Galatians – Page 2 – Running After Papa

Free Indeed (John 8:36)

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36, NIV)

How does Jesus set us free?

1 Peter 5:8 tells me that my enemy is relentless . He is continually after you and me. His methods have not changed since The Fall. He knows those “barbs” and those “hooks” he can toss out our way and when you or I respond or react or agree with them – BAM! He comes in like a flood. He is the master deceiver. John 8:44 tells us his native tongue is falsehood. He is a liar. That is who he is. So every morning when you and I wake up, our enemy is looking for some deception for us to grab ahold of; some falsehood of who we are; some fallacy saying that WHAT WE DID is WHO WE ARE; some cock-and-bull story about some bondage we’ll never shake, some addiction we’ll never kick, some fear we’ll never be rid of. ALL OF IT LIES. He just wants you and me to agree with him on something.

Jesus said “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus said it. So I ask again… How does Jesus set you and me free? Enter Galatians 2:20:

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2:20, NASB)

Check this out. If I am dead. What power does my enemy hold over me? I am dead. What power does any thing hold over me? What power does any addiction, any fear, any bondage hold over me? None. I am dead.

That, my friend, is good news.

I was driving to our men’s Bible Study on Thursday morning knowing I was going to share the gist of this revelation during worship. I really began to contemplate and expound on the effects of being crucified… of being dead to myself.

Dead men…

… don’t have any rights to get stepped on
… don’t have any expectations to go unmet
… don’t have any fears to bind them
… can’t worry about yesterday, today or tomorrow
… can’t compare their lives to those around them
… can’t carry the weight of the world
… can’t believe the lies of the enemy

… and as I was enumerating this list, God said something kinda funny but poignant. He said that dead men can’t believe the lies of the enemy because “DEAD MEN CANNOT HEAR” and I kinda laughed, but realized that is HUGE! This is a big deal because not only is my enemy a LIAR, when I am dead – I CANNOT HEAR HIS LIES.

This is a really great litmus test. If I am responding to my enemy’s relentless attack, their lies about who I am, or what I will or will never be, etc., etc. – then SOME PART OF MY FLESH HAS CRAWLED OFF THE CROSS.

I have more thoughts stirring on this… stay tuned.

Running After Papa…

Deaf (Gal 2:20)

As I was driving to G8 this morning knowing I was going to share the gist of yesterday’s post, I was really contemplating the effects of being crucified… being dead to myself.

Dead men…

… don’t have any rights to get stepped on
… don’t have any expectations to go unmet
… don’t have any fears to bind them
… can’t worry about yesterday, today or tomorrow
… can’t compare their lives to those around them
… can’t carry the weight of the world
… can’t believe the lies of the enemy

… and as I was enumerating this list, God said something kinda funny but poignant. He said that dead men can’t believe the lies of the enemy because “dead men can’t hear” and I kinda laughed, but realized that is HUGE! This is a big deal because not only is my enemy a LIAR, when I am dead – I CANNOT HEAR HIS LIES.

This is a good test. The devil and his minions are always lying about me, who I am, how I will be, what I will or will never be, etc. When I can hear the lies – then SOME PART OF MY FLESH HAS CRAWLED OFF THE CROSS.

Daddy, may I always be deaf to the lies of my enemy and my spirit be in tune with yours.

Free Indeed (John 8:36)

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36, NIV)

How does this happen? How am I free “indeed”?

Our enemy is relentless (1 Peter 5:8). He is continually at us. He is the master deceiver. John 8:44 tells us his native tongue is falsehood. That is who he is. So every morning when we wake up, our enemy is looking for some deception for us to grab hold of; some falsehood of who we are; some fallacy saying that who we WERE is who we ARE; some cock-and-bull story about some bondage we’ll never shake, some addiction we’ll never kick, some fear we’ll never be rid of. ALL OF IT LIES.

Jesus said “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus said it. So I ask again… “How?” Enter Galatians 2:20:

Check this out. If I am dead. What power does anyone hold over me? What power does any thing hold over me? What power does any addiction, any fear, any bondage hold over me? None. If I am no longer alive, then I have no more worries to haunt me, no more fears to paralyze me, no more rights to be stepped on, no more expectations to be let down, no more LIES to BELIEVE.

That, my friend, is good news.

Branches, Leaves and Fruit (John 15:5)

I am studying the occurances of the word (0r form of the word) “leaf” in the Bible. God is stirring up something of a message in it.

As I read several passages about leaves tonight, God kept bringing up the words of Christ saying “I am the vine. You are the branches.” found in John 15:5 (for further reading check out a writing I did November 2006 called “Remaining In (John 15:1-17)“) That verse is:

John 15:5 (ESV)⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Because it’s become obvious in my studies that I cannot study the leaf, without also studying the branches and the fruit. According to this verse, I am a branch plugged into the true vine (or think trunk, for a tree). So my question is becoming this:

What is the “leaf” vs. what is the “fruit”?

