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He is a New Creation

As the road is wide that leads to destruction, much of mankind are caterpillars concerned with things below.  It’s when one realizes a need, turns, and obeys the gospel that he enters Christ through baptism and changes to be born a member of Christ’s body the church.  From there the butterfly … erm, Christian … walks (or flies–to keep the illustration consistent) as Jesus did upon that narrow road that leads to eternal life.

I.  Romans 5:18-21.  Sin marred the image of God that we were created in, but Christ was the perfect image of God who lived perfectly and then died so that in Him we could be restored to that perfection (Romans 6:1-14).  When we enter the chrysalis of Christ, we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

II.  Colossians 3:1-17.  God’s ways and thoughts are so much above our own (Isaiah 55:8-9), yet in Him we are united with him and change to live differently.  Our minds and hearts need to be set on things above, not on earthly things.  After all, butterflies have wings and do not have the concerns of caterpillars.

III.  Ephesians 2:4-10.  The flutter (collective noun for a group of butterflies) that make up the bride of Christ works (obedient living) for the Bridegroom, walks as the Bridegroom (1 John 2:3-6) does, watches for the Bridegroom (Luke 21:34-36), and waits for the Bridegroom (Hebrews 9:27-28).

Jesus has made us to be a new creation as we enter the chrysalis of His body, the church, and are reborn as something entirely different.  Why live as if we don’t have wings?

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Show Your Power

Revelation 1

Father, in all affliction, show
your glorious presence, show your power
that shines like the sun at noon, with feet
of flowing bronze, moving quickly,
stars in hand, the mouth of judgment,
the First and Last, who died and arose,
who Was and Is and Ever will Be!

To me bring comfort, Vision of love,
O Flow of freedom, Blood of man;
bring courage to meet the arm of sin,
oppressor of soul; bring faith to win
in face of death, your name confess,
O Holder of keys to Hades’ prison —
open to me the gate of Heaven.

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The Evil Slippery Slope

The gospel brings salvation for mankind,
The only power to save the maimed and blind;
O Lord, keep me from ever feeling shame,
But always offer to all the blessed Name.

For saving grace obedient faith’s required;
By Christ confessed is righteousness acquired.
In him, O God, resides my glorious hope —
Preserve me from the evil slippery slope.

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If the Lord is With Us

In the midst of a culture that was reaping the consequences of sin and turning away from God, God calls Gideon and declares that He is with them.  Citing the great ways of the past in which God showed Himself to truly be with them, Gideon asks a question that Christians could certainly ask today, “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?”

I. Matthew 14:28-33.  We have the same reassurance that Gideon received–that God is with us (Matthew 28:20) and that He will never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5-6), yet we, like Peter stepping out of boat, take our eyes off Jesus because the winds around us are so fierce.  Our circumstances and situation in a dark world are going to rage (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).  This doesn’t mean that God is not there.  We must fix our eyes on Him (Hebrews 12:1-3) to not grow weary or fainthearted.

II. Judges 6:11-32.  More than just his circumstances, Gideon was overwhelmed because he saw his weaknesses and helplessness in the midst of the culture he was a part of.  Most Christians feel this way today.  We, like Gideon, can take great reassurance that this is exactly the situation in which God works (1 Corinthians 1:25-29) so we may not boast.  Paul, in pleading for the ‘thorn’ to be removed from him, was told that God’s power in his life was made perfect in Paul’s weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).

III. Judges 6:33-40.  Jesus said if we had faith as small as a mustard seed, then nothing would be impossible for us (Matthew 17:20).  God readies Gideon to take on His people’s enemies by first taking a ‘smaller’ step at home.  After he tears down his father’s altar to Baal and burns his Asherah pole, Gideon is defended by his earthly father and his heavenly Father sends him an army.  We too need our faith tested if we are to become mature and complete (James 1:2-4).  Are you willing to take that step?

Are circumstances or weakness coloring your perspective?  Or, are you seeing clearly through faith?

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She Gave Him Milk

To ‘fight like a man’ is to overtly confront a problem with brute strength.  Somehow to ‘fight like a woman’ has come to mean that the fighting is weaker–but only if compared to how men physically fight.  Women fight in subtler ways–we often call them ‘wiles’–that are just as strong or perhaps stronger than a man’s way–and they learn young!

My wife likes to tell the story of how our youngest at two years of age came to me with her blond pigtails and big, pleading eyes upset because her favorite pink nightgown was in the dirty clothes hamper.  I reassured her that when it was washed she could have it back.  She replied with a cute smile, “That would make me happy!”  A minute later I had to explain to my wife why I was doing laundry in the middle of the week.

I. Judges 4:17-22.  Sisera failed to understand this.  After Barak did not have the courage to ‘fight like a man’ and do what God had told him to do in defeating Sisera, Israel’s judge, Deborah, told him that a woman would claim credit for the victory over the Canaanites.  Although the Kenites were part of Israel, Sisera had no doubt found hospitality in Heber and Jael’s tent before.  Running from Barak, Sisera begs Jael for water, but she gave him milk and a place to sleep.  Then she put a tent peg through his head!  That was not what he expected, but Jael was praised for fighting like this (Judges 5:24-30).

II. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11. Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44) fights through deception.  Failing to ensnare God-in-the-flesh in the normal way he trapped men (Luke 4:1-13) and losing Jesus’ followers to the gospel, he really tries to outwit us with his schemes.  A lion seeking to devour at any opening (1 Peter 5:8), Christians must truly take up the armor of God against Satan’s ‘wiles’ (Ephesians 6:10-11).

III. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.  Jesus, however, fights like God–through obedience, truth, and sacrifice found in the gospel.  Through these ways and because He was made like us in every way, He has defeated the devil and death (Hebrews 2:12-14).  Now we, in Him and through Him, are able to fight like Him–if we can clearly see through Satan’s deceptions that would keep us blind to how powerful we truly are when restored to the image of God that we were created in through the gospel.

How do you fight:  Like a man?  Like a woman?  Or like God?

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An Easy Word to Say

Grace is such an easy word to say,
And with it, love and peace and joy and faith.
Such grand expressions! Cosmic truths that sway
The open mind! In them I’d daily bathe.

Lead me in the practice of the truth,
Your tender mercy ever my guiding light,
The blessed News of Christ my narrow path,
Where words have meaning, and faith becomes our sight.

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With You I Am Well Pleased

A humorous series of pictures on social media shows dogs’ expressions before and after being told that they are “good dogs.”  We, too, want to hear from God one day, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” but are we willing to make it our goal to please Him and walk in obedience?

I.  John 12:42-43.  Ever donate to some cause just to get a trinket in return?  Though our motives are often selfish, we often tell ourselves that we attend church and do good deeds because we love God and others.  But, it is with ourselves mostly that we are pleased.  Fear of many things keep us from obeying God’s commands and pleasing Him.  We must be careful not to be at home in this world (2 Corinthians 5:1-5).

II.  Mark 1:9-11.  The life of Jesus is a good study in how to live to be pleasing to God.  When He was baptized, we see His Father expressing this.  We also see this at His transfiguration in Matthew 17:5.  We understand that Jesus pleased God because He was even obedient to death (Philippians 2:5-8), but the great thing is that through His obedience, He gave us the opportunity to please God (Hebrews 5:7-9).

III.  1 Corinthians 10:1-6.  God is not a soccer mom who has an over-inflated view of His child.  Nor does He lavish fake praise when He knows how separated from Him because of sin we are.  Heaven is not a participation trophy!  Instead, we are warned not to repeat the sins of those who have gone before us because God was not pleased with them.  By living by faith, we are able to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:6-10).

No, we don’t earn our way into heaven by good works, but we must be an obedient child to one day hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”  That would not be possible for us to hear if Jesus had not gone before us and obeyed perfectly to the cross.

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Move Me Close

Open my ears, O God, to hear you.
Move me close, for me to be near you.
Every thought and action please you,
Faithful till my spirit sees you.

Christ is Lord! Help me to obey him.
Never may my heart betray him,
No excuse to fail or fault him.
Make my life and words exalt him.

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No Undertone

To joy in Christ, let run no undertone
Of sadness, heavy heart or grief;
Let fullest comfort flow from Jesus’ throne,
Whose river holds no hidden reef.

Let heavenly peace completely rule the mind,
Unmixed with cares and low concerns;
Blow gently in my soul the Spirit’s wind,
From which no worldly fear returns.

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Gave Him as Head Over All

As I’ve taught my four kids how to drive, I’ve wished for a brake on the floor of the passenger side of my vehicle.  It’s just so hard to give up control over many realms of our lives–but especially when it comes to spiritual things.  Allowing Jesus to be lord or head over us is difficult.

In answer to the popular bumper sticker, “God is my co-pilot,” Christians who understand this principle of Jesus as head have said, “If God is your co-pilot, switch seats.”  This doesn’t mean at all that God should control us as robots, but rather that we need to live our lives in submission to Him.

I.  Ephesians 1:15-23.  Our Head is exalted above every name.  All other churches, groups, clubs, organizations, and businesses are temporal.  Many do a lot of good in the world for a lot of people, but when one day the elements melt in the heat, all of them will be gone.  Only the church that Jesus promised to build (Matthew 16:18) and bought with His blood (Acts 20:28), His bride, His body is eternal.  God invests so much, including His great power, into those who make up His body.

II.  Matthew 8:8-10.  For the church, our Head is over all things.  All authority in heaven and on earth was given to Jesus through His death, burial, and resurrection.  Even sinners will be put under His feet in the Judgment to come (Hebrews 10:12-14).  He understands what it means to be our Head, but we struggle to submit to our Head.  Sin and selfishness or adding or taking away from our Head’s Word exalts ourselves as Head over us, no matter how we justify it to ourselves.

III.  2 Peter 1:3-4.  Our Head’s body is the fullness of Him who fills all in all.  In all other groups, there is a separation between the management and the workers.  Not so in the one eternal organization, the Lord’s church.  Using marriage to illustrate the relationship of the Head to His body (Ephesians 5:22-24), we understand that Jesus gives us every blessing so that we may be partakers of the divine nature.  In other words, He fills us and we are His fullness.

Now that is a Head that we can freely submit ourselves to!  His bride does submit to the Bridegroom.  The big question is–are we as individuals submitting to our Head to be part of His bride?