Walking With Jesus

Struggles

“This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.” (1 Timothy 4:10 NLT)

A few points of clarification before we continue. First, Paul’s struggle wasn’t to gain hope or to meet the demands of God to secure his own hope, but because his hope was already “in the living God.” Salvation in Christ is by faith alone. Works are an expression of our existing and secured salvation, not an effort to earn or maintain it.

Secondly, Paul mentions that “our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.” Paul’s deliberate effort here is to amplify the fact the God of Creation is present and made manifest in and through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. Jesus IS God in human flesh, and is the Savior of the world, of all people. What does that mean? Does that mean that all people are or will be saved? No, that’s why he added, “particularly of all believers.”

Only those who believe, who have put their faith and trust in the living Savior are born again of the Spirit and filled with His empowering presence. The blood of Christ is adequate to save “all people,” but all people haven’t and won’t repent, believe and confess their need of the Lord Jesus; thus, while He’s the only Savior of all people, clearly implying there is no other, all people won’t be saved.

The purpose of our struggles as a Jesus follower isn’t to cripple, delay, or stop us in our progress as a believer, but to better equip us in our efforts to allow the Spirit to enable us to stand strong for Him. In much the same way as those who exercise, workout, run or in other ways seek to stay in shape, struggles give us the resistance we need to build our spiritual muscles.

Max Lucado says it this way: “Don’t see your struggle as an interruption to life but as preparation for life.” If the faith we claim isn’t ever exercised, might we have reason to doubt it exists? Our faith is living, active, and growing or it’s dying or nonexistent. As Jesus followers we don’t have the luxury of sitting around waiting for something to happen, we must be proactive at submitting ourselves to the Spirit’s leading as He enlists us into the service of our Master, the Lord Jesus.

Recently I read a story of a young woman who was on an upper level of one of the Twin Towers on 9-11. When the plane hit she quickly made the decision to leave the building and found safety before her building collapsed. What she said afterwards arrested my spirit: “I only wish I’d urged my friend to come with me!” We can’t let our struggles block the path to someone’s salvation. Hell is real, much worse than death in a collapsing building, as horrible as that is, and we must not risk forgetting to warn everyone we possibly can to yield their life to Jesus while there’s still time, to come with us to Jesus!

Struggles aren’t caused by our love for Jesus, they’re just part of what it means to be human, but they’re sometimes intensified because we hate the devil. He’s going to do all within his limited power to assault us and keep our focus off reaching lost people for Jesus. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but our most vulnerable time to be attacked by the enemy is shortly after a spiritual breakthrough or victory. Our struggles sometimes intensify during or following an effort to be most available and useful to our Master.

He’s our hope and our goal is to share that hope with as many people as possible in the very short time we have on this earth. Struggles are designed by the Lord to make us better, not make us bitter. Stand strong for Jesus regardless of your struggles and let the devil know where he’s going and that you’re doing your part in keeping as many as possible out of his ugly reach.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

5 Truths to Transform Your Present and Your Future

By: Rick Warren

*This helpful article by Rick Warren is a companion article to Ron Hutchcraft’s article in yesterday’s post. Please use them to aid and equip you to share the truth and urgency of the Gospel message with those who are perishing in your spheres of influence. Blessings, Ed 😊

“Things that are seen don’t last forever, but things that are not seen are eternal. This is why we keep our minds on the things that cannot be seen.” (2 Corinthians 4:18 CEV)

Everything you see around you is temporary. It’s what you can’t see that will last forever.

And those eternal, spiritual realities are what truly matter.

The truth is, spiritual realities are just as real as physical realities. And you need to be sure to focus on the spiritual ones—because they are part of reality. Here are five spiritual realities you need to understand:

God made you to love you. Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (NIV). God created you to love you, and he wants you to learn to love him back. This is the most important reality of life.

You were made to last forever. The Bible says, “He has . . . set eternity in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV). The evangelist Billy Graham talked about death this way: “Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.” He is in the presence of God now.

God has prepared two eternal places. Both heaven and hell are real, literal places. They’re not just “states of being.”

