Author: Travis Manhart

Posted on

Truly Great (a short Easter message)

Luke 22:24-27

Who Is The Greatest?

And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.
And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.

 
“But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.” 
 
How is greatness measured with God, do we know? It is not measured by education, by position, or by bank account, not even by expensive cars or large mansions, nothing of these worldly measurements means a thing to a God who created it all and gave to man the ability to earn. Along with that ability God gave man a free will to chose to serve Him or not. So to the man or woman that choses to ignore the persuits of worldly acclaim and rather seek the acclaim that is unique to God and sees wealth as a resource of humility and greatness not in the size of his or her name but in the means and way that Christ is honored and finds joy in proclaiming and sharing God’s love to this governance is greatness defined. Amen
May you all have had a Blessed Easter and whether it was joyful or painful the truth of Easter and the hope it gives is not dependent upon our day but dependent upon a God who never changes and keeps His promises honoring His word to His children. The truth of Easter goes beyond us and gives us a means to hope for a better tomorrow. Amen and Amen
Grow In His Grace – Arthur
Arthur Navarrette
Posted on

The Kingdom of Heaven Part V

Matthew 5:7-10
..
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
 
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ( brief review from last Vida).
Paul in 2 Timothy 2:25 sheds some light on dealing with persecution…

“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” 

Very interesting wording, especially “oppose” and “recover.” Webster defines oppose as “actively resist or refuse, disapprove of and attempt to prevent, especially by argument” and recover  in the Greek is ananepho. It is a compound word between ana meaning again and nephron to be sober. So combining the two words we get “To awake out of a drunken state and become sober.” Also this word may refer to a practice in which trappers of fowl scattered seeds impregnated with a toxin that inhibited birds ability of flight so that a net might be thrown over them,” and such does the enemy do to us. The toxins of materialism, lust, power/ prestige or just being busy, distracting us from our need for Christ. It can be a dangerous game we play when only in a crisis do we realize that we have played the fool by seeking the things of the world at the expense of our relationship with God. We need to ananepho and fast!
Now we have another interesting word, “pre adventure” or mepote. I did not find any substantial explanation other than the word perhaps. Salvation is a mystery. Two people can hear the same message, one will come forward to accept Christ and the other remain in his seat. Yet we know from scripture that God wants “all men (and women)  to come to the knowledge of salvation,” yet clearly not all do. I would want my girls to drive at the speed limit especially when they have the grandkids, but they don’t always. Circumstances affect their driving, if they are late they will drive faster, as is true of most of us. However I would prefer them not to and as such is free will. God is always calling us to Himself, it is up to us to heed the call and make time for Him. We can’t ask God to just make us a Christian, saying ” I agree with you and give You permission to make me Christ like.” It doesn’t work that way, we need to put the time in. In 2 Timothy 2:15 we have one of the foundational verses of my life,
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
And though God does seek salvation for all, all do not qualify.  He does have His criteria; salvation  has a price tag on both ends.
In Duet 4:29 and Jer. 29:13, we find this verse, “When you seek me with ALL your heart I shall be found of you.” With all our heart, not partial will God be found. When we were dating, especially if we believed he or she was the “one,” there was no effort too great that we would not do to please them, we were 110% in. For whatever reason we do not approach God that way. He is always getting our leftovers, parts of us, but not the whole of us. Imagine proposing and asking “the one” to marry you and after she accepts, you say ” great, thank you and now I need to go and propose to Susie.” That is exactly what we do to the Lord, we “accept” Him but not exclusively, we continue to maintain our other wants and desires. He is to receive our “first fruits.” The first fruits of our time, our energy, our money, and most of all, our allegience and devotion. He should be second to none.
Therefore when  a man or women meets God’s criteria, searching with his/her whole heart God reveals Himself. Remember in Matthew, He is the pearl of great price. In each illustration the founder of the pearl sold all he had to acquire it, such is genuine faith. Many “salvation prayers” are nothing more than a cry for help. Therefore when the crisis is over, our prayer is forgotten and we go back to life as usual. There was nothing deeply moving in our prayer, it was for the moment. There was no realization of our sin, or our bankruptcy before a Holy God. It is with all our heart and a truly desperate heart will find salvation.
However, it is hard to feel desperate when all our needs are being met. Unless by God’s grace we are able to step back and see the emptiness in everything. That everything is truly an illusion of being fulfilled. We believe that this is the “good life,” and therefore so it is. This is what everybody says and does to be happy, so therefore this must be what it feels like to be happy? We convince ourselves until circumstances  come, and like a flood flatten our house. Here, opportunity knocks…. an opportunity to be real, to realize that our house with nothing more than a house of cards,  an illusion of security that we and others create. That sickness, death, divorce, unemployment, financial stress, addictions etc., is just as easily able to enter our home as the next. We are just as exposed as the next.
   
This was Solomon’s problem, he took his eyes off of the Lord and did exactly what a king was forbidden to do. In  Deuteronomy 17:17 “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.” Nor horses as is mentioned in the prior verse which I believe represents large armies. Also we have this statement from him in Ecclesiastes  2:16&17….
“And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not — my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor: and this was my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.” 
Solomon sought to find fulfillment in his work as opposed to his relationship with the Lord, and for a time it worked; like
@ all new ventures, but they all have their end.
 
