God Thwarts Us to Save Us

This is a very dangerous moment, when God seems set against everything that has meant life to us. Satan spies his opportunity, and leaps to accuse God in our hearts. You see, he says, God is angry with you. He's disappointed in you. If he loved you he would make things smoother. He's not out for your best, you know. The Enemy always tempts us back toward control, to recover and rebuild the false self. We must remember that it is out of love that God thwarts our impostor. As Hebrews reminds us, it is the son whom God disciplines, therefore do not lose heart (12:5-6).

God thwarts us to save us. We think it will destroy us, but the opposite is true—we must be saved from what really will destroy us. If we would walk with him in our journey, we must walk away from the false self—set it down, give it up willingly. It feels crazy; it feels immensely vulnerable. We simply accept the invitation to leave all that we've relied on and venture out with God. We can choose to do it ourselves, or we can wait for God to bring it all down.

If you have no clue as to what your false self may be, then a starting point would be to ask those you live with and work with, "What is my effect on you? What am I like to live with (or work with)? What don't you feel free to bring up with me?" Drop the fig leaf; come out from hiding. For how long? Longer than you want to; long enough to raise the deeper issues, let the wound surface from beneath it all. 

Courtesy of: http:// Ransomedheart.com

An Identity We Received

Identity is not something that falls on us out of the sky. For better or for worse, identity is bestowed. We are who we are in relation to others. But far more important, we draw our identity from our impact on those others—if and how we affect them. We long to know that we make a difference in the lives of others, to know that we matter, that our presence cannot be replaced by a pet, a possession, or even another person. The awful burden of the false self is that it must be constantly maintained.

We think we have to keep doing something in order to be desirable. Once we find something that will bring us some attention, we have to keep it going or risk the loss of the attention.

And so we live with the fear of not being chosen and the burden of maintaining whatever it is about us that might get us noticed and the commitment never to be seen for who we really are. We develop a functional self-image, even if it is a negative one. The little boy paints his red wagon a speckled gray with whatever Father left in the can after putting a new coat on the backyard fence. "Look what I did!" he says, hoping for affirmation of the wonderful impact his presence has on the world. The angry father shames him: "What do you think you're doing? You've ruined it." The boy forms an identity: My impact is awful; I foul good things up. I am a fouler. And he forms a commitment never to be in a place where he can foul things up again. Years later, his colleagues wonder why he turned down an attractive promotion. The answer lies in his identity, an identity he received from the impact he had on the most important person in his world and his fear of ever being in such a place again.

Courtesy of Ransomed Heart

Are We Open to Intimacy?

This is why we accept the false reverence—it’s like having a relationship with someone out of state. It doesn’t intrude into your life like a spouse or a good friend does. There is safety in the distance. We secure ourselves against a fuller experience of Jesus’ presence because he is so unnerving. There is no faking it in the presence of Jesus; there is no way we can cling to our idols and agendas. We sense this intuitively, and so we keep our distance without really looking like we’re keeping our distance. By using false reverence. “The Good Lord” probably isn’t going to show up at your New Year’s Eve party.

Want more?

So, when it comes to experiencing more of Jesus in your life, much depends on what we are open to experiencing—what we have been told we can experience, and, what we are comfortable with. Are you willing to let Jesus be himself with you?

From Ransomed Heart devotion book

What Does It Mean To Be God's Example Of His Message?

 To put this post in context, please read Oswald Chambers devotion message for today March 10  RIGHT HERE
  

Today’s devotion in My Utmost For His Highest book is sweet. It is a short one, but there is so much in there. I learned that if we truly learn to live out this life God has for us and if we truly live in oneness, love, faith, obedience and His will alone, then the Holy Spirit is delighted to show us how we are slowly becoming like Him. This part of Salvation is so sweet because you KNOW it is nothing that you are doing except living your average Joe life on earth. Yet you can see how you are changing like Him on the inside. You are becoming this person as Christ’s character is being worked within and right before your eyes you are becoming “THE GOSPEL MESSAGE”

