path of life

Oct

2011

Why Our Goodness Cannot Save Us

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them [Israel] is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.

“For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Rom 10:1-4)

Journal,

I felt it would be good to offer a study on the subject of salvation by setting forth why a person cannot be saved by anything they do in their own efforts. Until this truth is realized, the struggle over salvation will always be there. Let’s talk about it.

It is important to understand that being saved has nothing to do with anything we can offer to God. What can a sinful race offer to a holy God? Everything we touch is imbued with sin. Our unsaved hearts are hearts of sinners. The human race is charged with sin, infected by sin, directed by sin, and corrupted by sin.

What can our sinful hands offer to God that would not be an offering of sin? We can offer God nothing. We are bankrupt of any righteousness.

David asked it best:

“What can I offer the LORD for all He has done for me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and praise the LORD’s name for saving me.” (Psa 116:12-13)

And so…

What Can I Offer the Lord

What can we offer God with a view to salvation? What do we sinful creatures have that would be good enough for God to accept us? Again the answer is, nothing.

We can’t clean ourselves up. It is our heart that is corrupt. There is nothing on our part that we can do to be accepted by God. Until we recognize this basic truth, we will never understand what salvation is all about.

Let’s press this further. Nobody prays through to salvation. Fasting and prayer are not issues of salvation. Having uncut hair does not get God’s attention. Whether you drink or smoke has nothing to do with salvation.

Going to movies or not going to movies is not a thing of salvation. No matter what we may think about these things, they have no relationship to salvation itself. No person ever becomes good enough to get saved.

We cannot change the inside by working on the outside. Salvation is about a heart condition. When the heart is made right, everything else will come into place. (In its time.)

We Are Powerless in Ourselves

So let me repeat — We are powerless in ourselves to think that anything good can come from us. Salvation has to come from God Himself. He alone is righteous and without sin. He alone is good.

Stop and think about what John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the apostles all taught on the issue of salvation. They were addressing a Jewish audience. The Jews hung their hats about being saved on the merits of Abraham.

In dealing with Jewish attitudes, Paul said that the Jews were just as lost as the pagans. Why is that? It is because salvation can only come from God Himself. And the sinful state of Adam had casts its shadow across the whole of humanity.

All unsaved people are under the power and authority of a spiritual being beside God. Satan is actually called the god of this world.

Deadness of Sin

Paul brings out the deadness of sin:

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” (Eph 2:1-3)

Have we nailed this issue down firm enough? Once again, until a person realizes that they cannot be saved by any effort of their own, they will remain stupefied in how to be saved.

What then is the answer? The answer never changes. Salvation is trusting wholly in Christ and in His Lordship. Reading a bit further in Ephesians 2, we hear Paul say this:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Eph 2:8-10)

The Battle Over Grace

The argument goes this way,

‘That is too easy. Anyone can say they trust in Christ. Where is their experience? Where is their holiness? Where is their separation from the world? Where is their…where is their…where is their…???’

Do you see the problem with the argument of ‘Where is?’

All these responses continue to miss the message of salvation. What then is the central message of salvation?

Listen:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (Joh 3:16-18)

Salvation is Through the Son Alone

This is My Beloved Son

Did you catch it? Salvation is through the Son alone. The Son took the place of the human race. The Son took to Himself our separation from God. The Son died in our place.

The Son was judged with our judgment. The Son was declared sin so that we could be declared right before God. The Son resurrected from the dead as a sign that judgment had been met.

The Son entered back into heaven. And the Son is now Lord of all. He is above all. He has all authority in heaven and on earth.

So how then are we saved? We are saved by appealing to the Son. This was the message that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost.

“And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [Jesus] will be saved.” (Act 2:21)

This is the message that the great apostle Paul preached to the Gentiles:

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD [Jesus] WILL BE SAVED.’” (Rom 10:12-13)

The Eternal Law of Salvation

Out of the cross came the eternal law of salvation. It is the one law that Satan hopes no person ever sees clearly. This is why he keeps adding religious ritual to religious ritual, condition upon condition, law upon law, tradition upon tradition, and anything else he can throw into the mix.

Satan knows that any person who calls upon the Lord Jesus Christ with their heart in respect to salvation, will be saved. It is as simple as that.

Satan knows it. We need to know it. We need to be able to preach this simple message of faith in Christ to the harlot, to the beggar, to the drunkard, to the sinner of the deepest cut.

There is no other message that Christians are commissioned to preach. Our job is to preach the message. The message will take care of itself.

The Message Completes Itself

Yes, all the apostles preached the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, and that faith in Christ as the risen Savior is what salvation truly is. In fact the only witness a person needs to know that they are saved is that they truly believe in their heart that Jesus Christ is their own Lord.

Faith in Jesus Christ itself is the testimony of salvation. This is where many people misunderstand the power of the gospel message.

The message of the cross carries in it the inherent power that accomplishes the work of salvation. The moment a person truly believes, the Holy Spirit enters that person’s heart and places the seal of salvation.

Paul explains in two places the power of the gospel message.

“For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word [gospel message] of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” (1Th 2:13)

And again,

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH [In Jesus Christ].’” (Rom 1:16-17)

And so, until we truly believe in Jesus Christ, there can be no seal placed on our heart. The seal carries God’s testimony.

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Rom 8:15-17)

Have you received the Spirit of God’s Son in your heart? Listen once again to the witness of salvation.

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Rom 8:15-17)

What Can Take Away My Sins

Some time ago I was asked to take part in a prayer breakfast for a Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial. When it came time for me to offer a prayer, I begin to sing the song, ‘What can wash away my sins.’ I will never forget how singing that song changed the atmosphere of the gathering from political to spiritual.

Are you ready for your heart to change? Perhaps now would be a good time to listen to it.

Jesus loves you,

Buddy

Oct

2011

Walking Through the Passages of Life

“You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” (Psa 32:7-8)

No matter what your struggle in life is about, the Lord will faithfully show you how to make the passage into His victory. He never writes any of His children off.

Every passage of life leads to the greater victory. Paul said it would be from glory to glory.

Journal,

It happened Wednesday, August 28^th,1974.

The day earlier I had turned my resignation letter to my presbyter. I was leaving the denomination that I had been a part of both as a pastor and as an evangelist. I will never forget the words that he spoke. He said, “Brother Martin, these people will never have anything else to do with you.”

I knew he meant these words in a kindly way. The presbyter was well aware that the nature of that denomination was pretty much to ostracize anyone who left them. I also knew that, but it didn’t matter. The Lord had already placed on my heart a directive.

Nevertheless, at my office the following morning a gloomy dark cloud hovered over me. I felt a loneliness that I wasn’t familiar with. That is when I reached for my Bible and fell to my knees. The chair in front of me became my altar.

An astonishing thing happened. My Bible fell open and my eyes looked at this one Scripture;

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Php 1:6)

The cloud disappeared

Joy filled my heart. I jumped up, grabbed the phone to call Betty.

What I didn’t know was that at the very moment Betty was having her own struggles. And at that same moment the Lord had spoken words of life to my sweet Betty. We were in this struggle together.

Before I could get out of my mouth what the Lord had said to me, Betty said, “Honey, listen to what the Lord just shared with me!”

She began to read,

“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” (Gal 1:10)

That was it! We were passing through another life gate together. God had given us life words to live by, words to face the future together.

After all, Jesus said,

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (Joh 6:63)

The Passages of Life

A life gate can be anything you face in life that could well result in a major change in your future. I call these life passages simply because it is the Lord who gives you the keys for making the passage. He gives you words to live by.

But there is one truth I really want to get across. It does not matter what you are struggling over. It could be about a divorce, about your job, about friendships, about loneliness, or a new marriage. It just doesn’t matter. The Lord has promised to help all His children make these passages through life.

