Friday, November 16, 2007

Getting All You Can From a Verse

The Christmas season is coming up fast, and a lot of folks will be reading the account of the birth of Jesus in the early chapters of Luke. One of the verses in the details is Luke 1:37. It reads like this: "For with God nothing will be impossible."

This was to encourage Mary that God could cause her to be with child even without a husband. The virgin birth. We might enlarge upon that, looking at Jeremiah 32:17: "...there is nothing too hard for You (God)." Jeremiah prayed with that confidence.

How is it with us? Can we take God's declaration to Mary and apply it to our own life needs? Look at II Corinthians 1:20 with me. "For all the promises of God in Him are YES and in Him, Amen, to the glory of God through us."

All of God's promises to us, in Christ, are YES promises! There are no NO promises. I think God wants to see expectancy in our prayers. It's not our trying to overcome His reluctance, but connecting with His willingness--that is the essence of prayer, it seems to me.

Now, back to the Luke 1:37 verse. Something else that verse says, uniquely so. It also says, "with God, nothing will be impossible". But, you say, isn't that the same as the first time we looked at it, above? Now, though, look at the word, "nothing" in light of His "Yes" promises. It reads like this, paraphrased: "With God, it is impossible for there to be nothing."

Think of how this can impact our prayers. God fills all things, the Bible declares. In one place it says, "The glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea". That meas every cubic inch. It looks like the only place that does not have access to is the human heart, where He respects our willingness, our free moral agency, its called. "...(God) is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." II Peter 3:9

The God of possibilities! Isn't He known as the Creator?

Gene Lawley

Saturday, November 3, 2007

The Three Targets of Temptation

In the prior blog, about being poor in spirit, I mentioned the three areas in which the serpent tempted Eve--the flesh, the eyes, the self. I John 2:16 says it: "For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world." (Italics added.)

When I read this passage once again a few months ago, it hit me: Is that all there is? Is'nt there something else? And, I sensed a crying sound in my spirit. The world has nothing else? How can it be so? I think, now, that its because all those things that don't count will be burned up!

A brother, now deceased, some years ago was eagerly looking for the Lord's return and speculated that after the rapture, believers would return and reclaim the properties and so forth that they had built while living on earth previously. I hardly thought so, for the Scriptures do not indicate that at all, so far as I have discovered. Physical things will not be for reclaiming.

As for the targets of temptation, they are the consistent tools of Satan's trade. If we find ourselves walking in the flesh instead of in the Spirit, we only need to check which one of those three areas is our problem, or perhaps it's all three! If two Christians are at each other in mental--or physical--fisticuffs, which area is the problem? Likely, it's pride of life, or self.

Jim Downing, of The Navigators, used to show the pattern this way:

L U C I F E R
--P R I D E--
----S I N----

Notice that the "I" is in the middle all the way through, top to bottom, or bottom to top is more like it, for sin can be traced to Lucifer, who revels in it.

Knowing this is all there is in this world, can we surmise that the driving force behind all the motivations of the world are found in these three areas? What drives the porno industry: Lust of the flesh. What drives the fashions industry? Lust of the eyse--combined with lust of the flesh. What drives political ambition? The desire for power, mostly, which is pride of life.

We Christians, then, are right in the middle of this, and we also have our own flesh to deal with. But, we do have the Spirit of Christ dwelling within us--the mystery of the ages, the hope of glory, says Colossians 1:27. Our guard must always be up, lest we begin to walk in the flesh and not in the Spirit--that is, trying to live righteously in our own strength and not in Christ's power, by faith. For instance, where is the line drawn when love turns into lust? And Jeremiah has a word for us on this: "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9.

Are Christians, then, to have no ambition and drive for accomplishment? It looks like this: Since we belong to Christ--He bought and paid for us--we have to do our things for Jesus' sake, not for ourselves. Colossians 3:23--"And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men." That does remain a large order for us, being in the world, too. Who is it that we put first?

