Monthly Archives: March 2014

Losing Control

28 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by in Encouragement, Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8:34

Christ said if we were going to become His disciples, we would have to deny ourselves and take up ours crosses by living lives of willful self-denial. Self-denial and cross bearing are non-optional for the true Believer. Christ promised by losing our lives we would find ourselves.  In other words, as Believers we are called to surrender ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ- every day of our lives. Giving up our lives for Jesus and the sake of His gospel, means striving to “…live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.” (Colossians 1:10).

This requires that we “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than ourselves…” It also requires that each one of us is careful to “…look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others’ (Philippians 2:4-5). If we are going to lose our lives for Christ then we will have to give up our self-centeredness, our self-promoting ways, our heady self-sufficiency, our cut-throat self-preservation, and our constant self-defensiveness.

We can give up self-centeredness and self-promotion by intentionally drawing attention away from ourselves and towards God by developing a quiet and gentle spirit. We lose self by losing the abrasive, angry, sensual, loud-mouthed, tough girl; by smothering her with a gentleness, forbearance, and humility of Christ. This means that we stop using our words, actions, and clothing to draw attention to ourselves, and use our time, talents, and energy for the benefit of others and glory of Christ.

We can give up our heady self-sufficient ways by acknowledging our weaknesses, needs, and inadequacies to God, and by humbly asking other people for their help in the face of our inadequacies. The Lord expects His children to exhibit the child-like humility that is willing to admit its own helplessness.

We can give up our sinful self-preservation by valuing the needs of the people that God has entrusted to our care more than we value the desires of our own flesh. Practically speaking, this means that we recognize that our children need us more that we need to get high. This also means that we live in a way that reflects that we understand the truth that our children need our emotional care more than our friends or dysfunctional families need us to be an emotional crutch for them. Tactics of cut throat self-preservation can range from the lies that we tell to avoid our God-given responsibilities; to the addictions in which we indulge- because we “just can’t take it anymore”. The Lord calls us to abandon these self-preserving behaviors, trust God, and take up the cross in obedience to God.

Finally, we can give up our constant self-defensiveness by learning to be okay with not having the last word, accepting that we will sometimes be wrongly misunderstood and by acknowledging the reality that we are not always right.

The problem losing our lives for Christ; is that it feels embarrassing and uncomfortable to us. That is; the crucified life (as the Christian life is sometimes referred to) sometimes makes us feel vulnerable and out of control. These emotions are the same emotions that we felt when we experienced the emotional traumas of abortion, abandonment, betrayal, divorce, abuse; and/ or neglect. That is why those of us that have been subjected to these sorts of sin will have an especially hard time feeling vulnerable and like we are losing control.

However, what we need to realize is that all control- other than self-control- is an illusion. It is a satanic lie from the pit of hell. No-body is in control but God: because no-body is all-powerful but God. When we lose ourselves for the sake of Christ, and His Gospel we don’t make ourselves more vulnerable than before, we don’t lose control.  We just become aware (all be it, sometimes painfully aware) of the realities that we have never been in control, and that as frail humans, we are always vulnerable to injury.

Think about it. We were born helpless- we live our lives completely dependent on the sustaining grace of God (whether we admit it or not); and then we die- completely incapable of choosing the time, the place, or the way that we die. Unless, of course we commit suicide. But, even if we do decide to end it all ourselves- we still can’t control what happens after that. The second a person dies they become painfully aware of their utter helplessness and powerlessness- totally incapable of controlling even one second of an everlasting destiny. The point is that we are not in control: we never have been; we are not now, and we never will be. The sooner that we understand this truth, the sooner that we will experience the wonderful freedom of the super-natural gift of self-control.

