Ongoing Sanctification (Correction of last post)

2 Thess. 2:13 "But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits[fn] to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth."

There is much debate over sustainable salvation.  Regardless of your beliefs on this subject, we would all agree that a lack of attention to maintaining an ongoing and increasing relationship with Jesus is a dangerous thing.  Let's focus on the last seven words here.  "The Spirit and belief in the Truth."  Sanctification is clarified as an ongoing process that is maintained through two very important things.  First, we see that the Holy Spirit accomplishes sanctification.  We can't sanctify or set apart ourselves or anyone else.  Only the indwelling and active Holy Spirit in us can accomplish this.  Joined and working in conjunction with the Holy Spirit is our faith or belief in the Truth.  We can't believe just anything and be sanctified.  Sanctification only occurs, as we are filled with the Holy Spirit and believing according to the Truth of the Scripture.  Trying to make God adjust His truth to fit our understanding does not release a life changing power.  Coming to God without full understanding is often a true functioning of faith.  I choose to believe God's unchanging truth.  That faith releases the active and ready Holy Spirit to deepen the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  May we open our hearts today and ask the Holy Spirit to complete His work of sanctification in us.  Don't settle for a mediocre existence in God.  Keep pressing toward His full potential in and through you.

Why Me!?

Most of us have used this two word phrase as a question and as a exclamation at some time in life. It can mean that you are happy or upset based upon the inflection in your voice and the attitude of your heart.  I have used it both ways.  After experiencing an unbelievable blessing I have used the phrase in amazement, "Why me!!!"  I didn't really care in that case because I was just happy I received a blessing.  I didn't need to understand.  Then there is the agonizing use of the phrase..."why me?" This is usually when we search for some understanding.

When we ponder the "why" it gets confusing.  Often the negative "why Me's" in my life came after I made some dumb decision, a bad choice.  I set into motion the principle of sowing and reaping and I didn't like the harvest from my actions.  Then there have been the wonderful times of reaping good things and I didn't know why. Why me!  I realize that by now you are getting dizzy trying to follow all this.  I want to point out two important parts of this deliberation.  First, the principle of God's grace comes into view.  There is a sovereign working of God in our lives that is always leading us toward His highest and best.  At times that "best" seems to our understanding as wonderful and it is easily embraced.  At other times that "best" seems to be negative or painful and we don't want to have anything to do with it.  All these things, regardless of how they feel to us, if surrendered to God in faith result in our good, our edification in time.  The older I get the more I come to believe that God does not want to be complicated to us.  He wants to make our approach to Him as easy as possible.  Yet, God and His purposes are much more complex than we can possibly comprehend.  The second thing that is critical to our success is that we must choose ahead of time, even now, that we will trust that He is working things out only to our good in line with His ultimate plan for our lives.  It is impossible for us in our finite understanding to fully comprehend the plan of the infinite wisdom of our loving God.

Understanding can be the Lord and Master of our lives.  When understanding rules, we live very limited lives.  We might be saved and going to heaven but lives here on earth can be restricted to what we can understand rather than what we can believe.  Jesus was addressing this dilemma in Matthew 19:26 "But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” When Mary was confronted with the Truth that she would be the one chosen to bring forth the birth of Jesus she didn't understand but she responded with, "be it unto me according to your Word."  May God grant us grace to live by faith beyond our understanding.  

Live Looking!

"He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him." ( Hebrews 9:28 NIV)

Hebrews chapter 9 tells us that Jesus is our High Priest, the only priest that could settle the sin problem once and for all.  He settled your sin problem and my sin problem.  The ransom for our salvation was paid when Jesus cried out, "it is finished."  No longer would an earthly priest need to go every year into the earthly Holy of Holies to offer up a sacrifice for the atonement for sin.  Jesus was the mediator of a new covenant that was much better than the old.  After he finished the work on the cross and fulfilled prophecy by his victorious resurrection from the dead, he ascended back to heaven and took his seat as Victor at the right hand of the Father.  What is our part in this story of redemption?  As simple as it sounds, our part is to believe that the price Jesus paid is enough.  There is an old chorus that says, "there's nothing else that I can do for Jesus did it all!" Remaining faithful to that faith commitment is a big task.  Not that we lose faith but faith and faithfulness are two very different things.  Faith can be a spontaneous thing and faithfulness is a moment by moment decision to believe and remain steadfast in our walking out our commitment.  Faithfulness is a never ending journey!  That doesn't mean that we don't have struggles in our faith.  That doesn't mean that we don't have to pray the prayer, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief."  The final faithful tests comes on That Day when Jesus returns and we are still "fighting the good fight of faith."

