I am back!!!!

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I know it has been a long time since I have posted a blog, and I have missed it so very much.  Now that my summer projects are nearly completed, I am back!  And I am excited to share with you what the Lord has been teaching me this summer.

Last May, after teaching my Ladies Group at church on Colossians 3: 1-17, I challenged them to take the summer and attempt to memorize the entire passage.  Realizing that it would just be completely "wrong" for me to ask it of them, and not follow through myself, I set out with a little notebook and a sincere desire to memorize the passage and hear what the Lord would speak to me about it. 

Now here is the embarrassing part.  I love the Word of God, but I have never been very interested in the memorizing part.  I am quite sure that the Lord would have loved for me to be memorizing along with my study, but I never thought that it was for me.  What a shame!  I have found it to be a delight to my soul, and I will be aiming at memorizing more complete passages in the future.

Colossians 3: 1-17 is chocked full of meaty tidbits that every believer should not only know, but LIVE!  This passage is to be walked out!  It is a challenge to even the most seasoned Christian, but none-the-less, it is part of our holiness training.   The closer look at this passage leaves me with just one question, "What would happen in the world if every believer took these words to heart, surrendered themselves to the Holy Spirit within, and just allowed Him to live it our through them?"  I know what the answer is:  REVIVAL in us and the opportunity for the lost to see Christ!

So let me begin, taking one verse at a time, and I pray that the Lord will be revealing more to you than what I share.  I will not be going into great detail, but instead, just offering a morsel to think about, just a few comments from my little journal.  I pray that we will all heed the call and be challenged to actually begin to live the life that Paul is describing.  

Colossians 3: 1     "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

I spend far too much time seeking the things that are here on earth.  What do you seek?  If you are like me, the first thing that I am going to have to do to  "seek the things that are above" is change my focus.  I tend to look out and around, but Jesus is saying, "Look up!  Look where I am!  I am sitting next to My Father.   You must train yourself to set your eyes on Me and My Kingdom."  

Now, to me that means a shift in all of my thinking.  It means that I will have to change my gaze in order to have a correct view --  a view of what is eternal.  When I change what I think about, then that automatically should bring about a change in what I focus on.  So, my "seeking the things above" means that I will have to think differently about the things all around me, my circumstances, my feelings, my desires....well, I think you get the point.  I will have to stop thinking about me.  And you will have to stop thinking about you.  I recorded it this way in my journal:  

"The constant seeking of things of the earth, the worldly chase of money, position, notoriety, prestige, beauty, power, acceptance . . . must end and be replaced with the search for the godly and the eternal.  There must be a shift of focus."

Though we do not often live like we have been raised with Christ, we have already been.   Our life as believers has already been translated out of this world, and into His world.  We should then have Heaven on our minds, even while we are still living here on earth.  

This is a good place to begin, looking up to the Heavens and seeing ourselves there, not here.  It seems that this one small shift of focus makes it more than possible to change how I think and act here while living day to day.  Would it change the way you think and act?  Maybe we should give it a try!

Your Journey To Intimacy With God

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

"Out of God's great desire for us to walk in a deep and intimate relationship with Him, one in which we begin to turn over our entire lives to His full control, He woos us by His Spirit to walk through the Door of Jesus.  We are saved through our belief in Jesus when we walk through that Jesus Door.  We then claim His sacrifice on the cross at the bronze altar as His act of sacrifice on our personal behalf, and we are baptized in the cleansing water found at the bronze laver, whereby we associate ourselves with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.  This is our Outer Court experience, but it is not the end of our journey.  It is not the goal.  It is not the place of the greatest intimacy.

As we continue to make our way through the Tabernacle, our journey takes us into the Inner Court.  It is that place where we begin to grow up in our faith.  It takes some believers (like me) many years to pass through that particular door because we are content with our Christian life in the Outer Court, just the way it is.  Others begin to grow right away, flourishing in the Holy Spirit, in the Word, and in pure worship to the Lord.  No matter into which category you happen to fall, the Inner Court is a place where you will become even more intimate with the Lord by way of walking in the Spirit, delving more deeply into the Word, and by learning to worship in both Spirit and the truth found in the Word.  Our growth will be evidenced by our greater fruit.  But this fruit is not limited to the ministry that God has given us to do.  We must also focus on the fruit that will grow inside of us, the very fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.  The Inner Court will be the place in which we identify, confess, dispossess, and take full vengeance on those actions and attitudes that do not line up with the Word and the Spirit.  It is also the place where we will learn to follow the commands that are found in the Word.  The door into the Inner Court is a "cross-roads" in our journey to the Holy of Holies, one which will determine if we will take the easy road (and stay in the Outer Court) or adjust our course, choosing to take the narrower path.  If we choose that narrow path into the Inner Court, it is there that we will be aligned and adjusted in our hearts to the good and perfect will of God, and begin to obey His commands with our whole hearts.

A marvelous thing happens when we are consistently seeking to turn our whole lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ through our confession of sin and the surrender of our will to His.  Through deeper study, a closer walk with the Spirit, and worship from a much more pure heart, we discover moments of great intimacy with the Lord such as we have never before experienced.  These are indescribable times of joy that only flow from a heart that is chasing after the God who can restore it.  This is the experience of those who have chosen to pass through the veil, crucifying their own flesh and will, and step into the Holy of Holies.  This is spiritual healing and intimacy with Christ!   And ultimately, our earthly level of intimacy will grow exponentially when we see Him face to face in Heaven!

The Tabernacle is where we meet Jesus.  It is where we identify our lives with His.  It is the place where we give Him the rule of our broken lives, tarnished with sin.  It is whee our intimacy with Him grows.  The Tabernacle is a picture of the journey of a true believer, and it reveals the relationship that we are currently having with Jesus!"

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 26

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Day 26:  The Two Criminals (Luke 23: 32-33, 39-43)

The beatings and the trial were now behind Him, but the cross still loomed ahead of Him.  While Simon of Cyrene carried His cross, the two other convicted criminals carried their own crosses to Calvary.  Yes, death was just a few hours ahead.

Crucifixion was a torturous and horrific way to die.  But Jesus kept His eyes fixed on the goals:  the sacrifice to be made once and for all, salvation that would be available to the whole world, and a chance for all to have a personal and real relationship with the Father, the Spirit to come, and Him.  But He also focused on the glorious moment that He would return to His Father and be Home again.  But what would lie ahead for the two criminals?  What were they thinking about on the way to their deaths?  What did they have to look forward to?

As Jesus and the two men hung from their trees of death, some of the rulers, the commoners and the guards began to hurl insults at Him.  Even one of the criminals joined in.  “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us!” he sneered, laughing an evil laugh.

“How could he say those things?” the other criminal thought.  The sheer audacity of that sinful man!  It just doesn’t make any sense that he would be demanding to be saved from the consequence of his own sin!  How could he so blatantly speak out such evil?  Did he not fear God Almighty?

Finding his voice amidst the pain, he had to speak.  “The punishment we received is just and fair for us.  We did what was unlawful and hang here today because of our disobedience.”  Then looking directly into the eyes of Jesus he said, “But this Man, He has done nothing wrong.  Jesus, please remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”  Seeing into the man’s heart, Jesus answered him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

Are you looking for Jesus to save you out of the circumstances of your own sinful life, expecting Him to change them?  Or are you recognizing your sinfulness, confessing it to Jesus, and letting Him change you?