Walking With Jesus

What Do You Believe?

“We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.” (Romans 3:22 NLT)

One unique quality that every person who lives, has lived, or ever will live has in common: we all believe in something. What do you believe?

Two distinct categories of people are those who are theists – those who believe in God or a god, and those who are atheists – those who choose to believe there is no God or gods. We’re all on that spectrum, somewhere between believing there is or is not a God or god. Ironically, it’s not an issue of believing or not believing. We’re ALL, every single one of us, a believer…in something or Someone.

Where are you on that spectrum? Faith and trust are important words in the Christian Faith, but they are also key words for those who believe in something other than God. Here’s the deal: we all can’t and won’t be right. There’s a God or there is not. There is a heaven and hell or there is not. There’s an eternal existence or there is not. Where have you cast your life? Not your “lot,” your life!

My question, for all of us, is: from whence does that drive to believe, to have faith, originate? Theist or Athiest, we all are driven to believe, and, ironically, to try to convince everyone else to believe like us. On some levels it seems odd that people who strongly believe that there is no God are so bent on convincing those of us who do believe in God, that He doesn’t exist.

Yes, of course, I’m very evangelistic. I want everyone to know Jesus. I know He’s alive and well and living in my heart and life because we communicate virtually moment by moment. Even before He was so “communicative” with me, I still knew He was alive and real and have never doubted His existence. To me, it’s tragic for someone to leave this life without Jesus, so I’ve become very passionate about sharing what I have come to believe, is the Truth of the Bible.

But what confuses me is this: I can understand why believers in Jesus are so passionate and desirous for everyone to put their trust in Jesus because of the picture He painted for us of what awaits those who die without Him, but why are those who don’t believe He exists, so “evangelistic” in their efforts to convince believers they’re morons for following the Lord? What’s the worst that can happen? We’re going to die and experience nothing but “nothingness.”

In my mind that’s the tragedy of living without Jesus. We live in virtual “nothingness” to enter an eternal existence in which will be played over and over and over the reality of the life we wasted on earth; what we could have had but missed because of our incessant drive to believe something that wasn’t true.

Perhaps you’re uncertain of what’s “true” and what isn’t. To me it boils down, not to a philosophy or even a theology, but to a Person. Someone may try to convince me that I’m not married to the most beautiful, intelligent, magnificent, thoughtful, kind, compassionate, caring (there aren’t enough positive attributes with which to describe her), woman on the planet, but it will never happen because I see her, hear her, am able to hold her, love her, and be loved by her every day of my life. It’s very similar to that in my walk with Jesus.

Let’s pick this up in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

When Listening Gets Scary

“But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. That is why the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested Me in the wilderness.’” (Hebrews 3:6-8 NLT)

Since I began listening to the Lord’s directives in regard to this blog, He’s never directed me to write anything remotely “political.” (with only one exception😊) Today He has, but before you cringe and refuse to read another word, please hear my heart. If this is from the Lord, and I’m 100% certain it is, please, not only read the words, but listen to God’s heart as He instructs us.

For America, the real issue in this coming Presidential election isn’t about a person, it’s about the future of our nation. If we allow things to continue in the United States of America as they are currently going, we’ll wake up one day soon and no longer have the freedoms millions have died to preserve. Among the most important issues at stake aren’t “rights,” but what is right!

To refer to the murder of an unborn child as “Reproductive rights” is to blaspheme God and declare human convenience as more vital than the protection of human life. But in many regards, that’s the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

A dear friend recently sent me this response to someone saying they were voting for Trump.

“That moment when someone says, ‘I can’t believe you would vote for Trump.’ I simply reply, ‘I’m not voting for Trump.’ You see, it’s not about ‘WHO,’ it’s all about ‘WHAT:’ I’m voting for the First Amendment and freedom of speech. I’m voting for the Second Amendment and my right to defend my life and my family. I’m voting for the next Supreme Court Justice(s) to protect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

I’m voting for the continued growth of my retirement 401K and the stock market. I’m voting for a return of our troops from foreign countries and the end to America’s involvement in foreign conflicts. I’m voting for the Electoral College and for the Republic in which we live. I’m voting for the Police to be respected once again and to ensure Law & Order.