But God! That is the lead-off statement which holds so much hope for the struggling believer! Look at Philippians 2:13--"For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure!" (I added the exclamation point.)

Finally, Romans 6:14--"For sin shall NOT have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace!" (My capitals and exclamation mark, again.)

Gene

Saturday, October 13, 2007

The Interesting Things a Bible Verse Says

Were we to stop long enough to soak up what is being said, when reading a verse in the Bible, it might just revolutionize our lives.

Much has been written about the Beeattitudes. The Be-Attitudes. In Matthew 5:3 and following are listed those commonly called the Blessed Attitudes, as well. There are other "Blessed are they that......." promises in other places in Scripture, and I have thought of doing a search/study of them sometime.

The first one, Matthew 5:3, is unique in its content, its contradiction, and its placement in relation to those following.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Let's try a paraphrase: "Truly happy are those who realize their spiritual poverty, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs."

The Apostle Paul believed that. He says a truth that he must have learned from Jesus, Himself, when he was in Arabia those three years. Recorded in II Corinthians 6:10, he claims to be "always sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing all things."

It is foundational that, having no spiritual assests to bring into our new relationship with Christ, the only spirituality we later have is what Jesus Christ gives us. And, with that glaring lack of apiritual assets, we have been given ready access to all the Kingdom of Heaven has to offer? Yes, that is the content of the promise. Only in Christ's name do we have this access.

The contradiction (in the way of the world), is that, here, we truly have the situation of getting "something for nothing"! Is it so? That is what the verse says, backed up by Paul's life testimony, too. Are you willing to admit that you really have nothing and only depend on Jesus for all things?

That is the key that opens the doorway to the Kingdom of Heaven. Are those filthy rags of self-righteousness all that important to me, we need to ask ourselves. It sifts down to the matter of the "pride of life", which was one of the three targets that the serpent pinpointed in Eve's life in the Garden of Eden so long ago.

How was that quote from Jim Elliott, one of the five missionaries killed in the jungle of Equador on January 8, 1956: "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Mark 8:36--"For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" This is the way Jesus put it.

The placement of this Be-Attitude first in line is a hint, at least, that perhaps, all the other following promises hinge on understanding and applying this one truth. A followup posting will have to happen to explore this thought.

On the way to higher ground,

Gene Lawley

Friday, October 12, 2007

About Right Divisions

Right divisions about what, you ask. About the Word of God. The Bible. The Holy Scriptures. II Timothy 2:15 reads this way: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (New King James translation)

My entries in this blog, hopefully, will hold true to the guideline in the verse above. My intent is that it will be so. I think "rightly dividing the word of truth" means finding the thread of truth from all parts of the Bible as it bears upon a particular topic or issue. Finding the balance that addresses all sides of an issue in spiritual life is the goal.

By definition, truth is narrow. In so many words, Jesus said that "broad is the road to destruction and narrow is the road to life". There are quite a few folks these days, it seems, who are quite forward in their denial that Jesus really is "the way, the truth, the life, and no man comes to the Father but through Him". (John 14:6) The pressure to conform to the clamor of the masses is rampant. Political correctness is the buzz phrase. Truth is, after all, relative, isn't it? As the popular song claims, "if it feels so good, how could it be wrong?"

Is the Bible really the Word of God? What are the claims made by the Book, itself? How vital is that to the believer in everyday life? How vital is that to the one who is searching for truth, perhaps even unknowingly doing so? Is the Word able to stand on its own? Is there a source of power in the Scriptures that is just not there in other writings?

Good questions to ponder, and to find workable answers, don't you think? Perhaps we can address these in future blogging and be the better for it.

Gene Lawley
Twin Falls, Idaho
fiddlefax@yahoo.com

About Me

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Twin Falls,, Idaho, United States
A retired CPA, born and raised in Oklahoma, and came to Idaho in 1971 from Colorado.