ON STARTING MY 48TH YEAR

There Are Worse Things Than Getting Older...

 

A 48 year old fixing a faucet.

    “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy New Year!  My birthday isn't the first of 2012, but the thirty-oneth of December.   I spent the morning and early afternoon finishing up my visit to my cousin and her husband, and drove home.  I got home at about 7:00 PM on Saturday, so I spent a lot of my day in transit.  I've had 47 birthdays before, and there is little new, so traveling was actually a nice change for once.   I have two short years left before the big FIVE-ZERO, but I've learned quite a bit in my short 48 years of life.  I'll share eight of the greatest things God has taught me in 21 years of being a believer...

• Jesus really does overcome our sin and our sin natures.  He does this by taking us to death on the cross with him.  When Paul writes, "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me," he isn't kidding, he is dead serious.  God gives us a new nature, one born of his own Holy Spirit.   Die daily to self, build up the new inner person, allow Christ to indwell you through the Holy Spirit, and Christ living in you will overcome your nature.  Jesus says, "...I have overcome the world."  Invite Jesus to enable you to die, and then invite him to live his life in you.   Try it, and see what you get.   "...We know it when we love God and obey his commands. ³ Here is what it means to love God. It means that we obey his commands. And his commands are not hard to obey. ⁴ That's because everyone who is a child of God has won the battle over the world. Our faith has won the battle for us.  ⁵ Who is it that has won the battle over the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."  1 John 5:2-5 (NIV Reader's Version)

• If you screw up, God can and will fix it.   I do not know what it will cost for God to fix it when you screw up, but when you screw up ask God to fix it, and see what you get.   I'm not you so I can't tell you how God will deal with you when you screw up.  It may be the worst sin in the world, from your perspective, but God can fix anything we screw up.  It may cost you something, it may cost you a lot, and it is assured you will be humbled.   God will fix your screw up, if you will only ask, and willingly do whatever he tells you to do.

 

• God still speaks.  Yes, he speaks most often through his written word, but sometimes there isn't a verse of Scripture from which to speak.  God isn't going to give you some new revelation; you're not going to be adding to the Bible.   How do I know God still speaks to us, even outside the Bible?  Simple, because the Bible tells us so...  "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."   John 10:27.   You may say, "Today God only speaks through the Bible," but you are only depriving yourself of God's voice.   Only a fool would dare tamper with the word of the living God in such a way.  Do not attempt to limit God, for you only succeed in limiting his power in your life.  God still speaks, but are you listening?

"...early Christianity was not a 'religion of the Book,' but rather 'the religion of the Spirit and the living Christ'"

~ The Biblical Canon, page 33.

"I think that, for the most part, evangelicals have taken the easy way and chosen to chase the Holy Spirit into the Bible."

~ Roger E. Olson, Professor of Historical Theology

{Thank you, Cousin James, for these quotes!  And Happy belated Birthday on the oneth!!!}

• Hatred wins nothing.  Christians may say, "Hate the sin, but love the sinner," but these "christians" are almost always dishonest (I can say, without fear of correction, that everyone I've met who used that quote was lying!!).   Those I've met who said, "Hate the sin, but love the sinner," showed they only loved hating the sin, if not blatantly hating the sinner as well.  Jesus tells us to love our enemies, because when we love our enemies God is able to show us they are really just a reflection of ourselves.   The only way to overcome hate is with love.  Jesus says of our enemies:  ⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."   Do you see that?  Jesus says,  ⁴⁴ "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven."   Loving our enemies proves we are the children of God!   And what is the last statement Jesus makes,  "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."   Jesus absolutely connects love for enemies with the perfection of God!   Jesus isn't making an empty statement, he's commanding us!!   Of course it is impossible for us to be perfect, so Christ makes us born again, and then indwells us, so that he may perfectly love as our heavenly Father does in and through us.  Still angry about 9/11?  Still angry with Muslims?   Still itching for revenge against the people's the United States has made war against?   What does Jesus tell you to do?   What is Jesus' command?  What is the proof Jesus requires of those who are God's true children?

"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

"The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

“That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

• God heals your relationship first with himself, then with those in his and your born again family; the Church.  Finally he pours out his Spirit upon us that we may offer healing and wholeness to a hurt and dying world.  Don't shove your own relationships under the rug, in the name of "helping others".  Allow God to reach in and begin fixing you, your relationship to him, and then the relationships in the Church.  The family of God is where we learn to love; our Christian brothers and sisters are the guinea pigs, before we approach a hurting sin filled world!    Today nearly everyone in the Church is as broken and dysfunctional as the world.  How can the broken and dysfunctional fix a broken and dysfunctional world?!   Reaching out to the world is a part of your growth and healing, but get some house cleaning done in your own house, before tackling the world's mess.