I’m voting for the continued appointment of Federal Judges who respect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I’m voting for our jobs to remain in America and not be outsourced all over again to China, Mexico, and other foreign countries. I’m voting for secure borders and LEGAL immigration. I’m voting for the Military & the Veterans who fought for this Country to give the American people their freedoms.

I’m voting for continued peace progress in the Middle East. I’m voting to fight against human/child trafficking. I’m voting for Freedom of Religion. I’m voting for the right to speak my opinion and not be censored. I’m not just voting for one person; I’m voting for the future of my Country. I’m voting for my children and grandchildren, to ensure their freedoms and a positive future for us all. And I’m voting for the end of the weaponization of our Justice System.

These are not days to be divided as Jesus followers, but united in defending and voting for what’s right! I also would encourage you to listen to the words of someone who has a perspective we need to hear. Just click the highlighted link. Helping Donald Trump: A Personal Duty to Prepare the Nation World for Future Generations (youtube.com) (Patrick Bet-David speaks with Dominik Tarczyński , a bold Polish Member of the European Parliament.) PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS MAN’S HEART.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Gift of Communication

“When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking – it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20 NLT)

A few days ago, I shared with you about a conversation I had with a young technician who was connecting the line for the medication for my infusion. The remarkable part of this conversation was it wasn’t contrived or forced in any way. The Lord opened my mouth, and His words flowed, not only into her ears, but into her heart. I invited her to church, not because I felt compelled, but because it “fit,” it was just the right thing to do given the context.

This conversation reminded me of an experience one of my former Pastor’s had while speaking in another country. He was speaking in English to a Spanish-speaking audience, through an interpreter, but a short time into his message the interpreter stopped, because His words spoken in English were now being heard in Spanish. But that’s impossible, right? Not when God is the Author of the message.

We often have this ongoing conversation with ourselves when it comes to “witnessing.” It’s like everyone is “fair game,” but are they? Other people came into my room the day of my infusion, but the Lord didn’t prompt me to speak to anyone else about Him than the one young woman. We torment ourselves with questions that don’t need to be asked.

It’s not a matter of “With whom should I speak,” it’s only a matter of “Father, whose heart have you prepared to hear the words you have given me?” We’re not “looking” for anyone, we’re simply “listening” for our instructions. We make sharing our faith much too complicated. It needs to flow out of a heart that is in tune with our Savior.

It almost literally made me laugh out loud when I realized what the Lord was doing. Sharing with this young woman wasn’t nerve-wracking or difficult in any way, it was simply two people having a natural conversation based on mutual interests that resulted in a next step for her and a sense of deep satisfaction for me. God had spoken, I had listened, and someone was blessed to receive what He had opened her heart to receive.

Too often we try to anticipate how someone will respond so we can have the proverbial “gun” loaded to answer them, but that’s not necessary when the Lord is leading. He will prompt us to say what needs to be said and give us insight into how we should respond, IF, a response is called for.

I don’t have words to explain how close the Lord is to me in this season of my life. Whatever I face, He guides and helps me. I recently bought a new printer/scanner. Normally, I’m intuitive when it comes to things like that, but not now. It took me an hour to figure out how to print an envelope, and that’s with going online, checking the manual, in short, doing everything I knew to do.

Finally, being the spiritual giant that I am, I asked the Lord for His help. In minutes the envelope was printed. “Yeh, sure, that’s because you finally figured it out.” No, it’s because I finally listened to the One who had it figured out all along, but I was too distracted by my busyness to listen to Him.

With the Lord, the hardest part of communication for us is the listening piece. We love to hear ourselves wax eloquent, but it’s much more fruitful when we simply listen to the One who IS eloquent!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Happens When We Mess Up?