A number of followers of Jesus were leaving Him. We hear this conversation between the Lord and Peter:

“So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away also, do you?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.’” (Joh 6:67-68)

When Peter said that Jesus had words of eternal life, he wasn’t thinking of the gospel message that brings us salvation. To him eternal life had to do with a kind of spiritual life that only comes from the Lord. It is in this life that we would receive words from God to live by.

Every child of God will have life gates to walk through. You may call them something else, but the point is that it is in these times that we need to have something by way of direction from the Lord. Sometimes the need is in a desperate moment. At other times it may simply be a need for reassurance.

Words to Live By

As long as I can remember the Lord has given me words to live by. Sometimes these words come in a dream or in a vision. Sometimes I simply hear them in my heart. But most of the time they come when I am reading and meditating upon the Scriptures themselves.

One of my more recent examples had to do with my bout with cancer. I well remember when the Lord told me to ‘expect the unexpected.’ Of course this had to do with my miracle healing.

I’ve often shared my testimony of healing. But I feel that the Lord wanted me to share it again. So, here it is again:

Expect the Unexpected

It was August 6, 2007. I had been in cancer treatment for a while. The findings were not good. Lymphoma had spread throughout my chest area and was now into my bone marrow. Our local hospital could do no more for me. They were sending me to M. D. Anderson in Houston. Everything pointed to a marrow transplant. (Pretty invasive procedure.)

Things were alright between me and the Lord. I had told the church that it was a win-win situation. The only concern I had involved which kind of bone marrow transplant would I have to go through. One was more invasive than the other.

I hadn’t asked anyone to lay hands on me. This time it was different. I knew all this had to be just between me and the Lord. Any laying on of hands would have to be His hands.

That day I am having my morning devotion on a hill behind the church. While reading In the book of Isaiah, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, ‘Expect the unexpected.’

When I looked up at the high wire directly over my head there sat a beautiful dove. I sat there just looking at her. The dove would look at me. She remained there until I stood up to walk home. Then she flew ahead of me towards the house.

It has always amazed me how of the Lord will speak to my heart while I am reading the Scriptures. That morning I was taking my devotion from the New Living Translation. Here is the part where the Lord spoke to me:

“Oh, that You would burst from the heavens and come down! How the mountains would quake in Your presence! As fire causes wood to burn and water to boil,

“Your coming would make the nations tremble. Then Your enemies would learn the reason for Your fame!

“When You came down long ago, You did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations. And oh, how the mountains quaked!” (Isa 64:1-3 NLT)

I shared with the church what the Lord had said. I did not know what ‘expect the unexpected’ meant. I thought perhaps I would receive the less of the two invasive stem cell transplant procedures. After all that was the purpose of sending me to Houston.

At M. D. Anderson I was put through a battery of tests. They gave me a thorough work through. Betty and Nathan were with me.

When we met with my primary physician, he went down the line on each test that M.D. Anderson had made. With each test he said, ‘No cancer.’

At some point between Pineville, Louisiana, and Houston, Texas, the Lord had granted me a sovereign miracle of grace. It’s been over four years now. Every checkup carries the same message of ‘no cancer.’

And that is the story of my healing from the Lord

Why am I sharing these testimonies? Perhaps one of my readers will catch a spark of faith in knowing that God is no respecter of persons.

There are so many instances I would like to share with you. Here is one more.

The ‘What am I doing here’ Word

It was in 1971. Betty and I and our two sons were in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to raise up a mission work for our denomination. Once again I am facing a moment of, ‘What am I doing here?’ My heart is puzzled.

On top of everything, I am homesick. New Mexico was far removed from Central Louisiana. We were tired from having traveled a heavy road of evangelism. And now we are going to raise up a new work?

But the Lord had other plans. While reading the Scriptures again I find myself being pulled into a conversation between Jesus and Peter. Suddenly the question that Peter asked of the Lord was my question. Listen:

“Peter began to say to Him, ‘Behold, we have left everything and followed You.’

Jesus responded,

“Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.” (Mar 10:28-30)

Once again I had received my word of comfort from the Lord. And once again we were about to pass through another life gate.

It has come true – I am unable to count the blessings of the Lord that have come upon my home.

Even in our darkest trials, I can still say, ‘Thank you Lord. You have always been with me.’

It has to become real personal

Don’t ever make it about religion.

The heart of the new covenant is entirely fixed on a relationship with the heavenly Father and with His son Jesus. As Jesus was praying, we hear Him say,

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (Joh 17:3)

Knowing God means that you have a knowing relationship with Him. Jesus said,

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (Jn10:26-28)

Following in His footsteps…

Think about it.

Have you passed the major gate of life? (This is where Jesus Christ truly becomes your Lord and Savior.)

Do you know God as your Father, or is it simply religion that you know?

Jesus said,

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (Joh 14:6)

The only question that remains is,

‘Where are you taking me Jesus?’

And the Lord says,

‘Walk with Me. I am taking you to My Father’s house. Are you ready to walk from glory to glory?’

The Lord wants to minister to your heart. Listen to Candy Christmas as she sings, “I Know the Master of the Wind.’

Much love coming your way,

Buddy

Sep

2011

Taking a Walk in the Spirit

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

“For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, …

“… so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:1-4)

Journal,

Did you know that God has made a way for us to know Him in a deeply personal way? The apostle describes this deeply personal of knowing as a, ‘walk in the Spirit’.

To simplify things let’s begin with the beginning. A walk in the Spirit begins at the point of our salvation. Our salvation begins the moment the Holy Spirit sprinkles the blood of Jesus on our heart. This happens when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Thus our walk in the Spirit never ceases to identify with the blood of Jesus. It is crucial to understand this aspect of a covenant walk.

And this is where the working of repentance is so important to a believer. The ancients taught that repentance is a form of worship, that in our repentance we are continually adjusting our walk with the Lord to where it should be.

The issue is that no one can walk a Spirit-directed life where sin is not dealt with. This is why believers can experience a ‘grieving’ in their spirit. The grieving is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is a sign that we have a defilement that must be cared for. It is a sign of our call to the Lord’s cleansing work.

John spoke of this, when he said,

“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn 1:6-9)

Humility of Heart

Therefore to walk in the Spirit requires that we be humble of heart, and continually recognize our need for cleansing. The plus side here is that the Holy Spirit affects this cleansing work. This is why the apostle said that no true believer could practice a life of sin. It hurts too much. Whereas a sinner sins by nature, a Christian will find that sin is contrary to his nature. He must have a cleansing.

God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, saying,

“… to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.’” (Isa 66:2)

If you wish to know how to pray a prayer that deals with this aspect of cleansing, read Psalm 139, and then close by praying what David said in verses 23 and 24;

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.”

A Walk of Reality

The second issue of walking in the Spirit is to understand that ‘walking in the Spirit’ means to walk in the very reality of the Lord Jesus. It is His life that we are joined to.

Thus walking in the Spirit is a walk of reality. The Holy Spirit takes the things of Jesus and makes them real to us. This is why it is so important to have a heart for truth.

Jesus explains it this way:

“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

“He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” (Joh 16:13-14)

Here is where we simply open our heart and let it be known to the Lord that we want to walk with Him without any preconditions on our part.

Keep in mind that a walk of truth is not about a religion, or a denomination. The Biblical word for ‘truth‘ has to do with the reality of Jesus Christ. Truth speaks of what is behind an appearance. Religion often has to do largely with appearances. Learning to walk with Jesus and you will have a walk of the Spirit.

The point is that …

You Cannot Know God After the Flesh

There is probably no lesson greater to a child of God than that of understanding the spiritual dynamics of the new covenant. It is impossible to know true fellowship with the Lord Jesus on a fleshly level.

