Walking With Jesus

Contract or Commitment?

“Then He said to the crowd, ‘If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23 NLT)

It’s interesting to me that during Jesus’ earthly ministry He couldn’t go into villages or towns because there were too many people who wanted to see Him. Those who were sick, demon-possessed, or bringing sick people comprised such a large group that Jesus and His disciples had to stay in more remote places. Yet, after His crucifixion, where did all those people go? Did people no longer need Him?

In Acts chapter 1 it says, in reference to the eleven Disciples: “They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.” It’s commonly believed that there were 120 believers who were meeting together on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given, but in fact, we don’t know the exact number. All we know for sure is that there weren’t thousands, like the crowds who followed Jesus before His death. Why was that?

On any given weekend, other than Christmas, Easter or Mother’s Day, the church I attend will range in attendance somewhere between 3,000-4,000 including children, youth, volunteers, etc. But at a recent prayer gathering we only had a few hundred. I want to be careful and not read too much into that, so what’s my point?

Photo by Cytonn Photography on Pexels.com

It’s very easy to create a mindset where Jesus = church; thus, our worship attendance, volunteer service, giving money, and other church related activities = our relationship with Jesus. There’s little or no thought given as to how the Spirit enables us to live moment by moment in His presence or equips us to be available for Christ’s service 24/7. It’s more of a contract than a commitment.

In other words, we want Jesus on our terms, not His. We’ll serve, give money, raise our hands, and be energized by the moving music and Bible-based messages (if we’re VERY fortunate), but our time is still just that – OUR time! OUR money! OUR schedule! OUR life!

There’s a very subtle process Satan uses to move us into ineffectiveness as a believer. Ron Hutchcraft wrote in a recent devotional: “There are a lot of people who walk into church Sunday after Sunday, looking all Christian but without Jesus. And they walk out the same way they came in, without Jesus, because they’re only going through the motions. It’s all too easy to do. You go through all the motions of belonging to Him, believing all the right beliefs, doing all the right things, saying all the right words like a person who knows Jesus for real. But you’re missing Him.”

The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 139:23: “Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” God alone knows our heart. He alone can do a thorough and correct evaluation of what’s there.

Jesus reminds us in Matthew 7:22-23: “On judgment day many will say to Me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in Your name and performed many miracles in Your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you who break God’s laws.’”

The bottom line is this: It doesn’t matter how good we think we are or how much we know God loves us, it’s only how Jesus sees us and what HE thinks of us. His judgment is final and is all that matters when we stand before Him. If your love for Him doesn’t extend to your obedience to Him and your fruitfulness for Him, you may need to rethink who’s really ruling your life.

Blessings, Ed 😊

If Only He’d Waited! (Part 2)

“’Tonight all of you will desert Me. For the Scriptures say, “God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”’” (Matthew 26:31 NLT)

In yesterday’s post we looked at Judas’ betrayal, considering that in each of us resides the potential of being a betrayer. The fact is, “… everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Romans 3:23 NLT) We’re designed differently, so we may lean toward one avenue of sin more than another, but we’re all capable of anything given the right set of circumstances.

The very instant we say: “I would NEVER do that!” watch out (See Matthew 26:33). We’ve just sent a signal to the enemy to put us in his devilish sights. Here’s the truth, Judas wasn’t different than the other disciples, except his devotion, which over time, proved to be more to himself than to Jesus.

Two things send up red flags about Judas. First, he allowed his sin to separate him from Jesus. There are those who believe Judas couldn’t have ever had a relationship with Jesus, but I’m not so sure. Of course, theologically it’s cleaner if we don’t go there, but that’s a discussion for another day. My point here is Judas followed Jesus for three years.

He went with the others to share the Good News in surrounding villages and when they returned to report what had happened, they were thrilled that the demons were subject to them when they used Jesus’ name. Do you remember what Jesus said? “…don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.” (Luke 10:20 NLT)

What’s my point? We’re susceptible to the same temptations that proved to be Judas’ downfall. But because we’re living on this side of the empty grave, we have clear options that Judas didn’t believe he had. I said yesterday that I believe if Judas had only waited until Jesus defeated death and the grave, perhaps he would have had a different outcome.

But the second red flag is this: my concern today isn’t Judas, it’s you, and me, and the thousands in our spheres of influence who are subject to the same failures as anyone else. We’re no better or no worse. Perhaps largely due to the Covid Virus, loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and depression are epidemic. More people are taking their own lives. Like Judas, they’re ignoring even the possibility that there could be another option for them. In their mind, because THEY see no option, there must not be one.

