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Category: Lent

  • Pain. Day 38 of Lent. Phantom pain of the old sin nature.

    Pain. Day 38 of Lent. Phantom pain of the old sin nature.

    the_phantom_pain_logo

    The International Association for the Study of Pain’s widely used definition states: “Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”

    Nociceptive pain is caused by stimulation approaching or exceeding harmful intensity. The most common categories being “thermal” (heat or cold), “mechanical” (crushing, tearing, shearing) and “chemical” (iodine in a cut, chili powder in the eyes).

    Neuropathic pain is caused by damage or disease affecting any part of the nervous system involved in bodily feelings. It is often described as “burning”, “tingling”, “electrical”, “stabbing”, or “pins and needles”. Bumping the funny bone elicits acute neuropathic pain.

    There is another type of neuropathic pain- Phantom pain is pain felt in a part of the body that has been lost or from which the brain no longer receives signals.

    Phantom limb pain is a common experience of amputees. It is often described as shooting, crushing, burning or cramping. Local anesthetic injections into the nerves or sensitive areas of the stump may relieve pain for days, weeks or, sometimes permanently, despite the drug wearing off in a matter of hours. Vigorous vibration or electrical stimulation of the stump, all produce relief in some patients.

    Spiritually speaking, have you ever felt this ‘phantom pain’ of the old sin nature?

    I love how Bob Hamp explained this in his Freedom series of teachings.

    A Parable: The Kingdom of God is like: Phantom Limb Syndrome

    Our flesh is the part of you that you travel around in. Go read Romans 5-7 to learn more about it but here is a short course. There are Three Characters at war within you:

      1. Old Nature (Sin Nature, Old Man, Dead Nature)
      2. Flesh (Body, Container, physical needs, desires, nervous system)
      3. New Nature (Spirit, Born Again Spirit)

    In Salvation the old nature is crucified and buried but the nervous system has been programmed by the old nature for years. Just because the old man is dead and buried doesn’t mean the program stopped running. You’ve got baggage from the past, it’s like you can’t wipe the hard drive, there is still all your old data stored in there, and viruses that you didn’t clean out.

    New Nature is born inside the Flesh. The New Spirit is meant to re-program from the inside out working through you.

    Because there is a war within you, the Old Nature keeps trying to tell you it’s still around, in fact sometimes you wonder if it’s not still in control.  It’s painful.  Just like Phantom Limb Syndrome.

    When treating Phantom Limb Syndrome, doctors tried to treat giving Tylenol when the missing foot hurts, they actually found they strengthen the nervous systems embedded reactions telling the brain the leg is still in tact. It was successful temporarily, but it maintained the lie over time. This was because as the treatment made it better for a moment and then it got worse again, and more medicine made it better, but then it got worse again, and it only strengthen the programming of the brain that the limb was there.

    Instead doctors learned to prescribe a series of treatments that engage the new nerve endings at the stump of the limb. Touching the NEW nerve endings with hot things, cold things, prickly things, soft things, as many new sensations as possible to stimulate the NEW nerve endings, telling the nervous system through new experiences that something has indeed change, the limb is gone and allowing the brain to be re-routed for this new information.  These treatments got the brain to focus on what is the NEW condition.

    Like Phantom Limb Syndrome, in order to allow the New Nature to reprogram our nervous system we must begin to stimulate the new nerve endings, which allows the nervous system to reprogram those new experiences into our beliefs.

    Many people who get saved are told to go to church, read your bible, pray, etc… doing those things, good things, don’t save you. “By grace we have been saved through faith, and it is not of ourselves it is a gift from God.” Eph 2:8 However the Bible is a book full of Words written by God for you and it’s full of information about what has been done in you already. Instead of wrestling with a dead man who isn’t there anymore-fixating on it; what we are dealing with-then medicating it with ‘solutions’ only to fixate on it again-is not a process that works. Instead we can begin to stimulate our nervous system to what is NEW in us. Going to church and being with other believers, hearing the Word Taught, but also talking WITH other believers allows us to renew our nervous system to that which is NEW there. Bible Reading, Pastors Messages, Prayer, Church Gathering, Etc are all ways to stimulate what is New about you, that which has ALREADY happened.