You get to choose where you’ll spend eternity. You won’t accidentally find yourself in heaven or hell one day. You’ll be where you are because of a choice you made. If you choose to make Jesus the boss of your life, you’ll spend eternity with him in heaven. If you choose to reject him, you’ll spend forever in hell. There are no other options.

You get no second chance to make your choice. Your choice has a time limit. You have your entire life to make the decision about where you’ll spend eternity, but you can’t change your mind after death.

What you do with these five truths will affect your eternal destiny and transform how you live on this side of eternity.

Life on earth is always uncertain, so if you haven’t already made the choice for Jesus, go ahead and do it today. If you’re ready to commit your life to Jesus, then pray this prayer:

“Dear Jesus, you have promised that if I believe in you, everything I’ve ever done wrong will be forgiven, I will learn the purpose of my life, and you will accept me into your eternal home in heaven one day.

“I confess my sin, and I believe that you are God, my Savior. I receive you into my life as my Lord. Today, I’m turning over every part of my life to your management. You have the right to call the shots in my life.

“Jesus, I want to relax in your love. Thank you that I don’t have to earn it, deserve it, or work for it. I want to use the rest of my life to serve you instead of serving myself. I humbly commit my life to you, and I ask you to save me and accept me into your family. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

If you just prayed to accept Jesus, please email me at Rick@PastorRick.com and let me know about it. I’d like to send you some free materials to help you start your journey with Jesus.

Talk It Over

Why is it important to keep your mind focused on the things that cannot be seen?
What unseen spiritual realities has God helped you to be particularly aware of?
Why do you think God gives you your whole life to make a decision about Jesus, but he doesn’t give you a second chance to decide after death?

Ignoring, Postponing, and Dying

*Please let these powerful words of Ron Hutchcraft speak to and challenge you as they did me. Each of us has those in our spheres of influence who need this vital message. Blessings, Ed 😊

Our plane was racing down the runway, preparing to take off from Nashville. I was so exhausted, I was already drifting off into la-la land. Then came those jolts as the front wheels left the ground. The team member who was with me said, “Have you ever felt anything like that?” I said, “No.” And I dozed off. I wouldn’t sleep for long; the flight attendant suddenly announced that we had blown a rear tire on takeoff, and we were heading back to Nashville. For the next 45 minutes or so, we were circling the area, burning up as much fuel as possible for what could well be a crash landing. I called my wife from the plane. I asked her to get people praying. My team member joined me in committing this whole situation to the Lord. The flight attendants went into emergency mode to begin to prepare us for the landing. They demonstrated how to brace for the landing. They had us pull out our emergency instruction card from the pocket in front of us; something they had asked us to do before we took off; something hardly anyone did. But as the attendant began her briefing she prefaced it with a simple exhortation, “This time I want you to really listen.” We really did!

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Ignoring, Postponing, and Dying.”

I’m very thankful to God for the way He answered prayer and brought our crippled aircraft in safely for a welcome from an armada of emergency vehicles and personnel. I was impressed with how the crew had prepared us. I was impressed with the way we all listened. And why did they have our total attention the second time when they reviewed those exits and evacuations? It’s obvious, because we were in a critical situation now; because the information could be life-or-death.

Our word for today from the Word of God, Hebrews 2:3. “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” God has been trying to communicate life-or-death information to some of us for a long time. That word “salvation,” that’s not just a religious word. That’s serious stuff. Salvation is how to get out of a plane that might be on fire; how to get out of a burning building. But like those passengers on that flight, we don’t pay much attention to salvation information until we’re suddenly in a critical situation…until we finally realize that what we do with this could be the difference between life and death.

God is used to people, as it says here, “ignoring such a great salvation.” Maybe He’s been trying to get your attention with the most critical information you will ever hear – that we’re under an eternal death penalty for running our lives our way instead of God’s way. And that His one and only Son, Jesus, absorbed all your sin and all the hell of it when He died on the cross, and that your only hope with God is putting your total trust in Jesus, like a person in a burning building would pin all their hopes on the rescuer who came to save them.

You’ve heard that news before, and maybe you’ve even accepted it with your head. Maybe it’s been that God has even shaken things up recently. He’s asking for your attention before it is eternally too late. He says, “This time I want you to really listen.”

