Who Are YOU? - 08/07/2016

WARNING PREACHY …

Considering identity.

Who are you: do you know?  Many people may not.  Identity is not just a matter of designation (i.e. your name), but it is a matter of what you are (the essence of your being).  Because of this, your identity is more of a spiritual aspect of who we are than a physical one[1].  And because of this, when we have a wrong understanding of our own spiritual identities, we can experience many malfunctions in our physical lives.

Follow me here.

If all my life I am told by people that I am ugly, worthless, and good for nothing, does that make it so?  If my parents withheld love from me (which was not the case) does that mean I am unlovable?  If the devil whispers in my ear that I am no good and that God is angry at me because I have broken all of the 10 Commandments (twice), does that mean that I am no good and that God desires my destruction?  No, whether we believe something to be true or not does not make it so.  The only thing that matters is what is true, and our faith in that.

The Truth will set you free.

³⁰ Even as he spoke, many believed in him.  ³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  (John 8:30-32)

The Jews were held captive by the Law.  They believed that if they followed the 10 Commandments, and the religious duties of the Jewish religious system, that God would be happy with them.  All of their lives they were taught the Jewish religious system, and when Jesus came on the scene, proclaiming a grace that came from God alone, many would not hear of it.  Unfortunately, the Jewish story is actually so often the reality of us all.  Too many of us are held hostage by the wrong narratives in our own heads brought about by often well intentioned people who were dead wrong.

Your Identity.

So who are you?

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ 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. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Here is the truth of who YOU ARE.  You have been died for, forgiven, and redeemed.  This is the truth, if you will believe it.  You are not all those other things that this world has convinced you of, but you are loved by the resurrected Jesus.  And so I leave you with these parting words of Him who looked upon a woman accused of the great sin of adultery in Israel.

¹⁰ Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:10-11)

And so you see my friends, I don’t know what lies are running in your heads, but if you do not know that you are a redeemed child of the living God, you are living in a lie and being robbed while suffering in your flesh for lack of the truth.  You may indeed have had a thousand lying words that was stuck into your soul over the years, but I want to tell you just one simple and powerful truth -   you are redeemed and loved by our Holy and magnificent Savior Jesus Christ.  

And if you will believe it, you will be free indeed.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  (2 Corinthians 5:17)

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[1] Thanks to my friend Bill for helping me to think this through a bit. 

The Revelation - 06/05/2016

WARNING PREACHY

¹¹ For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.  ¹² For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹³ For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. (Galatians 1:11-14)

The other day I was asked what I meant when I said that I had met Jesus – the dead man who was raised back to life.  As I write this, I do not have the words to convey what I mean.  It is a spiritual reality in me that I cannot really explain, but the Jesus I met is reality all the same.

My experience differs from the Apostle Paul’s (above) in that I did not physically see, nor audibly hear, Jesus when I met him, but the resultant change of my character certainly was.  Similar to Paul, I was happy in my life and I was NOT looking for Jesus.  Paul was actually looking to destroy Christianity in order to protect his own religion, and I was just simply looking to learn what was true about the spiritual, what was actually real.

There is a prominent strain of thought today in Christianity, called Calvinism[1], which explains that man is not simply a Christian because he has chosen to be but only because God has chosen him to be.  I am not at all a strict proponent of this idea, but I do recognize that God’s choosing is a requirement for each person’s process of becoming a Christian.  In Paul’s experience, the appearance of Jesus was all God’s doing as Paul was actively seeking to destroy the budding Christianity.  When Jesus appeared to him, on the road to Damascus, Paul was dumbfounded and physically struck blind for a few days as he processed what had just happened to him.  As for myself, I was not trying to destroy Christianity, but I was certainly not at all interested in the idea of becoming a Christian either.  In both of our cases however, we were faced with the reality of a resurrected Jesus – a man whom we believed did not exist.

In the verses above, I think the 12^th verse is the pivotal verse for me, “For I did not receive it (the Gospel) from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”  Of course there was much for me to learn as a Christian, but it was not until after I had a very real encounter with the living Jesus that something inside of me had changed.

When I met Jesus, something inside of me died while a new spirit inside of me seemed to take over.  It really was a spiritual something that happened and I do not have better words to explain it.  My friend who asked me about my experience heard my story and in the end decided that she was happy to continue to believe in reincarnation of all things.  I didn’t argue with her.  What would the point of that have been?  I simply told her that I would pray that she too would meet with the living Jesus whom she is quite convinced does not exist.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  (2 Corinthians 5:17)

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[1] Named after French theologian John Calvin from the 15^th Century.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Calvin

My First Soul Mate - 5/8/2016

WARNING:PREACHY

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. 

(Matthew 10:1)

As I was in prayer this morning (5/6/2016), I had a train of thought that led me to believe that I have an unclean spirit in my soul.  I’m not talking about demon possession, but I do believe that I have a visiting demon in my life, and when it comes I welcome it like an old friend. 

In fact, my visiting demon is an old friend and has been with me since I was really young.  I don’t exactly know when we first met or when we became friends, but over time our friendship became more than just a friendship.  It was with me though the terrible pre-teen and teen years when the essence of myself was becoming itself.  This unclean spirit actually became my first real soul-mate because it alone was there when I so often poured out my confused angst feelings.  It was there for me in the deepest moments of my life.  Today, this impure spirit comes visiting me every so often and I welcome it in like an old dear friend, even asking Jesus to leave me alone for a while while we visit.

Someone may believe that I am mistaken, that this ‘impure spirit’, as I call it, was really just the Holy Spirit guiding me through that hard time in my life.  But that someone would be wrong because I can identify the spirit by how it manifests itself in my life.  This unclean spirit physically manifests itself in sexuality, and not the healthy kind either. 

When this spirit shows up, I get an old insatiable desire for pornography.  In many ways it’s almost nostalgic for me, and in some sick way I am comforted in it.  When this feeling comes over me I think of myself as an addict who is helpless to say “no”, and who really doesn’t want to say no anyway.  I wonder if this isn’t how a battered woman feels in her unhealthy relationship with the man that she loves.

As I ponder these things I know that I am not alone in this.  I can see the manifestations of other people in their own lives as clearly as I can see my own.  And no, the manifestation of an unclean spirit is not always in pornography.  Unclean spirits manifest themselves in our lives a million different ways, whether it be in the recurring negative moods that we so easily enjoy, feelings of inadequacy that we so willingly believe, the food that we binge for comfort, or drugs, or alcohol, or sex, or risk taking, or relationships, or whatever.  The manifestations of an unclean spirit really are numerous.

When I became a Christian, at 24 years of age, I experienced a very real dying to myself as the Holy Spirit of God entered into me and made me a new person on the inside.  I now think that this experience was the spiritual eviction of this unclean spirit in me and the filling of the Holy Spirit in my life.  That every now and then the unclean spirit returns seeking to reclaim its home and this visit creates a cosmic battle in the very core of my soul while its here.

Will this unclean spirit ever finally leave me alone?  I really don't know, but I do know that the times that it comes is much easier to handle when I am soaked in the community of God's people and in His word.

~ Come Holy Spirit, please continue to fill me and leave no room for an unclean spirit within me.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

(2 Corinthians 5:17)