Month: October 2010

2 Corinthians 3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.

So what do the people around you say about your spiritual resumé? Paul said, you yourselves are our letter, written on our hears, known and read by everybody. In other words, you are your mentor’s letter. It’s why it is important that you understand that you represent not only yourself but you represent your lineage, your Christ, your church and your church family.

Paul continues saying: You show that you are a letter from Christ. I don’t know about you but when I read that, I think, I am walking around daily being a letter from Christ, it makes me assess the things I do in a new way.

In my career I had to hire new employees. I read tons of resumés. Some were well written and showed the work ethic of a person by the length of time they’d been at a job, the positions they’d held and so on. Others showed me that they wouldn’t be with us long if we hired them. Still others showed me a lack of care and attention when the words were clearly misspelled. Some brought references without being asked while others acted like I was asking for their first born child.

So today, a brief and concise post. What does the resumé you have produced, say about Christ? Is it one of hypocrisy or of love? Is it one of patience and kindness or of anger and bitterness? Is it one of judgement and condemnation or one of hope? Is it one of a strong character and a person who keeps their word, or is it one of a flake? If someone were to look at your life and assess what Christ is like from your life, what do they think it says about Him?

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Living as a believer means taking up your cross. Your cross is the burden of living your life in such a way as to bring glory to the Father. It means forsaking the ways of the world and that can be sometimes frightening and exhilarating all at the same time. There will be days when there is a longing in your spirit to get more of the Holy Spirit and there will be days when it’s more than you can bear. It’s a complexity that is hard to describe and this is why, for the most part, religion sells you on the peace and the joy and forgets to mention the suffering. Let me tell you there will be suffering. But living your life in Christ is worth it.

When I started this series of blogs my point was to show that we were all cracked when left to our own devices. We had areas of our lives that needed to be fixed and patched up. That fix can only come from allowing ourselves to be broken by God Himself. You see, to live a kingdom life, a life set apart, you must be crucified for there to be a resurrection. Oh! How I wish I could tell you that it’s easy but I can’t. How I wish I could tell you that it won’t hurt but it does. It will never be as bad as what Christ went through, but I’m telling you that it will be as bad as Christ went through to our hearts and minds. For to live this kingdom life means we have to let go of everything we’ve been taught and learn a new way. A love way and exposing ourselves to love means great gain and great pain. I wish it weren’t so but anyone whose been hurt in love catches a small glimpse into what I am talking about.

A cracked vessel can hold no water. In the bible water represents the Holy Spirit and Jesus was clear that if we believed in him that out of our hearts would flow rivers of living water.

John 7:38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

What a blessing we have to live in these days beyond the cross to have a far greater reward of the Holy Spirit indwelling daily. Yet, we get to the end of this series and we see that although our teachers had tried, Jesus had tried, our cracked vessels could not contain the Holy Spirit for any length of time to be effective on the earth. So the abundant life that has been promised hasn’t yet manifested because we could not contain it in our current condition. YET being the key word to hang onto.

Choose life today and choose to allow the breaking of your thought process to bring you to a higher level of consciousness than you could have ever thought possible. It will be in that process that you will find abundant life. Did you know that the mind is at least as powerful as medicine? Yes, if you can change your mind to speak health, you will see it manifest itself in your life. As a man thinks in heart so is he. Proverbs 23:7. If you can get with like-minded thinkers/believers you can be even more powerful. It’s called the power of agreement and it works both for good and for evil so watch your associations.

Abundant life means life the way God would have you live it. It may mean that you trade in that corner office and the BMW for a missionary post in a third world country but I promise you that if that was your original purpose you will be beyond happy.

Choose life today. Allow the potter to remake the vessel so that it can contain so much of the Holy Spirit that it changes every single thing in your life and the lives of those you come in contact with.

Ecclesiastes2:3I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives

What is good for the sons of man to do under heaven? What are we supposed to be doing that we haven’t been doing? Jesus taught us to pray continually, making a way in our lives for a deep rich relationship with the Father. Yet, even the disciples couldn’t completely grasp the concept of this as we see in the garden of Gethsemane.

Matthew 26:36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” 39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” 40 Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, “What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless F146 I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”

So what is good for the sons of man to do with their time? We are to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation. Why does this seem so hard? In the midst of the hardest night of the life of Jesus he is asking us, his disciples
“Can’t you stay awake in the hour of my agony?” What is he truly asking us to do? Does it mean physically staying up? Sometimes it does. Sometimes in the middle of the night the Lord will awaken you to pray. He will bring you revelation in the midst of your times of exhaustion. Most of the time it speaks to being spiritually awake and being aware of those things around you. The Lord will then show you the goodness of a life lived in peace and rest.

Psalm 4:6 There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. 7 You have put gladness in my heart, More than in the season that their grain and wine increased. 8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

So then, what does it mean to take up your cross? It actually is an act of faith. It begs the question whether we have the ability to leave the comforts that the world temporarily offers and walk a different path with Christ? This path will be costly both in material things and emotional things. Regarding taking up our cross in the material realm Matthew Henry says:

Every man, according to his ability, must relieve the poor, and be content, when there is occasion, to straiten himself to do it. Worldly wealth is given us, not only as maintenance to bear our charges through this world, according to our place in it, but as talent, to be used and employed for the glory of our great Master in the world, who hath so ordered it, that the poor we should have always with us as his receivers.

To take up our cross is costly. It means that we give up the things of the world in order to obtain the heavenly things that await us. It’s a big price to pay. Are you ready to really do it? Begin by watching and praying.