This requires an action step of making Jesus your personal Savior. If you haven’t done that – if you’ve been putting that off – consider this God’s emergency call to make your peace with Him.

I believe there’s someone reading this right now who’s saying, “I don’t think I should risk one more day without the Savior.” Are you ready to begin this life saving relationship, to open your heart to Him? Tell Him that right now. I want to help you in every way we can, that’s why our website is there – ANewStory.com. It will help you find your way home to Jesus.

God simply says, “How will you escape if you ignore such a great salvation?” Especially after what it cost. It cost God’s one and only Son His life! Please, don’t ignore this any longer. Your life – your eternity depends on it.

Another Look at Hebrews 6:4-6 (Part 2)

“For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened – those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come – and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing Him to the cross once again and holding Him up to public shame.” (Hebrews 6:4-6 NLT)

In yesterday’s post we sought to shed light on this passage by explaining it isn’t referring to someone who commits their life to the Lord, but one who has learned what salvation means; they’ve been “enlightened”, but have chosen to walk away. If any part of our salvation is dependent upon us, we have no security and will always wonder if we’re truly saved. By God’s grace I know with certainty that when I close my eyes in death, I will open them in the presence of my Savior. How do I know that? Because Jesus promised it was true.

Is that because I’m such a spiritual person? No, it’s because Jesus is perfect and took upon Himself my guilt and shame and gave me His Holy Spirt as a seal, as an ever-present confidence that what He says is finished, is truly finished. “Does that mean I just set back and relax; live anyway I want and wait to die?” Only if you want to end up in hell. No one who loves Jesus is ever going to do that.

There’s still another consideration. Where does free will factor into the equation. If I come to Christ by my will, can I not choose to walk away exercising that same free will? That has always been confusing to me, but the Lord explained it to me this way. When I came to Christ I traded my life for His, my heart, mind, soul, will and body became His by faith.

When we’re saved and filled with God’s Spirit, there is a very real sense in which we no longer have or desire a will of our own. Often I will say to the Lord, “Whatever You want, that’s what I want. I don’t want a will of my own, I only want your will to be my will.” Yes, of course that may take time to realize, but salvation involves surrender and someone not willing to surrender isn’t yet ready to be saved.

There is no spiritual growth without the ministry of the Holy Spirit and there is no Holy Spirit without genuine confession, repentance, and subsequent work of the Spirit in and through us. It may be just me, but early on in my walk with the Lord, it upset me to think I was working like mad to keep my salvation while others just got to coast. NEWS FLASH! The work was done on Calvary! The only work we do is to give expression to the salvation we already have, bought and paid for by Jesus our only Savior.

When Jesus died, He said from the Cross: “It is finished!” It’s the Greek word “Tetelestai” which means “The debt is paid in full!” Our good works aren’t payment for our sin; they are expressions of our obedience that reflect we ARE saved. Lost people aren’t seeking to glorify and honor Jesus, only saved people are. “Yeh, but what about all those who are just faking it?”

“Are you one of them?” Otherwise, what concern is that of yours? Don’t you think the Lord knows who are His? We need to stop worrying about who’s in and who isn’t and focus on being the best example of Jesus we can possibly be. “But what if someone I know who professes to know Jesus is living in open sin?” Lovingly direct them to the Cross, speak frankly of their need to repent and help them confess their need to the Lord and move forward in their faith, then walk with them closely. Ask them to be accountable to you and tell them you will be accountable to them.

Am I assuming everyone who is living in open sin is lost? Not necessarily. A new believer will sometimes struggle with some nagging sin for years. I did, but over time the Lord delivered me. What if I’d died before the Lord delivered me? I’d still have gone to heaven because my debt was paid in full on the Cross and my salvation isn’t dependent upon me but upon Jesus. That may sound like a contradiction, but honestly, the Lord alone knows our heart and it’s His decision to make. But if our heart is to do God’s will and we keep failing, yes, of course, we need to get help figuring out how to get it right, but that doesn’t mean God will abandon us. Sanctification, like salvation, is a process on many levels.