    The more of these you do, with the mindset that you are not doing them “to become”, but rather, “to discover” what you “have become”, the faster we can re-program our nervous system to understand what is new about us and what has really died.

    The lesson of the parable is this: don’t focus on the Old, stimulate the New and keep your focus on Christ, abiding in Him we draw all that we need to bear fruit for His kingdom and if you take a look at the list of the fruit of the spirit-love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Gal 5:22-23,  that is what happens supernaturally as we abide in Christ.

     

    This writing was an adaptation on the message from Bob Hamp and my notes from taking his Freedom Series class.

    http://gatewaypeople.com/ministries/freedom-kairos/media1

    ..

  • Broken. Day 37 of Lent. Psalm 51.

    Broken. Day 37 of Lent. Psalm 51.

    Ps51 broken

    When I am broken I go to one of my favorite passages of Scripture. Psalm 51
    A psalm of David.

    I love this version song by Jars of Clay.


    1 Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
    according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
    2 Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.
    3 For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
    4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
    so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.
    5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
    6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
    7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
    8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
    9 Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.
    10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
    11 Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
    12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
    13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    so that sinners will turn back to you.
    14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
    you who are God my Savior,
    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
    15 Open my lips, Lord,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
    16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
    17 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart
    you, God, will not despise.
    18 May it please you to prosper Zion,
    to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
    19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
    in burnt offerings offered whole;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

  • Debit. Day 36 of Lent. Spiritual Accounting 101.

    Debit. Day 36 of Lent. Spiritual Accounting 101.

    ledger debit

    Debit is a bookkeeping term for the recording or an entry of debt in an account.

    To understand its spiritual significance we first have to understand sin’s definition.

    Sin is anything that is contrary to the law or will of God. If you do what God has forbidden, then you have sinned. If you do not do what God has commanded, you sin (James 4:17). Either way, the result is eternal separation from God (Isaiah 59:2). Sin is lawlessness (1 John 1:3) and unrighteousness (1 John 5:17). Sin leads to bondage (Rom. 6:14-20) and death (Rom. 6:23). Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. 1 John 3:4
    Sin is breaking the law of God.

    Sin, breaking the law of God, is a legal debt. 

    In Luke 11:4 it says, “And forgive us our sins (hamartia) . . . ” Jesus equates sin with debt.  We can think of it as each sin is a debt recorded as an entry in a ledger. At some point that debt will come due for payment.

    Legal debts can be transferred.

    Sin is a legal debt and because legal debts can be transferred that is why Jesus could bear our sins in His body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). Through faith we believe this and are justified.

    Justified is a legal standing before the Law.

    To be justified is to be declared legally righteous. It is a divine act where God declares the sinner to be innocent of his sins. It is not that the sinner is now sinless but that he is “declared” sinless legally. This justification is based on the shed blood of Jesus, ” . . . having now been justified by His blood . . . ” (Rom. 5:9). When God sees the Christian, He sees him through the sacrifice of Jesus and “sees” him without sin. This declaration of innocence is not without cost, for it required the satisfaction of God’s Law, ” . . . without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,” (Heb. 9:22).  In justification, the justice of God fell upon Himself—Jesus, the Son of God. Justification is a legal act of imputing the righteousness of Christ to the believer (Rom. 4:11; Phil. 3:9).

    To impute means to reckon to someone the blessing, curse, debt, etc., of another.