“Have mercy on me, O God, because of Your unfailing love. Because of Your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against You, and You alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in Your sight. You will be proved right in what You say, and Your judgment against me is Just.” (Psalm 51:1-4 NLT)

“Messing up,” as I use that expression, means to sin. Sin literally means “to miss the mark,” which translates for us, to do something in thought or deed that varies from, not only the Law of God, but that violates His heart. To be crystal clear, sin is a willful transgression against an instruction of God. If the Lord says, “go right” and we choose to go left, we’ve sinned against a Holy God.

There are lots of ways we choose to disobey God, but the bottom line is, regardless of how long we’ve followed the Lord or how closely we’re seeking to walk with Him, we all have the capacity to sin. Ideally, the longer we walk with the Lord the less frequently we sin and the less severe our transgression, but we all sin.

David was a “man after God’s own heart,” yet he committed adultery with one of his soldier’s wives, then had her husband murdered to cover up his sin. The good news is, though he tried desperately to cover it up, when confronted by the Prophet Nathan, David confessed his sin and repented. Psalm 51 is the record of his sin in his own words, from which we can learn a lot.

First, God will not forgive a sin we haven’t confessed. I don’t remember the time lapse between David’s sin and his confession, but it was a lengthy period, but God’s forgiveness paralleled his confession, not before.

Next, David made no excuse for his sin. His plea began with an expression of the love and compassion of God, pleading his case, not on his merit (he had none), but on God’s mercy. Related to this, he realized though he had certainly sinned against Bathsheba and her husband, ultimately, he understood that all sin, regardless of who it’s committed against, is committed against God. That gives God a perfect right to take our sin personally, especially since Jesus died for our forgiveness, every sin is an act of tyranny against the sacrifice of His perfect Son.

Therefore, God, in David’s words, is “proved right” in whatever action He takes against us. Sin is punishable by death, but, fortunately for us, Jesus paid the penalty for our sin; however, it doesn’t give us the right to continue to habitually sin. Paul writes in Romans 6:1-2: “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?”

David confessed his sin and God forgave him. That’s the same path we must take when we sin. Recognize our sin for what it is, confess it to God, then turn from it and seek to walk in the shadow of God’s grace. Rick Warren explains it this way: “David’s point is that, no matter how bad, evil, or difficult something seems—and no matter how much we mess things up—God will work it out for good. His goodness is pursuing us, no matter which way we turn.” (See Daily Hope God Is Working for Your Good – 02-10-23)

Blessings, Ed 😊

When God Takes Over

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 NLT)

It’s clear to me now, but there was a time I was always seeking to know God’s will. “Lord, what do you want me to do?” was the cry of my heart. Even as a Pastor I would seek His will for what I was to preach, which, of course, I should. But that’s not how the Lord wants to work.

Now, I’m not as prone to ask for God’s will as I am to ask Him to give me clarity and insight into where He’s working. For example, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know the Lord has given me a heart for my neighbors. For years my heart’s cry has been for God to show me how to reach my neighbors.

And that’s all well and good, but what He’s teaching me now is, I can’t see my neighborhood as the location of many houses, or even many people, I must be vigilant in cultivating relationships with certain neighbors. “But which ones?” seems to be the logical question. “And how do I choose?” And this is where it gets fun – see, that’s the point! I don’t choose, the Lord does. All I have to do is pay attention to where He’s already at work. How do I do that? I listen! God will and does speak very definitively and very clearly.

And here’s the really good part of that: you don’t have to be on your knees begging God to speak, you just have to have confidence that He will and open your heart and mind to receive what He wants to say. I was busily engaged in something the other day and the Lord said: “Reach out to ______,” and He gave me the names of two of my neighbors.