Our text today tells us clearly that, "He will come again!"  Hallelujah, He is coming again.  When He comes He won't come to deal with our sins.  That has already been completed.  Yet, there is a final step to our salvation process that will prepare us to live in the Presence of God for eternity.  Our total salvation transformation will come when we SEE HIM!  That means that while some will be caught off guard by the second coming of Jesus, the Messiah, it won't catch true believers off guard.  Our daily faith gives us a daily awareness of His Presence and it will be an alarm that will alert us to His pending arrival.  This verse tells us that this final step of heavenly preparation will come to those who are "eagerly waiting for him."
Don't let that bother you.  That doesn't mean that we should be sitting in the park passing each day with our natural eyes straining toward the sky.  A living daily faith allows us to be faithful in our daily lives while our spirit man remains on watch for His appearing.  If you are living by faith in a living relationship with Jesus, you are prepared for His Appearing.  Like a radar screen scanning the skies so is your spirit ready for that day.  Are you ready for Him?  It is all about your living relationship with Jesus.  If He is alive in your heart, you will see Him on that day!

Too Soon Old Too Late Smart

I'm tempted to believe that the most intelligent people are the quietest people. Of course those of you that know me personally know that I talk way too much.  I'll leave the conclusion in your hands!
My point comes from an observation through a lifetime of people watching.  Of course we must introduce wisdom into this conversation.  I have met many really intelligent people who had very little wisdom.  Wisdom is a balance of intellect and experience that hopefully brings a person to wisdom.  Wisdom then when drawn upon makes the right decision.  What causes a person to get the right answer from the formula experience+intellect=wisdom.  I believe it is discipline or self control.
A disciplined person must take the right answer and apply it in life.  Our world is filled with people whose problem was not that they didn't know what was right, they just didn't have the self control to do the right thing.  Then there are even Christians who have Jesus inside and still reject doing right because they have never trained themselves to chose rightly and act in obedience with that choice.

Hebrews 5:14 (ESV) "But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."  As followers of Jesus we improve as we go by obedience.  Notice the phrase, "trained by constant practice."  I love that!  The more we hear and obey the better we become at "distinguishing between good and evil."  That should bring wisdom.  Wisdom comes from seeking after wisdom out of our experiences.  Then, the more we learn, the quieter we seem to get.  I asked a lady about 90 years of age, "what have you learned in your long life?"  She quietly said, "too soon old, too late smart."  I hear volumes of wisdom in those 6 short words!

Living On Auto-Pilot

Many years ago I was flying with my friend 

S. C. Barker in his private plane. He was making some short ministry trips with me and spoiling me with custom air service. We made several great trips together. On our first trip he demonstrated his computerized auto-pilot capabilities. It was amazing to see how after take off you could set the auto-pilot to a specific destination and it would take us there with ease and accuracy. One day while leading a marriage counseling session I thought about my experience with the auto-pilot. The couple with whom I was working had been married quite a few years. Now after years of smooth sailing they had hit a rough patch. They made a common mistake of thinking they had navigated the tricky waters of marriage formation and now it was all clear sailing ahead. They had wrongly assumed that marriage could be put on auto-pilot and therein was their error. No marriage or life in general can ever be put on auto-pilot. Whether it's marriage, life or business the auto-pilot mode is a crash waiting to happen. Many years ago I adopted a life slogan that has worked well for me. "The thing that made you successful will keep you successful." As soon as you stop investing into your marriage and/or endeavor you begin to deteriorate. That is critically important in marriage and certainly in your relationship with the Lord. Maybe it is time for you or someone you know to turn off auto-pilot and get back involved in flying the plane. 