A repentant heart engenders the  presence of a loving and merciful Father. To repent or to be repentive means we turn around, to change course.  From trusting ourselves, others or things and putting our complete trust in the Lord. Also repentive means to  forsake our idols, be they objects or beliefs and put our full confidence in the Lord and His Word. In  Mark 1:15 we have Christ words…
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand ( referring to Himself) repent ye, and believe — the gospel.” People read this verse an mock it because there is no Kingdom of God here, it’s the way it has always been. However the Kingdom Christ’s seeks to establish  is His Kingdom inside each of us. His reign over man will come, but for now He seeks sons and daughters. And this decision has always been a personal one, yet we cannot deny the .influence of the Holy Spirit. I felt His conviction Sunday after Sunday until I finally went forward. For me to understand that God was Holy and that He was inviting me to His side was not hard. That I could only come through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who was and is my atonement was very comprehendible to me. I knew that I was a sinner and that I needed His Grace to cover me, that part wasn’t hard  lI just needed to decide whether I wanted to follow Him or not. I’m soooo very glad I did.
We forget in this age of minimalizing everything, making right not so right and wrong not so wrong and black not so black and white not so white that to approach God one must be like Him, Holy, and we are light years from that. My father has also heard the same message and came close one time in his life. However  he maintains his faith in man and in being a good person as being sufficient, thereby denying the need for repentance. This view and others like it make God more like us. We may have been made in His image, but we share nothing of His Holiness.
Sovereignity is an interesting word. It refers to God being all knowing and all powerful, and I know He knew the day and the hour I was  going to accept Him. He knows whether my father will. However He will not violate man’s free will but will “ preadventure give him salvation.” 
 I believe Paul had himself in mind when penning these verses. If anyone opposed themselves it was Paul. And if anyone was recovered, it was Paul, but did God violate free will? I do not believe so. In Acts Jesus speaks to Paul in a vision and says something very interesting, “it is hard for you to kick against the goads or pricks (Acts 26:14).”  The “goads” was a sharp stick that the shepherds used to prod resistant sheep or oxen. ” Applied to us, the conviction or the pricks are God’s attempt to get us to see our need of Him, to draw our attention to and to agree with Him. He “goaded” me many times till I finally came into agreement with Him. To resist Him is to fight against our own well being. Therefore God continues to goad us until we repent because He foreknows that that is what our heart wants, it just gets lost in the minutia of life, the hurts and the disappointments or even successes, blinding our eyes from acknowledging our need. Emptiness or the search for significance is the one hook God has over us. That was not part of Creation, however when man broke fellowship with God the stamp of brokenness or incompleteness was birth in all of us. As the Holy Spirit left man,  emptiness moved in. However as long as I walk in fellowship with Him I fill complete, give me a week or two away from Him and those distant feelings relive in me.
“…that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.”  As alluded to earlier, one of the means for capturing birds was to lace seeds with a toxin that inhibited their flight and hence they could be netted. Pagis is the word for snare and it refers to something that can be set up suddenly, is firm, and holds fast. The Devil seeks to snare us as well, though his traps are more cunning. He weaves a trap like a spider weaves a web, a lie here and a lie there and with each lie we believe we become that much more entangled until the lies sound more like the truth and truth sounds more like a lie. Once entangled, discernment, wisdom and sound consciousness are lost and the night seems like the day. To the one trapped the trap is invisible. To then recover such a one requires going backward to start undoing the lies, the hurt and the pain that are often associated with wayward or self loathing behavior. However, more than anything it requires the Lord. His intervention and His love is so critical, and even so it is tough. There are many lies that contain some truth, however at their root they deny or ignore man’s need for repentance and hence for a Savior. Prayer and the power of God’s Word are our strong hope, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds)
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

To not be taken captive “at his will” one must often be in the scriptures and prayer. The mind needs to be constantly renewed ( or washed) to stay on its true north. In Romans 12:2 we have the following,

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Which is so true. Believers, and those who think they “know God,” however are ignoring the study of God’s Word have a hard time walking with a renew – ing mind. It requires the Holy Spirit, its supernatural, way beyond being “spiritual” which is the chic word of this age. It’s being REAL with GOD. Thereby by avoiding time in the Word they sacrifice the intimacy that they could have with the Lord. It’s a narrow way, as Jesus himself said. The “universe” can give you something, but it’s not forgiveness of your sins nor a real relationship with God. There are only two spiritual forces present and they are at war with each other over the souls of men. If you are not plugged into God’s Holy Spirit via faith in Jesus Christ, then who are you plugged into? The washing of the Word, removing false doctrine, lies, or just the tendencies of the flesh is our path to the Father, the ONLY way Christ’s provides. It is impossible to walk in a manner of holiness without it. People can appear to be religious when all is going in their favor, but when difficulty or loss come their lives reveal a very unredeemed soul. Job in the face of great lost said, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh, blessed be the name of The Lord.” God was bigger to Job than any personal lost.
Unable to recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.” There is no one more miserable than a Christian who has one foot in the world and one foot in the church. Sadly all the activity one does for God without taking the time to really know Him is a waste of time, “Revelation 3:15-17

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth ( and what is the reason for this lukewarm)
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

 
God’s accessment of our lives is often radically different from how we see ourselves. Caught in the web of lies our world can look pretty good. We only see that we are ahead of the game. We have the life we want, the money and position, the friends, so all is good. We do not see life from the perspective of Eternity, we are cursed with near sightedness. True vision takes into account the brevity of one’s life and understands the importance of righteous living. Righteousness is like a secret treasure that only very few are willing to search for, and even fewer find, but it is the key to life because it is the key to Christ who is the Door to the Father.
Father God,
 There is a lot of content to this devotional. I pray for us to be granted the ability to understand and adjust our ways. Make life simple for us, may we seek You above all else
Thank you and Amen,
Move Forward in His Grace – Arthur
Posted on

The Kingdom of Heaven Part IV

Matthew 5:7-10
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the pure in heart: (partial review from last Vida)
Katharos is the word for pure, meaning to be unsoiled, unspoiled, unmixed, or  unalloyed. If we make application to ourselves the definition would be to be wholly God’s, unreserveably His, or for God alone. God through the process of sanctification, “be being set apart,” causes this to happen via our trials and hardships as discussed in the prior Vida. Happiness outside of Christ is short lived and the effort to attain it is great and the pay back is based on diminishing return. The flesh and its desires are like a bad investment, you continually need to put more in to get the same return. And it is through this intense struggle that katharos takes place. We no longer seek the governance of the flesh and its failing promises, as piece by piece as in  a very complex puzzle each part of us  is being sanctified. Our attitudes and desires that are not honoring to the Lord are replaced by ones that are. The mural of His image is being formed in us till the lyrics of this song, “it’s YOUR breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise to you only…” becomes to encapsulate and define our life.
To mature to the point that we are completely His without reservation requires time. There are no short cuts to spiritual maturity. In Biblical times a Hebrew slave had seven years he had to serve his master, afterwards he was free to go. However, if he prospered under his master and loved his master and did not want to leave, then the master would take his servant to a door post and with an awl punch a hole in his ear lobe indicating the servant’s choice to become a bond slave. Paul calls himself the bond slave of the Lord and Christ seeks bond slaves. Yet as a bond slave you have earned the trust of the master and a great freedom to go in and out as needed and the blessings of the master, his goodness, his kindness and his prosperity become part of your life. There is no longer any question of your loyalty and with that the sense of servanthood all but disappears. Those of us who have committed ourselves to Christ understand this and there is no longer a question of our allegiance to Him, nor the sense of obligation, our only goal is to grow our faith and help others do the same.
“….for they shall see God.” Think of the one thing you would give all to have or experience – dream big, and it still would not even come close to seeing The Lord. This alone is reward enough. How unsettling it must be to not be sure of what happens to you after death. People will say “I hope I’m going to Heaven,” or “I think I’ve lived an good life, or God should accept me.” To not have that certainty, especially as one nears the end of their life has got to be concerning. Never having experienced death I asked myself the question, in what lies my certainity. How do I know that eternity awaits me? If a dear friend makes a promise not once, not twice, but countless times and each and every time he keeps his promise, do I need to see the home he has prepared for me to believe him? The integrity of his life is good enough for me. With just the promise of Heaven alone I will die a very happy man, but He has given us so much more. His daily presence is reason enough to get out of bed each day. And the fact that He not only hears our prayers but answers  them according to His will gives us the assurance that He is guiding our life and will be with us through the times our life becomes stormy. We can build our life on His promises and go through whatever struggles knowing that He is faithful. The concerns of the “sheep become those of the shepherd,” a saying I heard that sums it all up.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Whenever we hear the word peace we often think of the absence of war. However in a different context peace can have another meaning. For example, in a Zen setting we would define the word as tranquil or restful. However it has a  much higher, more true meaning. The root of peace comes from the medical field of setting a broken bone, such as an arm or leg so it can mend and become one again. In application man has been “broken” from the original intend God had for him, to abide in communion with Him as is modeled in Gensis chapters 1- 3.  This is our closest picture of God’s original intent and purpose for man. However man chose to listen to Satan and sin entered, and just like a fractured arm, the oneness of God with man was brokened. Man’s choice to disobey brought about the state of brokeness and all the ramifications and destruction that has occurred since. Therefore the highest peace and the most noble of all its definitions is when man becomes reunited once again with his God through faith in Christ Jesus. This is the absolute highest, truest, most supreme definition of the word. So blessed is the man or woman who finds this abiding peace and then after experiencing the same shares the good news with others, being a peacemaker, for truly they shall be cballed the “children of God.”
 
