DEARLY BeLOVED child of God,
You are valuable for who you ARE, not for what you do.
The end.
Precious Father,
I ask that each person who reads the above statement will really understand in their heart of hearts what that means. Thank you that Your answer to my prayer is yes and amen.
Prov. 18:21 "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."
James 3:2-6, 9-10 "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, withersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that is defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so."
Eph. 4:31-32 (NLT) "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you."
I Peter 2:1 "Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings."
Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, my heart is so burdened this morning for us as God's children! We so badly need a deeper understanding of how much power we really do have. God says our tongues can do things-powerful things!
Our tongues can bring death. They can speak lies, and allow Satan an entrance into a situation, because he is a liar and the father of all lies. And when Satan comes in, he brings death. (John 10:10) Our tongues can speak criticisms and discouragements and blame and slander, and in doing so, bring death to our relationships, our homes, our churches, our testimonies for Jesus, and ultimately, in our spirits.
But our tongues can bring life! They can speak truth, love, encouragement, and kindness into situations that look and feel impossible. Jesus came that we might have LIFE, His life. And He gave His life to us "more abundantly!" We have vast stores of goodness and truth and love at out disposal! And God has called us to use them!
But we have to choose what we are going to do with our tongues moment by moment. God never forces us to obey or honor Him. He WANTS us to and will help us to, but we have to decide to.
So let's have more Jesus and less lies. More Jesus and less blame. More Jesus and less unkindness. More Jesus and less gossip. More Jesus and less death.
LET'S HAVE MORE JESUS AND MORE LIFE! MORE OF HIS LIFE!
What does your salvation mean to you?
Maybe it means nothing to you because you don't know what I'm talking about. If that's the case for you, I invite you to email me and give me the privilege of sharing what it means.
Maybe it means very little to you: it was just something that you did as a child because your friend did it.
Maybe for you, it was just a fire escape. Some preacher scared you with loud words about hell and you didn't want to burn someday, so you repeated a prayer after him, not really understanding what you were doing.
Maybe for you, it was all about getting that preacher to stop singing "Just As I Am' for the 50th time, because you had figured out that he wasn't going to stop until SOMEONE went to the altar to pray.
Maybe for you, it really WAS a sincere heart-cry on that day, but it really hasn't changed much of anything since then.
But in reality--in God's reality--our salvation should mean EVERYTHING to us. It should touch ALL of who we are. It should effect our physical bodies, our emotional state, our thinking process, our purpose in life, our possessions, our relationships, and much more. Everything that concerns us should be rooted in the truth of our salvation. Our salvation wasn't just about the day we got saved. The power of God to save us from sin wasn't just enough power to work on our behalf in that moment and then we are left to fend for ourselves in this world and figure it out alone.
Look at the truth in Rom. 5:10. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Notice the progression. At the moment of our salvation, the power of God changed us from being an enemy of God to being a child of God. That, my friends, is a stand-up-and-shout-hallelujah moment!!!!
But that's not ALL we got! Look at the rest of the verse. "MUCH MORE, being reconciled (having already become a child of God), we shall be saved by his life!" Much more!!! The moment of our salvation is just a moment. But there will be a bazillion moments after that one! And God provides for ALL OF THEM! Our salvation affects EVERYTHING!
Or at least it should.
Go with me again into my Bible reading in Psalms 78. Look at what those silly Israelites were doing in verses 17-21! God had delivered them from Egypt. He had given them bread, AKA manna, or angel's food. He had provided water. God says He gave them "meat to the full." He provided everything they needed. But what does the Bible say about them? "They sinned yet more...by provoking the most high." "They tempted God." "They spake against God." And ultimately, WHY did they do those things? Verse 22 says, "Because they BELIEVED NOT God, and TRUSTED NOT in his salvation."
Wow.
They didn't trust the God who had saved them from death by the Egyptians. They didn't trust the God who saved them from death by starvation. They didn't trust the God who saved them from death by thirst. They didn't trust. They didn't believe. They didn't depend. THEY DIDN'T TRUST HIS SALVATION.
And before we go any further criticizing these TERRIBLE PEOPLE, let's remember that we are related to them. We are related by nature. And we are related by practice. Because we do the same exact things. We trust God to save us from sin, but we don't trust Him to save us from this world or from Satan or from the worst of our enemies, ourselves. We believed God's power to save us initially, but we haven't given Him or His provision for us anymore thought since then.
Beloved, God's power to 'keep on saving us' after the moment of our salvation is summed up in two little words in Romans 5:10. Those words are 'HIS LIFE.' God's life. The life of Christ. The Holy Spirit IN you. And God's life is beyond any limitations. It is 'much more' It is 'abundantly above all.'
So today, let's be less doubtful, and more sure. Let's be less confused, and more clear. Let's be less afraid, and more trusting.
Let's be less dependent on ourselves, and more dependent on God!
Recommended Reading: The Saving Life of Christ, by Major W. Ian Thomas
For a while now, I have been reading through the book of Psalms. It has taken me while to even get where I am, because I am not reading just for reading sake. I read in order to REALLY KNOW my God. Every morning when I sit down to read, I ask the Holy Spirit to lead me into those things that God would have for me. That is one of the 'jobs' of the Holy Spirit: to take those things of God and impart them to His children. I Cor. 2:10-12 A couple mornings ago, I started into the 78th Psalm. That morning, the voice of my God became unto me as it is described in Revelation 1:15, the sound of many waters. Truth after truth kept coming to me, and I had to ask the Lord to extend His unfailing mercy and grace unto me and allow me to take one thing at a time. We have an awesome God, y'all. He is HUGE! I was in this place of awe when I wrote the blogpost "The World Versus the Period." But I digress.