But you and I KNOW WITH CERTAINTY there’s HOPE IN JESUS! He’s the Way Maker! He’s the One who can open the sea and allow us to walk across on dry ground! He’s the One who walks with us in the fires of adversity! He’s the One who stands up to the enemy of our soul and sends him packin’! He’s the Shepherd of the sheep who carries the one who is lost, back to the flock.

Here’s the truth: There’s NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that you have done or can do for which you can’t be forgiven, if you’ll bring it to Jesus. If you or someone you know is depressed, perhaps considering taking their own life – PLEASE! I’M LITERALLY BEGGING YOU! COME TO JESUS! BRING WHATEVER IS TROUBLING YOU TO THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! The only unpardonable sin is the sin for which no forgiveness is asked.

Having suffered with depression for many years, I understand how easy it is to turn our anger, hatred, anxiety, in short, all the garbage we’ve carried for years, inwardly, assuming, or trying to assume, responsibility for it all. We think somehow, we can find a way to deal with it, but discovering that we can’t, we believe the only answer is to end our life. THAT’S A LIE FROM THE PIT OF HELL!

Jesus wants to take you into His loving, capable, strong arms – as a mother takes her crying infant into her arms – and give you the comfort, strength, and help for which you so long! Please allow Him to help you become the person He designed you to become.

You can live again! You can love and be loved! You can love your life and find meaning and purpose in serving the King of kings. He’s not out to get you, He’s out to love you and give you opportunities you never dared dream existed. He wants to heal you and give you wholeness in Him. I know, because He’s done that for me.

Please trust Him!

Blessings, Ed

If Only He’d Waited!

“When Judas, who had betrayed Him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse.” (Matthew 27:3a NLT)

Not many who come to Christ identify with Judas. Judas’ name is synonymous with “betrayer,” which, of course, he was. The troubling consideration for me is, so was Peter . . . and so am I! “What if?”

How many times have we looked back and wished we’d done something differently? Or not done something that turned out to be such a huge mistake?

Years ago, I watched a movie, whose title escapes me, about a person who came out of a large downtown building. In one scenario she caught a cab and went about her life. But in the second scenario, she missed the cab and was delayed. That one simple event sent her life on a whole different trajectory. It causes me to think about the seeming simple decisions we make each day that have the potential to affect our lives in profound ways.

At the Last Supper Jesus said these haunting words in reference to Judas: “For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays Him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!” Was that God’s plan for Judas from the beginning? Was Judas so different from the other disciples that he was chosen for that specific reason?

I believe a case could be made that Judas loved Jesus and served Him gladly and even faithfully…for a time! For whatever reason, like us, he became enamored with things of the world. Like many would be fruitful believers, Satan tempts them, first with something simple – “Just a little from the treasury. No one will miss it!” Then it becomes habit, that leads to betrayal.

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

It’s so like many followers of Jesus. It’s not generally the major failures that kill our closeness with Jesus and others, it’s the thousand and one little “slips.” A painting I saw featured a man crossing the desert. The caption read, “It’s not the mounds of sand in front of us that wear us down, it’s the grain of sand in our shoe.”

What’s the grain of sand in your shoe today? What small thing in your life are you allowing that you know is wrong, but you’re not willing to do anything about it?

The terrifying thing about Judas is that he represents a vast number of Jesus followers that get sidetracked by seeming insignificant, but selfish desires that, over time, mushroom out of control and leave us vulnerable to do things that we’ll regret for all eternity. I choose to believe if Judas had only waited for three days, like Peter, Judas could have found forgiveness and a second chance. I can’t believe Jesus would have called Him simply to let him perish.

It had to have broken Jesus’ heart to know what Judas was going to do. But even after the fact, I know my Savior, and I know with certainty that had Judas repented and humbled himself before his Master, there’d have been a different outcome.

Why even consider these things?

Because there’s a “Judas” in all of us. We still have trouble wrapping our mind around this, but sin is sin. There are no “big” sins and “little” sins. Lying and betrayal are both sins that will separate us from our Savior, but we want to view them differently.

Peter lied, Judas betrayed, both tragic responses to their Master and Friend. Peter waited, Judas did not. Peter allowed Jesus to decide his fate, Judas took things into his own hands.