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When our walk with Christ matures to a point that those who oppose the gospel persecute us we are taught to rejoice. Jesus said in Luke 6:22 , “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.” There are no “points,” for acting regliously weird. I see Christians acting in a way that is not becoming and consequently ridiculed by non believers. They rejoice and continue acting weird thinking that they are being persecuted for Christ. This is not persecution for Christ and all we are doing is giving the Lord a bad name. Does not scripture teach that we are to be “wise as serpents but innocence as doves?” We are to act in wisdom among the non believer, and if for those actions and speech that come because of our fear of God we are persecuted, then in that situation we are to rejoice. We have our Christian culture with our “Christianees” language, our Christian social clubs, with our Christian expressions etc., that really do nothing to further the Gospel.  You may be persecuted for that, but that is not what Paul is saying.
It is when our every day life is of such a holiness that the non believer is either drawn to Christ or convicted by Him that “persecution” could be experienced. In those situations we are to rejoice. Therefore as a believer persecution should not be viewed as something strange but more the norm. At the very least we should not fit in, there should always be some uncomfortability with our presence among our secular friends. If they invite us to every party, or include us to all their activities because we are cool, something is very wrong. Light chases away darkness, so if darkness is comfortable around us then what kind of light are we exhibiting? We must be separate from the world, though we are to demonstrate love and patience towards it.
Paul in 2 Timothy 2:25 sheds a little different light on persecution…

“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” 

Very interesting wording especially ” oppose” and ” recover.” Webster defines oppose as “actively resist or refuse, disapprove of and attempt to prevent, especially by argument” and recover  in the Greek is ananepho. It is a compound word between ana meaning again and nephron to be sober. So combining the two words we get “To awake out of a drunken sleep and become sober.” Also this word may refer to a practice in which sowers scattered seeds impregnated with drugs intended to put birds to sleep that a net might be drawn over them to capture them,” and such does the enemy do to us, the nets of materialism, lust, power/ prestige or just being busy dull our senses from realizing our need for Christ. It can be a dangerous game we play when only in a crisis we realize that we have played the fool by seeking the things of the world at the expense of our relationship to Christ.
There’s much more to discuss with this verse that we will cover next time.
Father God,
Forgive us for seeking the immediate, the visible, instantly gratifying and not being willing to count or weigh the cost of Truth. For to live for Truth it will cost me everything in this life.  It will cost me my per suit of fame, wealth, the false sense of security that pursuing  materialism gives. It will cost me everything that this world wants to give me so as not to pursue You. Yet when my eyes finally close they will open to riches beyond and joy unspeakable, the greatest being Your Presence. Nothing of this world’s wealth could even remotely compare to that. Help us to truly be wise and willing to count the cost. Thank You and Amen.
Move Forward in His Grace – Arthur
Arthur Navarrette

 

Posted on

The Kingdom of Heaven Part III

Matthew 5:7-10
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
 
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Markarios is the Greek word for blessed and it has several neat definitions, “possessing the favor of God, or a state marked by possessing the fullness from God, or one who has become a partaker of the nature of God because of faith in Jesus Christ.” Markarios is a state of being, a position, it  does not change due to adverse circumstances. Blessed is not based on a feeling, it is based on a promise. We confuse being blessed with a feeling or good things happening. We say, “I’m blessed,” when things go in our favor and it’s true, but it’s just as true when things are tough, we are still blessed. Our position in Christ has not changed just because life is tough. At all times and in all circumstances we are blessed provided we are in obedience to His will. More often than not negative circumstances have nothing to do with God. We made a foolish decision and are now reaping the consequences of it. Yet through our mistake God is still teaching us.
 Also this is not heaven, we live in a fallen world and are subject to the same concerns as others. Markarios best defines a relationship that is granted to me when I surrender my life to Christ. Once done, my relationship to my Father is fixed, it does not lessened because my life is a struggle or because I am having a bad day or some ” tragedy” is affecting my life (our tragedies can often be God’s opportunities, read Roman’s 8). In Duet 28:2 we have a promise.. “And all these blessings shall come upon you if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.” I would suggest reading the whole chapter, His promises are very comforting. How because of Christ I can come to the Throne of the Great King.  At anytime I have His audience; His scepter is always bent towards me ( read Esther 4:11).  He hears me because I have son-ship rights, or daughter ship rights and  He will always hear us and do that which is right for us. That alone is to be blessed. Our struggles do not lessen or diminish His blessing in my life. As one young man said to a pastor “God has all of eternity to make it up to me.” Up to this time he had spent more time in the hospital than in his own home. This extremely mature attitude was not gained among the flowers of life, but through the thorns. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:16-17,

“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;”

There is no one more qualified to make this statement than Paul, aside from the Lord Himself. Pauls eyes were fixed on heaven despite the many great and painful trials he went through. He saw what only eyes of faith can see, and found courage in the memorized Word of God that he had spent his early years studying as a Pharisee.
Once the salmon leave the ocean to begin their migration to their place of birth, their lives become nothing but a struggle. They must swim upstream for miles, jumping over water falls, dodging predators, and ignoring the lures of fishermen. Once they arrive they are worn and beaten but they must finish the course that their Maker gave them. Spawning becomes the the final act of their life as well as their greatest act. So too with us, our struggles and hardships are meant to bring death to our self reliant nature but new life to the man or woman of faith. The hardships teach us that we are limited but that God is unlimited, faithful and deserving of our trust. The struggles teach us to forsake our worldly lures and beloved idols. Prioritizing our walk with Him is the good fruit of these struggles. Even now as I am writing this a struggle exits in me and by my choices I determine who will win. I can chose the flesh and worry and try to control the situation, or I can commit the concern to the Lord and trust Him ( Proverbs 3:5&6). However, I cannot do both. They both cannot coexist. One must be die so that the other can live. It is a process and it is this process that matures us and depending upon who we give our attention  to determines how long this process takes until we actually start living out what it means to have His abiding peace. Many victories must be won to gain a sense of freedom from the flesh; it is extremely tenacious, but God is more.
With Israel they wandered 40 years in the wilderness giving attention to their fears, lust and idols. Though they actually saw and experienced God’s great miracles what does the Lord say of them, a generation that should have had enormous faith, Numbers 14:31-33