Self-control is a very freeing grace gift from God. Self-control is the abolitionist that sets us free from the enslavement of our addictions.  It is the freedom key that unlocks the door to our new lives in Christ. It breaks our bonds to the fear of men, loosens the chains of our insecurity, and sets us free to walk in the joyful power of fearless submission to God. So, when we start to feel like we are losing control as a result of losing our lives for the Lord’s sake, we can remind ourselves that Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

As Meek as a Lamb

27 Thursday Mar 2014

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“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7

Another way that we can follow in the footsteps of Christ is to learn the art of humility by subjecting our tongues to His control. In other words, we shouldn’t go running our mouths every time we feel the sting of the divine switch. We should not mumble, grumble, murmur, complain, whine, or pout about our trials. God hates that behavior. Whining about how hard we have it, reflects that we do not truly trust God. It tells the world that God is not trustworthy. Constant complaining communicates that we think God is a lousy parent. It is a way that we pass judgment on His parenting techniques and criticize His disciplinary decisions. So we should not mope around and try to make everyone near us miserable when the Lord has us in the middle of a sanctifying trial. Philippians 2:14 commands that we must “Do all things without grumbling or disputing…”

James tells us that the “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell” (James 3:6). It is not a small thing in the sight of God to whine, grumble, mumble, murmur, complain, pout, manipulate or to throw temper-tantrums. God equates murmuring against His appointed leadership and mumbling about the lives that the Lord has allotted to us with despising Him.  In response these types of behaviors the Lord says, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them,” and again, “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against Me” (Numbers 14: 11, 27).

Note also the judgments of God in the sixteenth chapter of Numbers; when He deals with the rebellious man Korah. Korah led a rebellion of whiney, complaining, ingrates who refused to submit to God’s ordained leadership for their lives. The Scripture tells us that in response to Korah’s uprising, “…fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense…” (v.35). God was so angry with these men that He told Moses and Aaron “Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” (v.45). At the end of Numbers 16, we read that, “…those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah” (49). These incidences from Scripture serve as good examples for the Believer. They teach us that when trials are making us feel grumpy, we are better off not saying anything at all, then grumbling against the Lord about how hard the lives which He has given us are.

We should especially be careful not to gossip, slander, or malign the people that God is using to sanctify us. Those actions are wrong, and they miss the whole “Sovereignty of God” thing. Furthermore, these acts grieve the Holy Spirit of God, who is so patient to dwell with us and comfort us in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:20; Ephesians 4: 31-32; 1 Timothy 5:13-15). Instead, when God is sanctifying us with mean spirited people we should be like Jesus who “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23)

Really, the big problem with a big mouth is a bad heart. Jesus said, “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person… … what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:11, 18-19). Incessant complaining and chronic whining just reveals a very self-centered, self-absorbed, overly inflated ego. That is not good. It is best to discipline our-selves to stop using our tongues to vent, rage, and manipulate. This is not a prohibition to vocalization; but a suggestion to choose silent communion with God in the sorrow of the cross over boisterous fraternization with the world.

When we stop ‘venting’ with our girl-friends about life’s many (and-even sometimes-legitimate) injustices, we put ourselves in the position to learn how to pray. Prayer is the appropriate place for complaining, crying out in distress, frustrated tears, and all of the other loud, tearful words of the chastened child of God.  The Psalmists teach us this truth repeatedly. They wrote, “In my distress I called to the Lord…” and, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!  O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!” In another place, we read, “With my voice I cry out to the Lord; with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him” (Psalm 120:1; 130:1-2a142:2). In looking to Jesus we see this truth at work in His life. Hebrews 5:7 tells us that, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.”

When Jesus was on the earth He offered up prayers (Note: Jesus offered up more than one prayer when He was on earth). This word ‘prayers’ refers to praying for a specific, felt need. It is a heart-felt petition, arising out of a deep personal need- some sense of lack or want. It likewise implies a felt need that is personal and urgent

The Scripture tells us that Jesus also offered up supplications. The word ‘supplications’ teach us an amazing truth about Jesus’ prayer life. Supplications in Hebrews 5:7 refers to an ancient custom, in which a suppliant (one who makes supplications) would take an olive branch in his hand as a token that He was ‘seeking peace’ from a superior. Therefore the term ‘supplications’ refers to the types of prayer and requests that are acts of humility and the recognition of one’s inferiority. The fact that Jesus prayed in this way, even though He is God, reveals the depth of His deep humility and reverence for God.

Jesus humility and reverence for God should cause us to recognize how much greater our need for humility and reverence before God is. These traits in our Lord should cause us to see that we need to allow our difficulties to humble us, and then in our humiliation we should  learn to seek God for deliverance from our trials; not grumble against God in the midst of divine discipline.