• Jesus Christ's own definition of a Christian is "one who is obedient".  Don't believe me?  Then you've not been reading the Bible, because Jesus is very clear.  Jesus own words:  ³¹ "To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  John 8:31-32.  Honestly, how much more does Jesus have to say?   Jesus says, *IF*, **IF**, NOTICE JESUS SAYS,  "IF"...."If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples."   What do you think it means "IF" you don't hold to his teachings?!   "IF" means, "IF you don't hold to my teachings, you are not really my disciples!!"  1) Die daily to yourself, your ways, your selfish desires and pursuits, "put off the old self along with its deceitful desires..."  2) "Put on the new self, created to be like Christ".  3) Ask God to enable you to obey him, and 4)  Obey the teachings of Jesus.   Which teachings of Jesus do you obey??   Start with:  "Love God and your neighbor as you (already) love yourself."   "Do to others what you would like them to do to/for you."   "Love your enemies." (see above.).   "Love one another; just as I have loved you, you must love one another."   "Go into all the earth and make disciples of all nations."   Obey these lessons, and God will give you understanding as to how to keep all the others.  

• Give of your income and of your time in service.  Don't give me any of this nonsense about tithing isn't for the Church.  I'm not talking about keeping a law!  I'm talking about a very central part of God's own character.   The greatest verse on giving in the Bible is not in the Old Testament.   The Christian gives because of John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,..."  God gave ALL of his wealth; God gave ALL of his treasure!  For what could God give or create which would equal the value of his only Son??!!   Giving isn't law, it is the heart of God!   Start out with 10%, but don't ever stop there!  Give offerings to any in need, and it doesn't have to be an established ministry of some kind.  You can give offering to a homeless person in need.  You can give offering to a family whose house has burned down.  You can give offering to the person who has a flat tire and no spare!   It is God's heart to give and this is the only reason you ever need to give.  Do you want to know and have God's own heart beating within you?    THEN GIVE TO STRANGERS WITHOUT EXPECTING ANYTHING BACK, AND WITHOUT ANY STRINGS ATTACHED!!!   10% is only the beginning...

• Temptation is not sin.  I'm tired of hearing "christians" whining about their struggles and temptations.  Being tempted or having a terrible thought, pop unannounced, into your head is not sin.   If you pursue the temptation, and/or allow the thought to take root and become your thought, then you are in sin.   "Everyone born of God overcomes the world..."  "If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation; the old has passed away.  Behold everything is made new."   "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."  "But we have the mind of Christ."  "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."   Get it?  GOT IT?  GOOD!!  Temptation is going to be there for the rest of our lives, but that doesn't mean we have to accept it, or allow it to define us and control us.   Satan doesn't have a weapon to use against you if you are in Christ; a Christian.   The Holy Spirit once told me to listen to the language of temptation.  I'd always thought pictures would pop into my mind and that was the extent of most temptation, but as I obeyed the Spirit, and actually listened I learned something very important about temptation.  Temptation is a backhanded accusation.  Indeed a picture would suddenly pop into my head, but then I carefully listened, and sure enough there was a snide whisper along with the picture.  I could hear, "You know this is what you really want,"  or  "Take this, you know it belongs to you."   NO!  Sinful thoughts do not belong to me!  Why don't sinful thoughts belong to me?   "If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has passed away..." 2 Corinthians 5:17.   I am a new creation in Christ, and I DO NOT think sinful thoughts any longer.  Sinful thoughts do not come from the new nature born of God's own Spirit.  The Holy Spirit indwells my new born spirit, and it is impossible for such thoughts to begin in my mind.   Ephesians 4:22-24:  ²² "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.    NOW SEE HERE!  If you can't "put off your old self,"  why does the word of God say you can!?!?  If you are stuck with a messed up sinful mind then why does God's word tell us, "...be made new in the attitude of your minds..."???!!!  If all you are is a "sinner saved by grace," and you have no choice but to sin, then why are we told "put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."???!!!  IT IS IN THE BIBLE BECAUSE GOD HAS MADE YOU A NEW CREATION, AND THE OLD HAS TRULY PASSED AWAY.    1) Put off the old self.   2) Renew your mind with God's holy truth.   3) Put on the new self, created BY God, TO BE LIKE God, and walk in the Spirit, so you don't sin against God!   IF IT ISN'T POSSIBLE THEN GOD IS A LIAR!!!   And we know God is not a liar...."Let God be true, and every man a liar."   If you aren't going to believe the truth: A) that God has made you a new creation, B) seated you with Christ (right now), and that C)  because God has given you a new, born again spirit, made to be like Jesus Christ; and that God is right now conforming you to the image and likeness of Christ; and God has created you anew, so that you overcome the world...then perhaps, just maybe?, could it be possible?, you might want to consider... you do not have faith in the overcoming power of Jesus Christ and that would leave you:

   D)   Dishonoring God!  Doubting the power of God's grace!!  Denying the sovereign power of Christ to overcome sin!!!  

JUST SOME THOUGHTS