But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, — them will I bring in, and they shall know — the land which ye have despised.
But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear — your whoredoms, until your carcasses 

be wasted in the wilderness. Because of their unfaithfulness this first generation of freed Israel will not see the Promise Land. Also a point that cannot be overlooked –  who bore the burden of a faithless generation, the children. A parent who does not live out the truth of faith not only lives with those repercussions but the children do as well. Let this be a very strong warning for those of us who allow the allurements, fears and worries of this world to take captive our faith. Know that you are doing so at the expense and peril of your kids. How much better for our children to have believing parent(s) as their roll model. If you have not been, stop now, repent and allow God to be God. Isaiah 61:3 promises that God is able to restore the years that worry, fear and worldly per suits have taken. It is never too late to repent; if not now, then when? Here’s the promise,

“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion ( mourning is a sign of repentance), to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.” And in Joel 2:25

And I will restore to you — the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. These insects equaled starvation for man and beast. It was extremely devastating, as years of worry, fear and worldly per suit can be to a family. Yet The Lord promises to restore. The word restore is Salam. “The primary meaning is to be safe or uninjured in mind or body (Job 8:6; 9:4). This word is normally used when God is keeping His people safe. In its simple form, this verb also means to be completed.” And is this not what we all seek, a sense of completion – that all is well with my soul? Maybe in my flesh I struggle, I could be sick, either because of fear and worry or what others have done or because our bodies are flesh, they wear out, but my soul is at peace because I am right with God.  There are always struggles in this life, but much better to go through the struggles with God than without. And if repentance is necessary we have a God that is Eleemon – merciful.
 
Eleemon, has several definitions, “compassionate, benevolently merciful involving thought an action.” Synonyms would be kind hearted, forgiving, giving, willing to go the extra mile. To be as such is to follow in the footsteps of our Savior who extended His mercy to us. To understand that we are a continual benefactor of His mercy, continually living under His Umbrella of His Mercy should foster or engender Eleemon in us towards others.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Katharos is the word for pure,  meaning to be unsoiled, unspoiled, unmixed, or  unalloyed. If we make application to ourselves the definition would be to be wholly God’s, unreservedly His, or for God alone.   God through the process of sanctification, “be being set apart,” causes this to happen via our trials and hardships as just discussed. Happiness outside of Christ is short lived and the effort to attain it is great and the pay back is based on diminishing return. The flesh and its desires are like a bad investment, you continually need to put more in to get the same return. And it is through this intense struggle that katharos takes place. We no longer seek the governance of the flesh and its failing promises, piece by piece as a complex puzzle each attitude or part of us is  being sanctified as we are being fitted and formed into the wholeness of His nature.
Father God,
Your faithfulness is so great, to even get a glimpse of it is sufficient for success in this life. Mold us truly into your sons and daughters, no fear, no worry, only an abiding trust and a passion to know You and love You.  Thank you and Amen
Move Forward in His Grace – Arthur
Posted on

The Kingdom of Heaven Part II

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
 
 
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” If humility is my outward expression to my fellow man, meekness is my inward expression to God. No matter how harsh my situation is I accept it without blame or anger towards Him. As Job said in 13:6, “.   Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: I will maintain mine own ways before him.” Despite the severity of Jobs afflictions they did not change his belief in a just and loving God. Even if God would take his life, he knew that God would be acting in love. Like Job, we need to mature to a point that our hardships do not redefine God as any less than just and good. And like Job we may not understand the why until much later, but that does not change who God is. His love for me has been proven by The Cross and it is all  the assurance I need. He will use all events, both good and bad for my good if I continue to seek Him. The often quoted verse in Roman’s 8:28 promises this, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,” our trails give us opportunity to believe this.
 Ultimately, He seeks to use all trials to draw us closer to Him. To learn to live in His strenght and not our own as Paul learned in 2 Cor 12:9  “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in ( your) weakness. Most gladly — therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. This is meekness, a calm surrender and a willingness to accept one’s circumstances knowing that nothing escapes the Great Shepherd’s eye. By doing so we acknowledge the truth of  Isaiah 58:11
“And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” 
And with meekness, as with the other Be Attitudes, there comes a blessed reward. To inherit a world where all injustice and evil has been purged and put away forever.“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
From poor in spirit, bankrupt of any righteousness on my part to save myself, to mourning over my offenses that sent a Holy God to The Cross, to an attitude of meekness towards my Heavenly Father, the next natural response would be “to hunger and thirst after righteousness;” becoming ever emptied of self and wanting to be filled with His truth, this now becomes my ambition as I continue to place myself before His Word and His Holy Spirit.
 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled (satisfied). In this society we have the immense opportunity to hunger for many things. Because of our overal affluence compared to many countries we have multiple choices. From homes, to cars, to shoes, to loaves of bread, our choices are endless. Yet the single thing that makes them all one is the motive behind the choice, it is to be satisfied. To have hunger, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual shows man’s need to be satisfied. To be at peace and content with oneself and life is what often eludes man. “Just a little bit more,” would be the sign on the tombstone of many. Yet to be satisfied is a promise for those who seek to be in relationship with God, for those who ” …hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
 As a car is designed to run on fuel, we are created to run on His Holy Spirit. The truer we are to receiving our input from The  Lord himself, be it the scriptures, a meaningful message from church or from a favorite Christian radio station, or all of the above, the less the gods of this world and the desires of my flesh will have any influence over me.The  life of a Christian is best summed up with a fuller reading of Isaiah 58:9 -11

“Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday


And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” Amen. 

 
Christ draws a line, to cross it is to become His follower. To be lukewarm one may think is better than nothing at all and that makes sense to us. At least we are open to the gospel, yet The Maker and Lover of man’s soul does not agree, in Revelation 3 :14 – 21,
“

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

 
As the New Year is approaching no more important resolution could be made than a full surrender to Christ’s calling in our life. The state of being lukewarm is because to one degree or another perceived needs are being met, according to our standard, but not according to what the Lord can give. A decision needs to be made, Hebrews 3:15  “While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” Rather in Roman’s 12:1-2 says
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

What better new year resolution could one make?
Father God,
Thank you for these past two studies in the Be Attitudes. Help us to see the wisdom of putting you first in our life. Close our eyes to all that is vain and pointless with respect to our walk with You. Thank you and Amen
Move Forward in His Grace – Arthur
 