Listen to the apostle –

“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.” (2Co 5:16)

This is also where the Bible itself plays an important role in our learning to walk in the Spirit. There is no book on this planet like our Bible. It carries in it the very presence of the Lord. Consider your Bible a garden of delights. Don’t read it like a newspaper. Read it like you are looking into the eyes of God. Seek for Jesus.

David gives insight into this, when he said,

“Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law.” (Psa 119:18)

Notice that in most translations the word ‘Wonderful‘ is in caps. This is because the term ‘Wonderful’ is a code name for God’s Messiah.

The term translated Law in Hebrew, is Torah, which simply means ‘instruction.’ When David said ‘Wonderful things’, you can be sure He was talking about God’s Messiah. David was a man after God’s heart, and the heart of God is His Son. Isaiah later said that God’s Messiah would be called ‘Wonderful Counselor.’

Listen to the prophet Isaiah –

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isa 9:6)

There is something else that has to be considered. It has to do with …

Giving Up Your Stand Between

The faith we live by does not originate in ourselves. Nor does it originate in any religious setting. The faith we are to live by originates in Jesus Christ Himself, and is energized in us by the Holy Spirit. In this case our faith is joined with the faith that comes out of God Himself. This is what drinking from the fountain does.

A true new covenant spiritual faith walk wraps itself around the Lord speaking into the life of a believer. Thus we hear the Lord say,

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” John 10:27

Here is where I need to make an emphasis that I hope it will eventually sink in. Listen carefully —

Don’t Let Your Religion Stand Between You and the Lord Jesus!

I realize this can be a difficult statement for some. However, the number one sign of spiritual immaturity is where we identify our walk with the Lord with our religion or with a certain movement or with a certain someone.

Hear it from Paul –

“ … for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not mere men?” (1Co 3:3-4) — Now substitute the words Paul and Apollos with Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and you get the message.

So, can we truly know the heart of God? Yes we can. This is what the new covenant is all about.

Simply stated, learn to fix your eyes on Jesus. He is the author and finished of your faith.

Jesus said that eternal life was about knowing Him.

The better acquainted we become with the heart of God, the more we will be like Jesus.

And if you truly want to know what a walk in the Spirit is about, it is a walk of love, about learning to love the way God loves. This is why the apostle said that when we walk in love we actually fulfill the full intent of the Law of Moses. Paul is not talking about a natural love, but a divine love.

It is in the walk of the Spirit that we come to know God’s love is real life.

Now consider what the apostle Paul said about knowing the Lord —

“ … the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” (1Co 2:11-13)

Are you ready for a walk in the Spirit? Let the Lord know it. And remember what I said earlier about Psalm 139. Why not read that Psalm and ask the Lord to speak to your heart.

Here is a song for your inspiration — Open The Eyes of My Heart, Lord.

In Christ always,

Brother Buddy

Aug

2011

Can You Find Your Way Home

“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.” (2Co 4:6-7 nasb)

Journal,

Sometimes I find it very worthwhile to reaffirm an earlier journal entry. This entry draws largely on an entry that I provided in March, 2011. It was titled, ‘Finding Your Way Home.’ (Year and a half ago.)

The apostle Paul said that all believers in Jesus Christ have a ‘surpassing [divine] power’ in their hearts, and that we must learn to live by that power and not by our own soul’s self powers. Each apostle tell us the same thing,

John says,

“You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” (1Jn 4:4)

The apostle Peter adds,

“[We] who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1Pe 1:5)

Living in the Glow of Jesus

But before I go further I want to give a better perspective on why Paul called attention to the opening of Genesis, where God said, “Let there be Light.” Paul is saying that it is this ‘Light‘ that is now shining in the heart of every true believer. (2Co4:6)

Paul is doing is drawing on an ancient belief among God’s people. They believed that when God said,“Let there be Light,” this was the original Light that that creation was to live by. The ancients called this Light, ‘the Light of Life’.

The Hebrew people had other names for the original Light. They said that ‘Light‘ is one of the names of Messiah, in that God Himself is called ‘the Light of the world.’

Even the term ‘sun‘ was sometimes used metaphorically to speak of God and His Messiah.

You hear a bit of this from the Prophet Malachi:

“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” (Mal 4:2)

God’s ancient people fondly held to Isaiah, where the Almighty speaks of His Messiah:

“I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, and I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.” (Isa 42:6-7)

Now let’s take this on and talk about…

The Light that shines in the darkness

When Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world,” His words did not fall on unknowing ears. Many of the Jewish leaders knew exactly what Jesus was drawing from, and they did not like it.

While His words fell on those unbelieving ears that loved the darkness, they also fell on believing ears.

Those in Israel who believed in Jesus were being prepared to enter into God’s new creation. Jesus called His kingdom, ‘a kingdom not of this world.’

This new world would be the heavenly Israel of God, that is, God’s holy people, the church of the new covenant. (This is what the analogy of the Vine and the branches is about. The Vine represents God’s true heavenly Israel.)

It would be a world of pure grace. It would be a world of unqualified love. This new world life would have its beginning stages in this present life but would culminate in the life to come. This life would be a journey of life. We are on our way home.

The Powers of the Age to Come

This is why the apostolic writers said that true believers today are actually partakers of the powers of life that belong to the age to come. Paul said that we have this treasure in earthen vessels.

Listen to the apostle John:

“The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. …

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (Cf. John 1:5-14 NASB)

What does this have to do with ‘finding our way home? Good question. This brings us to…

The Redeemed Believer

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

When a person is born again a number of things happens. As the Light of Jesus enters into the believer’s heart, the Christian is given a new nature. But a problem remains. The believer becomes a spiritual being. Yet his or her personal life (soul) has to be redeveloped with spiritual values. And this is where the believer must learn to focus his attention on Jesus.

Here what often happens. When a new believer first enters the realm of salvation, there is a burst of spiritual life. There is joy! There is peace! There is wonderment! Grace flows like a river. Then somewhere along the way this feeling of joy may start to wane. Temptations begin to cloud the mind. The struggle of life becomes more difficult. A stumble. Another stumble, and then?

What is happening? Paul said that believers must learn to draw on that ‘surpassing power’ that is part of our inheritance in Christ. (Our spiritual DNA.) This is a learning experience. The believer who fails to keep his focus on Christ, is going to have many mistakes, misdeeds, and extra bits of misery in life.

The Greater is He, Principle

And this is why it is so important to understand this principle of ‘Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.’

The principle of ‘greater is He’, doesn’t just disappear because we had a failure or even a hundred failures in our life. It is a truth that needs to become an active principle in each believer’s walk with the Lord.

The Old Testament writer said:

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” (Pro 4:18)

The Light Shines on the Path of Life

This is also where we need to understand what the term ‘truth‘ means in the new covenant experience. In the Scriptures, the term ‘truth’ does not refer simply to a doctrine. The Greek term is used in the new covenant for experiencing the realities of Christ. Paul said the letter kills where the Spirit gives life. No believer can live in victory by trying to live by the letter. Yet it is so easy for a Christian’s life to get bogged down in ‘letterism’.

Letterism says we need all the laws we can get to get saved and to stay saved! This is bad thinking. Paul said that every person born of God’s Spirit remains eternally under the life supervision of the Holy Spirit. This means that every failure we make will be attended to by the Spirit of God.

It is the Spirit of God who births us, seals us, tutors us, educates us, places us where we need to be, refreshes us, turns our trials, temptations, and failures into victories, helps us escape bad teachings, keeps the glory of Jesus before us and in us, and many such things. Our final presentation in heaven is a thing of the Spirit.

This is what truth is all about. Jesus explained this in His response to Thomas:

“Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?’