Several places in the Scriptures, the word “fruit” is often associated with the words “in season,” which would imply there are times that we do not produce fruit. (See: Num 13:20; Ps 1:3; Hos 9:10; Matt 21:34; Matt 21:41; Acts 14:17 as a few examples of fruit associated with season).

This opens up a whole line of questioning about what I’ve always defined as “fruit” – think the Gal 5:22-23 “fruits of the Spirit”. If there are seasons of no fruit by definition, then “fruit in season” can’t mean what I’ve thought it meant, because I should be producing the fruits of the Spirit, year round, regardless of the season.

Thoughts?

Greatest Enemy of Faith

YouTube Link: What This World Needs [Casting Crowns]

Lyrics | Casting Crowns lyrics – What This World Needs lyrics

I heard this song while I was running today and I had to listen to it a number of times over the miles.

While the entire song is lyrically and musically amazing, it was the spoken words during that song that captured my attention during my run. Here they are.

People aren’t confused by the gospel,
They’re confused by us.
Jesus is the only way to God,
But we are not the only way to Jesus.
This world doesn’t need
My tie, my hoodie,
My denomination, or my translation of the Bible,
They just need Jesus.
We can be passionate about what we believe,
But we can’t strap ourselves to the gospels.
Because we’re slowing it down
Jesus is going to save the world,
But maybe the best thing we can do
Is just get out of the way.

I recently was exploring that “Digg” is and stumbled across a link and subsequent comment chain on a quote written on a Church billboard. The quote was a quote from Martin Luther (although it didn’t give credit to Martin Luther) saying “Reason is the greatest enemy of Faith.”

While Martin Luther may have been right for the message he was preaching at the time, I’m really beginning to feel like the words of the song express a closer reality for today… ‘Christians’ are often the greatest enemy of Faith over anything else.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Jesus called it two thousand years ago. Every time he used the word “hypocrite” he was speaking to the religious leaders; to the church. (Matt 6:2, 5, 16; Matt 7:5; Matt 15:7-9; Matt 22:18; Matt 23:13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29; Matt 24:51; Mark 7:6; Luke 6:42; Luke 12:56; Luke 13:15)

In speaking to them Jesus said:

Matthew 15:7-9 (ESV)
7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

That, I fear, is the condition of The Big-C Church, particularly in America. How did we get from a single body of believers to a system of religion that has so many denominations and differences of opinion and interpretation on what THE SAME BIBLE says?

We got there because men – in their pride – decided they didn’t like what they heard so they went somewhere else.

Now, here we are – 2000 years later – with such watered-down Christianity that we have watered-down faith. Most churches in America don’t see God move the way he did at Pentecost. Why? The Bible clearly says he’s the same God, yesterday, today and tomorrow and that HE WILL NEVER CHANGE.

To me it all comes back to Galatians 2:20 (one of my life verses). I have to die to myself, to my wants, to my desires, to my “rights” so that Jesus can live through me and be seen. When people see Jesus, they are attracted to Him… they want to be with him.

I have to get out of the way. We (believers) have to get out of the way.

Easy to say, hard to do.

Running After Papa…

Pure Wisdom

James 3:13-18 (NLT)
13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

“If you are wise…” James begins, and then he throws it down with “prove it!” Prov 9:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy one is understanding.” A simple substitution of wisdom with “Fear the Lord” would change the context of this passage.

If you fear the Lord… prove it by living a life based in humility. Obviously paraphrased, but kind of a a “duh” moment for me this morning. Who am I compared to the Lord? Of course I fear and revere Him, so why should I do anything outside of an attitude of humility? Just because of who He is, should be enough to keep me on my face. But often time it isn’t.

Here’s where Papa took me with this…. v14 talks about “… selfish ambition…” and not to cover it up, but for me, to search deep in my heart to see if it’s lurking because selfish ambition and jealously open the door for the enemy to come in like a flood (v15). The ESV says that it is “… earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.” That scared me, because jealousy and selfish ambition are a couple of things I tend to (and I imagine many do) struggle with and I do not want to open any doors to the enemy. Verse 16 goes on to say that every “... vile practice (ESV)” comes along with jealousy and selfishness. Yikes!

So how do I gauge my wisdom? How do I gauge how much I fear the Lord? v17 explains… First off it is pure (which means reverent or sacred). James goes on to list a “checklist” of how I am to live. Man I hate checklists. I always so far short. Anyway, here it comes.

Pure – Am I reverent to and regarding the Lord?
Peace Loving – do I bring peace to the situations I am in?
Gentile at ALL times – ALL times?
Willing to Yield to others – Do I always want my own way?
FULL of Mercy – not just occasional mercy…
FULL of Good Deeds
Shows no Favoritism – see yesterday’s post on James 2 (Through His Eyes)
Always Sincere – Always? Yikes!

Thank you Lord for your mercy where I fall short. If I continue to live in my own strength, I will never check off this list. If I choose to die to myself (Gal 2:20), then and only then is this kind of life possible. With this kind of life is promised a harvest of what we sow. Sow peace. Sow peace.

What harvest do I want? What seeds am I sowing