    Adam’s sin is imputed to all people (Rom. 5:12-21). Therefore, we are effectively all guilty before God. Our sins were put upon, imputed, to Jesus on the cross. He became sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) and died with them (Isaiah 53:4-6). Our sins were dead and buried with Jesus Christ in the tomb. Therefore, our sins are forgiven. Understanding imputation is very important. Imputation is the means of our salvation. Our sins were put upon, imputed, to Jesus on the cross. Our sins, the legal debt we owed, were “given” to Jesus to pay for. When He died on the cross, our sins, in a sense, died with Him. The righteousness that was His through His perfect obedience to the Father in His complete obedience to the Law is imputed, given, to us and legally put in our account. In short, our sins were given to Jesus. His righteousness was given to us.

     To sum it up:

    Sin is breaking the law of God and is a legal debt.
    Sin is a legal debt and because legal debts can be transferred that is why Jesus could bear our sins in His body on the cross.
    Through faith we believe this and are justified.
    To be justified is to be declared legally righteous.
    Justification is a legal act of imputing the righteousness of Christ to the believer.
    To impute means to reckon to someone the debt of another.
    Our sins/legal debt were transferred to Jesus.
    His righteousness was given to us.

    Now that our debt is paid, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8

    He paid a debt He did not owe;
    I owed a debt I could not pay;
    I needed someone to wash my sins away. “Amazing Grace.”
    Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
    Hymn by:  Ellis J. Crum

     

  • FOLLOW. Day 35 of Lent. You, Me keep on following.

    FOLLOW. Day 35 of Lent. You, Me keep on following.

    You, me keep on following.

    Jesus used a two-word phrase most often when engaging people.
    It was a simple, yet profound, call issued with a tone of encouragement.
    Follow me.
    Jesus used this call, follow me, at least 12x in the gospels.
    When Jesus first saw Peter and Andrew his challenging call was “follow me and I’ll teach you how to fish for people.”
    Jesus told his followers – take up your cross and – follow me.
    He described his followers as sheep – who follow him.
    He told us if anyone serves me, he must follow me.
    He challenged Peter, after Peter had denied Jesus – follow me.

    In New Testament times when a rabbi said “follow me,” he wasn’t simply saying get behind me and go where I go. It wasn’t a recruitment line like “Be all you can be, join the Army.” It was a much deeper appeal—a call— that told the one hearing it, I see something in you, I think you have a heart like mine, a soul like mine. We’re like minded. Join with me, watch me, listen to me, learn from me. I believe you can be like me.

    The meaning of the words ‘follow me’ are a challenge to the called to be in the same way as their teacher.
    When Jesus said ‘follow me’ it was both a challenge and an encouragement.

    “As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me and be my disciple,’ Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.”-Matthew 9:9 (NLT)

    Jesus saw the heart, soul and mind of Matthew; a tax collector.
    Back then tax collectors were master extortionist, real bad guys who were crooked and greedy and hated by the Jews because they had aligned themselves with Rome. So hated they had their very own category – tax collector’s, who were considered so evil that they weren’t even lumped in with “sinners”. Matthew was a Jew by name only, he had to renounce his Jewish heritage to become a tax collector. He could no longer go to the temple to make sacrifices. He would be considered a traitor. And considered far from God.
    When Jesus called Matthew he called a tax collector hated by everyone. Do a quick study to see the story from another perspective. In Luke’s gospel it says Jesus “saw a tax collector,” the Jewish response would be resentment, and disgust. But notice how Matthew records it in the gospel version he wrote, “Jesus saw a man named Matthew.”
    Matthew knew by personal experience that Jesus saw past the façade. He saw beyond the poor choices and bad decisions and greedy motivations. He saw beyond the family line of the inherited position and past the pride that was a shield to his outcast heart. Jesus saw the man.