It’s like birth, it takes the baby time to learn how to crawl, walk, run, eat, and a thousand other things that just take time to learn, some of which we never master. I can train to be a mile runner for a lifetime and never run a four-minute mile, but that doesn’t lessen the fact that I’m a quality, dedicated runner.

However, if I’m a slacker, just doing the least I can do to get by, that’s another story. The price we pay when we’re walking in disobedience to the Lord is intimacy with Him. The closer we walk with Jesus the more we’ll grow to hate our sin, the more we’ll want to be rid of anything that separates us from Him or prevents us from sharing His love with others with authenticity. We’ll strive to grow in His likeness.

If you love your sin more than you love Jesus, you likely haven’t committed your life to Him. But here’s the truth. Until Jesus comes, we will do battle with the enemy of our soul – our sinful nature, our bent to sin, but, ideally, the longer we serve the Lord and spend quality and consistent time with Him, the less appeal our sin has and its grip loosens.

Our security must always and only be in Jesus’ ability to keep His promises and to never lie, not our own. The Holy Spirit is our strength, not our will or ability to perform.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Another Look at Hebrews 6:4-6

For years I was led to believe and assumed that these verses spoke of someone who was genuinely saved and walked with the Lord, then turned away and were once again lost. But in John 10:27-30 Jesus says: “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from Me, for My Father has given them to Me, and He is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” And Ephesians 2:8 where Paul writes: “God saved you by His grace when you believed.” Both “saved” and “believed” are past tense which speaks of something that has already been accomplished.

Knowing the Bible doesn’t contradict itself it caused me to inspect the verses in Hebrews 6 with fresh eyes. I went to my concordance and began looking at the meaning of each word and discovered quite a different meaning than I was initially taught. I fell victim to what is commonly called “proof texting,” which, presumably, many who read these verses have also been subjected to.

Cults are fond of this approach which basically takes a text out of its original context and twists it to mean something it was never intended to say. Christian denominations, splinter groups, and non-denominational groups do the same thing in an attempt to prove their particular views. My position is I find my identity in no denominational group but in Christ alone. My goal is to learn what the Bible teaches, follow and teach only what the Lord is teaching me.

From that standpoint I’m looking at the Hebrews text and seeing that the understanding of this passage hinges on who is the “once enlightened”? “Are they saved?” is the bottom line, but the word that’s used means: “To bring to light, illumine, to enlighten spiritually…(to enable something) to become clear; to instruct, to inform, teach; to give understanding to.” These things, as helpful as they are, do not constitute a saved person. This is not a word to describe someone who has received salvation, but one who has evaluated what it means, understood, and turned away.

People who attend church, at least a Spirit-filled Church, will “experience the good things of heaven and share in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come.” In our church, week after week lost people sit through powerful times of worship and compelling preaching only to leave without committing their life to Christ. They taste of the Word of God and experience the Lord’s powerful presence, even of the power of the age to come, yet, week after week they “then turn away from God” choosing rather to go their own way.

Those of us from Holiness backgrounds often “rebel” at the sound of “once saved always saved” or try to explain eternal security in ways that seem more dependent upon how we respond. Here’s the truth. Salvation is 100% God and 0% us.

“Whoa! What about discipleship and obedience and conformity to the likeness of Jesus that takes time?” It all takes place in the context of our sanctification which is the accompanying work of the Holy Spirit. If salvation and sanctification were of us, why did Jesus die?

This is too rich not to continue in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

How One Act Brought Suffering Into the World

By: Ray Comfort

*Though I’ve often referred to Ray Comfort and Living Waters Ministry, this is the first time I’ve used an article Ray has written. I believe it will be helpful, so enjoy. Blessings, Ed 😊

There is a famous scene in a well-known movie that makes me scream every time I see it. I don’t scream out loud, but inside I’m yelling, “No!!!” The movie is Ben Hur, and the scene is when Ben Hur’s sister leans her hand on a loose tile on the roof of the Hur house. Gravity then takes over, and the tiles fall upon the Roman governor, who was riding on a horse below. That one tiny act—an almost meaningless shift in weight on a roof tile—triggered a cascade of suffering. The result? Chaos and unending misery for the Hur household.