Jesus cried His heart out before His Father. He did so with loud cries and tears. This was not considered wrong by God. The Scripture tells us that He was “…He was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7). Jesus was in such deep emotional distress (in such great agony) in the Garden of Gethsemane that “…he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). To pray with such deep agony of soul that His sweat became like great drops of blood is nearly incomprehensible, yet this is the example that Christ left us to follow. This is the same Christ who only moments later willfully went to the cross and “…opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” We do well to learn from His example; and we will do even better to follow it. All this to say, when we are under the sanctifying disciplining grace of God, we should trust God and pray for grace to be like a lamb; humble, meek, and mild.

Submission to God in His Sanctifying Work

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

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“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12: 12-14

We are commanded by God to submit to Him in His sanctifying work in our lives. Submitting to God in His sanctifying work requires that we place ourselves under God’s authority and intentionally yield our lives to Him, and His revealed will (as revealed in His Word). It also requires that we intentionally subject ourselves to the leaders that He sovereignly places over us. To submit to God is to recognize that we “rank under” God and it means that we gladly and willfully obey Him, because we trust in Him.

Jesus submitted to God throughout His whole life and, especially, as He embraced the cross. Philippians 2:6-8 tells us that though Jesus was in the form of God He, “…did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Believers are called to do the same thing that Jesus did: submit to God in a life of cross-bearing for the sake of becoming holy.

Submitting oneself to God in real life is a learned discipline. We learn how to do it from the Word of God, and we get better at it through constant practice.  In order to submit ourselves to God’s will, we must know His will. We can find out God’s will for our lives by reading God’s word. We cannot find God’s will for our lives from Oprah, from our friends, from the newspaper, from our lawyers, from our doctors, from our bankers, or even from our therapists. There is only one way to know God’s will: we must study God’s Word. More specifically, we learn how to submit ourselves to God by “…looking to Jesus…” (Hebrews 12:2). Therefore, we must study the life of Jesus and especially how He embraced the cross that His Father called Him to. In doing this, we learn allot about cross-bearing and the nature of true submission.

By meditating specifically on the life of Christ, we learn that we must be intentional in our submission to God. We must not be aimless in our obedience to Him. Aimlessness is not a Christ-like quality. Biblically speaking, aimlessness is condemnable; not commendable. We should think about where we have come from, where we are going, and all that we have in Christ; then we will be free to get busy doing God’s will for our lives. Jesus was intentional as He approached the cross. In the twelfth chapter of John we read what He said as the time for His crucifixion drew near. He said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour” (v.27).

Also, if we are to be intentional about obeying God we must also be intentional about believing God. Intentional faith in God is imperative for cross-bearing. We must choose to believe God despite how we may feel about the particular circumstances in our lives. The prophet Isaiah was intentional about believing God. And, it is commonly believed that He was sawn in two for his faith in God (Hebrews 10:37). Yet, he did not doubt God. Instead he wrote, “But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame” (Isaiah 50:7).

We are helped in our submission to God (especially during difficult trials) if we recognize that the time is short. We must maintain an eternal perspective on our trials. The pain of sanctifying discipline is temporary; the value of the holiness that it produces is everlasting. This is the point of Second Corinthians 4:16-18 which says, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Through the life of Jesus we learn that we must be intentional about our obedience to God; even in the most trying circumstances of our lives and even in the most trying relationships of our lives. Holiness is not a result of the process of osmosis; it is a result of sweat, blood, and tears (Luke 22:39-46; Hebrews 5:7). In other words, be intentional about embracing a cross of sanctifying discipline. We know that Jesus was intentional about embracing the cross. For Luke 9:51 tells us that “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

Finally, we should not just obey God; we should strive to submit to Him. Submission is better than obedience. Anyone can outwardly obey a rule, but only someone who loves and trusts God can truly submit to God’s will. Submission to God begins with trusting God. It continues as we intentionally verbalize our trust in God and call to mind His great faithfulness to us. We do this by praising and thanking Him through prayer and worship. As we call to mind God’s trustworthiness we will begin to willingly and joyfully lay down the control of our lives to God. When we worship the Lord we acknowledge that everything that we have is His: our time, our relationships, our family, our money, our pasts, our present, and our futures. Submission to God means willfully taking up our crosses and embracing a life of humble self-denial in response to the awesome realities of who God is and what He has done for us in Christ.