    “Here is one of the greatest instances in the New Testament of Jesus’ power to see in a man, not only what he was, but also what he could be. No one ever had such faith in the possibilities of human nature as Jesus had.” -William Barclay

    As Matthew sat at the tax collector’s booth Jesus issued him an invitation, a way out of his former life to begin a new life. With the words ‘follow me’ he was lavishing encouragement-which means to impart strength into someone saying He believed there was something about Matthew that was like Him- you have a heart like mine, a soul like mine, we’re like minded- join with me, watch me, listen to me, learn from me. Be my disciple.
    Matthew got up and followed Jesus!
    He wanted out. He wanted freedom. He wanted community and union and love more than the emptiness of money and power. In that one moment can you imagine what Matthew experienced? Grace, amazing grace, full and deep and real. Love. Jesus saw him. His inner being understood. Jesus gave him another chance and a new life. Isn’t that the picture of salvation. Yes. Lord, yes, how you love us. Our God sees us.
    Matthew experienced a spiritual truth that day … God sees us where we are and calls us to follow him into deeper things.

    You might think about Matthew and be tempted to compare your story to his. Don’t.
    In C.S. Lewis story, A Horse and His Boy, Aslan recounts his sovereign workings in Shasta’s life. As he listens and reflects he suddenly questions, “Then it was you who wounded Aravis?”
    “It was I.”
    “But what for?”
    “Child, I am telling your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own.”

    Comparison kills contentment and takes our focus off of the story God is writing in our lives. The apostle Peter learned this truth after he was reinstated through Christ’s three questions, “Peter, do you love me?” that counter balanced Peter’s three earlier betrayals as he answered, “Yes, Lord, I love you,” and was commissioned again to feed and shepherd Jesus people. Jesus then explains that Peter’s life of service would be difficult and he would have to bear his own cross, Peter looks at the apostle John and asks the comparison question- “Lord, what about him?”
    Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”

    Jesus final ‘Follow me’ can be translated like this,
    “You, Me keep on following.”
    You- your journey, your story is personal and Jesus knows it all.
    Me- the Lord Jesus Christ is the one we are to follow.
    Keep on- following is a never-ending pursuit.
    Follow-like I walked, where I lead you, in my spirit, abiding in me for energy and sustenance.

    After 2,000 years Jesus’ challenge hasn’t changed. It is simply…
    You, Me keep on following.

    Jesus isn’t inviting us to join a lecture group to get to know Him and His ways.
    This is an apprenticeship. It’s hands on application we are called to by the words,
    “You, Me keep on following.”

    The Jews had a blessing said over students of a rabbi –
    “May you always be covered by the dust of your rabbi.”

    A rabbi would often travel and following close behind would be his disciples. After walking the dusty roads directly behind their rabbi, the disciples would be dusted, covered by the road dirt that was kicked up from the rabbi’s feet.

    “May you always be covered by the dust of The Rabbi, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

    May you find the dust of your rabbi in his mysterious call within your heart and in his true Word spoken aloud. May dust find you in moments of quiet meditation and settle over you in those times of deep reflection. May his dust sparkle in the air as you worship, giving to those who have less, serving those in need, pouring out to others the good news of the gospel. May the same dust of The Rabbi so infiltrate your life that it begins to cover others behind you as you run the race set before you, your story in His story, of the grace and love of God.

  • TRUST. Day 34 of Lent. Believing in Truth.

    TRUST. Day 34 of Lent. Believing in Truth.

    Tell the truth now, You are a liar.

    everybody lies

    Dr. Gregory House claims, “Everybody lies,” on the show House, but few understand what lying is, what it does, and how to stop it.

    Lying is saying something with the intent of creating a false belief or impression. It’s an attempt to get someone to believe something that is not true. We deceive other people because we think it serves our purposes in some way.

    We often lie when we are afraid of facing what would happen if we told the truth. We lie to cover-up. Or we lie to inflate who we are because we lack self-confidence and feel overlooked or want attention or status. We deceive other people because we think it serves our purposes in some way or it keeps us from hurting them because as Jack Nicholson’s said, “You can’t handle the truth.” We’re all habitual ‘white liars’ because we are too lazy to find creative ways to speak the truth in love and we can’t fathom how rude we would be if we all told the truth all the time like Jim Carrey in the 1997 comedy Liar Liar.