“What should I say, Lord?” Sometimes I get a sense the Lord is thinking: “Do I have to do everything for you?” But that’s me, He’s much too kind and thoughtful to think those kinds of things. But He said, as He often does for a blog article: “Sit down and listen.”

Why am I going into such detail? Because some of you have never heard God speak and you need to know He doesn’t speak in mysterious ways that are difficult to “hear.” Just as His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we’re His child (Romans 8:16), He will “speak” clearly from His Spirit to ours, but it takes some practice to learn to discern it’s His voice.

And let me be clear, this isn’t about emotion. At times I get emotional because of our conversations, but I don’t have to work myself up into some kind of emotional frenzy to be certain it’s the Lord. The Lord and I go back a lot of years, and I’ve mistaken emotion for His Spirit on more occasions than I care to remember.

Am I talking about “speaking in tongues?” Not necessarily, but I have a lot of Pentecostal brothers and sisters who have spoken in tongues in my presence and have certainty that the Lord is the Author of those words, even though they don’t understand them. That’s different than what I’m sharing now, because the whole point of mine and the Lord’s conversation is that I understand clearly and let His words guide what He’s prompting me to do or say to me or to someone else through me.

As with my neighbors, He understands exactly what’s going on in their lives and will guide me to “strike” the proverbial “responsive chord” in their lives that will enable them to know the words aren’t just from me, but from Him.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Experiencing God (Part 2)

“Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!’” (Judges 6:11-12 NLT)

Gideon is one of my favorite Biblical characters because when I look at him it’s like I’m looking in the mirror. The angel of the Lord has addressed him as a “Mighty hero,” but he’s hiding in fear just trying to eke out an existence. Listen to how he describes himself in verse 15: “’But Lord,’ Gideon replied, ‘how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!’”

Have you ever felt like that? I have and that’s how I know it’s seldom healthy for us to begin a sentence with “But Lord.” Just saying! 😊 But the key that changed Gideon and the future of the children of Israel was God’s next words: “The Lord said to him, ‘I will be with you.’” God’s presence can change a weakling into a mighty warrior for God, but there are two critical components that we must understand.

First, we have to recognize we’re not alone. Yes, of course, we may have family and friends who are standing with us, but they can’t feel what we feel, they can’t know what we know, in terms of how we feel about ourselves. How weak and helpless we feel in the face of this massive “army” that is threatening an imminent attack.

God’s presence alone can bring the peace, courage, and determination to follow, not only God’s directives, but His heart. That’s the difference between walking WITH God, and having God’s presence so surround us that we sense His protective shield. There’s a sense in which we become invincible when we’re so focused, not on our weakness, but God’s strength. And here’s the key: We’re not simply doing things FOR God; we’re doing them WITH God.

He hasn’t given us an assignment and sent us off to do it in our own strength, He’s aiding us, carrying us, if you will, enabling us to be more than we ever dreamed we could be, accomplishing more for God than we ever imagined, not because we’re so special, but because we’ve finally learned to put our life into His capable hands and allow Him to do with us as He pleases.

The problem with which we most wrestle, it seems, is determining what God wants us to do. Sometimes He makes it easy, like He did with Gideon. The Lord came to Him and outlined exactly what He wanted him to do. But much, if not most, of the time we need to be alert and sensitive to what God is doing and how He’s inviting us to join Him.

To me it’s been very clear that the Lord is using my hands to type these articles, but He caught my attention a few days ago when I was having one of my bi-weekly infusions. I didn’t realize it until part way into the conversation with the young lady who was administering my medication, that God was at work in her life. She had shared with me early on that she grew up Catholic, but I sensed she was wanting more – not more religion, but more of God, more life, more purpose, more energy in her view of God.

As I shared with her, I wasn’t grasping for words, like I often have to, the words were flowing and I knew it was God because she wasn’t just listening, she was leaning in, attentive, soaking up the words the Lord was sharing with her. I wasn’t the source, simply the instrument.