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.'” (Joh 14:5-6)

The Redeemed person is a son or a daughter

Our relationship with the heavenly Father is not that of a servant. We are sons and daughters of the living God. Angels know and recognize the Holy Spirit’s seal upon every one of God’s children. The seal says, ‘Sealed for the day of redemption.’ (Eph4:30)

The Holy Spirit is to present us safely before the throne of God. This work of the Holy Spirit is so powerful, that He can and does take every situation of our life, and turn it into part of our reshaping in Christ. This is why the apostle said,

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Rom 8:28)

Paul also says,

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image (inward spiritual likeness) from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2Co3:18

The question is not, ‘How do we find our way home?’

Yes, the title of this blog could be challenging. That was simply to get your attention. No believer has to find his way home. You are on your way home. You are already guaranteed an entrance into heaven. Believe it or not, your name was recorded in the Lamb’s book before the foundation of the world.

So when God said, ‘Let there be Light,’ that statement reached across prophetic history and at the right moment, that Light entered into your heart. And inside you were given a shining heart.

Now, can you let your soul relax in the knowledge that Jesus is going to see you through? Can you let go of bitterness? Can you lay your past failures and mistakes where they belong? In the sea of forgetfulness.

Can you be quiet in His rest?

Can you take to heart what David said in this ascending Psalm? Listen:

O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel [Christian], hope in the LORD from this time forth and forever.” (Psa 131:1-3)

Please take time for this song – It may be your answer for today and for forever…

In Christ always,

Buddy

Jul

2011

Eternity in the Covenant

Eternal Covenant of Christ

“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations [goy ‘Gentiles’.] He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street.

“A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice [Judgment of the cross]. He will not be disheartened or crushed until He has established justice [Judgment of the cross] in the earth; and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law [Doctrines of Christ – Not the law of Moses.]

“Thus says God the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it, ‘I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You,

“’And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations [goy ‘Gentiles’], to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.” (Isa 42:1-7)

Journal,

The new covenant is an eternal covenant made in heaven and contracted on earth. The only way a person can experience the grace and blessings of the new covenant is to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ Himself is the new covenant. When you receive Christ you receive the new covenant. This is the law of the cross.

Let’s look at an incident where the Lord sets forth the new covenant in prophetic picture-language. During the feast of tabernacles as the priestly procession goes to the pool of Siloam to bring back water to pour on the altar, Jesus stops the procession.

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39)

Where Jesus speaks of the outflow of living water, He is describing the new covenant life experience. The new covenant is about life. God’s new covenant people are made alive with the life of Christ Himself.

Where it says, “the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified,” the word “given” is not in the text. What John said was, “The Spirit was not yet.” The question is, “How can this be? All the prophets had the Spirit. John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit while in his mother’s womb!”

The new covenant is unlike any covenant ever given to man. The Holy Spirit in the new covenant ministers the finished work of the cross in believers. No person before the cross could have the Holy Spirit in that sense. Why is this?

“Because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

What distinguishes the new covenant from all the former covenants is that at the moment of receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit enters the heart of the believing one as the Spirit of the resurrected, ascended, and glorified Jesus Christ. Every believer is a Christ possessed person. (Cf. Col 1:26,27)

The Divine Imprint

Paul wrote the Galatian Christians, and said,

“My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.” (Gal4:19)

Paul’s concern was for their inability to know and recognize the Lord at work in their lives. It was an issue of spiritual maturity

Because the Galatians believers were still immature in their walk with the Lord, they were being pulled back and forth. They were a young group. Paul said a similar thing to the Ephesian Christians. He said,

“We are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects INTO HIM…” (Eph4:14)

It happens today. The immature believe is easily moved by his emotions. They tend to be restless and unbalanced. This is why young believers need a great deal of help in this area. They are easily misled.

Again this is one reason the Lord raises up pastors as servant-ministers. A pastor’s greatest job is to tenderly care for a flock. If a young believer is not under the kind of teaching that will lead him to believe deeply in his salvation and in God’s love, he will manifest a spiritual unrest.

So keep in mind that in the new covenant we have the Holy Spirit to parent us into the processes of the covenant. And it is God’s Spirit who imprints us to the Lord. Yet the Lord does use men and women to help believers make necessary spiritual transitions.

A Personal Walk With God

What does being a Christ-possessed person mean? It means that each person born of the Spirit can now judge for himself/herself that which is of God and that which is not of God. It is this discerning and judging of all things by the Spirit that allows the believer to understand the issue of life itself. This is essentially was spiritual maturity is about.

In the old covenant if you wanted to hear from God, you went to the prophet. In the new covenant there is no need for a certain body of prophets or ‘special’ spokesmen to represent God in the earth. Yes, God does place in the body certain God-called servants, but these servants have a purpose in helping believers come to a full maturity in Christ. These servant-ministers are to ever take the place of a believers personal walk with Jesus.

John explained it this way –

“As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides (permanently indwells), and you have no need for anyone* (Greek word ’tis’ means a special single someone, or a guru) to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, YOU ABIDE IN HIM.” (1John2:24-27 Please read the reference.)

Where John speaks of the believer’s ‘indwelling anointing’ he is addressing the life of Christ that abides permanently in each believer.

Paul spoke of it this way:

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2:20)

Does this mean we should not listen to others? Absolutely not. God can and does speak to us through others. What it means is that every believer can discern truth for himself. The term ‘truth’ in the New Testaments speaks of knowing the reality behind an appearance. (Recognizing the things of God.)

A Covenant of Eternal Life

I Love You Jesus

Jesus said that He came to give us life and life in full measure. Eternal life addresses eternity. It addresses a life that cannot be lost. But it also speaks of a spiritual quality of life that can can only be found in the Son of God.

Not only is Jesus the Son of God, Jesus is the very Life of God. I realize this concept is difficult to grasp. The apostles themselves walked with the life of God. They even touched the life of God. They listened to the life of God.

Listen to how John explains it –

“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life– and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—“ (1Jn 1:1-2)

Can you feel John’s excitement? They walked with Eternity! They walk with the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. They walked with God.

The story does not end there. John’s excitement continues to build as he writes his letters about the life of God. Listen with your heart –

“The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son.

“And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

“He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1Jn 5:10-13)

Only a couple of questions left –

Do you have the Son of God, or do you have religion?

What do you talk about, Jesus Christ or your religion?

Think about it.

Let this song will explain what true Christianity is all about. Lord I Lift Your Name on High.

In God’s Grace,

Buddy

Jul

2011

The Fullness of Life – God’s Blueprint and GPS

“Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Heb 13:20-21)

Journal,

Sometimes religion can become a road block to a meaningful spiritual life. One struggle many believers have is in trying to find the perfect religion. They go from one group to another trying to find God’s blue print for life. The problem is that no institution on earth has the blueprint of God. To begin with there is no such thing as the perfect religion. And secondly, Jesus said that His kingdom was not of this world. [It can’t be found in an earthly form.]

Roman Catholics don’t have God’s blueprint. Southern Baptists, nor Pentecostals, nor Messianism have heaven’s blue print. The blueprint came to us from God and it can only be found one place. It can only be found in the heart.

Jesus is heaven’s blueprint. He said,

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6)

Living life without the blueprint

Most believers today are spiritually mature enough to realize that God has people throughout the varied Christian groupings. Yet you always have those who live spiritually shallow lives because of their misconceptions about how to walk with God. Their walk is ‘religion-centered.’ Without even realizing it, they have placed their religion between themselves and God.

