It's not like we have switches we can turn off and on....

Do you ever wish you had a bunch of switches inside you that you could turn off and on at will?  I was discussing something with someone recently and said, 'It's not like Soandso can just turn off the part of them.'  And then I said, 'Wouldn't it be great if we did have switches like that? We could turn off the parts of us that we despise with a flick of a switch. ' If I don't want a quick temper- off goes that switch. If I don't want the awful selfishness I have, that switch is turned off. If I find myself committing any sin, off the switch goes.   The truth is, we do NOT have any switch inside to turn off, not a single one we can control in such an instant and permanent manner. We may seek to control our tempers, our selfishness, our various lusts, and sometimes we may conquer them, but conquering them once or even several times does not mean they are conquered forever. 

Truly, our cross is taken up and carried daily.

Remember this--

Jas 1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

Jas 1:15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Temptation hits us all… but the LUST needs to be conceived to bring forth sin.

The switches get turned on, but we do have time, BY the grace of GOD, to choose to turn them off before we are committed to the conceived lust. We need to recognize the NEED to turn them off.  We need to know how to turn them off. If learning how to turn them off is allowing the Holy Spirit to turn them off as we surrender to Him, then we must do that!  We need to learn, please, Lord, please teach us!

Daily we will face choices and daily we choose Christ or not Christ. God forgive us for all too often choosing wrongly!  Forgive us, please, don't forsake us. We are very weak, so very, very weak. 

We would be YOURS.

All by the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ now and FOREVER. 

What attitude do you have towards your possessions?

 Excerpt from- The Spiritual Man-  Watchman Nee

'This is the work of the cross. The attitude of saints towards their possessions most assuredly signifies whether they continue to preserve their self life or whether they have consigned it to death. If we desire to tread a pure spiritual path we must allow God to so operate in us that our hearts can be severed from everything pertaining to the world and be totally released from the intent of Lot’s wife. This is the prerequisite for experiencing perfect life in Christ. We can despise all the things in the world only after the Holy Spirit has shown the reality of heaven and its perfect life. Matters below and matters above defy comparison. The experience of the Apostle in Philippians 3 begins with esteeming everything as loss and proceeds to suffering the loss of all things. Therein does the Apostle come to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. 

Such is the perfect way. Often we are unconscious how powerful our self is until tested in regard to material matters. At times it seems we require more grace to lose our wealth than to lose our life! Earthly things truly represent an acid test for soul life. God’s children who indulge in eating and drinking and in ease and comfort need a deeper cutting away of the cross to free their spirit from the bondage and influence of the soul and to be free to live in God. Any who still hanker after the things of the world have yet to learn how to lose their soul life through the deep penetration of the cross."

Is this truth?  Does this writer- Watchman Nee speak the truth? Is he speaking from God's word? 

Php 3:4  Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:

Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death

Is this message just for the apostle and no other? Do we have to be some special person in order to want this connection with God by faith? Can the average, non-apostle type person seek God in this way? Do we have to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord?  Could we lose all we possess and still hold fast to Christ? Could we count all our possession but dung so we could win Christ? Just how attached to our possession are we? How attached are we to our lives- the earthly, fleshly part of our life?

Is this us?

'Any who still hanker after the things of the world have yet to learn how to lose their soul life through the deep penetration of the cross.'

I think it is me.

Please, Lord, please… help me learn to lose my soul life through the deep penetration of the cross! Please! Save me from myself!

More tomorrow by the grace and mercy, the will of our Savior, Jesus Christ, now and forever!

Raised from the dead in the blink of an eye.

1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

A moment.

A twinkling of an eye.

Did you just blink? Is that considered a twinkling of an eye? Surely a blink only takes a single moment.  How quickly the dead will be raised from their graves. How amazing swift will the breath of life from God be returned to those who lost it as they breathed their last, however long before.  Six thousand years long?  Surely those who died in Christ, in the grace of our Savior, when the world was almost brand new- Abel the first to die, he too will be raised from the dead.   You say  the Bible tells us  that Abel's blood cried out… and I tell you, that's truth.  A lot of blood cries out doesn't it? Seriously. Any and all who are murdered have blood that is crying out their wrongful death.  That doesn't mean Abel has been crying out knowingly for 6000 years, how AWFUL that would be.

Jesus calls death a SLEEP, and a SLEEP it is.

In that single moment when the dead are raised to life upon the sound of the last trumpet when Jesus returns, all the dead are woken up from their long sleep.

Bodies will form instantaneously as the LORD calls them from death's grip.  Bodies that have long disappeared, the dust of the bones thousands of years dead having mingled with the dust of the ground until it is indistinguishable from any and all dirt will take on life once more.  God knows all His people and NOT one will be lost, not one!  This miracle of being raised from the dead is the HOPE we have after living our lives for our Savior, for His will. Life everlasting, life eternal, life in reality unlike this sin-filled existence we know. 