Jesus willfully laid down His life, His Father did not have to rip anything out of His hands. The Father didn’t force Jesus to give it all up; Jesus gave it all because He loved the Father and wanted to do His will. The Lord said, “No one takes it [His life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” John 10:18

Hebrews 12:12-14 lists some practical particulars of submission to God’s will in the process of sanctifying discipline. These verses teach us how to subject ourselves to God. These verses read, “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:12-14). We lift drooping hands and strengthen weak knees by developing a regular habit of praying (See, Exodus 17: 8-16; 1 Timothy 1-3); we make straight paths for our feet by reading and obeying the word of God (See Psalm 27:11, 119:105; Isaiah 26:11); we strive for peace with everyone by being actively involved with a local community of believers (See Romans 12:10-21; Hebrews 10:25); and we strive for holiness by taking up our crosses and following Jesus on the path of submission to the Father’s will (See Matthew 10:38-39, 16:24-28; Mark 8:34-38; Luke 9:23-27, 14:25-27; Philippians 2:6-8; 1 Peter 2:21-25; and Hebrews 5:8, 12:1-2).

The Healing Cross of Calvary

25 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Edification, Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. Hosea 6:1

In sanctification, God purifies us from every sin-related problem that we have. As we walk in submission to the Lord and His Word, He starts to unravel and undo all the complex soul-destroying results that the sins of our pasts have had on us. That is; He starts to work through all of the brokenness in our lives that has resulted from sin. He does this because one aspect of holiness is wholeness. Just like the Lord took up the saving cross of Calvary in order to make us holy, so we must also take up a sanctifying cross for the sake of becoming holy.

Dealing with the after-math of sin is often its own cross to bear. It is not an easy thing to own our part in the destruction that has resulted in our lives, because of our own decisions. It is even more difficult to own our responsibility in the ruin of the lives of other people that we love (like our children, spouses, parents, and friends). No less, if we are to be holy, we must do so.  We must admit that we have done wrong things that have offended God, hurt ourselves, and injured others. This includes owning our part in the sins of abortion, abandonment, abuse, addiction, adultery, betrayal, dishonesty, divorce, dysfunction, neglect, and the like. As the Lord makes us aware of our part in sins like these, we must confess our wrongdoing to God and to others. And, as God allows us to, we must do our best to make amends to those whom we have injured. At times, this will mean exposing our past hidden sins and facing prolonged and sometimes, even, severe consequences for them. None the less, in doing this we will be honoring the Lord, who died to pay for the sins that we have committed, and we will be testifying to the world around us that we love God and His truth more than we love ourselves and our sin.  Whatever the consequences for our sins may be, we are assured, in the Word, that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). We are also assured that “There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Even more difficult and complex than dealing with the consequences of our own sins- for the sake of holiness- can be dealing with the consequences of the sins that have been committed against us. It can be soul-wrenching to acknowledge the painful truths of having been abandoned, abused, betrayed, or neglected by the people that we have trusted and loved. Yet, if we are to be holy, we must deal with all the consequences of the sins of the past. Not only the consequences for the sins that we have committed, but we must also deal with the consequences of the sins that were committed against us, as well. This may not seem fair to us. We may find that we feel like David did when he wrote Psalm 69:4 which says, “More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore?”

We may feel this way if the Lord asks us to deal with the painful consequences of having been sinned against, but really God is the one that restores that which is stolen from us by sin. He does this through Christ and the cross. We know that all of the brokenness in our lives has resulted from sin and that Christ came to set us free from sin. We should also know that not all of the sins which have resulted in our brokenness were committed by us, yet still Christ came to set us free from them. Many of our own sin habits, our wrong thinking patterns, our phobias, our disorders, our addictions, and our other issues are rooted in the sins that have been committed against us. Therefore, as Christ sets us free from sin, He heals our brokenness.