This is too good to stop here. Let’s pick it up in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Experiencing God

“The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you will have life by the power of His name. (John 20:30-31 NLT)

What does it mean to experience ANYTHING? “I went to the amusement park and had a great experience.” Or “I had a date, and it was an experience that changed my life.” Or “Someone took me to a malt shop, and I experienced the best flavor ever!” What do all of these and every other experience you’ve ever had have in common? YOU WERE THERE! YOU were present and interacting in and through the whole experience. If you weren’t there you couldn’t have had the experience.

Why does that even matter? Because you can’t “EXPERIENCE” God without being conscious of His presence with you. “Yeh, but isn’t God everywhere?” Yes, of course He is, But God can be present with us without us being present with Him. Because I have an electric outlet and a cord to charge my phone doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll charge my phone unless and until I plug the cord into the outlet.

Churches are full of people believing they’re walking with Jesus, but who never have a conversation with Him, read His Word (one of many ways He speaks to us), or set aside specific time to learn how to know He’s real, with them, and constantly speaking to them. Does God have an audible voice? Yes, of course He does, but His most effective conversations with us are non-verbal.

In John 20, just a few verses before the ones above, Jesus said to Thomas after offering him the opportunity to touch the wounds in His side and hands: “You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me.” Today it takes faith to “see” Jesus, but it also takes faith to hear Him.

The Psalmist wrote that the heavens themselves declare or give visibility to the God of heaven. We don’t see God because we’re not looking for Him, and the same is true regarding hearing Him. You can’t experience God without knowing He exists and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I was five when I had my first experience with God.

The sermon escaped me, I don’t remember a single word, but when the preacher gave the invitation everything in me wanted to go forward, but it’s like I was frozen in place. I was standing on the pew without any knowledge of God, Church, or virtually anything of spiritual value, but in those brief moments I experienced God. The second time, I was a bit older and in a different church, but God came to life to me when I heard my Poppa John pray. I didn’t know why or what it meant, but God was using those “experiences” to prepare my heart to receive Him when I was a teen.

You may have said a prayer many years ago and you’ve been “walking with Jesus” all these years, but you’re still not “hearing His voice” except through the written word or someone else’s words. And hear my heart, that was me for the most part until recent years.

But now I can’t get past John 10:27: “My sheep listen to My voice.” Why would the Lord say that if we can’t “hear” Him? I’m reading a book entitled “Experiencing God” by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King. Please read this book, then get the workbook and begin working your way through it.

There’s more I want to say about what God’s doing in my life now, but I had to tell you about the book. And by the way, God started working in and through me, as I suspect He has in you, many years ago, but I wasn’t able to see or hear Him nearly as clearly as I can now that I’m reading Blackaby’s book.

Let’s look at this more closely in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

How Do I Know If I’m Being Led by the Spirit?

“For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:16 NLT)

How do you know that someone loves you? Not simply by what they say, but how they treat you, how they act around you, how they make you feel about yourself and them when you’re in their presence.

I met a young man when I was pastoring in Ohio who was molested when he was a child. It was a relative who violated him, and his sick “rationale” for pleasing himself at this young boy’s expense was: “I love you.” The plot thickens because this young man believed the lie, so much so, he used the same verbiage when violating a young boy himself, which landed him in prison. What’s my point?

Love doesn’t use another person to bring pleasure to themselves. That’s not love, that’s sinful selfishness. But the extension of that principle that makes it so tragic is, it too often perpetuates itself in the life of the innocent one who is violated. This can and often does show up in the legalistic efforts of “religious” people as a means of “controlling” another person’s behavior.

It shows up in “Christian” cults and other religions who use fear and threats to keep their followers in tow. It sometimes rears its ugly head through those who seek to use “love” as the incentive to “follow the rules.” “Oh, sweetheart, you don’t want to go to that (outing, date, event, etc.) because ‘good’ girls/boys don’t participate in those kinds of evil things.” When the truth is, the only evil is someone seeking to manipulate someone else’s behavior, so they don’t have to feel like they’re the only one who is “missing out” on whatever it is.