This goes beyond living a holy life because even after you are made holy and living out the holy life, you find that God is still crushing you into submission. It is hard for me to explain it without going into a much lengthy post. But for lack of better words I could tell you that it is the difference between taking your regular cup of coffee or tea with one tablespoon of sugar vs two spoons. You want more sugar because it is sweeter. It is a different submission from the one when you were broken so that your will can become His will while you stop acting like a wild horse.  It is no longer about making you holy either because He would have already worked that within, through great pain. But it is more like weaving His Holiness through you like dough when you mix it up with the leaven you are watching it changing as the leaven is mixed up with every part of the dough. It is also the type of submission where He is making sure you look the part on the outside, because this life on the inside is spilling out big time. Yet it is amazing how this life can be so subtle.

I notice, every time I meet someone from the old Church, of course I always talk to them about God, and almost every single time they would say something like “you should be a preacher.” I guess because the minute we start talking about God, I am no longer hungry or tired and suddenly time no longer matters to me. I talk with conviction, passion and with hand and body language gestures. But, what they do not realize is that God has not called me to be a preacher. What they see, is me becoming slowly, God’s message. Yes, I have a long way to go and I need to live at least ten more years in the faith and complete oneness to even come close to someone like Oswald in terms of knowledge of God. But, it is the reality of a walk completely immersed in God living out the true Christian life according to God’s will and plan for all of us Christians.  

My point is, God taught me that the process was lengthy and tedious, although sometimes very intense, but this work goes beyond the basic in Christianity. When I say basic, even the work of holiness is also part of the basic package before God can take us to what really matters and the real goal of the gospel. Anyone who has been made holy knows what I mean. After holiness sets in, you feel as if you are starting the Christian life all over again. I was annoyed that there was not something like continuity. I was also tempted to start living my holiness in my own strength. But, after we are made holy, which comes after brokenness, what seems to be a second regeneration and so on, all these things are lumped together to build the base or the foundation of God’s Masterpiece. On a side note, I found out this is why one can build a whole Christian life on sinking sand and not aware of it. When we say that the foundation is Christ, then He must be allowed to build it up within us. If He is not allowed to build it in us, then, we are doing the work as a substitute for the real thing.

I shared with you in one of my posts how God showed me how Salvation was like making a cake and on the table every single ingredient, molds, utensils and so on, needed to proceed and make the cake are right there for us and nothing is missing. All was provided and God is the one mixing up the ingredients to put the cake together and He alone knows what the cake will look like once finish. My role was to stir up once in a while with His help. Yet He was so generous, He showed me a picture of the most beautiful cake that I have ever seen. I remember when I saw the finished cake, in my mind I thought “Wow! God is the best chef that I know” – I have no idea if because at that time I was like this child by His side or why this idea of Him being a chef came to mind. Nevertheless, the past few months, I am learning that it is true, it feels like you are starting over after holiness, but it is because He is using the basic which is like the cake has been baked, pull out of the oven and cool off. Now, He is creating a chef-d’oeuvre. This piece of art is you becoming like Christ and it is you becoming the message.

I encourage even pushed people through showing the urgency of going forward with Him because I KNOW that I KNOW what I KNOW. As God showed me how crucial it is to let Him do the work in 2009, I wanted to go with an offer that I had received to participate in Church planting. People had great plans for me, I felt like I was letting them down. I was so exited and I wanted to serve Him this way. God knew I wanted to serve Him with all my heart and the stumbling block that was put in front of me was because of what I had learned from men made Christianity’s idea. Since I was in bondage to the wrong things that I had learned in the Church, He showed me how the first work that will decide our rewards in heaven has nothing to do with building up churches or mega television ministry “FOR HIM.” This is not to say they are not good. But, the work of our Salvation and the work of our faith is first and foremost the work that we have allowed Him to work within each of us. The whole life, plans, goals, desires, spiritual agenda, wishes, motivation, attitude and everything we are able to think of, all of it flows through the work being done within us as we slowly become “THE MESSAGE.”