In the process of sanctification (becoming increasingly holy in our practice) the Lord calls us to own the painful truths in our pasts for the sake of emotional wholeness/ emotional holiness. Often, the things that God calls His children to deal with are the types of things that we would rather forget about. They are the types of things that haunt us and torment us emotionally in our dreams, memories, and in our broken relationships. These are the types of things that sit at the root of our addictions and sin issues. These are the types of experiences that make us feel powerless and out of control. It is through these types of experiences that we learned that we could not trust anyone-especially a sovereign God, who allowed them to happen. Therefore, God will deal with everything and anything that hinders our faith in Him. He will address every incident and action that has rendered us incapable of fully entrusting ourselves to His sovereign control and care. God calls Believer’s to deal with the effects that the sins of others have had on us in the process of sanctification, for the sake of our faith in Him and for the sake of our holiness (Romans 6:6; Hebrews 2:14-15; 2 Peter 2:19b).

When the Spirit of God calls us to deal with these types of things, He is calling us to embrace a cross for the sake of emotional healing. The Lord desires that we own the painful truths in our pasts so that we are emotionally free to serve Him in the present. The Lord calls His children to feel the painful emotions which resulted in our relationships with others; so that we can feel the pleasurable emotions which result from our relationship with Him. The Lord requires that we acknowledge the sins that have inflicted against us so that we can experience the healing work of His cross-work. As Isaiah 53:5 says, “…He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). And in the same manner, the Apostle Peter tells us, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

God is calling us to be honest with ourselves- even if it hurts. God expects us to acknowledge the deaths that have occurred in our souls as a result of the sins that have been committed against us, and He also calls us to accept the losses that we have incurred as a result of those same sins. This is very difficult to do especially if we feel a loyalty to the perpetrators of those sins. However, our willingness to own the truth about wrongdoing is not about condemning the sinner that inflicted the wrong. In reality, it has very little to do with them. It has to do with God, truth, holiness, and our relationship with the Lord. It has to do with emotional wholeness for the sake of spiritual holiness. God promises us that as we acknowledge and accept the truth about our pasts, we will experience His resurrection power in emotional healing. Christ died to set us free from sin, including the sins that others have committed against us. He did this so that we can walk in the holy freedom of newness of life in Christ. As Titus 2:11-14 says, “For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14, NLT).

As we seek to know, love, and worship God through a life of obedience to Him, He begins to do a miraculous work in our souls. He starts to transform us into the image and likeness of His Son, Jesus. As we embrace the healing cross of Calvary; owning our pasts and acknowledging our need for the healing grace of God; He resurrects our brokenness and our damaged souls in the holy-wholeness of Christ. He makes us holy so that we can serve Him. He does this by making what is crooked in our lives straight and what is lame in our souls strong. That is why Hebrews 12:15-17 says, “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Therefore, if you have a shameful past- whether by sins of your own doing or the sins that others committed against you, do not be surprised when the Lord calls you to deal with it. Making His children holy from the inside out is the Lord’s prerogative. Making His children increasingly emotionally whole is part of His sanctifying work. That is why Hosea bids us, “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.”

God Doesn’t Honor Crocodile Tears

24 Monday Mar 2014

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“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears” Hebrews 12:15-17.

Esau was a man who rejected the fatherly love of God because he hated the restraints that God put on His behavior. Esau failed to obtain the grace of God in two ways: selling his birthright and finding no opportunity to repent. Esau sold his relationship with God for a full belly.  The Bible tells us that in doing this he “… despised his birthright” (Genesis 25:34). This means that He despised inheriting the promises that God had made to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. It seems that Esau didn’t mind so much the material blessings of God, but he hated the commands for obedience that God required of His people. The Bible tells us that Esau was sexually immoral and unholy. Esau did not want God telling Him how to run his life. He did not want to be told whom he could marry or that he had to forgive the people that had hurt him (Genesis 26:34-35, 27:41, 28:6-9). Esau was the type of guy who wanted to do things his own way. In our day, we would say that Esau was his own man. He did not want to submit to God. It is for this reason that the Bible tells us “…he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears” (Hebrews 12: 15-17).

Lest we feel too badly for Esau, those bitter tears that Esau cried were only the crocodile tears of his own doing. Esau forsook God and forsaking God always results in the bitter tears of intense misery and deep anguish of soul. That is one reason that Hebrews 12:15 warns us to, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled…” This is the same reason the Bible says, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Esau sowed the seeds of rebellion to God: he sold out on God; he was sexually immoral, ungodly, and unholy in his behavior. In time, he reaped the crop of misery that these actions always reap. He sowed bitterness and reaped death. As everyone does that drinks to the dregs the cup of bitterness (Numbers 5:18-20; 1 Samuel 15: 31-33; Hebrews 12:15-17; Revelation 8:11).