We’ll look at this more closely tomorrow.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Relevancy of Relationship (Part 2)

“Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.” (2 John 9 NLT)

Some people have never experienced a truly inspired and Spirit led relationship with God or even with another human being. I was blessed to have a family that I knew loved me growing up. It was easy for me to turn to Jesus because I’d had a taste of what family was supposed to be.

Many believe sex is the answer to intimacy. Perhaps physically, when you’re wholly committed to your partner in marriage, but not true “koinonia.” Intimacy with God and others creates in our hearts a desire to serve others and be more for them than they can be for themselves, not only physically, but emotionally, relationally, and spiritually.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

The relationship between two people who both love Jesus and are seeking to invest their lives in His Kingdom are what I think of as “lay down your life for one another” friends. The kind of love Jesus demonstrated when He laid down His life on the Cross for all who would believe, repent, and follow Him without reservation. The kind of love my wife demonstrates in the care she extends to others in need.

Relationship – real, true, vibrant, the kind of life you want to share and daily celebrate – can only be found in a personal relationship with Jesus. He is the Way to God, the Truth about what works, and the Life that every person needs and ultimately desires.

It’s far too easy to lose your way seeking things that have no lasting satisfaction and no eternal value. In Matthew 16 Jesus asked a very pertinent question when He asked: “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”

It’s a rhetorical question. The answer is clearly NO!

Jesus’ alternative to losing your soul is found in the verses just preceding the one above. “Then, calling the crowd to join His disciples, He said, ‘If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow Me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.’”

For many years I thought I understood what that meant, but only in recent months have I begun to grasp, at least in part, what beauty and majesty reside in close communion with Jesus. Life in Him, with Him, and for Him, is life worth living. Sensing His closeness, allowing Him to dictate direction, without concern for provision, is like heaven on earth.

All I want in this season of my life is to have all He wants for me. To bask in the glory of His Holy presence, to know the security of His Spirit’s embrace, and to never fear what the future holds, because I know who holds my future.

Regardless of who you are, where you are, not only geographically, but spiritually, emotionally, financially, relationally, physically – none of those things matter. The only thing that’s pertinent is your willingness to turn from your selfish ways and entrust your life and your future to the capable hands of almighty God by placing your faith in Jesus and trusting Him.

Please watch the brief video by clicking the link below. Learn how you can begin again by having a relationship with the Lord who loves you more than you can possibly imagine. https://hutchcraft.com/the-bridge-to-god

Blessings, Ed

The Relevancy of Relationship

“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.” (Luke 12:21 NLT)

The word “relationship,” as defined by The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, simply means “the state of being related or interrelated.” Many today have relatives without relationships. And a growing number of people are living together out of wedlock, or, in other words, seeking a relationship without being legally related. Add to that the number of children who are born with virtually no identity. Yes, of course, most have names, but they have no real, loving parental relationship.

Often, for varying reasons, young people have ambition to attain wealth, fame, power, and position that will net them financial security and acclaim. Unfortunately, often the cost of that “fast track” is no long-term relationships. Burning the proverbial “bridges” often means leaving behind any semblance of “roots” or family and little or no time to build new relationships.

In the above verse, Jesus is not saying that having earthly wealth and having a rich relationship with God are mutually exclusive. He’s saying to seek wealth without having a rich relationship with God is foolish. Why? Because to treat the brief time we have on this earth as though that is all there is, ignores the incalculable numbers of years we’ll be living after we leave this earth. Yet, the Bible clearly teaches that how and why we live this life determines to a very large degree where we’ll spend eternity.

Relationship in Scripture equals partnership – bound to another through mutually agreeable desires, attitudes, and commitment. That’s what can make the Church so attractive. Unfortunately, not all churches and/or church gatherings reflect God’s desire for us to be that.

Paul’s closing verse in 2 Corinthians 13 says: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” This verse is a picture of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the different roles each Person of the Godhead plays in our lives.

There would be no relationship with God if the Father didn’t love us and desire that for us. That’s why He planted eternity in our hearts, to give us a longing for something that will long outlast the few years we spend struggling on this earth.

The Mediator “Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com”

But God’s love alone isn’t enough to repair the gap created by our sin and waywardness. Jesus bridged that gap between us and the Father by offering His own body on the Cross to pay the penalty for our sin and make it possible for us to not only have an eternal relationship with God, but with each other.