He showed me if I can walk with Him in oneness as He leads, then someone who has built a mega television ministry has nothing on me. He made it clear to me that this does not mean He is not going to use these people to bring some of His sheep home. But He uses them through His sovereignty because He can use even Satan to get through those that are His own. But, when He uses us, in spite of us, not because we are living out His will for our lives, then, we lose the reward that would have come to us for all our deeds.

So, brothers and sisters, work out your salvation with fear in trembling, because there will be a day where all masks are taken off. Unlike Adam and Eve, who were able to hide from God when they first found out they were naked, after they sinned, we will not have this option to hide. Judgement day is not like God is going to humiliate us in front of everyone to show who we truly are. The problem will be “FACING GOD.” Facing God when you know you have not been living up to par in accordance with His word is one thing. But, facing Him when at the same time you have the naked truth in front of you and you cannot escape it, is more than horrible.

There will be a drastic difference in facing God because it will be according to what we have allowed God to become in our lives. We need to go through that phase of salvation where God ceases to be just our Saviour because salvation is about us. We need to grab onto Him as sons and daughters of the most High through faith, humility, obedience, love and dependence and oneness. Until we know such a life in the reality of our consciousness because it has been worked out in us, then we will face God with a master and slave mentality. The beauty of facing God as His heirs, is different because you have let your daddy down and hurt Him. It will no longer be about guilt, but love. The love of a master and a daddy is different. So, is He your daddy through head knowledge only according to what you have been reading or is He your daddy because you have allowed Him to take you there? – There is a big difference and you would be wise to find it out before you die.

John 6:63 “The word that I speak to you are spirit and they are life” – How is this working for you?

Make the decision to surrender once and for all. Not the type of surrender through lip service, but one where you are willing to accept any pain and inconvenience that comes your way.—That is the only way. —Allow Him to work out His life through you. Let Him flood your inner spirit and saturate your soul with His waters. Allow Him to refine you and mold you as you welcome those characteristics in Him that will give you this meek and lowly heart that you need to walk this walk. CHOOSE LIFE!

The Offer Is Life

"The glory of God is man fully alive. (Saint Irenaeus)When I first stumbled across this quote my initial reaction was . . . You’re kidding me. Really? I mean, is that what you’ve been told? That the purpose of God—the very thing he’s staked his reputation on—is your coming fully alive? Huh. Well, that’s a different take on things. It made me wonder, What are God’s intentions toward me? What is it I’ve come to believe about that? Yes, we’ve been told any number of times that God does care, and there are some pretty glowing promises given to us in Scripture along those lines. But on the other hand, we have the days of our lives, and they have a way of casting a rather long shadow over our hearts when it comes to God’s intentions toward us in particular. I read the quote again, “The glory of God is man fully alive,” and something began to stir in me. Could it be?

I turned to the New Testament to have another look, read for myself what Jesus said he offers. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Wow. That’s different from saying, “I have come to forgive you. Period.” Forgiveness is awesome, but Jesus says here he came to give us life. Hmmm. Sounds like ol’ Irenaeus might be on to something. “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48). “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38). The more I looked, the more this whole theme of life jumped off the pages. I mean, it’s everywhere.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov. 4:23).“You have made known to me the path of life” (Ps. 16:11).“In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).“Come to me to have life” (John 5:40).“Tell the people the full message of this new life” (Acts 5:20).

From the Ransomed Heart Devotion Book

Invite Him In

Oh, I know this too well. I am trying to refrain myself to avoid a whole post on this issue. But the reality is that God keeps asking us over and over again to give Him permission because He refuses to force Himself on us. 

This verse of Revelation 3:20 is not only for the unbelievers, but for us Christians too. Not because God cannot do the work without our permission, but like Paul mentioned several times in his writing, God wants us to offer ourselves up voluntarily as a living sacrifice on a daily basis. We ought to remember that it is a daily battle where we choose Him over and over again as our Master while we yield completely to Him. 

When the eyes of your heart open you can see so many people out there that God has tried to bring to a place where they can be broken by Him. But, they get nothing out of the experience with God. They end up suffering for nothing because they would not allow God to do the work within. As such, they come out of the experience, broken in all the wrong places and they never know what healing from God’s point of view means.