Another one of the things that the Holy Spirit gave to me that morning was a reminder that the OT is FULL of word pictures that point to future truths. In verses 15 and 16 of Psalms 78, we see reference to things that took place when the Isrealites were on their journey out of Egypt to the Promised Land, specifically, the water that came from the rock. As I read those verses, I was reminded of many other passages that refer to Jesus as the Rock. I Cor. 10:1-12, Luke 6:47-49, I Cor. 3:11, Eph. 2:20-22, Ps. 28:1, II Sam. 22:2, and Ps. 62:1-2 are just a few of them.
But think with me about what the Bible says happened in verses 15 and 16 of Psalms 78. It says, "He clave the rocks." Clave is an old word we don't use much anymore. It simply means something was split, or even more simply, something was broken. The rock was broken. And when the rock broke, water came out of it to give the Isrealites a drink. This passage says that "He brought STREAMS also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like RIVERS."
This is a perfect picture of Jesus and the Holy Spirit! Jesus is the rock. And in many verses in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is referred to as water, my favorite right now being John 7:38(Notice how closely Ps. 78:16 matches John 7:38).
Jesus was broken. He DIED.
But because He was broken, the Holy Spirit was poured out. If Jesus hadn't been broken, the Holy Spirit wouldn't have been poured out.
But all this is also an admonition to us, to those of us who claim we are "Christians.' If we want to be vessels that are fit for the Master's use(and we should be, because THAT is why Jesus saved us), we have to be broken. We have to die. We have to die to sin and self. Because when we aren't broken, when we aren't dead to sin and self, the Holy Spirit does not flow out of us. And the world around us NEEDS those streams and rivers of the Holy Spirit. Our spouses need them. Our children need them. Our friends need them. Our coworkers need them. Our churches need them.
Don't be afraid to be broken. Know that when God breaks away from you those things that are hindering His flow in you, He is clearing the way for more blessing. Less of you-more of God. Let us allow Him to clear out our channels.
Imagine something with me for a moment. Imagine that you are sitting at your kitchen table or on your living room couch. You have before you a piece of paper that you just wrote a sentence on. If you were a good English student, you put a period at the end of the sentence. Look at that period. It is small, almost unseen, and most of the time, unnoticed.
Now think about the size of this world. You live in a house that is bigger than you. Your house is smaller than the street or road you live on. Your street or road is just a small portion of the town you live in. Your town is part of a county, which is part of a state, which is part of a country, which is part of a continent, which is part of this world. Cute, little you is miniscule compared to the size of this world.
Stay with me a little bit longer and imagine shoving that whole world INTO that period that you put at the end of that sentence that you just wrote on that paper. Think about that for a couple of minutes.
If you are a child of God, that is what God's life in you is like. It's like taking something as huge as the world and trying to shove it into that period. In reality, it's more like taking the WHOLE UNIVERSE and shoving it into that period. But you get my point.
We have a HUMOUNGOUS God, brothers and sisters! We can afford to be small. We SHOULD afford to be small. Because God can, and will, put all of His huge self into all of our small selves, if we will let Him. If we will surrender to Him, we WILL be that period bursting with the hugeness of the universe of God!
Let us allow the Holy Spirit to clear out our vessels, so we can be a more appropriate channel for Him. Let us be less, so that He can be more.
Hi! My name is Lynn. I just want to share one small fact about me, a fact that prompted me to start this blog:
I L-O-V-E Jesus! He is to die for!
Literally.
Because He died for me. John 3:16 He paid the debt that I owed because of sin. Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and rose again the third day in order to redeem me back to Himself. He replaced the dead life that used to live in me with His new life. I received eternal life-God's quality of life. And, wow! What a quality it is!
Learning about God's life in me is an adventure. It is a daily journey. Some days are thrilling! Some days are surprising. And some days are just plain hard.
But all the days teach me one thing: I must die so that Christ's life can be effective in me. I must surrender to the workings of this God that I love in order for Him to be who He wants to be in and through me.
Hence, the name of this blog. John 3:30 has LONG been my life verse, and I mean it to be applied to the very core of my being.
I told someone recently, "I love Jesus DESPERATELY, and I WILL DIE to please Him." Whatever He asks of me, I want to do. Even if it seems hard.
But the truth is that dying to myself brings God's life closer. And getting to see God's life, and watching Him teach me about Himself, is awesome. It literally brings me to my knees in awe, filled with praise and worship.
And I want to share some of those things that God teaches me here. I want to share them with others. I desire for others to know this God that gives beyond our wildest imaginations. I want others to know that dying to self is TRULY gain.
I need to ask one thing from you, brave reader. If you read here something that you can't or don't believe, I'm begging you to pray for me. Pray that the Lord gives me light. We have a big God, and sometimes words fail. Sometimes it's difficult to find the right word or phrase to appropriately explain the things God teaches me. Other times, I get so excited about something that I write it down in haste. Then I go back and reread what I wrote, and think, "Wait, that's not quite right."
All I want to communicate in this place is that God is good, that He is good to me, and that He loves us ALL desperately!
My prayer is that maybe some of the things the Lord teaches me will be an encouragement to you, even in small ways. If so....
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