These are the, ‘Lo, Christ is here’ people. Jesus spoke of them:

“And then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ’; or, ‘Behold, He is there’; do not believe him … ” (Mar 13:21-22)

So, the question remains. If the blueprint of heaven can’t be found with any religious group, where then do we find Christ? The apostle said it very well:

“… the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

“We proclaim Him [Christ], admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” (Col 1:26-28)

The Bible says that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And God wants each believer to find their own…

Completeness in Christ

It really isn’t a matter so much of where you attend church. God does place His people into flocks. Simply be where the Lord wants you to be.

What is important is that believers understand the essence of God’s heavenly covenant. The new covenant is an eternal covenant that gives us eternal life. The people of the new covenant are a heavenly people. They are a people born of heaven. They are given a heavenly directed heart. (That is what being born again actually means.)

Jesus is the heart and soul of the new eternal covenant. His life is our life. It is His life that we live. This means that new covenant life is an under tutorship of the Spirit of Christ.

Listen very carefully once again:

“Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Heb 13:20-21)

Paul explains this very well when he says,

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is not longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal2:20)

Learn to believe God’s way

It takes time to learn how to live in kingdom life. A difficulty we often have is in reading our own belief system into the Scriptures. We read it that way because we want to believe it that way. This is called eisegesis, or ‘reading into.’ This form of reading can mar a person’s spiritual life. Rather than let God speak to our hearts, we rush through the Scriptures to bolster what we want to believe.

The proper way to read the Scripture is called exegesis, or ‘reading out of.’

To properly understand what a Biblical writer means when he uses a certain term, we have to understand how that term was used during his time. When John says,

“For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace,” we need to know how the term ‘fullness’ was used at that time.

The word ‘pleroma‘ means ‘that which fills,’ and it comes from ‘pleroo‘, or, ‘ to fill with a content.’

Pleroma as used by the gospel writers had a two-fold meaning. It meant that believers have been brought into a fullness in Christ’s sphere of life. In this case there is nothing we need to do to be any closer to God, than being ‘in Christ.’ This fullness of our sphere of relationship takes place in the new birth. It is not some later added spiritual experience.

This Greek word also means that believers are filled absolutely by the Person of Christ as the giver of life. No believer has more of Christ than another believer. It is here that we get the idea of Christ living out His life in us. The apostle said that the one who belongs to Christ is one spirit with HIm.

Let’s take another example. Paul said,

“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled (pleroo) the law.” (Rom13:8)

Paul is saying that the love of God that is poured out in our hearts in the new birth, is the governing principle of the new covenant, and that by walking in the Spirit of love we automatically fulfill, or reach the full goal of the intent of the Law of Moses. Paul’s point is that Christ has removed any need for performing rituals. Anyone can do a ritual, but only those truly born of God’s Spirit have the capacity to fulfill the love walk.

Made complete in Christ

There is a last sense in the word ‘pleroma‘ which has to do with completeness, or to finish up a thing. This is a very important concept. Listen carefully:

“For of His fullness (pleorma; or, ‘completeness’) we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” (Joh 1:16-17)

Completeness means there is nothing you can add to make it any more complete.

At the very moment of the new birth, a believer is made complete in Christ. No one can take away from that. Nor is there anything to add to that. This is the sum and substance of the new covenant.

It is because of this sum and substance, that John said we are given “grace upon grace.” Grace upon grace means that at no time in a believer’s life will he or she be able to get beyond God’s redeeming grace.

Hear again the apostle;

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He *lavished* on us, in all wisdom and insight.” (Eph1:7,8)

The key word is ‘lavished.’ Perisseuo means a super abundance, or be over and above anything needed or required. God can lavish grace on all His children because we have received the fullness of Christ.

Putting on Christ

This issue of Christ being our completeness was a struggle for the early believers, just as it is for many today. They had the Judaizers who said you must fulfill the law of Moses to be right with God. Then you had the Gnostics and philosophers who took to themselves as being the ‘special’ ones on the earth, that one must come to them to have fulfillment.

These kinds of religious systems have always been around.

John disarmed both groups when he said,

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”

He then says,

“By this, love is perfected (brought to completion) with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He [Christ] is, so also are we in this world.” (1John4:15,17)

John is saying Christ perfectly represents every believer in heaven. And this is where our salvation lies. You can also refer to this as the life exchange of the cross. Christ took our life to Himself in His death on the cross, and, He, in turn, gave us His perfect life to be our standing with heaven.

Heaven’s GPS

And now for the path finder. Folk often wonder what specific role the Holy Spirit has in a believer’s life. There are many specifics to be had but the one most important to our walk of faith is how the Holy Spirit acts as our guide in our journey from earth to heaven.

Listen to these Scriptures:

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” (Joh 16:12-14)

The Greek term for ‘truth’ speaks of an unveiled reality or the very essence of a matter. Here the Lord is calling attention to matters of the kingdom.

Notice Jesus said, “Whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

How real is this? Most believers are familiar with what Jesus said about His sheep –

“But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (Joh 10:26-29)

The point is that God’s people have the capacity to hear the Spirit of Christ speaking in their own hearts, also in providence, also in ways too many to mention. But once again, here is where spiritual maturity must come into place.

The prophet described how very real God’s speaking is:

“Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” (Isa 30:20-21)

The Way of God

When Jesus said that He was ‘the Way’, this term resounded with prophetic overtones. In time the disciples saw the connection, the very connection that we need to see. This is why the earliest believers often referred to their walk as ‘the Way.’

Listen to the Psalmist as he describes both God speaking and how the Messiah sets forth the way of God:

“I will hear what God the LORD will say; for He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones; but let them not turn back to folly.

“Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.

“Indeed, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce. Righteousness will go before Him and will make His footsteps into a way.” (Psa 85:8-13)

And so, we are back to where we started. Ok – One more time – Listen with your heart to our beginning Scripture portion —

“Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Heb 13:20-21)

Does this Scripture speak to you? Take your time. Let it sink in.

There is no truth more important to a believer than to understand the reality or truth of kingdom life. That truth is simply, “Christ in you the hope of glory.”

Here is your meditation song. ‘Thank You, Lord’ by Hillsong. (Why not relax and let Jesus minister to your heart.)

In Christ always,

Buddy

Jul

2011

The Wonders of the Cross

“And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” (1Co 2:1-5)

Journal,

In addressing the church at Corinth, Paul said he was determined to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. What did the apostle mean by this?

Isn’t there anything else we need to preach other than the cross? Not really. Not if you understand the message of the cross. All the doctrines of Christ arise out of the cross.

The message of the cross is not simply about Jesus dying on a cross. It is a full message that includes who Jesus was, that He was born of a virgin, was truly a human and yet God, that He died for our sins, was buried, resurrected on the third day, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the majesty on high, will return for the saints, and is the last judge of all things.

All of eternity revolves around Jesus

The essential message of the cross is actually seven-fold. It speaks to the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and glorification of Jesus Christ, His second coming, and eternity to follow. Out of this seven-fold message flows a wealth of knowledge and wisdom. This is why the apostle said that in Christ “Are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col2:3)

When Paul writes the Corinthian church, he explains that there is a wisdom which belongs only to believers, not to the world. God has done something entirely new. Paul says this ‘new covenant’ wisdom had been ‘predestined before the ages to our glory.’ (1Co2:7)

Paul carefully sets forth that the old ways of wisdom have to be abandoned. Everything in the new covenant is ‘new.’ The new covenant is not the old covenant made new. It is a heavenly covenant based on the finished work of Calvary.

The hidden wisdom of the cross

Paul connects this hidden wisdom to the cross. He says,

“For the word [full message] of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” (1Co1:18,19)

What happened at the cross?

Let’s compare just two statements the apostle makes about what happened at the cross.

In his first letter, Paul says,

“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” (1Co1:30)

In his second letter, Paul says,

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Co5:21)

The apostle is telling us why he is determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is saying it all happened at the cross. At the cross our death sentence passed to Jesus. At the cross His resurrected life passed to us.