And so, it is with life. Seemingly minor incidents can lead to massive consequences, like a single match igniting a gas-filled house. Strike it, and everything explodes into a thousand pieces.

That’s what happened in Eden.

Every time I read the account of Adam and Eve’s sin in Genesis, I’m internally crying out, “No!!!” Just one bite. One act of disobedience. But it was the ultimate opening of a can of worms—an act that set off the most destructive chain reaction in human history. Every single thread of human suffering begins in that moment. Every cancer diagnosis. Every grave dug. Every child crying in pain. Every lie, theft, act of hatred, adultery, broken marriage, hurricane, tornado, famine, suicide, and war. Every lonely night. Every fear. Every funeral. Every tear. They all trace back to a single, terrible moment.

“What was lost in Eden will be restored by Christ. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, the curse will someday be reversed.”

We can only imagine what Adam and Eve had—and what they lost. Picture a life without aging, death, sorrow, or fear of tomorrow. No curse on creation, no venomous snakes or poisonous weeds, no predators tearing each other apart. No pain, no partings, no goodbyes, no dread of disease or disasters. Instead of God’s wrath looming over humanity like a dark and threatening storm cloud, we would have basked in the warmth of His smiling face, like the sun shining at full strength. It would have been joy unspeakable and pleasures forevermore.

They had Heaven. And their one sin brought Hell to Earth.

But this isn’t just wistful dreaming. If that were the case, we’d only have a tragic story from ancient history. But the Christian doesn’t just look back—we look ahead. We’re not mourning a lost paradise as much as longing for the one soon to come. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). What was lost in Eden will be restored by Christ. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, the curse will someday be reversed.

And while we’re imagining what the world will be like then, here’s an amazing truth: We were created in the image of God, and one of those unique traits is imagination. But God Himself doesn’t “imagine.” Why? Because He already knows everything. He doesn’t formulate ideas because He doesn’t need to figure anything out.

“Known to God from eternity are all His works.” (Acts 15:18)

God never has to guess, learn, or be surprised. He doesn’t dream or discover. He is not in process. He is perfect in knowledge.

And strangely enough, this truth offers us deep comfort. It’s precisely because God cannot do certain things that we can completely trust Him. One of the most glorious impossibilities is this:

“…it is impossible for God to lie…” (Hebrews 6:18)

This means that when He makes a promise, it is rock solid. It’s not imagination, hope, or guesswork. It’s a promise. And when He says that the kingdom is coming, that He will wipe away every tear, that there will be no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain—it’s not a maybe. It’s a guarantee. We stake our eternity on it.

Speaking of guarantees, let me tell you about my son Daniel.

Daniel has three children, one wife, and 25 chickens. My wife, Sue, and I have 27, but that’s beside the point. We both regularly renew our flocks with baby chicks. One of Daniel’s newly bought chicks had some unique markings and quickly became his favorite. But one day, the little bird vanished. He searched everywhere. Nothing. It was gone.

Five days later, he heard a faint chirping. He searched again—still nothing. Two days later, he opened the lid to the food tray and saw a few feathers. To his dismay, the chick had apparently crawled in and died there. But then—another faint chirp. It was alive. He scooped it up, gave it water and food, bathed it, and within hours, it was running around.

Later, Daniel did some research and found that an eight-week-old chick typically can’t survive without water for more than 24 hours. This one lasted seven days. It was, by all natural laws, impossible. But there it was—alive.

That chick was immobilized in food, hopeless and unseen. That was us: dead in sin, helpless. But God saw us. And His hand reached in—not to simply restore us but to resurrect us, to give us eternal life. What a Savior.

So, the next time you find yourself silently screaming over Eden, remember this: Jesus didn’t come just to fix what was broken. He came to make all things new.

And that is not imagination. That’s a promise.

Ray Comfort is the Founder and CEO of Living Waters, a bestselling author, and has written more than 100 books, including, The Evidence Study Bible. He cohosts the award-winning television program Way of the Master, which airs in 190 countries

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No Fear of Judgment

“For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18 NLT)

Fear, as we mentioned in an article a few days ago, is the opposite of love, so to fear is to run from love; thus, judgment is the sentence we place on ourselves for denying or ignoring the forgiveness we can have through the love gift God gave us in the sacrifice of His holy Son, the Lord Jesus.