When the word says that Esau was not given a chance to repent; it means that Esau had sinned so much that he no longer had any desire for true repentance. Esau’s life-style of rebellion rendered him incapable of repenting from his sin. By repeatedly opening himself up to the heart hardening after-effects of sin he became incapable of truly desiring God. He no longer had an ability to repent; because he was incapable of wanting holiness. That is what happens to all people that are given the knowledge of the truth in Christ, but then reject it anyways. The Word warns, “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”(2 Peter 2:20-22).

Esau’s lack of faith in God caused bitterness to take root in his heart. He did not trust that God was in control and ordering everything in His life for his good so He became embittered when life didn’t go his way. He did not believe that God’s commands were promises of blessings. He despised the rules that God made because He refused to acknowledge that God was the boss. His willful unbelief led him to sow and reap a harvest of bitter fruit. In the end, his bitterness cost him his soul, defiled the ones that he loved the most, and ruined all of his relationships (Genesis 26:34; Hebrews 12:15-17).

Esau teaches us that bitter roots grow wild in the soil of willful unbelief.  The Bible says “The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” (Hebrews 12:6). So when tough times come in our walk of faith we shouldn’t jump ship on our relationship with the Lord. Instead, we should choose to believe the promise of Scripture, which says, “…God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God” (Romans 8:28). God has more than enough grace for each one of us. He is our Father. He is the provider of all of our needs.

Esau learned the hard way that he could not pretend to have a relationship with God. He learned that he could not go to the Word for blessings and ignore His commands. Esau learned that He could not manipulate God with his crocodile tears. Esau learned a lot, and for that reason He can teach us a lot too. The main thing that we can learn from the life of Esau is not to “… Fail to obtain the grace of God; [to see to it] that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. …” By considering the life of Esau we can also learn that God doesn’t honor crocodile tears.

Sanctifying Discipline

23 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Encouragement, Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Hebrews 12:5-6

Sanctifying discipline is the training work of God, which results in an increased practical holiness, in the lives of His children. Scripture tells us that the afflictions and hardships of our lives are providentially ordained training sessions intended by God to make us holy. In other words, it is through trials that God most strenuously exercises our faith muscles, and thus most effectively produces the holy character of Jesus in us.

Hebrews 12:11 tells us that, “For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” The word ‘trained’ in the preceding verse is a key term in understanding the Biblical concept of sanctifying discipline. It is a word that figuratively means “to train with one’s full effort, i.e. with complete physical, emotional force as when working out intensely in a gymnasium; to exercise vigorously, in any way, either the body or the mind.”  Sanctifying discipline is about teaching us to believe God’s word, training us in godly behavior, and exercising us in the practice of holiness.

Through sanctifying discipline, God especially works on developing our faith. The painful providences in our lives are opportunities to see the grace of faith in action. First Peter 1: 6-7 says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith… …may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  So you see, sanctifying discipline is about our faith; it is about believing God.

This Scripture teaches us that our trials are intended to prove or test our faith in God. As we walk through our trials with God by believing Him, our faith in Him is rewarded with a deeper holiness of life; through a harvest of righteous fruit, in a more Godly character, and with an increase of tried and purified faith (Hebrews 12:10-14; 1 Peter 6-7). The pain of our trials make us seek God for more of the grace of faith; the increased ability to obey His word, and the fulfillment of the promises that He has made to us in it.  For, it is the painful sting of trials which motivate us to “…draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Sanctifying discipline results in a deeper holiness of life because trials burn off the dross of our souls. In other words, trials purify us; they make us turn away from our pet sins. It is when we are under stress that we tend to want to revert to our sinful coping mechanisms, but the Holy Spirit doesn’t let the Believer get away with our old sinful coping strategies and ungodly behaviors. He convicts us of the harsh words that we say when we feel stressed, the unkind gestures and faces that we make when we are angry, and the hateful feelings we have when we are thwarted in our plans. He convicts us of our sin, so that we will confess the wrongdoing to God and others and receive God’s forgiveness. We become increasingly holy as we repeatedly confess our sins and seek God for His grace to obey His Word. This is the fulfillment of the promise found in 1 John 1:9; which says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Throughout our trials, this happens again and again. When the trial is over we are kinder, gentler, more humble people than we were when it before it began. God uses the stress of affliction to produce the habits of holiness. Through trial the Holy Spirit makes us people who are less likely to blame others for our sinful reactions to stress and more likely to exhibit the holiness of our Heavenly Father.

