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Submit, Resist, Love

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
James 4:7 NKJV

1) Submit yourself to the Lord. Humble yourself before the Lord to do His will.

ὑποτάσσω

to arrange under, to subordinate
to subject, put in subjection
to subject one’s self, obey
to submit to one’s control
to yield to one’s admonition or advice
to obey, be subject

Our society teaches us that we should have the attitude that we are subject to no one,  that we are the Lord of our own lives and that we should have the freedom to do whatever we like. But this is not the type of freedom that the Bible teaches us. This is not the freedom that the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us.

God did not come in the flesh to die on a cross so that we could continue as slaves to sin and death. God came in the flesh and died on the cross and rose to heaven so that we can be forgiven, so that we can receive Him into our lives, and so that we can see sin overcome in our lives as we walk out our lives as a new creation. Yes, a new creation,  with new desires and a new direction. A life in submission to God’s will, not our own.

And if you are not comfortable with the idea of anyone being the master of your life but yourself, then you have chosen your master and it is not God. This is an important choice that will have a great impact on your life and how you live it. It will influence your attitude towards others, and it will guide your every thought, word, and action.

If you are submitted to God’s will, you will want to continue to number 2.

2) Resist the devil

This is the full picture of repentance. Because we can “say” that we are yielded to God, but if we don’t resist evil,  if we don’t resist temptation, if we don’t avoid sin, if we don’t obey God – then we have only deceived ourselves.

This is the definition of a Christian – one who is yielded to God and who resists evil. This is the picture of someone being drawn closer to God,  someone whowants Christ alive in their daily lives.

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian. Saying a prayer doesn’t make you a Christian. Being dunked under water doesn’t make you a Christian. Doing “work for the Lord” doesn’t make you a Christian. Studying the Bible doesn’t make you a Christian.

These things can be evidence that you might in fact be a Christian alive with the Holy Spirit of Christ in you,  but they could just as easily be evidence that you are just acting religious.

So what do we do? How do we know?

I ask you,  Do you know that Jesus loves you?

Do you believe in your heart that He died on the cross and was raised from the dead as the first of God’s children?

Do you desire for Him to come and live in your heart and change your desires and to lead and guide you in a new life?

Do you love Him?

Do you want your life to be free from sin?

Do you want to love and serve others?

Are you willing to pay the price of laying down your own life, to submit to the call of Christ, to pick up your cross and follow Him?

If your heart and your mind are in agreement with these questions,  and your answers are true – I welcome you friend to the church,  to the body of Christ,  alive and growing amongst the darkness of the lawless and amongst the dead and rotting hypocrisy of the religious. We bring the light,  and it looks like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self control – because it is the very nature of Christ poured out into those of us who would be peculiar enough to love and serve God’s will, not our own.

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Money, Sex, and God

Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.  Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery. Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”
Hebrews 13:1‭-‬6

God of my heart and Lord of my desire: money and sex are powerfully good gifts from you, yet both can become dangerous idols. Order my heart and discipline my desires so that money and sex have their pepper place. May the affections of my heart never run contrary to any of your commandments, but may your love be my greatest treasure. In Christ’s name, amen. (HC 113)

Do we desire the things that God can give us,  or do we desire His Spirit ever more alive and present in our daily lives as we grow glory by glory closer to our Heavenly Father? If we have this perspective backwards, if we cry out for prosperity in this world instead of crying out for God alive in us,  those same “things” can quickly become a curse instead of a blessing.

Money and wealth placed in the hands of a selfish man can lead him into all kinds of dangerous traps where he becomes an oppressor and a hindrance to his brothers and sisters.  But when it is placed into the hands of the faithful,  it can be a blessing for him,  his family,  his friends, and even to the strangers that he entertains and serves lovingly.

Sex brought to the awareness of an immoral man can lead him into all kinds of traps and soul ties with immoral women, to children not provided for physically or spiritually, to diseases and depression and all kinds of wrong thinking about the value of people and marriage. But sex in the hands of a godly and righteous man who loves the Lord will produce an abundant family of children who are brought up to be nourished both physically and spiritually, who will be a benefit and not a drain on those around them and their community.