Arthur Navarrette
Posted on

The Kingdom of Heaven Part I

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Being in the Christmas season our focus is on giving gifts to others, which is great. Yet the one who truly deserves a gift is the Lord. He is the essence of Christmas and the reason for it. As we go about here and there waiting in lines, what  if we focus on being His gift? What better time  than now when people are stressed and hurried and at times rude to be just the opposite? To be patience and kind to the cashier ringing up our items, to greet the people who are in line with us are easy things to do. This would not only put a smile  on their face, but on the Lord’s as well.  To do this from a genuine heart that truly believes we are The Lord’s ambassadors as Paul has penned, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by ( though) us; we pray you in Christ’s place, be ye reconciled to God ( 2 Cor. 5:20).” Our relationship to  the world is a very important component of being His gift. As we develop relationships with others with this in mind it honors the Lord and hopefully in time we will have the opportunity to share more.
 Our first three verses deal with internal changes that need to occur for us to become not only His gift to the world, but a gift to Him. Our relationship to Him is at the core of everything – there is nothing more important. To adopt these verses and prayerfully seek them to be ours will lessen the stress of the holidays and of life in general. As we learn to live life in agreement with the Holy Spirit it brings meaning and freedom to our life. We do not realize how much the expectations of others weigh upon  us and then on top of that we have our own expectations. We need the Lord’s help to keep life in perspective, we need to be recalibrated. To live as Paul says “strangers or foreigners” in this world, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: ( Phil. 3:20). The Greek word for “conversation” is “Politeuma” meaning ” to behave as a citizen.” In this world we have only a temporary visa, once our business here is completed we go home. Therefore I do not want to live life governed by what others think about me, nor by my own expectations. My life has to become more focused on what it means to be a citizen of Heaven. To truly grasp this is to begin to live in freedom. Even when stressed out by the day’s events, stress is checked by eternal truth. We are part of a celestial body that views life here differently. I don’t stop fulfilling my responsibilities here, I just do them with a different mind set. Events and actions seen from an eternal perspective place little value on materialistic or societal values. As Christ said in John 17:16, ” They( referring to his followers)  are not of the world even as I am not of the world.”
Humility and meekness ( verses 3&5) become the boundaries of the road I travel. Everything that agrees with those two principles remains or grows the more in my life. And in those two boundaries is freedom and His unlimited Grace. On that road I  learn to see myself as He sees me, as His beloved child and His holiness, His love, and His sacrifice for me stands out as a beacon of light.  I am convinced that this understanding is at the core of any Christian who demonstrates the love of Christ. Also humility and meekness  is not something we can be, it is something that the Spirit of God must do within us. It is an on going process, “He must increase and I must decrease.” Our only “duty,” and it is an honor rather than a duty, is that we make time to be with Him in His Word, The Holy Spirit does the rest.
How does applying these verses affect my life? Well our four verses in study show us four characteristics that are foundational to every believer. Poor in Spirit allows me to see my need of my Savior. I realize that I am but a poor man in attempting any acts of righteousness, especially ANY ACTS that would ever merit my salvation. Yet coming  to this conclusion I receive the very thing I am seeking  –  The Kingdom of Heaven. Through the realization of my faulty actions all is gained for “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom.”
 
“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” There is the mourning over things that affect me, a lost opportunity, a relationship that went bad, issues with my kids, or challenges at my job can all be tough things to go through that cause us to mourn or grieve. However there is another dimension, there is the mourning over my actions that grieve my Heavenly Father and caused my Savior to go to The Cross. To mature to this point, that the first though painful, pales in comparison to the second, is to receive the Divine comfort that is promised. A comfort, both for my mourning over my sins and for my earthly struggles. This is to live life recalibrated, giving the Lord the freedom to move in me. Eternity matters now and the affairs of the present are weighed more by how they affect or concern my faith. My responses therefore in faith not only affect my situations but “capture honor and glory” for my Lord. This is to live off the gird of normal every day life, to depart from “Churchianity” and truly start living as a son or daughter of Grace. To live with eternity in our hearts is to live out these values on the stage of life. To have a heart that grieves not only over my actions but  over the state of humanity and seeks to redeem every situation or encounter so that Christ is honored, is to live off the gird. We must fight against complacency and not allow our faith to be dulled by materialism, lusts, or a comfortable life style, or even the demands of everyday life.
This Christmas let us resist becoming a statistic to the T.V. commercials that say we need all these things to be happy and know and live out the truth that we have it all in Christ – all that really matters,  Amen? 
Father God,
 Thank you for this time of year. I wonder on this side of heaven if we will ever understand how much we mean to You, probably doubtful. However to the degree that we know, let that truth change us and motivate us to always make seeking You the top priority in our life. Thank you.
Move Forward In Grace – Arthur
Arthur Navarrette

 

Posted on

Love thy Neighbor

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
 
I am convinced the hardest thing for us to do is be Christian through the routine of life. I always notice after church service, even after a great message, how everyone gets up and leaves barely making eye contact with the people around them. No one even speaks to the person next to them other than to say ” excuse me.” I will always say and make a comment about the message. Normally I get a friendly response back. Once we get into the lobby and find the people we know then everything is fine.  There seems to be this disconnect between what we hear, to what we practice. Even if the message was on loving your neighbor, nothing changes. Have we become hearers of the gospel only? To what end is it to get up, get ready, sit in church, if the end resolve is not to put what we hear into practice? It use to be that what we heard we put into practice then and there. I fear instead of changing our culture, our culture has sadly changed us.
With the holiday season upon us we are going to be in contact with more people, people in the malls, grocery stores, long lines to wait in with people who we have less in common with than the people in church. How am I going to deal with them, ignore them as if that person next to me doesn’t exit? Many of us routinely do this but why, what is the problem of saying hi, hope you are having a good day? Other than you would completely shock them; it’s a great one liner that shows concern for your neighbor. There is a story starting in Luke 7:36 that sheds some light on what the root problem might be. We pick up the story with verse 40.
“And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.
There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.
And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?
— Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.”
Simon properly felt pretty righteous and smart at Christ confirmation of his answer, though a child could have also answered correctly. It’s the following verses where Simon gets stung by Christ words. Cultural practices of courtesy that Simon purposely overlooked.
“And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”
Could this be our problem, we love little because we fail to understand the enormity of our forgiveness. Five hundred pence is more than the man had and in the light of our debt we to cannot pay it back. Do we think lightly of the Lord’s Cross and of the love that sent him there? We would never admit it, but our actions speak for themselves. For if we truly understood our debt and experienced His forgiveness and love in our hearts, we would be changed. Men and women given a second chance on life respond in a much different way than what I witness in  church. We would be humbled by the sacrifice paid for our freedom and seek to know our Savior and grow our faith. God’s Word would be precious and often read. We would truly be a light and not because we are trying to be, but because that is who we are becoming. Care for our neighbor is evidence of the Holy Spirit work in my life. I can only love others because I myself am being loved, and this goes beyond just being a nice guy or gal.
Church is the safest place to reach out and shake the hand next to you, and for some of us who are shy and or interverted this  is tough. However a kind smile or greeting I believe is do- able. So much of what I am talking about has to do with how I feel about myself. If I’m insecure about who I am I am not going to reach out. If I feel good about myself then reaching out is not a problem. Without getting to complicated so much goes back to our pass and our personality. Yet a growing relationship with Christ will over time change our areas of weakness making us more secure and confident.
We do not want to become a “culture” of church going people, nice, polite etc., but we want to become a culture of changed people who gather together and become the church collectively. Whether it be an official church building or a rented room. To see ourselves as the woman in the parable whose sins where many but no worse or better than any of ours; for even the most benign sin requires the blood of the Savior, is to truly begin to grasp the Grace of God.
 As we come into the holiday season, let us live above it, not in it. Life is not about us but about Him in us. Take time to be in the Word so as you go out you we have the great honor to represent Christ. Amen?
Father,
Thank you for this brief but insightful study. Let us be real with ourselves and give us changed hearts that comprehend the great sacrifice that was made for us to pass from death into life. Thank you and Amen.
Move Forward in His Grace – Arthur
Posted on