    The most common ways we lie are to save face, shift the blame, avoid confrontation, to get our way, to be nice or to make ourselves look better. But every lie has a cost. Dr. Feldman says in his book The Liar in Your Life, “Even if we are telling what seems to be a totally harmless lie, we know we’re telling that lie, and it causes a kind of smudge on the relationship.” When we find out we’ve been lied to a certain trust has been broken, our faith is shattered and we find it harder to trust.

    Trust. The firm belief in the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing that gives us confidence or reliance in them. Trust makes something worth believing.

    In a world where everybody lies how assuring is it that God himself “does not lie” (Titus 1:2). In his holiness, he is incapable of lying.
    “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
    “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” Numbers 23:19

    God cannot lie. If it were ever righteous to lie, then that would mean there is something that God can not do. It is clearly not God’s plan for people to say something with the intent of creating a false belief or impression to get someone to believe something that is not true because we it serves our purposes in some way. As His children we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves and not bear false witness.

    Some might make an argument for lying when it is the lesser of two evils like in the case of Corrie ten Boom, who saved a number of lives by hiding Jewish people from the Gestapo. Sarah Sumner says that, “Ten Boom’s situation—like many other situations—was so tangled up in sin that it seems like her best option was to lie. What ten Boom’s case shows is not that lying is honoring to God, but rather that human circumstances can degenerate into something so depraved that lies get mixed in with acts of faith.”
    In a sinful world truth dilemmas are the exception not the rule. Corrie ten Boom was an honorable hero but when she lied, she wasn’t imitating God.
    We can trust God because God never lies. God always tells the truth. Truth is that which corresponds to reality. God always speaks truth. If He says fire is hot, it is hot. His truth corresponds to reality.

    Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life.” (John14:6) “In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:37)
    Lying is sin because untruth violates Truth. Since Jesus is the Truth, it is antichrist or against Christ to lie. Without truth there would be only chaos. No community.

    God is relational and He knows that lying breaks the trust in a relationship. It is a sin against our fellow-man, ourselves and our God. God wants us to be truthful as a way of cultivating our relationship not only with Him but also with other people.

    Jesus is truth and cannot lie therefore God can be trusted.
    But there is a father of lies named Satan. He is always saying things with the intent of creating a false belief or impression, attempting to get someone to believe something that is not true because it serves his purpose to deceive the world.Satan tries to tell us truth is relative and is based on ‘How you see reality.” Maybe fire isn’t hot it is only warm, you should touch it and see.

    Truth is not relative, it is absolute. Everybody knows what truth is because everybody knows how to lie and tell what truth is not.

    The issue with TRUST, isn’t an issue with having a God we can trust, it is more an issue with our own ability to trust because everyone else we know lies.

    Today just meditate on the truth- My God can not lie.

    For the king trusts in the LORD, And through the lovingkindness of the Most High he will not be shaken. Psalms 21:7

  • Serve. Day 32 of Lent. The Story continues.

    Serve. Day 32 of Lent. The Story continues.

    Stamp_Germany_2000_MiNr2115_Nikolaus_Ludwig_von_Zinzendorf

    Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf was a German, born in 1700, who founded a community of earnest Christians called Herrnhut-“The Lord’s Watch”. The community became part of the Moravian Church and was best known for its unparalleled missionary zeal that sent out the two young missionaries in The Story from Day 31 of Lent.

    In 1727 the community started a round the clock “prayer watch” that lasted unbroken for 100 years. There were about 300 persons in the community and various ones covenanted to pray for one of the 24 hours in the day. 65 years later, with the lamp of prayer still burning, the little community had sent out 300 missionaries to the unreached peoples of the West Indies, Greenland, Lapland, Turkey, and North America. They were radically dedicated to making Jesus known. Behind this community at Herrnhut there was an experience of deep humbling, and cleansing, and power based on the blood of Jesus.