It took me a long time in the wilderness to understand that He wants us to invite Him in, and that it was His way of glorifying Himself as well, every time we say yes to Him and to the work of salvation within. Our yes to the work within means we understand the salvation He is offering and appreciate the price it cost Him. It means we value it. It means we reaffirm our love and so on. I still remember after all the time I spent in the wilderness with Him, when it was time to teach me the abiding process in 2009, He gave me the option. This in itself is a long story and an unforgettable experience on how He walked me through it. But as we remain surrendered into His hands and abide in Him, we truly delight His heart as we allow Him to glorify Himself through us.

I better stop there…..

 Invite Him In 

courtesy of http://ransomedheart.com

There is a famous passage of Scripture which many people have heard in the context of an invitation to know Christ as Savior. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in…" (Rev 3:20). He does not force himself upon us. He knocks, and waits for us to ask him in. There is an initial step, the first step of this which we call salvation. We hear Christ knocking and we open our hearts to him as Savior. It is the first turning. But the principle of this "knocking and waiting for permission to come in" remains true well into our Christian life.

You see, we all pretty much handle our brokenness in the same way - we mishandle it. It hurts too much to go there. So we shut the door to that room in our heart and we throw away the key - much like Lord Craven locks the Secret Garden upon the death of his wife, and buries the key. But that does not bring healing. Not at all. It might bring relief - for awhile. But never healing. Usually it orphans the little girl in that room, leaves her to fend for herself. The best thing we can do is to let Jesus come in, open the door and invite him in to find us in those hurting places.

It might come as a surprise that Christ asks our permission to come in and heal, but he is kind, and the door is shut from the inside, and healing never comes against our will. In order to experience his healing we must also give him permission to come in to the places we have so long shut to anyone. Will you let me heal you?He knocks through our loneliness. He knocks through our sorrows. He knocks through events that feel too close to what happened to us when we were young - a betrayal, a rejection, a word is spoken, a relationship is lost. He knocks through many things, waiting for us to give him permission to enter in.

Service and Discipleship God's Way!

As I was reading  today’s Oswald Chambers devotion of March 5, something that I read recalled to mind my post of February 28 entitled “What Is Disciplehsip?” which was a courtesy of the Ransomed Heart devotion book.  I am reminded how I used to find what I thought was joy as I worked for God. This kind of joy used to come with such great emotions of accomplishment and contentment accompanied with a tiny glimpse of pride, all of it was because I was being used by God to reach other souls. Personally, I felt I was living the Christian life. As God started dealing with me, I heard the call and it was such a great time for me. So much joy and serenity accompanied me day in day out as I kept singing “Here I am Lord, this is I, Lord, I have heard you calling in the night.” Once the experience subsided, there was complete silence from God. So once again, I started helping God by trying to get involved in ministry, thinking that I knew exactly what God was calling me for. I had encouragement through a pastor in my Church who wanted to use me in his ministry and he got me involved. Even though I was good at what I was doing, but I kept feeling the nudging of the Holy Spirit. While I could not understand what was wrong, but I certainly felt I was not quite following the path He had in mind for me. But in my stubbornness, and ignorance, not to mention the culture the Church has fostered when it comes to service to God, I felt, it was better to be doing something for God, than to be inactive. 

It was discouraging when God showed me that the pastor was not functioning in the Spirit, since I did not know God better, I still believed that I could make things work. Suffice to say that I found out the hard way that I was WRONG BIG TIME, because God always has a waiting and a training process. This training process comes directly from God and takes us through a period of time in the valleys, or ditches. This training will be directly related through those things that make up our lives, such as financial lost, personal tragedies, life changing moments and so on. Sometimes He uses the result of our own insecurities to get our attention and train us. No matter what, God uses to get us through His University, our soul will always identify with John Bunyan when he wrote The Ebb & Flow of Perception. John said “it seem strange that sometimes God visits his soul with wonderful blessed things. Yet sometimes, afterwards for hours at a time he is filled with such darkness that he could not even remember the comfort that had refreshed him before.”  