The Discipline of Truth Part II

 “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:”
These are beautiful verses especially enlight of this series, “The Discipline of Truth.” We say that athletes are disciplined. Everything they do has been channelled to one goal, to further their performance. What they eat, how much they sleep, what they do for entertainment, how they spend their time and even their thought life. It all points to one end, one single goal, to make them the very best at what they do. Truth does the same thing, except it goes much deeper. In  Hebrews 4:12 we have this verse,

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” 

This is the discipline of truth, it does what no other practice, religion or belief can do, it sanctifies the soul making us not only right with God, but an asset to Him. Being indwelt by His Spirit we become His ambassadors. From sinner to saint by the power of the Holy Spirit and the discipline of His Word. That is why the very worse decision you can make on a daily basis is to not read the Word. Or conversely, the absolute most important decision you can make daily is to read the Word. Or said again another way, the biggest lie the enemy can tell you and you believe is the Bible is unimportant, irrelevant, not for our time, written by a bunch of old men, or put together by heresy etc. However it is said, or framed, it is a lie. In 2 Timothy 3:16&17 we have these verses…

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man ( or woman) of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Amen.

 I am an “athlete”  of God’s Word and the workings of the Holy Spirit in my life. To whatever degree of righteousness and wisdom I have attained to, it has been through this single route. No other study, no other teaching, no other philosophy have I entertained; therefore I bare witness and give testimony to the truth of this verse.
“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
What does the Discipline of Truth do? It causes us to walk worthy of the Lord. What does that mean? ” Axios,” is the word in the Greek and it is super interesting. The picture is of a scale with fixed weights on one end and then adding enough weigh one the other end until the scale balances out. That’s the picture; question –  what are the set weights? Well it is the Holiness and Purity of God. To be able to balance out the scale we have to equal His “weight.” IMPOSSIBLE, NOT HAPPENING, except the Discipline of Truth teaches us that it is through faith in Christ that, that happens. Where the Holy Spirit indwells us, making us worthy to stand before a Holy and Utterly Pure God. Take a moment right now and let that truth sink in, it’s utterly amazing.  Another cool meaning of Axios is that it refers to inherent value, were as “Timios” speaks of attributed value. Example, an artificial diamond ring looks like the real thing and has attributed value, especially to the person who cannot  afford the real thing. However to the person wanting a real diamond ring, it is valueless. God has placed upon us inherent value because of what Christ has done.
 
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:(1Peter 1:19&20).”
Therefore being that we have inherent value before God, priceless in His sight, why do so many of us suffer from low self esteem? Logically, it makes no sense. Unfortunately, emotions are not always logical. When we struggle with low self esteem it normally means we had a difficult childhood. It seems to take years for God to correct bad or absent parenting in a child’s life who now is an adult. Without some parental approval or love in my life as my identity is being formed I grow to feel valueless and therefore as an adult find it hard to believe that God could value me. Therefore, as an adult, I do not spend time with Him – I simply don’t believe that He really loves me or excepts me. As parents or grandparents our biggest duty given to us is to establish value and worth in our children by loving them. Therefore when they come to age and can understand the gospel message they can readily receive the message and believe that God loves them because they have been loved. It’s the passing of the buton, from the earthly parent to the Heavenly One; our most critical and important role. A hard role to fulfill if we ourselves struggle with believing that God loves us. We have to get connected to The Lord to do the job right, otherwise our weakness gets passed onto our children’s children, affecting another generation of individuals yet to be born.
If this is your struggle then take this verse and tape it to your bathroom mirror, dashboard of you car and/or note it in your cell phone. Saturate your mind, asking The Lord to penetrate your heart with all that this verse represents. This requires a step of faith, believing that God will honor your step of faith. As Jesus told the disciples, “Do not be unbelieving, but believe,” as He showed them His nail pierced  hands. Another great verse that is quoted frequently without the comprehension of its depth is John 3:16 &17 For God so loved the world ( put your name in place of “world”) that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” If this is not inherent worth I do not know what is!  And if this does not solve low self esteem then what can?

Our enemy fights hard to keep us from truly knowing that which is ours in Christ. Satan has so twisted the gospel message making God out as the one who condemns, when he Satan, clearly is the one. He does it so well that people feel as though they have no hope, that they can’t change. He imposters God making us believe that God condones that which His Word prohibits. God is not the God of confusion, that’s Satan. He loves to bring confusion. God’s perfect will and the power to change are found in knowing Him through His Word. And as we read His Word, His Word purifies us, changing us, giving us new desires that lead to greater freedom. He continues to convict us of our sin because He loves us and wants us to live in the fullness of His freedom. Freedom from our insecurities, freedom from our fears and weaknesses because we are being built on all that He is. It’s a beautiful exchange, exchanging our human state for His Holy state. He seeks from us a willingness to let Him provide this life, to trust Him. To acknowledge that He knows what is best for us and not what we think we want.

And yes, it is a struggle. Satan likes to use that struggle to drive a wedge between us and God. He wants us to think that God does not love us because we have these struggles, when just the opposite is true. He is the Good Shepherd and He will lead us through our dark valleys. The life He wants for us is absent of all the things and people our flesh says it needs to be happy. We worship so many idols, from people to things without even realizing it. The life God has for us is SOLELY energized by His love, His purity and His joy and He seeks to put that in us. If we allow Him and follow His lead despite the contradictions we may feel, it will begin to make sense and the freedom and joy will experientially increase – promise, and more importantly, He promises.

