TWO MESSAGES IN THREE PARTS

Part 1: My Defender and Deliverer 1 John 2:1,2

I love the title of this message. I am a hopeless romantic. Prince Charming has great appeal to me. With all my heart, I believe God put the longing for a prince in my heart. And God meets that need in me with my Faithful Defender, Jesus, interceding for me at the Father’s right hand declaring, against the Accuser, my righteousness in Him.  All in Him! Jesus is my Just Deliverer from sin.  Once for all, He took the punishment I deserve by death and took me into Himself. Delivered from penalty, I have access to the King of Kings with all the rights of His daughter. Delivered from slavery to sin, I am bound by blood, Jesus’ blood, to walk in newness and freedom by the power of the Holy Spirit.  I have a dance to do over this! Oh YES!

Looking over notes from this sermon, I’ve thought through the trying not to sin over and against the loving of righteousness.  Does trying not to sin precipitate works/legalism?  Is simply loving righteousness and grace in pursuit of God too passive? What is the balance?  Is there a balance?  Is there a difference between hating sin and trying not to sin?

God begins and finishes the good work in me, HE is faithful. Phil 1:6.  I know that “in MY flesh there dwelleth no good thing.” Rom, 7:18.  It is the pathway of least resistance to indulge my flesh. However, because my Deliverer has come and freed me, I have the Paraclyte, One who is an Advocate for me (1John),  and One who testifies in my spirit about that which I should do (gospel of John.)  God has given the solution to the war on me and in me on both counts. He is a Rescuer and Deliverer making provision for my eternal salvation and my daily walk with Him.

Sorry about for the lack of posting here this week...kinda busy!  Blessedly busy with  family, friends and food! I don't know if I will get this week's post revised before Sunday.  I still have a houseful and little computer time.
Let's keep studying and taking notes.

I am psyched for you all to come and fellowship here with us on Thursday!  Another holiday gathering!  I just love it!  If you haven't already, drop me a line to find out what you can bring along.  I will miss all of you who cannot attend. There will be another time, Lord willing.

Blessings on your days and weekends.

1 John 1 Debrief: Part 2

IF…

1 John 1: 6-10

Three negative conditionals and two positive ones used to have confidence in relationship with God.

The conditionals are presented because there is a choice to be made. Things could go one way or another.

Believers can say one thing and do another. This is the dichotomy of the conditions in 1 John.

THE SEPARATION OF SIN IS NOT PRACTICED

Verse 6: "If we SAY we have fellowship with Him, and WALK in darkness WE LIE and do not practice truth."

There is no possibility of having fellowship with God if we are doing something in the darkness.  We can SAY we do have fellowship, but it isn’t possible, so we are lying.  The sin (darkness) separates us from the light.  Physically, it is impossible for both darkness and light to be happening at the same time.  One or the other.  That’s it.

THE STROKE OF SIN IS NOT PERCEIVED

Verse 8:"If we SAY we have no sin, we DECEIVE ourselves and the Truth is not in us."

Sounds like John is refuting some doctrinal error.  We do get a sin nature, inherited from father Adam. ALL of us have this sin nature.

Romans 5:12 "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…."

That one man referred to in Rom 5:12 is Adam. 1 Corinthians 5:22 says: "As in Adam all die, so in Christ we shall all be made alive."

So, the deception comes in not believing the Truth about ourselves. Deception means to ”lead into error, cause to believe what is false or disbelieve what is true.” (Webster’s 1826 Dictionary) Hence, sin isn’t even perceived because of the deception.

THE STING OF SIN IS NOT POSSESSED

Verse 10: "If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

God says we have sinned. If we don’t believe it, disagree with it, we are calling Him a liar.  How arrogant!

Pastor Mike said, “Just because you don’t know or even believe you are a sinner, doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” That arrogance certainly can belie some ignorance, can’t it!

So now, if we go back to the two verses in which the conditionals are positive we see what the choice to believe and walk in the truth yields.

AN UNWAVERING CLEANSING STEP

Verse 7: "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."

The choice here has been made to walk in the light, where there is no darkness or deception.  There is agreement with God that we as sinners need Him. This yields: fellowship with other believers, which pleases God (Heb 13:16), and fellowship with God.  The Holy Spirit, who was convicting of sin, now comforts us in fellowship with God. What a relief!

AN UNFADING SOLUTION

Verse 9: "If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. "

This verse permits us to make the approach to God, agree with Him about sin, and claim assurance by virtue of HIS faithfulness and justice, for our forgiveness.  This is the long term condition of one relying on God, agreeing with God, walking in fellowship with God.