Why is Jesus called ‘the Wisdom of God’

Why does Paul speak of this life of God in terms of Wisdom? He is saying that those actually born from above have access to the very thoughts and feelings of God. He speaks of this as the mind of Christ.

This means that the wisdom that belongs to God alone, is the wisdom that is given to believers. (According to the need of the believer.) This is an awesome thing to consider.

So, the cross is both our dying place and our living place.

Is it any wonder that we Christians have so many songs about the cross. Out of the death of the cross comes a new creation. And this new creation is imbued with a wisdom that is not of this world.

Paul explains it this way:

“For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.” (1Co2:11,12)

The cross provides a heavenly wisdom not of this world

Notice carefully how the apostle connects the Wisdom of God with the Holy Spirit. In another place He calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Jesus. Paul says,

“Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!'” (Gal4:6)

Having the Spirit of God’s Son in your heart means that every believer has divine Wisdom to draw from. It means that the very life of Jesus is in us.

Remember Jesus shared with the apostles that they would be given things that were not available to the world. In His high priestly prayer, Jesus says,

“[Father] But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they [believers] may have MY JOY made full in themselves.” (John 17:13)

The life of Christ in the believer

One of the distinguishing marks of a true believer is his or her joy in the Lord. But it is the Lord’s joy that fills them. This is the life given us from the cross.

The term ‘made full’ means more than ‘fulfill‘ as it is translated in the King James. ‘Pleroo‘ speaks of a totality of filling. Believers are going to be filled totally with presence, the life, the joy, and the peace of Jesus.

This is what the Spirit filled life is about. It is being filled with the righteousness, peace and joy that is found in Jesus.

John wrote,

“For of His fullness [pleroma] we have all received, and grace upon grace.” (John 1:16)

God’s governing peace

So what is it about peace? Jesus said,

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” (John 14:27)

The peace of God is the anchor of our faith. It is a governing peace that guides us in our journey of faith. Paul said that our faith comes from Jesus speaking to us. This is how he explains it;

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal2:20)

The Father of Jesus is our Father

The list is endless. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our Father. The kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is our kingdom. The righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is our Spirit. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ is our love. The destiny of the Lord Jesus Christ is our destiny. And it all happened at the cross.

The Administrator of the Kingdom

One thing that believers need to appreciate is that the Holy Spirit does not come to us in the same way or measure as did the Spirit before the cross. Lets hear it from Jesus.

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37,38)

What did Jesus mean that the Spirit was not yet given? Notice that the word ‘given‘ is in italics. It is not in the original. So it should read, ‘For the Spirit was not yet.’

How can that be? Didn’t the prophets have the Holy Spirit? Did not David have the Holy Spirit? Yes, but not in the same measure or sense or fullness that new covenant believers have in the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit comes into the heart of the new covenant person as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus Christ. The Spirit brings the fullness of Christ crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended, and glorified into our hearts. No person before the cross ever had such an experience.

And it all happened at the cross.

Stop and think what the term ‘new creation’ actually means. It essentially means that God created a people out of nothing. A newly created thing only existed in the mind of the Creator before it became a reality. This is why the Bible says that we are God’s workmanship, “CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS”.

An Entirely New Creation

Peter adds to this in saying,

“For you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God.” (Cf. Eph2:10;1Pe2:9)

Again listen carefully — Peter said now “we”are the people of God.” He isn’t simply speaking of replacement theology. We aren’t replacing anything.

There has been an act of creation. This new people is separate and distinct from any form of humanity this planet has ever known. The Adam race sprang forth from Adam. The new creation race springs from Christ Jesus. We are totally ‘new‘. We are the people of Christ. The prophet said that God’s people would be given a new name. The new name is ‘Christian‘.

This is why Paul said that in Christ there are no Jews or Greeks. The new creation is a heavenly people. We are designed for heaven, destined for heaven, derived from heaven, and imbued with heavenly wisdom and life. So if anyone asks you where heaven is, you can say, ‘Heaven is in my heart.’

How about you? Can you say what Paul said, in determining to know nothing among the people except Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Think about it.

In the meantime listen to this song that speaks to the heart of God’s children. ‘Higher Ground.’

In Christ always,

Buddy

Jan

2011

About the Gentle Man

“SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, ‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU, GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY, EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.'” (Mat 21:5)

Journal,

If you really want to know the kind of man Jesus was, read the gospels. The trait that describes Him most of all is found in the word ‘gentleness’. Jesus was gentle and compassionate and kind to all. About the only time you see Jesus at odds with anyone is with hardened hearts of religious leaders, or if He needed to make attitude adjustments in His disciples.

It’s all there. Jesus loved children. He would gather them in His arms. The Lord associated with the lowly. He allow lepers to touch Him. He responded to any who called out to Him. One thing that always stood out for me is how the Lord interposed so often in the lives of women who were being mistreated. Jesus cared for everyone with respect. The Lord expects no less from us.

My point is simple – Jesus came into our world to bring redemption and to undo the works of darkness. But He also came to provide example of life. The term Christian means to be Christ-like.

The apostle Paul said it this way:

“Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, ‘THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU FELL ON ME.'” (Rom 15:1-3)

The most beautiful picture of Christ and the footprints He leaves in our lives is found in this Psalm:

“Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. Indeed, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce. Righteousness will go before Him and will make His footsteps into a way.“ (Psa 85:9-13)

Did you catch it? Jesus left His footsteps with us as a way that we are to live.

This week I was privileged to read a letter sent to my son Nathan…

… from a dear lady in our congregation. She is a single mom raising children on her own. Her letter was so heart warming that I asked permission to share portions of her letter on my blog. It spoke highly of the men in our congregation. Actually Lynn has not been a member of Christian Challenge very long. But what she had to say about our ministry touched me deeply.

Here goes…

About the Manly Man

^{Snippets from a letter to Nathan by a single mom – Used by permission}

… One of the things I really enjoy about Christian Challenge is that, per capita, we have more men in attendance and involved than any other denomination … or church that I have ever seen.

… What the world is missing today is it’s men. The family not only requires its physical needs to be met, but its spiritual needs.

There’s a lot to meeting those needs. The leader has to be a prayer warrior and receive and give instruction in God’s Word and His will; learning and teaching to hear His voice and live your life according to His ways.

… It was so refreshing to see men who want this for their own families. I know that the world doesn’t do this and it is a forgotten art for men as the leaders of their families. But, I see an active desire and pursuit of this at Christian Challenge.

… You and your father display that manly role as an example to the other men. I think the men in the church stay because they see God’s intention for a husband and father in you and your dad. They know that it’s right even though they may not exactly why they are drawn to you both.

It was encouraging for me as a mom, as I struggle to help my son be a man, to bring him to a place where he sees other men seeking God. He’s spent his younger years with mostly women who usually run Sunday school for the younger kids and VBS. Not so at CCI.

As a Christian woman, I see the role of the men and women much more clearly. I don’t see myself as that “independent, I rule the world” kinda woman any more. It’s much different now.

I am thankful for you and the other men in the church, especially my sweetheart.

Lynn

Mistaken ideas of manliness

Thank you Lynn.

Some frame the idea of manliness in terms like, be tough, be in charge, let no one see you cry, be a man, be the head of your family, command respect, show no weakness, discipline with a firm hand, be a fighter, and so on. Those are terms that speak to the warrior side of our nature but in themselves they don’t truly set forth Biblical manliness.

It is without question that the man should be both the protector and the provider for his family. Yet protector and provider are not merely warrior terms. They speak of love and endearment.