Then the Holy Spirit makes “koinonia” – fellowship with God possible by taking up residence in the hearts and lives of each one who opens themselves to a relationship with God through Christ alone, by faith alone. But “koinonia” is far more than meals and good times. It means “community, joint participation, intimacy, communication.” In short, it was God’s idea to enable His family, His Body on earth, to exhibit the kind of relationship that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The relevancy of relationship exists when the Body of Christ actually illustrates what a family is supposed to be. My precious wife has been gone all day, sitting with her friend who is dying. She’s not there because she has to be, she’s there because the prompting of God compels her to love like Jesus and be His hands and feet in service to those who are no longer able to care for themselves.

We’ll pick this up tomorrow.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Love Always Finds a Way

“There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich.” (Luke 19:2 NLT)

Tax collectors were despised people in Jesus’ day. They were typically Jews who worked for the Roman government collecting taxes from their own people. When someone was trying to describe who, to them, would be considered the “scum of the earth,” tax collectors were usually at the top of that list.

Compounding people’s feelings about Zacchaeus, he was “the chief tax collector,” meaning, in their minds, he was the worst of the worst. He was also short in stature, so when he was trying to get a look at Jesus, everyone crowded in front of him to block his view. His solution was to run ahead, climb a tree and wait for Jesus to pass by.

It’s likely anyone but Jesus would have passed under that tree without even noticing him, but Jesus stopped, and did something almost no one ever did – “He (Jesus) looked up at Zacchaeus and CALLED HIM BY NAME.”

“’Zacchaeus!’ He said. ‘Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.’” Can you hear the crescendo of disapproval quickly spreading through the crowd? “’He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,’ they grumbled.”

Aren’t you grateful Jesus takes note of sinners? Aren’t you glad He knows our name?

Zacchaeus was as giddy as a schoolgirl on her first date. His heart was transformed. His life would never be the same. The Bible says: “Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”

“Jesus responded, ‘Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.’”

What can we learn from this story?

If you’re searching for Jesus, He will find you.

You may need to make some effort, but your effort will be rewarded.

When you place your life at Jesus’ disposal, He will fill you with His Spirit and guide your decisions.

The two most obvious evidences of who “rules” your life are your calendar and your checkbook.

When Jesus changes your heart, your heart changes towards those in your spheres of influence.

When push comes to shove, it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of you, but Jesus. His is the only opinion that ultimately matters.

Love always finds a way.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Being a Doer of God’s Word

“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says.” (James 1:22 NLT)

It will be nearly impossible for you to believe this, but my beautiful, wonderful, dearly beloved wife believes I have “selective” hearing. She thinks I pick and choose what things to listen to when she speaks. What’s going to be even more difficult for you to conceive is that you and I do the same thing with God’s Word, the Bible, and it’s having devastating consequences.

A new study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, directed by George Barna, revealed that less than 50% of pastors in America have a Biblical worldview. An article on wnd.com about this study said: “A new poll has revealed that most Christian pastors believe what they want to believe, a ‘blending of ideas and applications from a variety of holistic worldviews into a unique but inconsistent combination that represents their personal preferences.’”

The Apostle James was one of Jesus’ literal, biological brothers by the same mother, but he didn’t put His faith in Jesus until after the resurrection. James was a “doer.” He believed if you professed to be something, you should live in a way that confirms that. I agree.

The reality is, the only way to become a “doer” of God’s Word is to read, study, and know what God’s Word says. The terrifying piece of the above referenced study that frightens me most is the statistics of Senior pastors mentioned has a trickledown effect. Only 12% of Youth and children’s pastors have a Biblical Worldview. Yet, they are commissioned to teach the next generation what the Bible says.

How can the next generation learn how to become a “doer” of the Word when their teachers and leaders don’t know what the Bible says? If you’ve read many of my posts, you’ll know that the Bible is central to what I share.

A Biblical worldview essentially means that everything we see, learn, and live is filtered through the lens of what the Bible teaches. Whether it’s marriage, the sanctity of human life, politics, health, as well as our theology and rules of faith, all must be rooted in what the Bible teaches. Tragically, what most professing believers today depend on is what their pastor says on any given Sunday, more than half of whom aren’t teaching the Bible.

James said in 1:25: “But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says then God will bless you for doing it.” “Carefully” in this verse literally means “to stoop to a thing in order to look at it; to look into something with the body bent.” It’s a metaphor that means “to look at something with great care, to inspect curiously; it speaks of one who would become acquainted with something.” (Strong’s)

And the irony is, it’s not even how much time or effort you put into learning what the Bible says, as much as it is allowing the Holy Spirit to apply what you learn to the way you live. If studying the Bible doesn’t lead to positive life change that enables people to see Jesus in and through your life more clearly, what’s the point?