NOW, in the application of all this, two questions are asked:

1) Am I saying what I am actually living?

2) Am I cleansed in fellowship with God?

Each minute of my life I am choosing, whether consciously or unconsciously, to have a good attitude toward my life.  I am one of the ones produced by our culture that is always looking for relief from my present situation, looking to be made happier by stuff or situations.

I love getting my nails done and having make-up on.  These things are not inherently wrong HOWEVER, if I am relying on them to make me secure and happy, I AM WAY OFF BASE.

I struggle with looking for a way out of my everyday situations…all the time…not wanting to face the trials. You guys might wonder what kind of trials I have.  I mean to confess to you that my struggles are for the very most part, internal and emotional. My baggage comes in footlockers, not little bags. Sometimes an entire crate looms over my heart. Rejecting the God-shapen life I have been given is having my foot in the darkness.  Rejecting the people, relationships, living conditions, jobs; all by God’s hand, is sin.  And when I insist that they change or I cannot be happy in them, I’m sinning. You guys, it is a huge deal to keep telling God He made a mistake allowing a particular place, person or thing into my life.  I must accept them from His Hand as His tools to fashion me into the woman He wants me to be. It is that sovereignty issue again!

What a relief to know and believe 1John 1:9.  I think the constant struggle is exactly why this truth is so precious. God understands my frame and remembers I am dust.  Even in my wildest resistance, as a believer, He restores my fellowship when I agree with Him about it.

So, yes, to both these questions of application.  I am living what I am saying because I choose to believe, agree with, and act on the truth of God’s faithfulness and justice to forgive me through Jesus.

1 John 1 Debrief: Part 1

Hi All,

It has taken me several hours of debrief (that's what I call it when I rewrite and mull over my thoughts about a sermon) to put all of my notes and thoughts down in writing about 1 John 1 so far.  The debrief is so long, as a matter of fact, that I am going to do two posts, one today and another tomorrow, so it doesn't consume so much of your time to even read it, no less react to it.

Please know that if you think differently than I do on these verses, say so. We can have a discussion. I can be corrected, counselled and encouraged. I need it! So, without taking any more of your time today, here goes nuthin'!

Purpose of 1 John

1.  expose false teaching

2.  give assurance of salvation

John exposes the lack of morality and uses his eyewitness testimony to Christ to confirm the incarnate Christ.

Observation of 1 John 1:1-10

John immediately refutes the Gnostic idea that Jesus wasn’t the Christ but only seemed to have a body and was not the incarnate Word of God, by stating emphatically that he (John) was one who:

saw with his own eyes,

·         heard with his own ears,

·        handled with his own hands and

·        had a close relationship with Jesus

·        Jesus' life was made manifest* by the Father 

Jesus WAS the:

·        Word of life

·        Eternal life

·        God’s son

·        From the beginning

·        Made manifest*

·        Declared to them

·        Gave access to fellowship** with God

·        And as a result, fellowship together with other believers

·        Joy giver

This Truth was declared so that:

·        We may have fellowship together

·        We may have fellowship with the father

·        We may have fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ

·        our joy may be full.

The message declared is this: God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

*Manifest: plain, open, clearly visible to the eye and obvious to the understanding.

**Fellowship: communion, intimate familiarity

Our deepest (intimate) shared (communion) factor as believers is that of our shared redemption in Christ. It is our unity.

We also have a shared relationship with Christ in God.

·        We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit

We, in authentic fellowship with each other,

·        draw strength from one another

·        share service

·        share full joy that comes from the Lord

Fellowship can be interrupted by darkness: waning morality and ethics and dishonesty. This doesn’t break the permanence of relationship, though.

Walking in light sustains fellowship.

WHAT NOW?

YOU ARE INVITED!
Please come and share an evening of fellowship at our home on Thursday, December 2nd, at 6 PM for dinner together. Please bring your spouse, if you have one or if you so desire.  Mine will be there.  We'll provide the meat and drink, if you guys will bring some side dishes, salads and desserts. I hope each one of you and your spouses can come. It would bless us to have you here. I can't wait to see you. Please give an RSVP by Nov. 29th.

What now? I will keep this blog open for discussion and continued comment on any of the past posts. I'd like to use it on Mondays and Tuesdays to post the application questions those of us at CBC are challenged with by our pastor each Sunday as we study through 1 John.  Tuesdays, I'll post a summary of sorts that is produced by the group of ladies that meets on Monday evenings here at my home.  Then, the board will be wide open for commentary until the following Monday.