 If you have children or have raised them, then you understand that they are not perfect and need correcting to go the right way. It is no different between us and God. To go in the way of Holiness is quite a task; it can only be done in partnership with the Holy Spirit. It’s impossible and very discouraging otherwise. Satan wants to take away the hope that God offers and make God’s correcting, the scriptures, as a tool of condemnation as opposed to a road map to life. Satan seeks to make us feel separated from God, and what hope of change would we have if that happened, none. Satan is the one who condemns, period, not God and he ( Satan) truly is the father of lies and the master weaver of deceit.
 Sin is a cancer, it will consume us if we let it. Christ is the cure and the Holy Spirit the antidote. The battle is always the hardest in the beginning, but as we believe, read, and trust small victories will lead to big victories. And as truth reigns, it brings a freedom is not found in this life, it’s God gifted.
July 4th is today and the freedom that man celebrates is a freedom from one ruler to rulership by another. Our nation is so messed up that we celebrate for the sake of tradition and having a day off, but there is no truth in it. Make this day, this week, a beginning of freedom for yourself by giving God something that you struggle with and then take the next step. Find scriptures in His Word that address your struggle and literally tape them to your mirror, the dashboard of your car and in your cell phone. I did this for years and years based on Psalm 1:1-3
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Father God,
 Thank you for the Truth that frees us from ourselves. Only You can free us from the bondages we have taken in because we have walked away from You. Forgive us and bring us back into fellowship with You as the prodigal son was welcomed into the arms of the Father. You take us back just as we are and as we pursue You, your love begins to heal the hurt and cleanse us from our sin. Thank you that in You there is truly real freedom. Amen and Amen
Move Forward in His Grace – Arthur
Posted on

The Discipline of Truth

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
— I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.
 
Our society, and in fact a good percentage of our economy, is based on wants. You may not have a want for a certain item, but watch enough T.V. Commercials and read enough internet ads etc., and soon you will be shopping. That is what those in the advertising business call good advertising; creating a need in you that you obviously didn’t know you had. However now, after being “enlightened,” you realize the fun that you have been missing out on and now need it. Maybe its not fun, but it’s the admiration  you would receive from your co- workers or neighbors if you wore that outfit or drove that car. Or, if you are single, you would definitely get that date. In essence, we are made to believe that by purchasing an item or items, it’s our “pot of gold.” I am exaggerating a bit, but I am not far from the truth. In 2013  $518.8 billion dollars were spent on advertising, imagine the money spent by consumers in response to all those ads?
“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”   
The discipline of truth teaches you that happiness or fulfillment is not in things but in the person of Jesus Christ. Imagine what would happen to Madison Avenue if we actually lived out this verse. To even believe that an lifeless object, a thing, or another human being created just like me could ever be my everything? It is not only illogical, but foolish, however advertising does not address our logic it is geared to address our emotions, and this is by intent. Therefore if my relationship with Christ is marginal, I will end up following the crowd; believing that happiness is found in things or people. Imagine if status, or paycheck, or the size of our  home had no affect on our joy or how we viewed ourselves? What a freedom that would be. Is this even possible? Well Paul found it possible, enspite of  his adverse conditions.
If it’s true then for one, then it can be true for all. The real question is just how much “off the gird” of materialism and ego are we willing to live? Will we allow The Lord to redefine our life, are we willing to go all the way as Jesus said in John 15:5,  “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can — do nothing.” To abide, is to remain, to dwell in, to live with. This is a recalibration of our mindset. The measure of my success is no longer found in my title, my salary, or the car I drive. Rather the measure of my success is found in my character. Do I have joy, peace, patience, kindness, wisdom, the greatest of these being love? Are these qualities or attributes, “fruits” as the scriptures call them, evident in my life? I’m I becoming “Christ – like,” then by a new standard, an eternal standard, I am successful.
However this success is not based on me achieving a spiritual goal. This success is found in choosing to sit before Christ and giving the Holy Spirit access to my life. Let’s look into the lives of Mary and Martha; two women who very much represent the decisions  that play out daily in our lives.
“And a certain woman named Martha received him( Jesus and his disciplines) into her house and she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was encumbered (stressing) about much serving ( she had reason to be, she had a lot of people in her house now,  yet…)  and she came to him, and said, Lord,dost thou not care ( how often do we accuse The Lord of not caring?) that my sister hath left me to serve alone, bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful ( stressed, worried) and troubled ( preoccupied, fretful) about many things : But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her ( a super important point, Luke 10:38 -42) 
Martha was busy with doing life, fitting into what society expected of her; yet  Mary chose differently, even at the expense of her sister. Martha’s personality is easy to relate to. It goes like this, “I will read my Bible as soon as I get this finished.” Invariably something else always gets in the way and so it goes all day long. As the day comes to the end, the Bible remains unread. Tomorrow starts and we say the same thing with the same results.This is the weakness of the American church, we have Martha syndrome and we cheat ourselves out of the absolute best decision we could make for our life.
 To be a Mary is too close your eyes to all earthly doing until the doing of Heaven has been done.  When the Eternal business of Heaven has been completed, then and only then, do we tend to the temporal. And how that plays out in our  individual lives is unique to each of us. For me it means first thing on the weekends I am in the scriptures. Monday through Friday it is my lunch time, even if lunch is at five. This means I say no to lunch invites, make my lunch so I don’t waste time buying it and eat alone as opposed to eating with the men. And when I worked for someone it was even more awkward. Everyone went out to lunch and I would go to the “barn” to eat my lunch alone. In the winter it was freezing so I would bring a blanket with me. It’s not easy to be a Mary, it can also cause conflict in our marriages. This dynamic plays out between spouses and it can make for some difficult seasons.
— I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  Can we actually have happiness while in a state of want – to be in hunger and or suffer need? Well it depends, lets first define hunger? Is hunger when your stomach is full but your soul is dry and arid? In Proverbs 10:3 The Lord makes this statement, “The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.” Or is hunger when your stomach may be in want but you are filled with the joy of Christ, which of the two hungers are greater? And what is want when your Dad has all Eternity to share with you and riches beyond comprehension. Can we actually say that in this dot of our existence that we actually went in want when Christ is King? Proverbs 10:22, “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.” 
That is not to say there is not suffering. Many areas of the world to be a Christian is to suffer, yet we are told that if we suffer for Christ we are to rejoice. 1 Peter 4:13 & 14 “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.”
Our  pastor recently told a story of a young man who at the age of four suffered a terrible car accident. Though the doctors saved his life, they could not spare him from the intense pain and crippling effect he would have to suffer as a result of it. At the age of 17 our pastor met him and sought to be an encouragement, however the opposite occurred. The young man knew exactly what the pastor was attempting to do, as many before him. So with politeness he interrupted the pastor and said, “Don’t worry pastor, God has all of eternity to make it up to me.” Would to God we had this young man’s conviction and prespective on life, what a church we would be!! Truth had disciplined him until like a finely tuned instrument he hummed the tunes of heaven. When life as we know it has been challenged or changed due to circumstances, then and really only then our priorities change. God can use suffering to show us how fragile this life can be and how needful we are of Him. In many respects our abundant life style is what cripples us.
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
When I was in high school I ran cross country and a normal day for us was 5 miles in the morning before school and 10 -12 miles after school. In the winter months we ran in the dark. I would have never thought I could have run so much in a single day if I was not pushed to do so, and this is true with our verse. How do we know we can do all things in Christ if life was not challenging, if life didn’t push us? It is in the challenges, in the pain and crisis of life that we press more into Christ and in so doing our faith grows. We learn that truly we can do all things in Him. So many times the verses we quote have no real life application to them.  When a verse lives inside of you because it became your bread and water during a crisis time. Then you know you know it and when you share it, it is shared with absolute conviction. I “learn” a  verse, then God quite promptly assigns the appropriate trial or trials to make sure that I don’t forget it. It becomes part of me, another “room addition” of God’s Kingdom gets erected in me.
“Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.” I love Paul because his life was so balanced. He was never outside the reach of everyday believers. In today’s church culture he would be a mega super star. When he was alone, Christ was his strenght and when in communication with others, he welcomed and appreciated their help. His greatest asset was his humility and likewise with us, humility is the gift of all gifts. It doesn’t matter how talented we are, or how well we preach/ teach, sing, without humility it really means nothing. Aside from this, this verse points out the importance of supporting those who are truly in the ministry. There are those who chose the field for themselves, they do more harm than good, but their are those whose lives are marked by a Holy Spirit anointing who are truly called to serve, and we should support them.
Final Note : Christina Grimmy, a contestant on the Voice was a believer, and on her Facebook page the last recorded song she sang was in “Christ Alone” for Easter. One of the devil’s ambassadors came traveling 120 miles to one of her book signings and shot her and then himself. She received the answer to her beloved song, and he received his reward as well. A greater punishment that any jail could give. Prayer for the family, she was a darling young lady only 21 years of age.
Father God,
 Thank you for this study, though it be somewhat intense it speaks to the fault and need of our Christian culture. May we join our young brother and not shrink back from hardship, suffering or pain. You truly have all of Eternity to make it up to us. Let us, like Paul, be more concerned that we run the good race of the Faith, bringing others with us. Let us rise to the calling of a heavenward life. Thank you and Amen.
Move Forward in His Grace – Arthur
Posted on