Incorruptible bodies,  with the breath of life that returned to God upon death given back to those bodies and all that makes us who we are as His children restored to us- all the dead in Christ will live again!

This is the message of the gospel, this is the good news, this is eternal life- this is the message that our Savior came to deliver to all of us! This is our HOPE.

Jesus never talks about us having a wonderful life here and now.

Remember this--

'

Heb 11:36  And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

Heb 11:38  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

Heb 11:40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. '

These are only some of the awful things that those with faith have endured.

Why do we imagine anything at all that is awful for us in any and every way is unexpected?

Somewhere along the line people decided that God is supposed to only allow good things to those that are His.  Yet it became perfectly clear to our God that no matter the earthly favors He bestowed upon His people they inevitably turned on Him.  The plan of salvation meant the AWFUL torture and sacrifice of God the Son, and it means that we too can expect no less a life. Over and over God's people have endured suffering, we have to comprehend that this is a reality. We should be willing - through the grace of God- to suffer ALL things for Him who suffered all things for us.

Eternal life awaits all who are Christ's.

All who live simply for this world and not for eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, seeking the will of God, all through His love - give up eternity! They give up eternity!  They live for now, for this awful world, seeking what pleasures they can gain from it and they don't worry about eternity. If ONLY there were some way to open all eyes, to open all hearts to salvation!

Please Lord, help us! Help us to let You work Your will in us! Let the Holy Spirit live in us!  Use us as You can Lord, please we would be YOURS now and forever!!!!!!!

PLEASE!

All in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord! NOW, and FOREVER!

We are so caught up in the HERE and NOW we forget ETERNITY.

Where we left off yesterday…

' If we only hope for an eternal life with Christ as some sort of reward for our existing, then we are going to be in for a shocking surprise. 

We've made eternal life an abstract thought, a back burner idea, something to tuck away and think about from time to time while we live our current life.  We don't truly believe that we are STRANGERS and PILGRIMS here on earth living for a better place, a better home.  We believe THIS is our home and we set about living our lives accordingly.  If we TRULY believed we were strangers and pilgrims here, would we do so much to live for here and so very little for our eternal life?

If people live for eternal life- shouldn't they be active disciples for eternal life?'

*******

When was the last time you thought about your eternal life, before the paragraph above?

How often do you think about Jesus?

Can you ever think about Jesus without thinking about your eternal life? Yes, you can, but you shouldn't.

Jesus - a GOD in heaven with GOD, chose to give up that position in heaven to take on human flesh in order to do ONE thing… make eternal life with Him possible for us.

Mat 4:17  From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The kingdom of heaven - Jesus.    Without Jesus the kingdom of heaven does NOT exist for us. The way to heaven was now at hand.  Every human being is given the opportunity to live eternally in heaven with our Savior. Remember this…

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

1Th 4:18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

If you die before Christ returns- you will be RAISED up when He comes back.  If you are alive when Christ returns you will be caught up into the air with Him.  Heaven will be our home! That promise of heaven Jesus came to earth to give to us is a REAL promise.

Jesus lived and breathed the message of the kingdom of heaven, of eternal life.  You could NOT come in contact with the Savior when He was upon earth without hearing about His message- either from Him, or from those who came in contact with Him already.  The news of the gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus was spreading like wildfire.  

Tell me, what good is salvation without eternal life?  Can there be salvation without eternal life?  The whole point of being saved from our sins is for us to become one with God again and live with Him.

We are PROMISED eternal life, an eternal home.

If you were promised five million dollars if you live to be seventy-five years old would you look forward to that seventy-fifth birthday?  Chances are it would be something you'd think about every day of your life.

When we are given eternal life, that most special of gifts, it should be something we think about all the time.  It is a FUTURE promise.  We are promised a FUTURE worth much more than five million dollars, yet we've regulated it to something benign, something nonplus, something commonplace, something we don't celebrate like we should at all.

Eternal life!

We are so caught up in the HERE and NOW we forget ETERNITY.

Do we live now FOR eternal life?

Php_2:12  … work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

Php 2:15  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

Php 2:16  Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

'God’s Word must lay bare more and more of our natural life so that the work of the cross can probe deeper and deeper. That is why the cross must be borne daily. To know more of God’s will and to know more of the self, furnishes the cross increased ground to operate.'  Excerpt from 'The Spiritual Man' Watchman Nee.

Can you imagine doing 'all' things without any murmuring (aloud and to yourself silently) and without any disputing whatsoever?  Seriously. Internal murmuring goes on all the time, doesn't it? We are filled with this murmuring and disputing- and I'm not talking about riot-like disputing, but all disputing down to the smallest of disputes. We live day to day with murmuring and disputing until it has become NORMAL, yet they are far from normal. 