I learned through my training process with Him in the wilderness, those wonderful, blessed moments are there to strengthen us and also bless us. It also feels as if God is giving you a bonus, which is an extra dose of grace to see more of Him. The moments of darkness soon after, are there to test us, to work His life through us and to teach us. In those moments of darkness that your soul is soaking in, you have a very tiny idea what Christ’s agony in the garden of Gethsemane must have been like. Those moments of darkness, although extremely agonizing to the soul, build your character, take away your idea of what Salvation is about as your loyalty and understanding shift gears. They make you more spiritual and bring you much closer to God. Best of all, you realize through those dark times, how this Christian life and all that God has put in us through the regeneration process has been a deposit and He uses those moments of darkness and training to impart His life to you. 

The result is that, His life is no longer something dormant in you. You are infused and infected full blown with Salvation as you watch your heart being captured by Him. You know without a doubt that, Salvation is being worked out in you and right before your eyes, every word of the Bible is becoming alive and real within. You KNOW you will never be the same again. You KNOW that you know something other Christians on the sidelines cannot even begin to imagine, unless God takes them there too. Then all of the sudden, those words “FEED MY SHEEP” becomes your mission, your vision, your call, your reality and your very life. No one can take that away from you because your soul KNOWS what Gods KNOWS. Feed my sheep is not just about evangelism; it is not about discipleship, it is all that and much more. It is the Gospel that cost everything to God and Christ, it is a lifestyle and it is for Christians and unbelievers alike.

Christ is no longer a personal savior, He is no longer your master or something here and there. He is so much more as you are watching Him taking over your life as He merges His life with yours. The more He is merged with you, the more you wish He could swallow you up completely so that no trace of what used to be your life would remain. It makes sense because you have tasted something out of this world and you want to become HIM. Through this process, calling yourself His bondservant brings honour to you and it is the best thing you can have for now, until you see Him and serve Him up there. Without Christ becoming much more to us, we go on offering people something that we do not even possess for ourselves. We only have our empty words with our human emotions to convey what we are offering. Without knowing Christ in the depth of your soul and not truly knowing who you are offering to others, you find no problem manipulating people. You feel justified and have no shame in bribing and pushing people toward Christ thinking you are doing Him a service. 

I smiled today while I was reading what Oswald said in today’s devotion. I remember how much I did not understand the call and I was forcing things to work out instead of waiting for God, I was disappointed because I truly believe there was some sort of campaign of service with my name on. I never forgot how God brought me back to reality on March 5^th 2006 when I read this bit of today’s devotion. God was talking to me directly as I read “This does not imply that there is a campaign of service marked out for you.” By the time God put the implementation of the call on my life, in motion, I learn, if one did not learn loyalty to His cause which can only be acquired as He shares with one His corporate vision of Salvation, one would easily say no to the call.

One thing for sure, through this training, “FEED MY SHEEP” takes on new meaning because He equips you with the truth and boldness. Here, I am referring to the type of boldness that comes from being broken by Him, not the one that comes with arrogance because we are unbroken.  You gladly feed His sheep His way, because you know Him, then, you know there is no room for compromises. You learn to feed the sheep not with fancy footwork, but by calling things exactly like you see them.  When we do not know God enough, we have our own idea of what it means to say things in love, to a brother or a sister and we have our own idea what it means to encourage others. They come from a worldly interpretation. We translate those things with our own mind instead of the Spirit’s mind. Through the training, you learn when you feed God’s sheep, your loyalty to who God is and His requirements never leave you because you have been merged with Him. So, feeding His sheep becomes an opportunity to glorify God. 

As I learned to flip things around and make it about Him, I no longer get caught up in managing someone else insecurities and expectations. This is the Holy Spirit’s job. As I learned through my training with Him, it is utterly important to die to our own ambitions so that we no longer feel the need to please Him and do things for Him. As we die to ourselves, the Holy Spirit rises up and takes His place to move us to do things for Him. While what I said might sound weird, but it makes the difference between an offering in the flesh and in the Spirit. It makes a difference between what is accepted by God and what is not.  So, besides dying to self, we also need to keep walking in the Spirit. If these things are in place in our lives, then we need not to worry about peoples' expectations, insecurities and fragilities, because everything we do will flow out of Christ and from a place of Agape love. Christ Himself, will set the tone and touch the one who has ears to hear and glorify Himself through it all. 