I know it seems to exclude those who do not attend CBC, but I offer you all the opportunity to challenge, comment and bless us with your input on any discussion.

I love you Ladies so much.  It means all the world to me to be here on this blog with you.  That's all there is to it. I'm staying...

TIMID TRANSPARENT TRUST

Hope and freedom can become a reality, Ladies.  Our faithful Father wants us to know Him, believe Him and hope in Him. As we cast aside our fear and worry and unbelief, no matter what, peace sprouts. Watered by the sacrifice of praise, hope is restored and blooms fully into restoration and we become that crown of splendor in our Master’s Hand.  There is a continual battle, yet we have One who is our Commander/Master yet Husband and Lover pursuing us and protecting us and going before us and hemming us in. In confidence, we can be free knowing God and believing Him. His sovereignty is right.

I have to confess here, that I deal with the fear that I cannot bear the sovereignty of God if it means being tried. As I have just taken the time to review all these posts, I realize, whew, these are deep waters of faith in which I tread.  Would you tread with me and take shelter with me in the shadow of His wings?

Oh, God, you know all our hearts. You know us and have searched us. You perceive our thoughts from afar. You are familiar with all our ways. Where can we go from Your presence? You created our inmost beings. We will offer You praise for Your wonderful works. How precious are Your thoughts to us. Search us, oh God, and know our anxious thoughts. Remember us, as you read our names in the inscription on Your Hand.  Thank you for that place where you collect our tears. We are desperate for You. We rejoice in You.  We magnify You and exalt Your Name! We bless you Lord, our souls, and all that is within us, bless Your Holy Name! You are Faithful and True. We love you back. Because of Jesus, Amen.

Changed by Relentless Pursuit: Part 2

  In the last paragraph of chapter 54, great confidence is gained by realizing that the Lord will lavishly rebuild us. He extends His restoration even further by proclaiming that our “sons will be taught by the Lord and great will be our children’s peace.” Vs13.  Anybody want to shout Hallelujah with me? We’ll be established in righteousness, His righteousness. His protection and defense are sure. And finally, by the end of the chapter, we have become “servants of the Lord”.  Remember Isaiah 43:10,12b,13,b? “You are my witnesses declares the Lord and my SERVANTS whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed nor will there be one after me…you are my witnesses…No one can deliver out of my hand.  When I act, who can reverse it?” I don’t know about you, but I relish the thought of being bound to Almighty God as His servant. The servant is the Master’s responsibility.  Our Master: He provides, He dictates, He protects. I’m in!  How about you?

Isaiah 62:1 states that God will not keep silent for our sake until our righteousness shines out like the dawn and our salvation like a blazing torch!  For our sake God will SPEAK AND SPEAK AND SPEAK his word, that we have in our hands and in our mouths and in our hearts, till our righteousness shines out like the dawn…our salvation like a blazing torch.

 

Psalm 37: 3-5 exhorts us to, “do good….delight ourselves in the Lord….commit our ways unto the Lord, trust also in Him.”  Then, what does He do?  He makes our righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of our cause like the noonday sun, our salvation will blaze like a torch!  This is pretty high drama!  He does this for the sake of changing our name to a name that the Lord Himself will give us. We will be called by others, “…the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord…Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted.” Isaiah 62:12.

Isaiah 62:1-5 proclaims extravagantly that we will become a crown of splendor, a royal diadem in the hand of our Master!  He will no longer call us Desolate or Deserted but Beulah (married) and Hepzibah (my delight is in her).  We are called this by our Husband, God who rejoices over us!  He is unrelenting when it comes to His Beloved, US, YOU, ME.  He is our ever faithful, ever-pursuing-us Husband. In this we do have hope. In this we do have redemption.  In this we surely can be transformed.

An Idea

As I study this morning, I got an idea from one of the concepts I am learning about systematic theology.  Systematic theology is the detailed, orderly exploration of what the Bible teachers about God.  Who is God? What is He Like? What can He do? What does He do? How does He act?
Here's the mission, if you so decide to accept it!  If you were to write an orderly explanation of what you believe about God, what six words or phrases would you list?  After you make that list, take inventory of how deeply you believe these things and if are they scripturally founded.


Are you in?  Come on and share if you can take the time!  I hope you can and will.  
I love you all so much.

Changed by Relentless Pursuit: Part 1

Barren woman, desolate woman…wife deserted, rejected, widow, afflicted.  Pitiful, isn’t it?  There is something in all those names that belies hopelessness and fear. Each one of us, I’m pretty sure anyway, can identify with one or some of these at one time or another. As I recall some of our testimonies, these sure fit. But I am here to move us in, in the matchless name of our Savior, to see that these names need not describe us any longer. Hope and courage, Ladies!