Being a “doer” of the Word has very practical implications. Foundationally, what you believe about God will be reflected in how you treat the people in your spheres of influence. How you care for yourself and others; how you respect what God is doing, not only in your life, but in the lives of fellow believers; how you treat your spouse, children, and extended family; and how you order your life as a child of God.

To profess faith in Jesus, but not regularly read and study the Bible is like a toddler drinking nothing but milk. Their growth will be stunted, and their physical capabilities will be reduced. A child needs nourishment that only solid food can provide, and a child of God must have the nourishment of God’s Word to grow to maturity.

We must become not only “listeners” or “readers,” but “doers” of the Word.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Another Look at Forgiveness

“So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” (Matthew 9:6a NLT)

Jesus often tied forgiveness with physical healing or other very practical issues. The paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus by his friends likely wasn’t thinking of his need of forgiveness, yet that was the priority for Jesus. One reason is that His will for us is to walk in wholeness of life – physically, spiritually, emotionally, etc.

There’s a sense in which physical healing is incidental to walking in harmony with the Lord yet should enhance and multiply our effectiveness for Christ if we’re healthy. Forgiveness of sin should open a door of opportunity for us to seek health in every avenue of our lives, especially in our relationships with ourselves and others.

Related to that, today I’d like us to consider what forgiveness should look like for us if we’re the one needing to forgive someone who has sinned against us. I believe there are some misunderstandings that when seen in their proper light can liberate us to forgive, thus freeing ourselves to live a more fruitful and enjoyable life for the Lord.

Pastor Rick Warren used a helpful quiz in a recent devotional entitled What Forgiveness Really Is (05-21-22). How would you answer the following questions?

1. A person should not be forgiven until they ask for it.
2. Forgiving includes minimizing the offense and the pain caused.
3. Forgiveness includes restoring trust and reuniting a relationship.
4. You haven’t really forgiven until you’ve forgotten the offense.
5. When you see somebody hurt, it is your duty to forgive the offender.

All five are false.

On some levels, forgiveness isn’t about the other person, so waiting for someone to ask for forgiveness just prolongs your own suffering. Also, forgiveness doesn’t demand relationship. Forgiving someone who has hurt you physically, financially, emotionally, or otherwise, doesn’t necessarily mean you have to continue or begin a relationship with them. In a marriage or family situation, restoration may be a desired end, but learning to trust that person again may take a long time, if ever.

Another factor that is commonly misunderstood about forgiveness is forgetting. Forgiving someone doesn’t in and of itself mean you must or even can forget. Depending upon the severity of the trauma that was caused by their sin against you, you may never forget.

The picture that comes to mind when I think of forgiveness is letting loose of the “stranglehold” we have on a person’s throat. Our tendency is to want to hurt them like they hurt us, but God says: “vengeance is Mine” (Romans 12:19). What’s helped me is to understand there is nothing I could ever do to a person that would punish them as severely as God can. Nobody gets away with anything in God’s sight. They may avoid prosecution from the penal system, but they’ll never escape God’s justice.

Also, it doesn’t mean the hurt or pain they caused is immediately gone, it just means you commit them into the capable hands of God. Neither does it mean that what happened is being minimized in any way, it just means you’re allowing the Lord to take responsibility for the consequences of their sin in their life.

Holding a grudge or continually hoping there was a way to do to them what they did to you, at least from the standpoint of the pain they caused, is a dead end that only cripples you. Take a step towards healing by releasing your hands from their neck and placing them in the hands of your Savior.

He will guide you on the path of healing, enabling you to live in the freedom of the responsibility to punish another person. That’s God’s job. Please, for your sake, let Him do what only He can do.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Gift of Christ’s Cleansing Blood (Part 2)

“It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” (1 Peter 1:19 NLT)

In yesterday’s post I wrote: “His life-sustaining blood has washed every stain from our heart and life, enabling us to do and be for Him and with Him anything He desires us to do and be. Yes, but what about my ongoing sin patterns?” The reality of our lives in Christ is that sin will be an ongoing issue for as long as we live. But how much of an issue is largely up to us. What do I mean?

For many years I wrestled with lustful, wrong, and inappropriate thoughts, attitudes, and actions. And, honestly, I still do on some levels. But, by God’s grace and with His Spirit’s strength, my focus is now so intently zeroed in on Jesus and His plans for me, the devil has his hand’s full getting through my “armor.” Let me see if I can explain why that is.

