life a very peaceful and relatively calm. I do not know if I am on the "mountain top" but I am certainly on my way up and most certainly am not in a spiritual valley. However we cannot stay in peace time forever. Right after Jesus took his disciples on the mountain, he took them back down and they lifted up the demon possessed people in the village of the valley. So is our spiritual life. The same God that watches in our trials is the exact same God that holds us in the storms and the same God that celebrates with us in our triumphs. The key is to let him celebrate with you, recognize His power and praise Him in each everyday triumph. He loves to be loved. and just like us its the "little" things that count. You may find that your BIG victories get bigger by loving Him, snuggling up and cuddling Him in the smallest of ways on a daily basis.
Blessings to you and yours.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Becoming Wine
Colossians 1:24
For this study today I will use the devotional writing of Oswald Chambers. He had brilliant insight and I find my reading today quite inspiring and thought provoking.
" We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us tremedous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose and we say "Here am I Send Me". This call has nothing to do with sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to us to crush us. ...He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us....If we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed - you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine when they are squeezed. I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, the wine would have been remarkably bitter.....Stay with God and let Him do as he likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children."
Blessings to you and yours.
For this study today I will use the devotional writing of Oswald Chambers. He had brilliant insight and I find my reading today quite inspiring and thought provoking.
" We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us tremedous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose and we say "Here am I Send Me". This call has nothing to do with sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to us to crush us. ...He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us....If we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed - you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine when they are squeezed. I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, the wine would have been remarkably bitter.....Stay with God and let Him do as he likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children."
Blessings to you and yours.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Awareness of Your Call
"...for necessity is laid upon me, yes woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!" I Cor 9:16
Today's reading was concerning one's personal "call" from God, the awareness of it and the complete surrender to it. Paul's calling was to preach, as read here in Corinthians. To point of this verse is that nothing else should compete for your strength once your "call" is recognized it should be a pull, a drive in you and you be made miserable if you are not serving and following your personal "call" from God. We each have one..the key is knowing it and not being jealous of someone else's call. Too often we wish we could preach, teach , sing, etc... the more"in view" calls from God. But there are so many different ways He can call you to serve and use your gifts He has given you. Each is as important as the other if they are used in the right way and in harmony. If you are serving and following your "call", the rest of your life will be in harmony as well.
Have you struggled with this? I know I have. I would love to share and to hear your experiences.
Blessings to you and yours.
Today's reading was concerning one's personal "call" from God, the awareness of it and the complete surrender to it. Paul's calling was to preach, as read here in Corinthians. To point of this verse is that nothing else should compete for your strength once your "call" is recognized it should be a pull, a drive in you and you be made miserable if you are not serving and following your personal "call" from God. We each have one..the key is knowing it and not being jealous of someone else's call. Too often we wish we could preach, teach , sing, etc... the more"in view" calls from God. But there are so many different ways He can call you to serve and use your gifts He has given you. Each is as important as the other if they are used in the right way and in harmony. If you are serving and following your "call", the rest of your life will be in harmony as well.
Have you struggled with this? I know I have. I would love to share and to hear your experiences.
Blessings to you and yours.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Ready, Willing, NO Hesitation
My passage for today is Luke 57-62. In this passage Jesus is speaking to several men bidding them to come and follow him. Each expresses that he will follow Jesus wherever He goes, but when Jesus says "Ok Lets Go"...they have excuses to wait. One wants to say goodbye to his family and friends etc.... another wants to wait until his brother is buried. The Lord then says to them that if you are called to Go, then you are to Go without hesitation or reservation, never questioning or looking back.
If you are anything like me...this sounds harsh, even hurtful. One guy wants to go to his brothers funeral and another wants to say goodbye to his loved ones. These sound like quite reasonable and sincere request. I think the Lord God allowed these examples to be placed in the Bible for a reason, of course. It is to let us know that nothing and no one are to come between us and Him and His calling for us. Neither family nor friends, no matter how deep our loyalty lies with a relationship here on earth, our relationship with Him should always take priority. This will be hurtful at times, to ourselves and others we love however in the end ALL things work together for our good. That is a promise from God. This lesson can be a hard one to learn. Have you had an experience with this? I would love to hear about it and how you felt, what you did???
Blessings to you and yours.
If you are anything like me...this sounds harsh, even hurtful. One guy wants to go to his brothers funeral and another wants to say goodbye to his loved ones. These sound like quite reasonable and sincere request. I think the Lord God allowed these examples to be placed in the Bible for a reason, of course. It is to let us know that nothing and no one are to come between us and Him and His calling for us. Neither family nor friends, no matter how deep our loyalty lies with a relationship here on earth, our relationship with Him should always take priority. This will be hurtful at times, to ourselves and others we love however in the end ALL things work together for our good. That is a promise from God. This lesson can be a hard one to learn. Have you had an experience with this? I would love to hear about it and how you felt, what you did???
Blessings to you and yours.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
LIstening to the tiny Conviction
Matthew 5:23-24
These verse state that if you go to give an offering to the Lord but you have a conflict in your heart, go and fix that problem, then come and give your offering. We often look to give up a BIG something in our lives, or do a BIG work, a BIG display of faith, a BIG sacrifice. However it is the tiny things that the Lord most often convicts us of and often we are unwilling to admit and confess those sins. We want to maintain control over our own self. To surrender ALL of us is the key to continual growth in Christian life. Too often we are satisfied with where we are in our relationship with God. Let us strive to not be satisfied.
blessings to you and yours
These verse state that if you go to give an offering to the Lord but you have a conflict in your heart, go and fix that problem, then come and give your offering. We often look to give up a BIG something in our lives, or do a BIG work, a BIG display of faith, a BIG sacrifice. However it is the tiny things that the Lord most often convicts us of and often we are unwilling to admit and confess those sins. We want to maintain control over our own self. To surrender ALL of us is the key to continual growth in Christian life. Too often we are satisfied with where we are in our relationship with God. Let us strive to not be satisfied.
blessings to you and yours
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