Sadly, today’s Church model is way too busy doing things their ways to stop and smell the coffee. In a way I understand them, most Churches have become a business and a way for people to rise up in their career path. So, they have to keep bringing money in, and they have to keep bringing more bodies to fill up the pews, at any cost. Through it all they convince themselves God will sort things out because they are working for Him. Christ lived this earth and showed us how it was done. He was never after quantity, but quality. If God was after quantity, then there would not be a need for Salvation the way He put it forth, and everyone on earth would be a shoe-in right away.

As I compared the joy of doing things when I did not know God and the joy of doing things after getting closer to Him, these are completely two different kind of joy. One is man made with our own emotions and the need to somehow pat ourselves on the back. The other one is the Joy of the Lord that is brought on by faith, dependence, love, obedience and living a righteous life before Him for His Glory. It is Heavenly joy that’s why Oswald used the work “perfect fulfillment of that for which I was created and regenerated, not the successful doing of a thing”

The Soul's Deep Thirst

The religious technocrats of Jesus' day confronted him with what they believed were the standards of a life pleasing to God. The external life, they argued, the life of ought and duty and service, was what mattered. "You're dead wrong," Jesus said. "In fact, you're just plain dead [whitewashed tombs]. What God cares about is the inner life, the life of the heart" (Matt. 23:25-28). Throughout the Old and New Testaments, the life of the heart is clearly God's central concern. When the people of Israel fell into a totally external life of ritual and observance, God lamented, "These people . . . honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" (Isa. 29:13).

Our heart is the key to the Christian life.

The apostle Paul informs us that hardness of heart is behind all the addictions and evils of the human race (Rom. 1:21-25). Oswald Chambers writes, "It is by the heart that God is perceived [known] and not by reason . . . so that is what faith is: God perceived by the heart." This is why God tells us in Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." He knows that to lose heart is to lose everything. Sadly, most of us watch the oil level in our car more carefully than we watch over the life of our heart.

In one of the greatest invitations ever offered to man, Christ stood up amid the crowds in Jerusalem and said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him" (John 7:37-38). If we aren't aware of our soul's deep thirst, his offer means nothing. But, if we will recall, it was from the longing of our hearts that most of us first responded to Jesus. Somehow, years later, we assume he no longer calls to us through the thirst of our heart.

This post is courtesy of http://ransomedheart.com

The Offensive Altar (Joshua 22:10)

Joshua 22:10 “And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.”

The sons of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar to God. Their intention was to commemorate their national unity with the other tribes that live on the west side of the Jordan (Read Numbers 32 to see why these tribes were living eastward to the rest of the Israelites.) Without knowing what was in the heart of those two and half tribes who built the altar, the Israelites got really upset. So much so that we are told in Joshua 22:12 that they have gathered together to go against them in war (their own brother’s tribes)

When you read Joshua 22:16-20 you can see through their attitude, while in appearance, it looks like they are defending God’s honor and they want to be obedient to all that He said, yet you can smell the stench of self-righteous and hypocrisy at work.”

They were quick to recall one iniquity in verse 17 to accuse their brothers of wrong doings, yet they did not use their ability to recall in order to truly obey God’s commands while in their own respective land. The remaining of chapter 22 from verse 21 is about the two and a half tribes explaining the intend behind their gesture. As such a civil war among them was avoided

Here is what I am driving at, when you read Joshua’s book, you find that the Israelites have not bothered to drive all the inhabitants of the land away as God commanded them. Among others, we are told the Jebusites, the Canaanites, the Gezer and so on remained in the land because the Israelites had decided to put them to forced labor instead of driving them away. They decided it was a better idea than God’s own. It seems like they were getting something back from having them as laborers.