    In Zinzendorf early years, after he had finished university, he took a trip throughout Europe looking at some of the cultural highlights. In the art museum at Dusseldorf something life changing happened when he saw a painting by Domenico Feti entitled “Ecce Homo”-Behold the Man.

    ecco homo behold the man

    Beneath the portrait were the words,
    “I have done this for you; what have you done for me?”

    As he stood there, as it were, watching his Savior suffer and bleed, he said to himself, “I have loved him for a long time, but I have never actually done anything for him. From now on I will do whatever he leads me to do.”

    For the rest of his life the blood of Jesus had a central place in the doctrine and devotion of Zinzendorf and his community at Herrnhut. It was this devotion to serve Christ and Zinzendorf’s passion to proclaim Him that was transferred to the two young missionaries in The Story from Day 31 that sailed to the West Indies, departing with the sacred pledge to their friends on shore, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering!”

    What is the reward of Christ suffering?

    The church of God.

    We are not our own. We have been bought with a price. Redeemed from the wrath of God and the destination of eternal hell and given eternal life.

    “Has the Lord obtained the reward of his sufferings in your life?”

    Think about the blood of Jesus running down his face from the thorns, and across his scourged back, and from his pierced hands and feet and pouring from the wound in His side, are you satisfied with what Christ has of you? Or are you withholding any of the reward of his suffering? Do you rise each day and commit to live every moment so that the Great Purchaser of your soul will receive the full reward of his suffering”?

    Christ came to serve. “and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matt 20:27-28

    I have done this for you; what have you done for me?

    This question is worth of meditation when we think of the word serve.  How can we serve our Christ?

    Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2

     

  • STORY. Day 31 of Lent. The Reward.

    STORY. Day 31 of Lent. The Reward.

    movarian athem

    Leonard Dober and a carpenter named David Nitschmann were two young Moravian Missionaries who heard of an island in the West Indies where an atheist British owner had 3000 slaves. This slave owner had sworn, “No preacher, no clergyman, will ever stay on this island. If he’s ship wrecked we’ll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave, but he’s never going to talk to any of us about God, I’m through with all that nonsense.”

    Three thousand slaves from the jungles of Africa brought to an island in the Atlantic and enslaved there to live and die without ever hearing the good news of Christ.

    When these two young Moravians heard about it, they were so moved that they sold themselves to the British planter and used the money they received from their sale to pay their passage out to his island for he wouldn’t even transport them.

    As the ship left its pier in the river at Hamburg and was going out into the North Sea carried with the tide, the Moravians had come from Herrenhut to see these two young men in their early twenties off.  They would never return again, for this wasn’t a four-year term, they sold themselves into lifetime slavery. Their mission to simply live out their lives as slaves, they could be Christians where these others were who would never hear the hope of Christ. Their families and friends were there weeping, for they knew they would never see them again. And many there wondered why they were going and questioned the wisdom of such a supreme sacrifice.

    As the housings had been cast off and were being curled up there on the pier, and the young men saw the widening gap between ship and shore, one lad with his arm linked through the arm of his fellow, raised his hand and shouted across the growing chasm the last words that were heard from them.

    “MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN
    RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!

    MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN
    RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!”

    This became the call of Moravian missions. And this is the only reason for being. That the Lamb that was slain may receive the reward of His suffering!

    Told by P. Reidhead

    lamb slain

    Moravian anthem: “We will follow the Lamb wherever He goes. May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.”

  • SAD. Day 30 of Lent. I’m tearing up.

    SAD. Day 30 of Lent. I’m tearing up.

    sad. tear in my eye.

    I’m tearing up.

    Crying is part of our human emotional package – but what triggers our tears when we are both sad – and happy? Get your tissues ready because weeping makes our noses run.