God’s judgment is a very serious issue with which we must deal, but here’s the truth: our judgment, the death penalty for our sin, our willing rejection of God’s way in favor of our own way, is only for those who ignore the gift of God’s salvation through Christ alone by faith alone. “Yeh, but isn’t that awfully narrow? Shouldn’t I have more than one choice?”

Imagine you’re in the middle of the ocean on a piece of driftwood. You’ve been hanging on for dear life for nearly three days and nights. You’re exhausted, literally dying of thirst and along comes a man in a boat and he throws you a life preserver and offers to pull you on board. Would you say? “Who are you? What are your credentials? Do you have a license for that boat? Is this life preserver tested and proven to hold my weight?” Only if you’re an idiot or delirious.

You’d grab that one and only life preserver for all your worth and pray like you’d never prayed it would hold you up long enough to get you to safety on that one and only boat. And when you got on that one and only boat you’d hold on to that one and only man with all your strength, struggling to find the words to express your gratitude, wailing with relief for being rescued by your one and only rescuer.

That’s the hand of Jesus reaching out to you to save you from an eternity of judgment in hell, a judgment we all deserve, but from which we can never rescue ourselves. God knew that and, though there was no way, by His grace and because of His eternal love, He made a way. It was a way that cost Him the life of His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but it was a price both God the Father and God the Son were willing to pay. But why, you may wonder? Because love pays the price when there’s no other way!

Love sacrifices, suffers, bleeds, and dies on a Cross to pay what can’t be paid in any other way. If you think you’re worth that sacrifice, you’re either ignorant or stupid. No human being regardless of their credentials, intellect, or even spiritual prowess deserves one drop of the priceless blood of the Savior. It is never about who deserves it, it’s always and only about the One who was willing to make the sacrifice.

For those willing to open their heart and mind to the Lord Jesus, receive the gift He paid on the Cross as their own and to place their undying trust in Him for their eternal life, the Bible says for that person, He will “keep no record of wrongs!” (1 Corinthians 13:5). The Bible also says in Romans 8:1-2 “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”

Please stop floating in the ocean of your lostness and reach out and grab the hand of Jesus by faith right now. Tap anewstory.com and learn how to end your misery, aloneness, and lostness by placing your faith in the Only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ today, before it’s eternally too late.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Learning Dependence on the Lord

“David sang this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul. He sang: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my refuge, my savior, the one who saves me from violence.” (2 Samuel 22: 1-3 NLT)

This “song of David” continues for another 48 verses, but these few verses illustrate in a very clear way what dependence on the Lord looks like. Implicit in nearly every verse is trust. While the words “depend” or “dependence” aren’t used in the King James Version of the Bible, the term “trust” is used more than 100 times. So, the logical step here is to seek dependence through our trust in the Lord, but what might that look like?

David Jeremiah gives us a hint when he writes: “Prayer is the only way to maintain a constant state of dependence on God.” There is no greater arena to exercise trust than in prayer. If I’m asking the Lord to answer my prayer, implicit in the request is the trust to believe He’s not only able, but willing to answer. Otherwise, why ask? Prayer is filled with expectation and anticipation, or it never rises higher than the ceiling. We might as well blow air into a bag. Prayer must be filled with confidence in the One to Whom we pray.

Prayer is the breath of our relationship with the Lord and is the primary avenue for giving expression to our trust in Him. The initial “prayer of confession” when we open our heart and life to the Lord is essentially an expression of dependence on the Lord’s trust to honor our confession and accept us in accordance with the terms of His Holy Word.

We don’t come to the Lord because we have life by the tail, but because too often life has us by the proverbial “tail” on a downhill drag. Mark Simpson showed great insight when he wrote: “God sees your life as a fixer-upper.” We come to the Lord because we need a Savior, not because we have all the answers. We learn dependence by depending, not by seeking to be more independent. Our independence got us on the road to hell in the first place.