The excerpt above speaks of our natural life being laid bare and I believe that the above verse- about doing ALL things without murmuring and disputing- is a huge revelation for us.  We need to recognize the natural man in us and that natural self LOVES to murmur and dispute- again- I'm NOT talking about being the loudest murmurer to exist or the biggest disputer of all time.  We focus on ourselves to such a degree that we are slighted not just by others- but by things that interfere with our "ME" time, things that mess up our plans (self-made plans or otherwise.). We go from day to day and make note of most of the tiny irritants that have affected our well-being.   And our 'well-being' is that state of being which we've predetermined gives us the ease of life we believe we deserve. We've had a lousy day when our well-being is disturbed. We've had an amazing day when we've had the least amount of things irritating us and upset our 'well-being'.  From one moment to the next we are in a state of 'well-being' or 'not quite so well-being'.  We have made our 'well-being' our criteria for our lives. THE FOCUS is on ourselves! 

How are you today?  How is your day going? Having a good day? All this reinforces our self-focus, doesn't it? How do you feel today?  How is life?  Focus on self.  Even when we are asking another these questions we are drawing their attention where? To themselves.  I'm not saying we aren't to be polite, I'm saying society has made it NORMAL for us to focus on our well-being.  SELF FOCUS.

We need the many ways we are self-focused exposed to us so we may pray for deliverance from them. 

Our murmuring and disputing will often have its roots in our natural self, our flesh nature and NOT the spirit.

Truly this DAILY cross we are to carry is our DAILY work towards exposing all that would keep us from Christ.

We are to live day to day IN CHRIST- never putting off our Christianity, never setting it aside for a while as we indulge ourselves in non-Christian behavior.

If HEAVEN and ETERNAL LIFE with Christ is our HOPE, our TRUE HOPE, then living for CHRIST now should be our REALITY!   If we only hope for an eternal life with Christ as some sort of reward for our existing, then we are going to be in for a shocking surprise. 

We've made eternal life an abstract thought, a back burner idea, something to tuck away and think about from time to time while we live our current life.  We don't truly believe that we are STRANGERS and PILGRIMS here on earth living for a better place, a better home.  We believe THIS is our home and we set about living our lives accordingly.  If we TRULY believed we were strangers and pilgrims here, would we do so much to live for here and so very little for our eternal life?

If people live for eternal life- shouldn't they be active disciples for eternal life? 

More on this tomorrow by the GRACE and WILL of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!!

Easily offended, self-indulgent- Cross Bearing Opportunity.

'The cross which condemned sin to death is an accomplished fact: all which remains for us to do is to acknowledge and receive it. But the cross through which we forfeit our soul life is different. Self-denial is not a matter already and completely accomplished; this we must experience daily.'

The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Luk_9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

The power that enable us to choose God not once, but daily- hourly, minutely, is the same power that leaves us room to choose otherwise.

Think about it for a moment. If in a moment of -once and forever choosing - your choice was sin and you were never able to find forgiveness after that, how horrific would that be?

We long to be able to choose to follow Christ once and forever never to sin again, never to leave His path, never to lose Him. We wish the power of choice was taken away after we make that choice so that it'd be impossible for us to ever stray from Him.

Yet in desiring that choice as long as sin exists is also desiring that once and forever choice to sin.  We can't have one without the other.

We can't have our power of choice stripped from us.

The angels had to make a choice- a once and forever choice without chance of any change once that choice was made. They had their moment of decision and 1/3 chose to leave God, and 2/3 chose to remain with God.  Those 1/3 who chose to leave God made that forever choice and have no chance at all whatsoever to be God's again.

We all have a choice to make, and in making that choice we then have a daily choice to live by. And as long as we live and have our faculties of discernment we must make that daily choice. The daily choice consisting of living each day by taking up our cross no matter what that cross may be.  Taking up that cross and choosing the path God that lays before us -over the path that satan invites us to walk down. Ours isn't an angel choice but a human choice given to us by God made flesh. Our power of choosing comes with choosing to live in Christ, surrendered to Christ. 

Satan will lay out traps for us on a daily basis using all his wiles to do so. The first trap of the day could be as simple as finding a piece of dirty laundry on the floor instead of the hamper- something that has been known to irritate you into lashing out at the laundry offender. 

So there you have it, a cross to pick up or ignore.  Do you deal with the laundry situation in a way that you imagine Christ would have you deal with it, or do you choose to use a way Satan would enjoy witnessing?

You say you have a right to be angry, upset, or generally miffed at the offender. Yes, there is such a thing as righteous indignation- a right to be angry, but how often does that righteous indignation lead us down the path of unrighteous action?