Proof of Adoption Part VI

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and — minds through Christ Jesus.
 
Finally,brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things ( the problem with being lukewarm in the faith is you never get to enjoy the benefits of a life well lived) .
 
The final proof of adoption deals with an area that no one sees, our mind. What we ponder on, think over, meditate on will eventually show itself in our actions and speech. Therefore training our thought life to be in agreement with God’s Word not only makes for a very healthy thought life, but actions and speech that we never have to be ashamed of or often apologize for. If you have regrets over an action or words said, then you can appreciate what I just said. This transformation does not occur over night, it takes time and dedication, much like a soldier training for combat or a fireman training to fight fire. Continued training is needful, for combat can happen at any moment. You can be in battle with the first shot of a gun or an alarm can wake you out of your sleep calling you to put out a fire. What comes out of you then is the result of your dedication and training. Training takes over and thought patterns as instinct guide the next step. This is no different in the battle for the mind and it is the second most important thing we can do. The first is a commitment to loving the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.
When we do not commit to this we end up living duals lives. We have our outward life, how we believe people want us to act or how we want people to believe we are and our inward life – our true self. This can be totally different from the man or woman on the outside and can create a lot of needless stress. It’s a mask that we must be ready to wear at any moment, and with different people we may have different masks. Proverbs says that the fear of man is a trap. Instead of fearing the Lord which counters the fear of man, we fear man and come under his control. “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe (Proverbs 29:25). Hence the reason for our dual life, which is motivated by our insecurities.
As long as we seek to please people as opposed to seeking to please the Lord we will never get free of our insecurities. Biblical truth frees our mind and soul bringing us into relationship with the Lord. Through growing in reverence for the Lord, we begin the process of becoming transformed – from a mindset that seeks to please man to a mindset that seeks to please The Lord. The internal working of the Holy Spirit “remaps” us as we grow in the knowledge and experience of walking in God’s love. This is a much stronger life. To live life consistent with how we think and feel inwardly without the fear of man is a freedom that is our birth right  as a child of God; it is a life that we can be proud of. We can look in the mirror without regret, pleased with the man or woman that the Holy Spirit is forming.
 To live without acknowledging that we are wired with a need to be loved is to ignore a critical aspect of who we are as people. However,  it is not just loved but to be perfectly loved which is what gives us our value. Perfectly loved eliminates the question “if I do this will they still love me, or if they knew this about me would they still love me. Witn human love their remains this uncertainty, there could be limits on it and hence a contributing factor to our insecurity.  The love we seek and need is unique to God alone. To look for this unconditional love on the human level is to look for love “in all the wrong places.” It is His love we need and it is how we are wired and hence true peace is attained when thought and body (actions) are one because of God’s love and approval in our life. And God’s approval is most unique. He can see all the fawls in us and yet it does not diminish one ounce of His love or the inherit value/ worth He has place on us. As true north is constant, so my value before Him is constant because of Christ’s work on the Cross ( Amen!)
The word hypocrite in the Greek comes from the stage plays of old when the actors had masks that they held up in front of them while they acted out their role. Some of them had two masks, one in each hand for the two characters they played. It got a little confusing I’m sure. When we act out who we’re not it is hurtful to our character and self respect. When a guy wants to have sex, but the girl really does not want to but goes along with it because she fears losing the guy; or when we are striving for that promotion at work and our boss ask us to do a few things under the table or to lie for him, these actions hurt us. Should you say yes to a boyfriend that really does not respect you, or yes to a boss who will probably ask you to lie for him again? At what point do you say no, if not now, when? Each time we violate the person inside we step down in our self respect, which is so critical to our internal happiness. To lose self respect is to lose something on a human level that cannot be regained. Only God can heal that fatal wound.
“whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” 
Jesus is the fulfillment of this verse and while standing in front of Pilate said, “I am the way, the truth and the light, no one comes to the Father except through me.” Pilate being the vain man that he was said, “what is truth?” I’m sure Christ’s words went right over him. Generally speaking there are two approaches to truth. There is the philosophical approach were truth is relative. It depends upon the situation and on the individual and what might be true ( or right)  for one person may not be true for another. I do not call this truth but “convenience thinking” or rationlization could be another term. Whatever works for MY best interest is what is true for me. The other truth is Biblical truth. There is right and there is wrong and if it inconveniences me to do the right thing then I have a choice to make. To live with no absolutes, no right or wrong is to strip from my soul the very moral code that gives me my self respect and by which others respect us. Who respects a weasel, someone who gives a promise today but breaks it tomorrow because it became inconvenient to keep? Committing to God’s way of living is in itself the very definition of being a respectable man or woman. I have had the pleasure of meeting a number of people who were not necessarily reglious, but who ordered their life around The Ten Commandments or something similar. They have a presence of integrity about them because they have ordered their life as such and all the more for those of us who know Christ.
Father God,
Give us courage to do the right thing, starting first with our thought life. Let us replace impure and or vain thinking with truth and righteousness which comes as we spend time with You in your Word. You have given us what we need to succeed in every area of our life, help us to take advantage of it. Thank you and Amen.
Move Forward in His Grace – Arthur