For example the Biblical way of being head of the family means to love your wife and children the way that Jesus loves the church. It means to treat your wife as an equal heir of the grace of life. It means that the same way that Jesus provided love and grace for all around Him, we are to do likewise. Jesus showed us how the power of life is bound up in the word gentleness.

What many don’t realize is that gentleness is not a sign of weakness. In a Biblical sense it is a sign of strength. Gentleness reveals the ability to control power and to use strength in a proper manner.

Notice how David links salvation, victory, and manliness with God’s gentleness:

“The God who girds me with strength and makes my way blameless? He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, and sets me upon my high places. He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand upholds me; and Your gentleness makes me great.” (Psa 18:32-35)

Pay close attention to how Isaiah describes Jesus in His second coming:

“Behold, the Lord GOD will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.” (Isa 40:10-11)

To appreciate more fully the idea of God’s men being gentle, we also need to understand…

God’s gift of maleness and femaleness

This brings us back to God’s original plan for the human family. The Bible says both Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. But Adam was created first and as such, had covenant responsibility for the family of man. In his relationship to Eve, Adam was not to be without Eve, and Eve was not to be without Adam. Each were given nature traits that belonged to them alone.

With this in mind there is a sense in which the woman can serve as a type of the Holy Spirit and the man as a type of God’s Word. Both are needed for life. The Word without the Spirit can produce legalism. The Spirit without the Word can produce instability.

Jesus said,

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (John 6:63)

Finally, when it comes to covenant issues, there is no stronger spiritual working power on this planet than a man and his wife who are in spiritual union. All the promises that relate to ‘two’ people doing something, find their greatest impact in the godly marriage.

Consider this promise:

“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 18:19)

Where would this promise work any better than in that of the godly married?

May I leave this with you. We all have room to grow. We have all failed in many things. If you are struggling with any that I have shared, please take time to listen to this special song – ‘I Believe, Help Thou My Unbelief.’ — I shared it in an early blog. It still rings true —

Love you more than much,

Buddy

Nov

2010

The Promise of the Father

“And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

(Luk 24:49 NASB)

Journal,

The Bible uses the term ‘metamorphoo’ to describe changes that take place in a person’s life when they truly receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. [meta = over. morphe = form or shape] At the moment of true faith, the Spirit of Christ enters the heart of the believer and a seal is placed upon the believer’s heart. The seal is called ‘the seal of redemption’.

From that moment on the nature and attitudes of Christ are thus transposed into this person’s innermost being. It is this experience Jesus spoke of when He said,

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” (Joh 7:38 NASB)

The action that places the believer into Christ is called the believer’s immersion into Christ or the believer’s baptism into Christ. It is in our heavenly birth that we are made one with Christ. The apostle also speaks of this action as our being clothed with Christ. In another place Paul says that our life is now hidden or concealed in Christ. Thus we have the miracle of the cross.

This brings us to the major thought in our Scripture reading. What did Jesus mean when He directed attention to the promise of the Father?

The Sphere of the Spirit

The promise of the Father reaches back into eternity. We see it played throughout the pages of the Bible. The promise was the promise of a new life to come. Even before the fall of Adam the scene of new life is set forth in creation itself.

Notice carefully how the Spirit of God and the Word of God meet together in bringing forth new life:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Gen 1:1-3 NASB)

It is this scene that will be played out time and time again each time a new person is birthed into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. Note the elements:

Formless and void. The sinner’s life of darkness.
The Spirit of God begins to move over the heart of the sinner, arranging and preparing.
Then God says, ‘Let there be light’, and the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ enters thebelieving person’s heart and now we have another child of the living God.

Does this sound like an overreach on my part. Listen to Paul:

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

“For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.

“For God, who said, ‘light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

(2Co 4:3-6 NASB)

A point needs to be made. Anyone can be religious. Being born again is not an emotional work-up, nor is it simply mental acquiescence. A person can be a church goer all his or her life and be nothing more than religious in nature. It happens all the time. Suddenly this person wakes up. It dawns on them that they have missed the boat. What made the change. The Light of the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to penetrate their heart. Their darkness was a religious darkness. They were simply religious sinners into ‘church-idolatry’. And now they become a truly born from heaven child of God.

The Day of New Life – Pentecost

When Peter began to preach on the day of Pentecost, he called attention to the Father’s promise. Concerning the Holy Spirit, Peter said,

For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” (Acts 2:39)

Then we have this from Isaiah;

For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring and My blessing on your descendants; and they will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water.” (Isa44:3,4)

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a term that speaks of the covenant experience wherein a believer receives the life of Messiah. The apostle said,

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” (1Co12:13)

The Covenant of Christ

The most beautiful picture we have of the Father’s promise of our new life in Christ is found in the analogy of the Vine and the branches. (John 15:1-8.

Look at it closely —

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” (Joh 15:1-8 NASB)

It is easy to misunderstand what the analogy of the Vine and branches is about. The Vine had long been a symbol of Israel’s covenant relationship with the Lord. Over the temple door was the emblem of the vine. Jesus had in view Israel itself. Those of Israel who reject Him would become the rejected branches.

When Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing,” the Greek word ‘meno‘ means to stay in place, or to remain within a sphere.

We have a picture of this when God said to Abraham,

I am God Almighty; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you.” Gen 17:1,2

The word covenant in Hebrew is ‘berith.’ In Greek it is ‘diatheke.’ Both words speak of a declaration of the will of God concerning His own commitment, promises, and conditions by which He enters into relationship with man. God is the initiator and completer of the covenant. This is why the vine is a vivid picture of our new covenant relationship in Christ. The believer is to look to the Lord Jesus for everything in life.

What did Jesus tell the disciples about their vine life?

Without Me you can do nothing.”

Our perfect example for the vine life is Jesus Himself. Not one time in His earth walk do we ever see Jesus defensive or frustrated. His secret is in something He said;

I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 5:30)

The flow of new life

It really isn’t hard for a child of God to learn to live in the flow of new life. There are things we need to understand. First, we need to understand that God has a perfect will for all of His children. Secondly, we need to know that God is the only One who can work His will in our life. And finally, we must learn the great principle of new covenant life. Listen:

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2:20 NASB)

It is in our trusting in Jesus that we come to know more about this wonderful thing called God’s providence. There is no part of a believer’s life that the Father is not vitally concerned with. The prophet of old said,

The Lord’s lovingkindness indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Lam3:22,23

As we learn to walk in loving submission to the Lord, we are given a promise of fruitfulness. The privileges and experiences of a new covenant child of God are awesome indeed. Where the Old Testament saint relied greatly on a prophet and priest mediator, the new covenant child of God has direct, open, and immediate access to the Lord, at any moment, and under any circumstance.

What do you think about ‘The promise of the Father’. Would love to hear from you.

Let this song minister to your heart. – ‘I Believe in Jesus’.

Much love to be found in Jesus,

Buddy

Oct

2010

Whispers of the Heart

“Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” Isa30:21 NASB)

Journal,

One way I know to testify to the goodness of the Lord is to share stories of how the Lord has often sustained me through the years. After all I am now seventy years on the pathway of life. As you read this entry I hope you will be able to look over your own life and remember just how oftentimes the Lord has blessed you. It could have been in the midst of a trial. Yes, we are all the same. We all have trials. We serve and love one Master.

This is why I wanted to call this entry, ‘Whispers of the Heart.’ There is something very special that happens between the Lord and His people. Jesus said that His sheep know His voice and would not follow another. Most of God’s speaking in our lives will be like whispers of the heart. And in those whispers comes His peace. Yes, we do know the Shepherd’s voice.

Jesus is a living Savior.

Living by faith is a life of discovery. It begins with a call upon our heart. It completes itself with our entrance into heaven. And in between there will be many points of reality where the Lord shares something very special with us. With each sharing we acquire a renewing of God’s s goodness. Most of these sharings will be like whispers in our heart.