“The Lord will call you back, as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit; a wife who married young, only to be rejected, says your God.” Isaiah 54: 6. 

Do you see how intimately God sees our hearts and understands our emotions? Bewilderment…. Abandonment will be remedied by compassion’s Seeker. I don’t know why, but I have this vision of the Lord cupping my face in His warm strong hands, looking deeply into my eyes and heart and with comfort and compassion saying, “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back.  In a surge of anger, I hid my face from you for a moment but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer.  To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.  So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again.  Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Vs 7-10

I think we need to look at the Lord’s discipline from the perspective that He is ALWAYS loving, ALWAYS  good, ALWAYS just. 

Have you ever had one of your kids throw a tantrum and refuse your correction?  Sometimes you just have to wrap your much stronger arms around them and hold them fiercely, waiting till they exhaust themselves, so they will hear and submit.  Sometimes you have to go a couple of rounds with them till they submit, but it is fruitful in the end.  God’s discipline is right and good.  He understands why we flail, and loves us despite the battering He might get from kicking legs and flailing arms and banging heads.  REALLY! 

I know you guys are busy so I want to make this post short.  It is the first half of what I've entitled, "Changed by Relentless Pursuit."  I promise the last of it on Monday.  It is so exciting!  I love you all so much! You don't know what it means to me to be here with you.

FOR FUN

OK, Indulge me....I did this on a blog last spring and it was so much fun to see what was written.  Here goes and I hope you can take the time to give us some insight into just who in the world you really are!
List 10 things about yourself that the rest of us wouldn't know.
 Here are some of mine:
1. I'm just as gray haired at 53 as I was at 40....VERY!
2. Cooking and feeding someone is my love language and watching people eat my good food is as good for me as most anything.
3. My husband and I read books together about things we don't talk about to anyone else.
4. I have had 6 kids all individually weighing more than 10 pounds.. Three were over 11 pounds,
5. I lived to tell about #4.
6. I have a vision of my kids and theirs and theirs all shining with the Light of God in their eyes.
7. I have an ugly laugh face and a REALLY ugly cry face. However, I do both frequently.
8. I love having my nails done.
9. You get what I mean....share, OK?  OK!

ALTARS

Last night, CBC had Trunk or Treat night in their parking lot.  I heard that 67 cars/vehicles were parked to greet the community and boy, did they ever come!  It was a blast, too.  I sat on the ground in my jammies to read bedtime stories to the littlest characters who would listen. Only a few could sit long enough for all that sugar overload. But oh, it was so darling…and hysterical too!  I got a fit of laughter to see the one little guy dressed as one of the Martians with three eyes from Toy Story.  Sheesh, he was so adorable!  I pray that all those CBCers showed Jesus to those families, and that some may come to ask questions in light of eternity for themselves and their kids.

Today’s post resumes the topic of hope and restoration in the New Testament and our part in it. It involves our choice in our response. Now, I realize the reluctance in our hearts to praise while everything in our guts and surroundings still looks impossible. “Are you kidding? I’m supposed to praise You, Lord, while… (you fill in the blank…) is happening to me every day? or for the hundredth time?  or while no one cares to help?

What looks too large for our God to control and overcome in our lives? Offer a sacrifice of praise in the face of the desolation and difficulty. The doxology in Rom 11: 33-36 (go ahead and get it out and read it) recalls the character of the Almighty and finally Paul exhorts in chapter 12:1,2, “in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is  your reasonable act of worship.”

Hebrews 13:5,6 reminds us that God will never leave us or forsake us, the Lord is our helper,  and in verses 12-14 that we have an accessible high priest that brings us hope.  Then comes the exhortation to, “therefore, continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name and do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices, God is pleased.” Vs 15-16

It is a sacrifice to praise while we are called desolate; to burst into song while still barren. But God, “because of His great love to us, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up in Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-7

I know it is hard.  That’s why it is called a sacrifice! But, when the emotions of fear, shame and humiliation of the desolate and barren; body, soul and spirit, are put aside, shame will be forgotten, reproach of widowhood will be no more. Praise and a life of worship, faith and walking in joy…they are our REASONABLE acts of sacrifice and worship with which God is pleased. Let's place that sacrifice of praise on the altars of our lives

BECAUSE….our Maker is our husband the Lord Almighty is his name, the Holy One of Israel is our Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.  He knows and He is worthy.