Ask yourself why you are angry? Is the offensive piece of laundry defying God in any way? Probably not. Is the dirty laundry offending you? If you answer yes, how is it offending you?  Do you instantly think that you should NOT have to pick up someone else's dirty laundry? That the offender should pick up after themselves? That by leaving the laundry right there on the floor where it doesn't belong you are being shown a lack of respect?  Is your SELF offended by the laundry offender? It could be any number of these reasons, or all of them, right? You want dirty laundry in its rightful place - the hamper. It's your desire for it to be where you've determined it belongs.  Do you happen to notice the number of the word 'you' being used?

Is it a fact the dirty laundry belongs in the laundry hamper? YES.

Is it a fact that not everyone feels an inclination to be tidy? YES.

Is that laundry a deciding factor on Your eternal life? Maybe.

What? Maybe? Why- maybe? Because you could let that irritant infuriate you into acting completely unloving towards another person. 

Is there a way to deal with that dirty laundry without letting yourself get caught up in going overboard and being hurtful towards another?  Yes. You could be a matter-of-fact in asking the person to pick up the laundry, without any judgment on their lack of respect towards you. You could pick up the laundry yourself- it is after all only a piece of clothing out of place for whatever reason the offender had. And I'm sure there are even more ways to deal with the situation.

The point being made here, or trying to be made, is satan using our lives to get us to focus on ourselves so that we become easily offended by any number of things. Whether it is dirty laundry strewn about the floor out of its proper place, or dirty dishes, or an unwashed cupboard after a very messy bout of snack making, truly no matter what the situation- when we perceive we are being disrespected, used, not taken into consideration, overlooked, and so on and so forth we are focusing on OURSELVES and esteeming ourselves into a place where we can be offended, hurt, hurtful and more.  

THESE are some of the crosses we must bear and if you think I'm kidding, I'm not.  SELF focus is feeding the soul NOT the spirit! SELF focus on many levels is feeding our natural man, our flesh nature.

I've heard it said and I believe it, we are living in the generation of the easily offended. We are so easily offended because we've esteemed ourselves into positions much higher than every intended.

Satan is HARD at work putting obstacles in our way. We have many chances to pick up our daily cross and bear the MANY, MANY undeserved OFFENSES just as Jesus endure UNDESERVED offenses in a way we can't begin to fully fathom. And every time we get it in our heads that we do NOT deserve to be treated in any certain way, we MUST consider how Jesus was treated- DID HE DESERVE IT?  Never, in absolutely no way did Jesus deserve any of the many abuses He suffered yet He ENDURED all the way to the cross.  He had more right, more justification than any of us ever could have to be offended by the abuse, yet He chose a different way and He showed us that way- through HIM.

By HIS AMAZING GRACE, HIS LOVE!  In the name of our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ, our LORD forevermore! 

Do you ignore your cross?

'If in the disposition which Christ displayed in relation to His cross we are willing to take up ours, then we shall find that the power of His cross abides in us and enables us to lose our natural life.

Each time the cross is taken up, each time does the soul life suffer loss.

Each time the cross is circumvented, each time is the soul life fed and preserved.'    - Watchman Nee - The Spiritual Man.

We need to lose our natural life because of this- 

1Co_2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

If we cling to our natural life, holding fast to our natural man, then we CANNOT receive the things of the SPIRIT of GOD.

Isn't that what we want? Don't we want the things of the Spirit of God? If we don't then why are we bothering with any of this- stop reading now and go do whatever it is you want to do without the Spirit of God. I want the things of the SPIRIT of GOD, but I cannot receive them with my natural man in control!  The things of the Spirit are foolishness to our natural man. We CANNOT know  the things of the Spirit of God, we can't receive them, we can't know them in our natural state! So, YES, we need to LOSE our natural life!

The power of Jesus Christ's cross will abide in us and we WILL lose that natural self.

We have a natural self that the soul can choose to indulge in.  The spirit life in us needs the Spirit of God and does NOT need the natural life.  When the soul life indulges in the fleshy, natural temptations and sin is conceived we are wounding the spirit in us.

When Watchman Nee says this--

'Each time the cross is taken up, each time does the soul life suffer loss.

Each time the cross is circumvented, each time is the soul life fed and preserved.'

Our natural life suffers a loss when we TAKE up the cross that Christ has prepared for us individually, the cross that will forever be connected to HIS cross.  We NEED the natural life to suffer a loss, we need it desperately. 

When we CIRCUMVENT the cross, when we refuse to take up the cross presented to us and skirt around it to indulge in our natural life- we are hurting the spirit and feeding the natural life we need to LOSE.  How often we are presented with our daily cross only to ignore it. We must stop ignoring our cross!

More tomorrow by the grace of our LORD, our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!