Sanctifying discipline also results in a harvest of righteous fruit because trials make us relinquish more and more control of our lives to God. Trials wear us out and cause us to seek God for His strength. As the Holy Spirit of God has more control over us, more of His holy fruit is revealed through us: His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22). It is in this way that God uses our trials to produce a harvest of righteous fruit in our His children’s lives.

Sanctifying Discipline makes our character better by making us holy in our character. As the Word says “…suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…” (Romans 5:3). As we endure in faith through our trials, as we keep believing God’s promises; our character becomes more and more like Jesus’ character. In other words, we become holier.

In all of this, sanctifying discipline is about increasing our faith in God, because trials increase our dependency on God, which results in experiencing deeper levels of God’s faithfulness to us. We experience God’s faithfulness as we see how He uses all the difficulties of our lives for our good, just like He promises that He will in Romans 8:28; which says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Scripture says, “Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11). It is when we experience the merciful compassion of God in our trials and difficulties; that our faith is increased.

It is important to understand that sanctifying discipline is not about punishing the children of God; it is about disciplining and training them. We can be confident that the Lord is not reckless in His administration of discipline with His children, He knows exactly what He is doing by bringing difficulty and hardship into our lives. That is why the Word encourages us, “…do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son…” So, when trials come look to God in gratitude and faith, knowing that He has sent them for your good and because He loves you.

Sanctification

22 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by in Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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Sanctification

“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” 2 Thessalonians 7:1

The Bible says, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). To be sanctified is to be made holy. The process by which one is sanctified is called sanctification. Therefore sanctification is the process of making or becoming holy, set apart, holiness, consecration.  Through the process of sanctification, the believer learns how to live her life on earth in a holy way. She learns how to “…walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). You could say that as a believer is sanctified she becomes pure in her life-practices. For it is through the process of sanctification, that the Christian becomes increasingly purer in her thoughts, her actions, and her words.

Sanctification is the process by which God conforms the believer to the image (or likeness) of Jesus Christ. God’s will is to make all of His children holy as His Son Jesus is holy. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we are, “…being transformed into his [Jesus’] image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (NLT). The same idea is found in the book of Romans where it says, “…For those whom he [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).

This transforming, sanctifying work is a lifelong process which all Believers undergo. It will have its final fulfillment for us in glorification when we see Jesus face to face, and we are completely transformed by seeing His glorious presence.  The Apostle John said, “…we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)

As you can see from that last verse, the children of God co-operate with the Lord in His sanctifying work by purifying ourselves as Jesus is pure. We purify ourselves by believing and obeying God’s word. The Bible says, “God chose you… …to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth…” (2 Thessalonians 2:12-13). Belief in the truth is belief in God’s word. Real belief in the truth activates our obedience to the truth (as we saw yesterday), and our obedience to the truth is what purifies us and makes us holy. It is how we cooperate with God in His sanctifying work, in our lives. Obeying God’s word is how we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, as Philippians 2:12-13 commands us to do.

If we are going to believe, obey, and be purified by God’s word we have to know what it says. Romans 12:2 tells the Believer to “…be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Therefore, we must be in the regular in our habits of reading God’s word. We need to know the truth of the Bible if we are to obey it and thus be changed by it.

Jesus prayed to His Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). Truth cleanses the human soul from sin. Jesus said, “… and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). You see it is the truth of the Word of God that sanctifies us. The truth of God’s word sets us free from the lies of Satan. It also frees us from our bondage to sin and death by teaching us how to live life by depending on the indwelling Spirit of God. In this way, Believers are sanctified by, in, and through the truth of God’s word. The Word of God is the purifying, sanctifying water of God (Ephesians 5:26); through which the Holy Spirit of God washes and makes the Believer in Christ holy (sanctified).

This is why 2 Thessalonians 7:1 says, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” So read you Bible, say your prayers, do the next right thing, and watch God accomplish His sanctifying work through His precious promises; as He produces the holy life of His Son in you that pleases Him so very much.