FAITH LOOKS UP! -- Colossians 3:2

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Yesterday, the message of "seeking things above" was presented.  The next verse in Colossians 3 mimics that same idea.  This is what it says:

"Set your minds on  the things that are above, not the things that are on earth."  (Col. 3:2)

In order to seek what is above, we must take a critical first step.  We will have to reprogram our minds and the way we think about these "things". We must train our minds to be set on the things of God, rather than on the things of this world.  The flesh looks around our world to see what it is that  we desire for ourselves.  But faith looks up; it desires the things that God desires.

My problem with living out this particular Scripture passage is this:  I know I should seek the things of God and set my mind on them.  I say that I should seek them. And I often teach others, as well,  their need to look up and to seek after the eternal things (even as I am teaching you right now). But to actually put this into practice in my day-to-day, even moment-to-moment life, well let's just say I typically fail, and fail miserably in practicing this.

It is true that there must be a shift of focus (Col. 3:1), but before there can be a true shift, there must be a firm and decisive choice,  to choose God over the lust of the eyes, flesh, and world.  For us to change our focus from looking around us to looking above to God, we must begin to practice a "line in the sand"  type of theology, making a right decision, choice by choice.  The line in the sand can be called the "choice line." On one side of the choice line is what is of this world; and on the other side is what is of the Spirit.  This is the scenario for every choice we will make.  There are no other choices.  

So if we will set our minds on what is of the Spirit, first and foremost, then we will have a greater ability, and even a greater desire, to begin to seek what is above.  Revival comes to a heart and life that is determined to be set on the God-things that it seeks, attempting to keep our mind from returning to a place where it seeks the world's things again.  The God-things will never be found on earth.  They can only be found where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. That is the place of the "above".   Faithful followers of Christ will learn to walk through life looking up!  

Are you looking up, or are you looking around you?  Above or on earth?

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!

Christ, Our Example Of Endurance

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)

"Our call to holiness will require from us a run of endurance, a race in which we do not waver, but continue to obey no matter what trial, temptation, or test comes our way.  And lest we think such laying aside and endurance is impossible, we need only look to Jesus.  He is the One on whom we must focus our sights while we run this race.  He is our ultimate example and witness because He has endured the cross.

This is what Jesus did when He endured:  He endured [with unimaginable pain and sorrow] our hostility while we were still sinners, walking in the shame that we deserved.  As His children, now we can endure our trials without becoming weary and losing heart.  Now we have the power to attack our sin issues by obedience to the Word in full surrender to the One who showed us how to endure.  Have you ever considered that?  Jesus endured on the cross for us so that we might endure as we take a stand against our most besetting sins and stumbling blocks today.  And He did it by focusing on the joy that was ahead of Him, His triumphant return to the Father and His eternal home.  Should we be focusing on anything else but Christ and eternity in Heaven?  By setting our focus on Him, we can endure until we gain triumphant victory over our sin.

We will never endure as completely as Jesus did, for He resisted to the point of shedding blood.  Even if we persevere in surrender and obedience, we will never work so hard as to shed blood as Jesus did.  No one has or ever will resist sin to that degree.  But it is still our duty and our responsibility to be about the removal of sin and stumbling blocks from our Christian walk with the desire to overcome, master, and gain victory over what satan has used to entangle us."

As I quote this from the book the Lord gave to me, I am challenged once again as I contemplate my level of endurance in 'fighting the good fight.'  By introspection, I can clearly see so many areas in which I am still either fighting in my own strength, or worse, not fighting at all.  To consider the unfathomable lengths that Christ went to in order to pay the penalty for my sin, I am broken-hearted to find, once again, that I am falling short of the mark when it comes to overcoming the sin that has wrapped itself around my heart, choking out the life of Christ within me.  I am faced with my own lack of surrender to the process of sanctification, and that points, with far too much clarity, to my disobedience. 

Maybe you are finding yourself in that same place.  If so, would you join me today by flexing your spiritual muscles through a prayer of repentance, telling God of your desire to completely turn and face Him as you turn away from your entangling sins?  Will you surrender in humility with me today to our ever-enduring Savior as we seek Him and ask Him, once again, to take over the reins of our lives, and live His through us?  Will you set your laser-sharp focus on Jesus with me?