Refiners Fire

Romans 8:28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 

This verse may be one of the most quoted verses in the Bible.  We love to make placards of it and place it in our homes as a decoration. It makes us feel good!  Yet, a closer observation shows that the verse begins with "And".  That is a word we use to continue a thought or to give more explanation to a thought.  We must back up and get the full meaning of Paul's thought.  Just prior to this verse the words tell us that the Holy Spirit helps us with our weaknesses. Paul tells us that we don't even know how to pray but the Holy Spirit helps us even in our praying.  The true meaning of this verse is not one where we can simply pick it out and in our human filtering think that it means that all that the Holy Spirit allows and causes will feel "good."  It says it will, in the end, work together for good.  Then a few verses later we read that the real purpose in all this is to conform us to the image of Jesus.  Taking a carnally minded person who cries out to God, "make me more like you", and conform them into the image of Jesus is a life long, often painful process.   We get a glimpse of how the Lord accomplishes this task in Mal. 3:3 "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."  He causes the fire of circumstances in our lives to burn away the impurities and all that does't look like Jesus until He sees his reflection in us. Our part is simply to allow the fire and the dealing while we are in process.  God give us the faith and patience to trust you especially in difficult days.

He sat by a fire of seven-fold heat,
As He watched by the precious ore,
And closer He bent with a searching gaze
As He heated it more and more.
He knew He had ore that could stand the test,
And He wanted the finest gold
To mould as a crown for the King to wear,
Set with gems with a price untold.
So He laid our gold in the burning fire,
Tho' we fain would have said Him 'Nay,'
And He watched the dross that we had not seen,
And it melted and passed away.
And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright,
But our eyes were so dim with tears,
We saw but the fire--not the Master's hand,
And questioned with anxious fears.
Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow,
As it mirrored a Form above,
That bent o'er the fire, tho' unseen by us,
With a look of ineffable love.
Can we think that it pleases His loving heart
To cause us a moment's pain?
Ah, no! but He saw through the present cross
The bliss of eternal gain.
So He waited there with a watchful eye,
With a love that is strong and sure,
And His gold did not suffer a bit more heat,
Than was needed to make it pure.

Weight and Counter Weight

As a new believer many years ago I heard that we should live our daily lives as if Jesus were coming back today, but we should work like we had another one hundred years.  I think that is still sound advice.  We should be living our personal lives in such a way as to do nothing that would weaken our conscience so that we have faith to meet the Lord today.  Yet, we should be busily engaging life in the fullest. 

Too many believers fail to make a contribution in life and use as their excuse that they are focusing on heaven rather than earth.  When we grasp the truth that each of us is here on this planet with a purpose, much like the life of our Lord Jesus, we cannot lean on that kind of thinking.  While we all as believers have heaven as our destination, we are called by Jesus to “occupy till I come.”  That Greek word for occupy means,  “to busy oneself with; to trade.”  That means we should get up each day with a purpose and plan.  We should be the most energized and productive people around.  The reason for our motivation is the reality that we are here with a divine assignment and commission.  We are not motivated primarily by money and fame.  These two things could be used to increase our productivity while here in this life.  Yet, regardless of our success here we never lose our connection to Him and his divine plan for our future.  This eternal perspective keeps us grounded here.  It is like the relationship between weight and counter weight.  The most secure place on the scale is the center of the balance.  Our challenge is to remain in faith in the Lord and his ongoing plan.  Today in this busy, pressurized and practical life don’t lose the reality that it is only another step in His eternal journey. 

The Origin of Power

Just as our identity is found in the revealing of God’s identity, so is the loss of our strength the discovery of the headwaters of God’s strength.  It is a difficult thing for us to grasp the revelation that God only starts when we stop.  We actually hate the thought!  We would rather believe that God rewards the one whom, like a mighty warrior, conquers new territories as a champion in the name of the Lord.  This thinking fit nicely into the same thinking that says, “the end justifies the means.”  Of course we know that is not true.  History is filled with all kinds of horror stories of people who in the moment violated what was right to be successful.  In the same way we struggle with the thinking that God actually wants us to come to the end of ourselves in order to find His power.  We can serve the Lord an entire lifetime and accomplish great things that make people applaud, yet without the blessing of God. 

