Sunday, July 14, 2013,
6:28 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with this song:
Nothing Can Separate
Us / An Original Work / March 28, 2013
Based off Romans 8:28-39
Nothing can separate
us
From Christ’s love now
within us:
Not trouble, hardship,
nor famine,
Nor danger, nor sword.
No, in all of these
things
We are more than
conquerors!
For your sake we face
hardship.
We are sheep to be
slaughtered.
I am convinced that
death,
Nor life, nor anything
else
Will separate us from
The love of God now in
Christ.
What, then, shall we
say to this?
God for us: who
against us?
He who did not spare
His Son
But gave Him for us
all –
How will He not, with
Him,
Graciously give us all
things?
Who brings a charge
against us?
God justifies His
chosen.
Who is He that
condemns?
Christ Jesus; died,
rose again.
He’s at the right hand
of God,
Interceding for us.
Speak, Lord, your words to my
heart. I read 2 Corinthians 10
(NIV):
By
the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid”
when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! I beg you that
when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people
who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in
the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are
not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to
demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets
itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to
make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of
disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
You
are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ,
they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. So
even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for
building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it. I do
not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. For some say,
“His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his
speaking amounts to nothing.” Such people should realize that what we are in
our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.
We
do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves.
When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with
themselves, they are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond proper
limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has
assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. We are not going too far in
our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as
far as you with the gospel of Christ. Neither do we go beyond our limits by
boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to
grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can
preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about
work already done in someone else’s territory. But, “Let the one who boasts
boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved,
but the one whom the Lord commends.
The standards of this
world
Paul was being accused by his opposition of being bold
toward the believers when far away from them, i.e. through writing, perhaps,
yet timid when he was with them face to face. The goal of the false teachers,
who were standing in opposition against Paul, was to discredit him and to bring
into question his apostolic authority. If they could get the believers to doubt
Paul’s calling of God, and his teaching, then they could possibly lead the
followers of Christ to follow them, instead, and to adhere to their way of
teaching and believing.
Paul, too, was being accused of living and ministering according
to the standards of this world, and by people who were comparing him and were measuring
(assessing) him by themselves and by their own standards, behaviors, thoughts
and attitudes. I think it is probably not uncommon for those who don’t
understand us, and why we do what we do, to evaluate us based upon their own
reasons for doing what they do. Yet, this is not wise, and it is certainly not
just or fair. We don’t all think alike, and we are not all motivated by the
same things. Just because one person does something for the wrong reasons does
not mean that everyone else who does the same thing also does so for the wrong
reasons.
For instance, if someone is sold out to Christ; committed to
his service, desirous to obey him in all things, obedient to his or her calling
of God, and passionate, enthusiastic, persistent, faithful and dedicated to the
Lord and to the spread of his gospel, he or she might be tagged hyper-religious,
insane, having addictive personality disorder, full of him or herself,
prideful, arrogant, a know-it-all, wanting attention, and/or of doing so out of
habit or routine (like a ritual). Or, what he or she does may be minimized and
trivialized as unimportant. Those who make such accusations do so often because
they can’t identify with the person in his passion for God, and so they judge
those servants of the Lord by their own thoughts, behaviors and motivations, or
by the standards of society as a whole.
Then there are also those who think we SHOULD be living by
the standards of this world, and of the worldly church. They think we should
join the world in doing some of the things the world does just so we can
connect with them, have something in common to discuss with them, and just so
non-believers don’t think we are holier-than-thou kind of people, even if it
means taking in a little “dirt” every now and then. So, we are judged, too,
when we take a stand for Christ and decide to come out from the world (of sin)
and be separate.
Not as the world does
Paul’s response to these accusations was to explain that,
although we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. In other
words, we are not all manipulative, deceitful, addictive, prideful, arrogant,
full of ourselves, conceited, or desirous of human attention just because we
follow the Lord Jesus Christ in obedience, and in the power and strength of the
Lord Jesus within us we allow Christ to live his life out through us each day.
It is truly possible that there are believers who honestly, sincerely and with
child-like faith obey their Lord out of pure love and devotion for him and not
for some devious or addictive reasons. Not everyone has an angle. Not everyone
is trying to give some hidden message. There are many, like Paul and Timothy,
who just love their Lord and they want to obey him because they love him, and
because they love their fellow humans and they want them to have eternal life
with our Lord Jesus, too, and to grow in their faith and to turn from sin.
So, instead of waging war against Satan and his evil forces
the way the world contends with their “competition,” or the way in which the
world tries to win “converts” to whatever it is they are trying to win people
over, we use spiritual weapons of warfare (See Ep. 6:10-20). We use love,
kindness, honesty, sincerity, integrity, truth, the word of God, Christ’s
righteousness, the gospel of Jesus Christ, faith, and the hope of our salvation
to fight off Satan’s attacks and to win people to faith in Jesus Christ. We don’t
use gimmicks, deception, and emotional manipulation, and we don’t do so for
some type of ego trip. We tell people the truth in love about their sin and
what the word of God teaches about our need to turn from sin and to walk in
faithful obedience to Christ, only as empowered by the Holy Spirit of God
working within us in transforming us into Christ’s likeness, as we cooperate
fully with that work by yielding the control of our lives over to Jesus Christ.
So, if there is anyone reading this who is presently being
judged of others in such an unfair and unjust manner, as was Paul, I would
encourage you to just keep trusting in the Lord Jesus. Take every thought
(fear, trouble, etc.) captive and make it obedient to Christ, i.e. don’t let
Satan get the best of you, and don’t be disheartened by false accusations,
rejection, persecution, and/or abandonment. If we are truly Christ’s disciples,
then we have his promises that he will never leave us or forsake us, and that
nothing can ever separate us from his love. In fact, we are more than
conquerors through him who loves us and who died for us, so we never have to
fear humans or what they think or say about us. We need to not believe Satan’s
lies, and we need to listen to the voice of truth. Nothing can happen to us but
what God has allowed it for a purpose, and he will use it in our lives for our
good – to strengthen, encourage, and mature us in our faith, so that we will
persevere in following Christ Jesus despite all opposition Satan throws our
way. So, be encouraged!
Do Not Fear / An
Original Work / June 2, 2013
Based off John 14
Do not let your hearts
fear.
Trust in God. Trust in
Christ.
“In My house you will
find
Many rooms I have
Prepared for you,
And I will come back
And take you to
heav’n.”
“I will take you to be
with Me;
You’ll be where I am.”
“I am the way and
The truth and the
life.
No one comes to the
Father,
Except he comes
through Me,
So put your faith in
Me,
And do all of what I
command.”
“Whoever has My
commands
And obeys them loves
Me.”
“I did not leave you
as orphans.
I sent you the
Counselor;
The Holy Spirit to
live in you.
He teaches you all
things,
And He reminds you of
Me.”
“My peace I give to
you,
So do not fear, trust
in Me.”
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