Taking Aim

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Numbers 1: 47-54

Israel had now been in the wilderness just over one year.  Having stopped for a lengthy period of time at Mt. Sinai to receive the Law, God  told Moses and Aaron to count all the men who were old enough, and able enough, to go to war.  But there was one particular group that God did not want counted--the family of Levi.  He was setting them apart from the rest of the men to serve Him as priests of the Tabernacle. 

Beginning that day everything concerning the Tabernacle of His dwelling would be the work the Levitical priesthood was charged to do.  They would fight battles on a different front than the battalions God now was counting.  They would soon be waging war between a just God and the sins of all Israel, through their worship and their sacrifices and offerings on the altar.

But their work assignment involved so much more than that. For the priests, everything that they would do was to be focused primarily on God.  They were the first ones who would completely order their lives around God.  He clearly had designed it that way.  Not only would they be taking care of the tabernacle and its laver, altars, sacrifices, lampstand, table of showbread, veil and ark of the covenant, they were to station their tents immediately around this tent where God dwelt.  And when God said it was time to move to the next place, they would be the ones to pack up "God" and take Him with them.  God was, in all reality, at the center of their lives, for everything they would do was related to "keeping charge of the tabernacle."

Oh, believing friend, how this life is ours today as well!  As part of the royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9), we now carry the tabernacle of God in our hearts!  It is now our calling to make Him the very center of all that we think, say, and do.  God intentionally designed the lives of the Levitical priests to focus on and center around Him, creating a picture for us of what it means to be part of His royal priesthood now. Your hearts and mine are the very tabernacle of God!  How well are you keeping charge of your heart?  Is God the "bull's eye" of all you think, say, and do?  As His children, we are to keep Him in the center, the target we are aiming at in all things. 

Reach over your shoulder and pull an arrow from your quiver.  Set it in the string of your bow. Carefully, pull back the arrow, taking aim by aligning the point of the arrow with the bull's eye.  Now, gently release the arrow.  Did you hit the target? 

At the end of this day, count the number of arrows that hit the target.  Then count how many arrows you shot.  How did you do?

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 6

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Day 6:  Simeon  (Luke 2: 25-35)

How long Simeon had waited.  For his whole life he had been waiting!  In his wait he had been transformed into a holy man.  Two words described him accurately—righteous and devout.

Many years had been spent learning as much about his God as was humanly possible.  He never missed going to temple, where he sat under great scholars who interpreted the Scripture in a way that he could understand.  Simeon had learned so much through the ancient fathers of the promise, and the prophets’ words had taught him to be watching constantly for Israel’s consolation—the Holy One, the Messiah.  Because of his deep longing for God and his desire to know Him, Simeon had found favor with God, a favor that not many men had experienced.  This favor had produced a Power working in his life that he didn’t completely understand, but he had certainly learned to depend on it.  This Power had clearly spoken to him a message of hope—that he would not die until he had seen with his own eyes the very Messiah he knew was coming.  From that day on, Simeon’s hope in seeing Messiah was the foundation of all that his life entailed.  It was his only focus.

One day that same Power urged him with great persuasion to go immediately to the temple.  Long ago Simeon had learned to obey that powerful inner Voice, and he made haste to go to the temple at once.  Upon arriving, he contemplated the message of the Voice.  Why was it so necessary for him to be at the temple right now?  Anticipation filled him as he waited for God’s revelation on the matter.  And then the most  amazing thing happened!  In walked a man and his wife carrying a baby swaddled in linen cloths.  As his eyes landed on the infant, he knew at once!  This is the One!  Messiah has come!  Taking the babe in his arms, he blessed God for the fulfillment of His faithful promises.  Salvation had come to earth, a Light for the Gentiles and the glory of Israel.

Is the hope of seeing Jesus the motivation of all you do?  How much time are you willing to invest in studying God’s Word to know Him?  Are you attending studies on a regular basis where you can be instructed about God and the things of God?  Are you hearing and responding in obedience to the inner voice of the Spirit? What does your walk reveal?