And it comes down to the type of prosperity that is being sought after – do we seek things for ourselves, or do we seek God to offer ourselves?

Many, Lord , are asking, “Who will bring us prosperity?”
Let the light of your face shine on us. Fill my heart with joy when their grain and new wine abound. In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord , make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:6‭-‬8 NIV

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Expectation is the enemy of Love

Expectation is the enemy of love.

Serving without any expectation is the proof of love.

Two people that each insist on being the master of the other will never cease being at war with each other.

But two people that insist on serving each other will never cease being in love with each other.

This is true of marriages, families, friendships, and even our relationship with the Lord.

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” – I Corinthians 13:4‭-‬7 NKJV

“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” – John 15:15 NKJV

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One Sacrifice for those being sanctified

But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord : I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then  He  adds,  “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there  is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one  another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:12‭-‬25 NKJV

Do you believe?

Are you being sanctified?

These are important questions of faith that we don’t answer with our words,  we answer them with or hearts.

Whether or not the law is written on our hearts can shed some light on whether or not we believe.

Is our heart true in full assurance of faith?

If doubt has crept in, isn’t that a great opportunity to seek the Lord diligently, because it may be evidence that we are practicing religion instead of maintaining a living relationship where we are drawing closer to the Lord.

Are we holding fast during the trials and tribulations?

If we have allowed ourselves to slip into a perspective of treating God like a genie, expecting Him to bend to our will instead of the other way around,  isn’t that a great opportunity to humble ourselves at the feet of our master and Lord?

Are we interacting with other believers, encouraging one another and holding each other accountable?

If we have allowed ourselves to slip into isolation, leaving love and spirit to remain stagnant and lukewarm within our pitcher instead of pouring out and maintaining the flow of living waters, isn’t that a wonderful opportunity to sound our trumpet cry and to see Him break through the walls and deliver us from the chains of a self centered focus.

We ARE those being sanctified.

Yes, as we see that day approaching,  let’s grow in our determination and focus. Let’s not grow weary. Let’s stay the course.

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Come Home

Have you been wandering?

Come home.

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord , meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.
But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind. They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly.
For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.
Psalms 1:1‭-‬6 NLT

Are you tired of being blown around by the wind,  chasing all kinds of things that just slip through your fingers and leave you unsatisfied and restless?

Come home.

For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham. Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying: “I will certainly bless you, and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.” Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised. Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.
Hebrews 6:13‭-‬19 NLT

Do you know the good news of Jesus Christ? That through faith your sin is forgiven and that you can come home to the promise He has for your life?

Come home.

He is a heartfelt prayer away because He had never left you. He is waiting with arms open wide. Just look to the cross.

Come home.

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Here Today

Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
James 4:13‭-‬17 NLT

life is short. These bodies all have an expiration date, and it will amaze you how quickly time slips through your fingers. You will look up one day and wonder where it has all gone. You have spent valuable minutes just now reading this message that you cannot get back – they are gone, spent, non-refundable.

So what are we doing with our time?

Do we treat it as of it is valuable and precious? Or waste it in idleness, procrastination, and laziness towards our purpose and goal of sharing this Good News?

Or do we waste it in time spent planning, worrying, fretting and stressing over tomorrow when we could be acting and doing right now. Don’t let the possibilities for an effective tomorrow stall the reality of an effective today.

“Now” is the only time that we are alive, let’s not let the enemy steal that from us, friends.

Let’s us our “now”, our “today”, realizing that it is our one spot at it.

Let’s work like our livelihood depended on it,
let’s love like others lives friends on our example.

If today is a time to laugh,
Let’s laugh whole heartedly,
If today is a time to mourn,
Let’s cry tears from the very river of our hearts,
Whatever the season,
Let’s live it with strong conviction of heart and a dedicated purpose.

Because today is precious and valuable, and we will only see it once even though it is a flash within the expense of eternity.

We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.  But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
John 9:4‭-‬5 NLT