Charles Spurgeon shared his wisdom when he wrote: “The Lord’s wisdom is seen in arranging the smallest events so as to produce great results. Everything, the most minute … as well as the most magnificent, is ordered by your Lord.” Trust in the Sovereignty of God begins with small things, then builds as our trust increases. And in all fairness, this doesn’t depend on a particular perspective. We can have the right perspective about the wrong thing or the wrong perspective about the right thing. We don’t need perspective, we need Jesus.

From there we learn His perspective on things and adapt that perspective for ourselves. “Yeh, but shouldn’t we learn to think for ourselves?” Only to the extent we’re thinking God’s thoughts, reflected in our growing trust in His only Son. Elizabeth Elliot had it right when she wrote: “We never know what God has up His sleeve. You never know what might happen; you only know what you have to do now.”

Learning dependence upon the Lord is step by step, not mile by mile. David’s song came only after months of running, fighting, suffering, and praying. Inch by inch he followed the Lord’s instructions until finally the Lord delivered him.

That’s how it works with us. We trust until the answer comes, but, ultimately, the answer won’t be final until we stand before the Lord when this life is over. Dependence is a series of decisions, a step-by-step pathway that leads us to our eternal home in heaven.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Simple Acts of Obedience

“When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ ‘Here I am!’ Moses replied. ‘Do not come any closer,’ the Lord warned. ‘Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’” (Exodus 3:4-6a NLT)

What do you think might have happened if, when Moses heard God call his name, he decided, “Color me gone!” And he’d run like crazy in the opposite direction? We obviously don’t know because Moses didn’t run. He took tiny steps of obedience that led to him becoming the obedient servant of God that led to Israel’s freedom from their 430-year enslavement to Egypt.

Think about that for a minute. You read that too quickly. If you consider each generation lived about 70 years, that’s minimally six generations in captivity. The people God called Moses to lead out of Egypt had only known slavery their whole lives. Their parents were slaves. Their grandparents were slaves. Their great-grandparents were slaves. Their children were slaves. You get the picture.

How do you paint a picture of freedom to someone who has known nothing but slavery? How do you learn to walk as a free person when all you know is to do what you’re told? Do you want to know the truth? There is no such thing as freedom except in Jesus. We all – EVERYONE – begins in slavery to sin! Slavery is an effect of sin; it’s never of God! The Lord Jesus is about liberation, not bondage; hope, not hopelessness; life, not death!

Since the fall of Adam and Eve, every person who has ever been born of a woman, except the Lord Jesus, has been born with Adam’s nature, with a bent to sin, a determination to go our own way and walk in disobedience to the clear Commandments of God. No one is ever free of the “commands” of our evil nature, governed by Satan and his devilish emissaries, until we’re liberated by an act of grace through forgiveness in and through the Lord Jesus.

How does this happen? The first step is Confession. Confession is a word that means “to agree with God’s estimation of something.” Before putting our trust in Jesus our attitude is essentially: “I like the way I’m living my life. I like doing things my way. I like being the master of my own destiny.” Then the Lord Jesus basically tells us in His Word. “That’s all well and good, except if you insist on ruling your own life and continuing in the way you’re presently going, you’re headed to a Christless eternity and an everlasting misery. Is that really what you want?”

It saddens me to write this, but most will still say, “Yes, that’s the only way I know, so I’ll just keep doing things like I have been and suffer the consequences.” Of course, they have no idea what they’re saying or what hell will be like, but their stubborn will, governed by their devotion to the ruler of hell, Satan himself, prevents them from changing their mind.

However, for those few who do confess their need of the Lord Jesus, the next step is repentance. That’s a military term that essentially paints the picture of an about face. We’re heading in one direction, but by an act of our will fueled by the Spirit of God, we turn from our sin and begin to walk in obedience to the Lord Jesus. What does that look like? It looks like one simple act of obedience at a time.