And granted, as a child of God, there certainly are things we need to avoid, the Bible has some outlined in Scripture, but the purpose of not doing those things is to follow in the footsteps of our Savior, not to prove we’re worthy of His love. Being led by the Spirit isn’t keeping the “rules,” whatever that may mean for you, it’s to walk to the heartbeat of God who has proven His love by dying on the Cross in our place.

John 3:16 reminds us that: “God so loved…He gave!” Love is the overflow of being led by the Spirit, not only because of God’s love for us, but our love for Him and others to His honor and fame. My wife has an alarm in her car that is a “warning” that her car is straying out of its lane. That’s how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. He doesn’t scream: “Are you an idiot? You know better than that. Get a grip before I leave you!”

That’s NEVER God’s strategy. He gives us assurance that “I will never leave you!” The Holy Spirit is our constant companion and reminder that we’re never alone on our journey of faith in Jesus. His very presence is our assurance that we’re loved, accepted in the Beloved, and bound for heaven. We don’t work hard to prove anything to God, He’s already proven Himself on the Cross. All we have to do is receive by faith what He did as our own.

On the Cross, Jesus spread His arms wide saying to you and me: “There’s nothing I’ve withheld from you. I’ve given everything to prove what you mean to Me; see what drastic measures I’m willing to take to allow you to know that when I say I love you and that My love will NEVER be withdrawn from you, I mean it! You can bet your life on my faithfulness to you as I give you My Holy Spirit to be a constant source of assurance to you that you are Mine and I am yours!’

Because of who Jesus is, Truth incarnate, and what He’s given us in the gift of His Spirit to teach us His Word and to guide us in our walk with Him, we can have absolute assurance that if the decisions we make and the paths we follow align with His Word and His Way, we’ll know that we’re being led by His Spirit.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

A Closer Look at Romans 7 (Part 2)

“Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.” (Romans 7:25 NLT)

The key words in the above verse to me are: “In my mind…” The real battlefield for each of us is between our ears. Before we see any significant change in our behavior, we must first allow the Lord to help us change our mind. That’s what repentance is all about. We make the decision to allow the Lord to help us change our life’s direction, which leads to the unleashing of His Almighty power to enable us to change our habits, which opens the door to the transformed life of which Paul speaks in 2^nd Corinthians 5:17.

Paul writes in Romans 8:12: “Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.” How could he have written those words if he was living a contradiction of them in his statement in chapter 7:25 about being a slave to sin? Every day we renew our commitment to the Lord to allow the Holy Spirit to dictate policy in our lives, which enables us to walk in the newness of life we’ve been given, not in submission to the old life in which we used to walk. We respond just like Jesus did in the wilderness when Satan was riding Him hard to give in to sin.

Do we always succeed? Unfortunately, not, but by God’s grace, as we walk longer with the Lord our successes begin to far outweigh our defeats. That’s why intimacy with Jesus is so very critical. To the extent I allow my mind to remain focused on Jesus and not on the entertainment of my selfish lusts, to that extent I’ll enjoy victory in my quest for closeness to the Lord.

It’s not unlike my faithfulness to my wife. To the extent I keep my heart and mind focused on my devotion to her, to that extent I will avoid allowing my mind to wander into lustful thoughts that, if not curbed, can easily lead to lustful actions that can not only destroy our marriage, but my life.

Perhaps the key to understanding Paul’s heart in his words in Romans 7 is to see into his mind. The battlefield for our soul is in our mind. If we allow our mind to become the devil’s playground, our heart will stray, as it seeks to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, not the desires of our Savior. I’m close to the Lord in this season of my life, but that closeness must be desired and worked at maintaining every day, sometimes every minute of every day.