The Bible calls our walk with the Lord, ‘the path of life’.

“You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” (Psa 16:11)

Fruitfulness in the Kingdom.

God makes known to us the path of life. Everything in a believer’s journey of life has in its setting the working of the Lord. It is important to understand this aspect of our journey. What the Lord may tell one believer, He will not necessarily tell another believer. Our walk will always be deeply personal. Every situation is different. And how the Lord works in each situation will be different. Everything wraps around the word ‘trust.’

I well remember when the Lord began to open my understanding to how fruitfulness works in the kingdom of God. Fruitfulness is basically a product of sowing and reaping. This principle affects everything that we do in life. It is one of the greatest of all the spiritual laws.

Paul shared some insight with Timothy:

“The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” (2Ti 2:6-7 NASB)

Notice that Paul said the Lord is the one who gives us the understanding. Sowing and reaping isn’t merely about finances although this is certainly a key to financial blessings. Sowing and reaping is about everything in life. You want to be loved, be a lover of others. You want friends, become a friend to others. It is no different from natural sowing. If you wish to grow corn, you have to plant corn.

This is why Paul said that whatever a man sows, this is what he would also reap. Yes, financial well being is a real part of this great law. This is something that Betty and I learned. Every believer needs to learn this lesson in life. If you are not a sower don’t expect to be a reaper.

Let’s hear it from the apostle:

“Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.” (2Co 9:6-8)

Now listen carefully to what Jesus said,

“Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure–pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” (Luk 6:38)

This was only a beginning place.

My heart was stirred. But it was only a beginning place for us. Not only did I repent of making debts but I soon saw where I was not to be signing notes for others when they make debts. I decided to never co-sign a note for anyone at any time. I was learning the ways of the Lord.

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” (Pro22:7)

What does this have to do with whispers of the heart? Very much indeed. When we saw that sowing ‘according to the Spirit’ was a vital key in living a fruitful life, Betty and I ask the Lord to guide us in our sowing. We began sowing in new ways. It was during this time the Lord spoke to my heart. He said, “Because you have believed Me, in six months you will be out of debt.”

Six months later we were completely out of debt. We were back into full time ministry. And we have lived on that level of life ever since. It has been well over 35 years since we’ve had a car payment or any other kind of debt. We don’t borrow. We don’t make debts. We don’t sign notes for others. And we learn to sow by the Spirit.

I will remain forever grateful and humbled for how the Lord taught me this wonderful truth of sowing and reaping. And it all revolves around living according to the Spirit.

But walking down the path of life isn’t simply about finances. The real key is to learn to live a life under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

This brings me to ….

A word on healing

It is important to remember that God knows what we need at each point of our life journey. With regard to healing, oftentimes the Lord will use doctors to help us in our walk. At othertimes He can provide a healing miracle. The important thing is that the Lord is always in the background of our life, guiding us, providing for us, and arranging circumstances in a way that is according to His will and purpose.

The Lord has blessed me through physicians. He has also blessed me with direct healing from His hand. My latest healing was from cancer. The Lord prepared me for this when He spoke to me, saying, “Expect the unexpected.”

(For this testimony see: http://buddymartin.net/blog/2010/09/a-dove-on-the-wire.)

I well remember another case when the Lord gave me something to do. It happened in March, 1978. Here is the story. I’ll title it…

Run for Your Life

It was March, 1978. In closing the seminar in Garland, Texas, I began to feel a weakness in my body. On my way home from Garland, the weakness became more pronounced. The two times that I stopped along the way, when I stepped out of the car I would stumble. This was really strange. (Once for a snack. Another time to fill up.) I was getting concerned.

The weakness worsened. I had never experienced anything like it. After I made it home the weakness became worse. I could barely walk without falling. I had no strength in my arms or hands. Finally I was talked into seeing a doctor. Blood work and all the minor tests were made. They couldn’t find anything wrong.

The doctor said that he suspected multiple sclerosis (MS) and wanted to do further tests. That’s when I said no more tests. I felt that it was a spiritual attack and not simply something physical. (There is so much more to the story. This is a shortened version.)

Then it happened. I’m at my desk at home when I have this impression that I was to run. How could I possibly run? It was difficult to walk without tripping over. The impression was strong. I stepped out the kitchen door, and made a vain attempt to run. If anyone could see me they would think I was crazy. Every few steps I would stumble and fall.

Now I’m back at my desk, sweaty and puzzled. It came again. It was a whisper of the heart. I’ve learned to trust those impressions of the Spirit. I was to run. Once again I stepped out the kitchen door. This time something different was in play. As I began to run I literally felt a strengthening in my body. I picked up speed and ran around the house without stumbling. My strength was returning. Next thing you know all the weakness has left.

And that is the story of my healing from whatever it was. Do I believe it was spiritual? Yes, I do. Would I recommend that anyone do what I did? No, I would not. Living by faith is too personal a thing to go around trying to mimic others.

While there is more to the story I will share something the Lord said to me. It left me in tears of thankfulness. The Lord said, “I delivered you out of the mouth of the lion.”

Is that all?

I could go on and on. For instance there was the time that a tornado was racing towards the church and our parsonage. Betty and the children were in our trailer home. (Church parsonage.) It had just hit a store up the road. The lady had walked to the center of the store and all four walls flattened out. She was unscathed.

The tornado was on a straight path towards the church and the parsonage. I was outside in the church yard. I saw the trees were whipping and snapping off. I began running towards the trailer home. That is when I heard the Lord speak to my heart, “Satan would like to destroy you, but he can not. I have you in the palm of My hand.”

It hit and knocked me to the ground. I watch the front porch of our trailer parsonage rip through the woods. Along with it went our storage building. Yet the trailer did not even tremble. Betty and the children were safe.

Oh yes, I have stories to tell. They are all true. And they are all about my walk down the path of life. But they are not hero stories on my part. I am not a hero. These stories are all about the goodness of the Lord.

The greatest story of all is that Jesus Christ is truly my Lord and Savior. Had He never provided any sort of miracle for me, I could never thank Him enough.

How about you? Do you have stories you could tell? Feel free to share them. (If you like you can use the comment portion of the blog.)

That’s all for now.

May you discover all of God’s goodness for your life.

In love with Jesus,

Buddy

What Can I Offer the Lord

We Are Powerless in Ourselves

Deadness of Sin

The Battle Over Grace

Salvation is Through the Son Alone

The Eternal Law of Salvation

The Message Completes Itself

What Can Take Away My Sins

The cloud disappeared

The Passages of Life

Words to Live By

Expect the Unexpected

The ‘What am I doing here’ Word

It has to become real personal

Following in His footsteps…

Humility of Heart

A Walk of Reality

You Cannot Know God After the Flesh

Giving Up Your Stand Between

Don’t Let Your Religion Stand Between You and the Lord Jesus!

Living in the Glow of Jesus

The Light that shines in the darkness

The Powers of the Age to Come

The Redeemed Believer

The Greater is He, Principle

The Redeemed person is a son or a daughter

The question is not, ‘How do we find our way home?’

The Divine Imprint

A Personal Walk With God

A Covenant of Eternal Life

Living life without the blueprint

Completeness in Christ

Learn to believe God’s way

Made complete in Christ

Putting on Christ

Heaven’s GPS

The Way of God

All of eternity revolves around Jesus

The hidden wisdom of the cross

Why is Jesus called ‘the Wisdom of God’

The cross provides a heavenly wisdom not of this world

The life of Christ in the believer

God’s governing peace

The Father of Jesus is our Father

The Administrator of the Kingdom

An Entirely New Creation

About the Manly Man

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