    When a tear is produced from the lacrimal gland it spreads a moist film across your eye. Your tear then has two destinies; firstly it can drain-off down the lacrimal punctum, subsequently draining through your nose which makes your nose run or if weep, the overflow of fluid cascades over your eyelids and down your face. Crying can be scientifically defined as the shedding of tears in response to an emotional state; very different from the non-emotional shedding of tears ‘lacrimation’. So we have more than one type of tear. Basal tears keep the cornea nourished and lubricated, reflex tears wash out irritations or vapors like onions. Psychic, or ‘crying’ tears are produced in response to a strong emotion from stress, pleasure, anger, sadness and suffering to indeed, physical pain. Psychic tears even contain a natural painkiller, called leucine enkephalin which held you feel better after a good cry.

    Without getting technical an emotional reaction triggers your nervous system, which in turn, orders your tear-producing system to activate and you cry.

    Why did God give us tears? Is it a form of non-verbal communication to elicit help and support from those around you in your time of need. And doesn’t crying somehow solidify relationships with those sharing in an emotional experience? Just think about babies, they use crying as their first form of communication to the world. Haven’t you ever heard a newborn’s cry. The world takes notice of their pitifully soft, ‘Help me!’ Babies actually have three types of crying – the basic ‘hey you, pick me up’, the angrier, ‘do you have any idea how gross this diaper really feels’ and finally the painful ‘they say cutting teeth is the worst human pain imaginable’.

    Tears are a responsive representation of what is going on inside us. Even the strongest among us break down and cry at times. It’s part of the human experience. It reveals not only our deep emotional connections with our world – past, present, and future – but allows us to visibly communicate the depth of which we feel about it. Crying is a signal God gave us to communicate we are feeling something deeply. And God always takes note of our tears.

    O God. Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle:
    are they not in thy book?  When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me. Psalm 56:7-10

    No greater suffering has ever been experienced than that of Jesus, a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” Isaiah 53:3

    Christ’s life was one continued series of sorrows, from the cradle to the cross. In His infancy His life was in danger from Herod, and his family fled to Egypt. His step father Joseph died and his birth was questioned as people called him names and said hurtful things to the Nazarene. His entire ministry was characterized by compassion for hurting people and the sorrow He felt from the hardness and unbelief of men’s hearts. He was rejected and continually opposed by the religious leaders, and the people were fickle; trying to crown Him king one day only to yell ‘crucify him’ the next. Even His own disciples doubted Him and in the end scattered in fear when He was arrested. The night before His crucifixion, He was “exceedingly sorrowful unto death” as He was tempted by Satan and contemplated the coming wrath and justice of God which would fall upon Him as He suffered and died for us. So great was His agony that His sweat was as great drops of blood. The greatest sorrow of His life was when on the cross He became sin and was separated from His Father to bear the wrath of God for us so that we might be redeemed.

    But in the resurrection dawns a victorious Christ who proclaims, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

    While life among sinful humanity in this world will never be perfect, we know that God is faithful and that when Christ returns, sorrow will be replaced with rejoicing (Isaiah 35:10). But in the meantime, we use our sorrow to glorify God (1 Peter 1:6-7) and rest in the Lord God Almighty’s grace and peace and the body of Christ’s care.

  • Practice. Day 29 of Lent. Two-a-days.

    Practice. Day 29 of Lent. Two-a-days.

    football is like life vince lombardi

    Say the word practice and I immediately think about football.
    I’m from Texas. Here, we’re all about Friday night lights. We’ve got our Johnny Football, Gig Em Ags, Texas Fight, and ‘how ’bout them cowboys!’ My cell phone still sings out Hank’s, ‘Are You Ready For Some Football’ when my boys call. I cheered both of my sons from Pop Warner through Varsity, 3 knee surgeries, 2 broken arms, dislocated fingers, stitches, the dreaded concussion and six years of 2-a days. It’s really hot in Texas in August. Even if you get up before dawn to go to practice, it’s hot. Long, hard, tough, hot days of conditioning young bodies in the character building crucible of adversity. The repetitive grind of two-a-days prepares a player to compete at his full potential, to fight through fatigue, and to maintain sharpness and clarity under withering pressure.