In Joshua 17:14-18 you can clearly see Joshua’s unhappiness with them when Joseph’s sons complained they did not have enough land? “Then the sons of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, "Why have you given me only one lot and one portion for an inheritance, since I am a numerous people whom the LORD has thus far blessed?" - Joshua answered to them the best thing he could have ever said in verses 15-18 Joshua replied, “If there are so many of you, and if the hill country of Ephraim is not large enough for you, clear out land for yourselves in the forest where the Perizzites and Rephaites live. The descendants of Joseph responded, “It’s true that the hill country is not large enough for us. But all the Canaanites in the lowlands have iron chariots, both those in Beth-Shan and its surrounding settlements and those in the valley of Jezreel. They are too strong for us. Then Joshua said to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the descendants of Joseph, “Since you are so large and strong, you will be given more than one portion. 18 The forests of the hill country will be yours as well. Clear as much of the land as you wish, and take possession of its farthest corners. And you will drive out the Canaanites from the valleys, too, even though they are strong and have iron chariots.” This tells me that they were aware that God’s will was not being honoured through them. But, it did not seem to matter much.

When I was a new Christian reading the Bible for the first time when I got to the end of Joshua’s book, I remember saying, God made a mistake here. How is it I can tell the Israelites did not fully obeyed and they did what they felt like was best for them, yet, God gave them rest and He seemed to be happy with it all? I still remember the arrogance in my heart and my attitude because I was able to see something God did not see, while it is sad, but I can now laugh about the depth of my stupidity and arrogance.  

I remember feeling, well, if this is God, then I can get away with so much and He would never be the wiser. Not only that, I kept thinking how easy this Christianity thing was and felt that God was not expecting much of us in terms of our actions.  I had a picture of God that had nothing to do with the real God. I also had in mind what I kept hearing in the Church about God’s love and patience and how He overlook our failures because of His grace, etc. So, even though I felt God was not that bright, but I kept thinking, “This Christianity thing, I can do it standing on my head”

I had a shock when I started reading the book of Judges, Chapter 2:1-3 the first thing I read was the rebuke of Israel “The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you. ”

I was somewhat relieved that God could see their disobedience and He was a more powerful God than I thought He was. But, the reality is when we are reading without the Holy Spirit and when the Bible is only a book of history to us, there is no telling how far our heart could deceive us.

My point is that I wanted to point out how easy it is for us to tear each other apart in the name of God. In the meantime, God put us in the same basket with the very people that, in our self-righteousness we look down to. I keep asking myself this question, how many Christians in the Church today can see that even though we claim to belong to Him, yet we have not changed at all. We are right up there with the Israelites in their self-righteousness, lack of faith and disobedience, while doing “things” for God.

To you who have been blessed by His grace, enough to see how easy we can be led to do the wrong things while the heart is not in the right place with God, then why is it you are not going full-fledged in complete abandon to Him to change you? How is it, reading about the Israelites does not put the fear of God in you?

Holy Grace

Now, I know my fellow evangelicals will rush to protest that it is the cross of Jesus Christ alone that opens the way to heaven for any person. No amount of personal righteousness could ever suffice. I believe this. It is grace alone—the unmerited and undeserved forgiveness of God—that opens the way for any of us to know God, let alone come into his kingdom. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Thank God for that.

However, you also find in Jesus and throughout the scriptures a pretty serious call to a holy life.

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14)

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. (1 Thessalonians 4:7)

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14–16)

In fact, one of the most stunning things about Jesus is how such a gracious, kind, patient, and forgiving man holds—without so much as wavering—such a high standard of holiness. On the one hand, we have the beautiful story of a woman caught in the act of adultery—and how horrifying and humiliating would that be? The mob drags her before Jesus, ready to stone her (they actually did this sort of thing, and not that long ago; it still happens in some Muslim countries today).

It is brilliant, and poignant. The town square is now deserted; only the woman and Jesus remain. She is probably wrapped in nothing but a bed sheet and her shame. He rescues her from a terrible death, and then forgives her. It feels as if the scene could not be more powerfully reported. What more could be said? But wait, Jesus has one last word for her:

“Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”

Yes, grace reigns in the Kingdom of God. But right there alongside it is an unflinching call to holiness. Go and sin no more.

Courtesy of  Ransomed Heart

http://ransomedheart.com