Think of the most important young person in your life. It can be your child, grandchild, a niece, nephew, anyone you love and with whom you have a connection. Now, for sake of illustration, let’s say you and that child go for a canoe trip on a nearby river or lake. You’re an excellent canoeist and have full confidence in your skills, but you didn’t anticipate the child’s enthusiasm and they begin to jump up and move around, one thing leads to another and over the canoe goes. What’s your first concern?

The child’s welfare, right? That’s all that will occupy your mind until they’re safe. May I ask you a question? Will you likely be concerned about your sin in those moments? Probably not. Why not? Because your mind is so focused on the wellbeing of another that in those frantic moments you have no thought of yourself. What’s my point?

Simply this: sin is only in the forefront of your mind when you give it your permission to be there. Satan is an uninvited guest. Don’t let him in!

The Lord knows our hearts. He knows the intent of our mind in our walk with Him. We need to be so focused on what He wants that we have very little time or energy to devote to giving Satan more than a few seconds of our attention. If we mess up, we need to confess it and move on.

In 1 John 1:9 John writes: “But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” We need to keep our focus on Jesus and obedience to Him, but if we do mess up, we have immediate access to the One who can cleanse us and enable us to keep moving forward for Him.

Something beautiful that Peter in chapter 1, verses 18- 19, helps us to see, is how much Jesus thought you and I were worth. We may never, even in eternity, begin to fully comprehend it, but this is what Peter said: “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom He paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”

The word that Peter uses that’s translated “precious,” means of incalculable worth. You can’t put a value on it. The estimate of the value of global real estate in 2020 was $326.5 trillion. One drop of my Savior’s blood is worth far more than that. That’s how much you’re valued in the eyes of your Father.

Now tell me you can’t bask in that knowledge and let it lift you from the dregs of selfishness and sin so you, under the power of the Holy Spirit living within you, can walk in holiness before the Lord for the rest of your life! Yes! You can!

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Gift of Christ’s Cleansing Blood

“But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” (1 John 1:9 NLT)

After a long, hard day of working in the hot summer sun, nothing is quite as refreshing as a drink of cold water and a long, relaxing shower. To literally watch the dirt run off and into the drain as you lather your body is on some levels a metaphor of what Christ’s cleansing blood does for us spiritually.

Blood, in the Bible, is the seat of life. Without blood there is no life and without the gift of the cleansing blood of Jesus there is no forgiveness of sin; no newness of life in Christ. Redemption is what Jesus accomplished on the Cross when He gave His life’s blood in our place. We deserved to be on that Cross, not Jesus, but He saw such value in us He believed it would be worth the sacrifice of His own life, so that we might be with Him forever, not only in heaven, but even during our time on this earth.

Each morning as I walk my pups, my neighborhood becomes my cathedral of praise to my Savior. Part of my prayer every morning is filled with gratitude for all God has done for me in Jesus. I follow the outline of the Lord’s Prayer, praising God for His Holiness and my desire to see His Kingdom come and His will be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven, not only in my life, but in the lives of each of His children worldwide. I thank Him for providing everything I/we will need (He alone knows what that will be) to do and be everything He will lead me/us to do and be to His honor.

I’m not just praying for my literal food, but that with which I will need to feed my soul. Things like a keen mind and alert and sensitive spirit, that I may commune with Him throughout the day, drawing sustenance and strength for whatever He has planned for me, and for whomever He will put in my path.

Then I thank Him and praise His holy Name for His cleansing and purifying forgiveness. Because of Christ’s shed blood, I, and every other “blood washed” brother and sister, can walk in newness of life. We’re filled, fed, and led by the Spirit as sinless, spotless children of the living God, able to maximize our usefulness to God as we continually yield our will to His.

One of the miraculous and very practical aspects of Christ’s cleansing blood is not only our personal forgiveness, as vitally important as that is, but God’s equipping us to forgive those who sin against us. Over and over in the Bible, what Satan intended for evil, God worked for good and for His honor.

When I question whether I can forgive someone who has deliberately sinned against me in some way, all I have to do is think of the leading priests’ spit sliding down my Savior’s cheek, His priceless blood flowing from His crown’s cruel thorns, or the nails being driven into His holy hands and feet. What can anyone ever do to me to compare with what has already been done to Jesus?

His life-sustaining blood has washed every stain from our heart and life, enabling us to do and be for Him and with Him anything He desires us to do and be. Yes, but what about my ongoing sin patterns?

We’ll look at that tomorrow.

Blessings, Ed 😊