    Vince Lombardi said, “Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”

    The two-a-day practice regimen is found in scripture too.
    Psalm 1 talks about the man that is blessed, “His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night . He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”

    Two-a-days is the preparation for a season. Psalm 1 gives us the practices of a blessed man. He meditates on the Word of God day and night . Renewing our mind each morning with God’s word. Reviewing our day each evening in line with God’s word. It is God’s preparation for those who want to be blessed, who want God’s favor to rest upon them. Who want to be prepared to demolish strongholds and every argument and pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:4). It is the practice which will not fail us in times of testing, it is the provision that gives us the Mind of Christ and the Love of God and the spirit of empowerment to be a witness to our world.

    On the eve of a season, where Joshua would lead Israel into a promise land hostile with fierce opposition, Joshua received a pep talk from the Captain of Hosts. “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:7-9

    With this charge God inspired Joshua and gave his people the strategy for victory. Meditate on God’s word day and night. If they carefully embrace His Word, reflect on it, and do it, then they will have courage to stand strong then they will be prosperous and successful and…God promised to be with them wherever they went.

    Paul told the Philippians, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

    Again the charge is “practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

    Jesus tell us also, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock…and nothing could shake it.”

    Finally practice is the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, it is to repeat, repeat, repeat, to exercise a skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it, and to continue to carry out or perform a particular activity, method, or custom habitually or regularly.

    It is one thing to know it, another to believe it and still another to do it. PRACTICE is the actual application of what we know and believe.

    “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22

    And remember, someone once said, “practice makes perfect.”

  • Hunger. Day 28 of Lent. How to find satisfaction.

    Hunger. Day 28 of Lent. How to find satisfaction.

    all_were_satisfied

    What are you hungry for?
    The question pops up whenever we set out for dinner. Sometimes we have a clear preference. Sometimes we’re indifferent. Sometimes we are craving Chuy’s Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom Enchiladas or Tim Love’s bulgogi beef at the Woodshed. Other times we are starving and the nearest fast food is all we can wait for. But never in my life have I ever gone hungry. So blessed to live in a country where the supermarkets are never out of food and easily accessible and the food court at the mall is like a mini-Epcot center of foreign choices. We are well fed.

    But spiritually, what are you hungry for?

    Is your heart in tune with David? “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalms 63:1

    Are you currently like a foreigner on a journey of faith that has lost his job or become disabled and provisions are shrinking. Maybe its chemotherapy that has your strength weakening and suddenly in this spiritual wilderness you find yourself really hungry. Famished for a word, any word at all from God, humbly realizing you were never really in control of your provisions when you were in your full strength. God is in control and now what you hunger for most is today’s promise that He will supply all that you need today.               “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” Deut 8:3

    Maybe you’ve been eating at the world’s banquet table and shopping at the world’s fashionable idol factories only to realize gluttonous, you are empty. Closet bursting, you have nothing to wear. You’ve had the latest and greatest all of a week and you’re already bored. Prov 27:20 reminds us, “Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes.” But Jesus promises, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6

    How can our spiritual hunger be satisfied?

    “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” John 6:33-35
    Come daily to the Lord Jesus Christ and through relationship with Him talk about the things of the world you hunger and thirst for and ask Him to replace the appetite for those temporary things with a deep desire for His eternal things.

    All 4 gospels give the account of the small boy who provided his small lunch—which was everything he had at the time—that became the bountiful feast that fed over 5,000 hungry people who had gathered to hear the Lord Jesus teach. Perhaps the boy thought he’d give all that he had to simply feed Jesus that day but his love and his faith were miraculously multiplied and all were satisfied.

    “You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; Then My people will never be put to shame. “Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, And that I am the LORD your God, And there is no other; And My people will never be put to shame.” Joel 2:26-27

    “Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” Psalm 126:2