How do we evaluate our own position in this respect?  It is a good thing to step back from the daily fray of activities and reevaluate our goals.  What is it that we are trying to accomplish?  How will success appear?  Is the finish line for which we are striving really the legacy we want to leave?  It is a good thing to take a hard look at our heroes.  Whom do we try to emulate?  Whose strategies do we actually apply in our life work?  That is huge in revealing what we truly believe.  We may read of worshipful Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus but we seldom stop our frantic activities to follow her example.  We believe there is more value in the work of Martha than the worship of Mary.  Martha probably would not have broken the costly fragrance bottle to apply it to the feet of Jesus, and then wiped his feet with her hair, her glory.  Mary did.  Mary understood something about the secret beauty from brokenness.  It is a rare and lonely place for us to arrive where we see our emptiness as the beginning of His fullness.  I’m not talking about the lazy, immobilized attitude of the cynic.  I’m talking about the thoroughbred standing at the starting gate quivering to run.  He has been trained and is ready for service.  Yet, he is trained to never move without the release of his master.  When the others dash from the gate his standing looks like failure to the crowd.  Yet, in waiting he is the only one who will receive the blessing and the empowering of his Lord.  It is he who will accomplish what the natural alone could never realize.  Yes, we may impress many people and leave monuments in our wake.  Yet, the Lord is looking for those disciplined and trained few who are willing and able to empty themselves and wait for the anointing of His empowering for the task. 

Do You Know Him?

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13

Being with Jesus had turned Peter and John into something that was marvelous!  Unlike spending time with other people, spending time with Jesus was so transformational that even their enemies marveled.  The cost of every relationship is the time invested in it.  To know someone is to have spent time with them.  Of course when I ask the question, “Do you know Him”, the answer is subjective.  It is relative.  People can say that they know me, and they might but Teresa knows me in a more complete way than anyone else.  We can all know Jesus but there is a level of knowing that moves beyond the social into the supernatural.  It is like knowing no other!  The Apostle Paul said, “that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection.”

Not everyone who is named as a Christian knows Him.  I have been asked to perform many wedding ceremonies in my life.  I stand up front leading the service of participants who all have differing levels of relationship with the families of the bride and groom.  The congregants are there to celebrate the marriage.   There are bridesmaids and groomsmen closer to the ceremony itself.  Then there is the maid of honor and best man who serve the bride and groom during the ceremony and celebration that follows.  As a minister, I lead the couple in their vows to God and to one another.  When the ceremony and celebration ends, only the bride is allowed to enter the bridal chamber with the groom, her new husband.  The period of engagement, the season of promise, is over and now it is intimacy, consummation that makes a relationship a marriage.  Without intimate consummation, there is no legal marriage.  The two must become one.

“And he said unto me, Write, ‘Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” Revelation 19:9.  Yes, there is an event ahead of us in time called the marriage supper of the Lamb.  At the end of this age, there will be a gathering when the King of Glory, Jesus, will come as a humble but victorious Lamb to take His bride, the Church by the hand and escort her into His Father’s house.  Preparations have been made.  The Church, the bride, will be gathered to meet her husband, her Messiah.  It will be a time of consummation that for us at this time is unfathomable.     Yet it will occur.  We shall then know Him like we have never known Him.  But are we to wait until then to know Him?  Are we to just remain in an outward friendship, a casual acquaintance with Jesus until then?  No!  We must know Him now!  For those who think that this life only holds a place of relationship with Jesus that is merely ceremonial or ritualistic, they are missing the very life flow of the Holy Spirit.  Paul promises that the Holy Spirit brings us as believers into a place of intimacy that edifies us in the here and now.  Actually, intimacy with Jesus is critical to enduring the days ahead.  Religious services and activities won’t suffice to get us to a place of overcoming in this life.  Looking for others to talk to Jesus for us is empty.  There is a place of strength, increasing strength in His Presence!  There is also fruit that comes from intimacy with Jesus.  Genesis tells us, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived…”he “knew” her.  This kind of intimate knowing, like the bride and groom in the secret private marriage chamber, produces fruit.  If our lives do not produce real Jesus like fruit, we must question our intimacy with Him.  That should not bring fear or anxiety.  It should bring a greater desire to draw near to Him, and His word has promised that He will draw near to us.  He is no respecter of persons.  Don’t be afraid to invite Jesus into your life with greater intimacy and obedience to his will than ever before.  Do you know Him? Only you can answer that question.  He is waiting on your invitation.