That’s the beauty of prayer, simple, straightforward conversation with the Lord. “Lord, what do you want me to do?” “Do this…” Is it really that easy? It is if you’re listening. How do I listen that carefully? Read, study, and memorize His Words found in the Bible. Read the Gospel of John, then go back to Matthew and read straight through the New Testament including John again. He will never instruct you to do anything that’s not in line with what He’s written in His Holy Word. Jesus said in John 10:27: “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.” It just doesn’t get any simpler than that, but you have to be listening. One simple act of obedience followed by the next.

Are you listening?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Salvation

“That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joeseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, ‘Sovereign Lord, now let Your servant die in peace, as You have promised. I have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and He is the glory of Your people Israel!’” (Luke 2:27-32 NLT)

Salvation isn’t simply an experience we have when our sins are forgiven and we’re given new life; it’s the initiation of an eternal relationship with the King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus isn’t simply the Purchaser and Provider of our salvation; He IS OUR SALVATION! Peter had it right in Acts 4:12 when he said: “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

Perhaps the greatest tragedy in the Christian Church is the belief that salvation is a process into which we enter as we learn what it means to be a child of God. It’s like someone getting married, but the husband saying to his bride: “I love you and I can’t wait to go on our honeymoon, but I have to get this marriage manual memorized first!” That’s asinine, marriage is a relationship, not conformity to a set of rules. It’s learned IN relationship.

John Piper helps us when he writes: “Salvation is not mainly forgiveness of sins it is mainly a fellowship with Jesus.” Having our sins forgiven is a wonderful thing, but it was only made possible by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. No Jesus! No forgiveness! How do you ever thank someone for forgiving you? You build a positive, wholesome relationship with them. The measure of forgiveness determines the measure of love, grace, and time it will take to heal and to find wholeness in our relationship.

With the Lord Jesus, that relationship will build throughout eternity. As we learn more fully who He is and what He has done and is doing on our behalf, our devotion must deepen and our commitment to Him must grow stronger. Out of that relationship will grow spiritual disciplines such as worship through prayer and reading, studying, and memorizing God’s Word, the Bible; faithful fellowship with other Jesus followers through a local church devoted to knowing Him, growing in Him, and serving Him through sharing His life and love with those in our spheres of influence.

For someone to profess they have salvation in Christ alone by faith alone, then huddle themselves away, never interacting with anyone or sharing their life in Christ with anyone in any meaningful way is blasphemous. Salvation has no meaning except it’s shared. It’s like having a baby but never telling anyone about it. Or being married but never speaking about your spouse. Or having a new friend but never sharing them with anyone. What’s the point?

Love is to be shared and Jesus IS LOVE. EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW JESUS! Why? Because He’s the only way to heaven. It’s not a system, process, or religion, it’s a PERSON! The Lord Jesus. To know Him IS to have salvation, new life, hope for all eternity! Do you know HIM? Not just about Him. Not just have an acquaintance or satisfactory knowledge of Him Do you know HIM? Are you having regular fellowship with HIM! Are you spending time speaking with HIM! Are you disciplining yourself to worship HIM in and through your lifestyle – the way you dress, speak, work, live, drive, spend your time and money, in short, how you live and move and have your being?

If not, you likely don’t have salvation, you may simply have had a religious experience that continues to leave you cold, empty and lost. Come to Jesus alone by faith alone. But how? Open your heart to Him by inviting Him to become the Lord of your life. But how?

Just ask Him: “Lord Jesus, please forgive my sin that is separating me from You. Cleanse me of my sin and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. Teach me how to walk with You, not just jump through a bunch of spiritual hoops. Open Your Word, the Bible, to me in fresh ways. Help me to see You on every page and seek to model my life after Yours. Guide and teach me by Your Spirit, but please help me find others like me who really need strength and guidance to walk faithfully with You and to grow in our likeness of You. I want You, Lord Jesus to reign in and rule my life. You’re what I really need! I open my life to you, thank You for coming into my heart and giving me new life by Your Spirit. In Your holy Name I pray. Amen!”

If you just prayed that prayer you must let someone know. If you have a Pastor you trust or a trusted Christian friend, please call them or somehow let them know you’ve given your life to Jesus and you need someone to walk with you. If you don’t have anyone, respond to this message or write me at walkingwithjesus@gmail.com.

Blessings, Ed 😊