That’s why prayer can’t be a one-time activity each day. Yes, of course, begin your day with pouring your heart out to the Lord and seeking His guidance, confessing your need of Him, thanking Him for all the ways He’s making Himself known to you, and lifting to Him those in your spheres of influence who need Him. But that’s just the beginning. Speak with Him each second of the day, regardless of what else you’re doing. “But I need to focus on what I’m doing?” you may be thinking.

Yes, of course you do, but Who do you think is providing everything you need, not only for DOING whatever you’re doing, but the focus to do it in a manner that’s honoring to Him? If the goal of whatever you’re doing isn’t to glorify and honor Jesus you need to stop doing it and do something that is.

If we get stuck in Romans 7 believing we’re just Satan-bait that has no power or ability to live above the tentacles of sin, we’re defeated before we begin. Or, if we “celebrate” our unwillingness to live without sin because we’ve prayed some kind of “sinner’s prayer” that leads us to wrongly believe it frees us to live the way we used to and still go to heaven, we’re also subjecting ourselves to defeat.

If we’re tempted to believe these lies, we need to memorize and post on the inside of our forehead Romans 8:13: “For if you live by its (your sinful nature) dictates, YOU WILL DIE. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, YOU WILL LIVE. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” With the clear implication: If you aren’t being consistently led by the Spirit, you very well may not be a child of God.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

A Closer Look at Romans 7

“I have discovered this principle of life – that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” (Romans 7:21-24 NLT)

Discussion and debate have led to wrestling with the above verses and the whole of Romans 7 for centuries, so, let me give you my disclaimer right up front: I will not answer all of your questions regarding these challenging verses; however, I will share with you some things the Lord has shared with me that have helped me navigate what can be some troubling waters.

The question I’ve heard over the years, to which I’ve come to terms in my own life is: “Is Paul speaking about his life before Christ or his new life IN Christ?” I have no doubt he’s speaking of his life IN Christ, but here’s why I believe that.

The closer I get to Jesus the more wretched I seem in my own eyes; yet, on the other hand, the more carefully and closely I’m seeking to walk with Him. There’s a sense in which we can’t really see clearly the beauty of Jesus until we face the disgusting, and foul “aroma” of our own lives, especially what we’ve been, what we were before and, to some extent, what we’ve allowed ourselves to do and be even after our decision to follow Jesus.

The closer I get to Jesus the more I regret what I’ve done in my life to violate everything from which He died to spare me. The cry of Paul’s heart throughout Romans 7 isn’t speaking of present tense devotion to sin, except inasmuch as it will always be a threat to us regardless of how closely we walk with the Lord. He’s painting a picture of how terrible sin, and its devilish affects can be, holding it in juxtaposition with the beauty of Jesus and the life-saving power He gives us to live above the tentacles of Satan.

My sense is that many who are seeking Jesus have succumbed to the lie of Satan that there is no deliverance from sin, especially addictions to specific avenues of sin. So, they come to Christ “hoping” to find deliverance, falsely believing all they have to do is “trust Jesus,” with the clear implication: “Okay, Lord, it’s all Yours!” And they sit back and wait for healing that will never come without their partnership in that deliverance.

Each of us has to deal with sin in some form every day, but dependence on Jesus doesn’t free us of responsibility to do our part. For example, if I’m “trusting Jesus to deliver me from porn” while I’m continuing to watch it without setting any boundaries, sharing with my wife or Christian brothers what I’m going through so they can hold me accountable, I’m trying to swim that ocean without as much as a life vest. It’s spiritual “suicide!”

It’s almost as if we’re sitting, waiting for Jesus to do His part, while the Lord is waiting for us to do ours. He CAN and WILL deliver us, but not without cooperating effort on our part. As Paul implied in Chapter 8, we wrongly believe we can continue with sin as our master without fear of the Lord’s discipline or judgment, to our demise.

The crucial question becomes: “Whose nature are we allowing to dominate us? Are we being controlled by our sinful, lust-filled nature, or by the Holy Spirit” Let’s continue this discussion in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