The Holy Spirit Live In You!

Good Morning!! Jesus knew that His time had come. In a few short hours, He would leave the world and go to His Father. There was no question of His love for the men He was sharing His last meal with,...and the next day, He would prove His love for the whole world. For those closest to Him, the words of His pending departure caused confusion and concern. As part of His "Farewell Discourse," Jesus offered them words of comfort:

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."—John 14:16 (NIV)

Help was on the way: an Advocate, a Counselor,...the Spirit of Truth. This Spirit had been with them,...soon, He would be in them. That's no small distinction! Not for them, and certainly not for us. The Holy Spirit of God is not just around us, not just among us. He is IN us,...in YOU (if you have opened the door of your life to Christ and allowed Him to come in.) The movement of the Farewell Discourse is profound: from "with us" to "in us."

Of all the "famous last words" spoken, the most important we could hear are Jesus' final words telling us who we are,...because of Who is in us.

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Holy Spirit, let us never, never get over the wonder and awe of who we are in Christ, and who You are in us. Give us the peace to ponder this, the passion to envision it, the faith to live out the truth that You indwell us. Amen.

" If you can't see or show love, you are not a Christian,...you're just playing one."

Love, The New Standard

Good Morning!! Only hours before His death, Jesus gives His disciples a new command,...Love. Yes, the Christ is just about to usher in the "New Covenant",...a fulfillment of all the law and the prophets,...and yet a 180-degree shift in the direction of human spirituality. Man-made religion and legalism would soon be nullified by the sacrificial death of Jesus "because God so loved the world…" Love is about to become the new standard. But this new command, is it just a new thing we must do? A new burden to carry? Not if you look at the context, and Jesus’ prayer that follows:

I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."—John 17:26 (NIV)

At the very end of the discourse, Jesus says that it will be His love in us that will distinguish us as His disciples! He is in you, it is His love that will fulfill this new command to love others.

"A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples." (John 13:34-35)

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God of Love, Your Son showed us Your love, on the cross. By the Spirit, stir up a genuine love for You, and others,...that You created within us. We do love You! Your love is real and You have placed it in us, so let it flow, in the name of Jesus! We can't do it on our own, so we ask that You wake it up, in our hearts and minds today. Amen

" If you can't see or show love, you are not a Christian,...you're just playing one."

Letting Jesus Serve, Through Us

Good Morning!! During the last meal Jesus shared with His disciples, He gave them way more than they were ready for,...He was simultaneously putting them in their place, and communicating who they would shortly become in Him, after Pentecost. No doubt, they were a little confused and conflicted in those moments. He had just told Peter that unless he let Him serve him by washing his feet, he had no place with Him. " You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand. "(John 13:7) Jesus had just reversed the roles, then He changed the rules, and then He threw them a major curve ball: 

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one anothers' feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.—John 13:12-17 (NIV)

Do verses like these feel like a burden to you? They shouldn't, if you consider the full 'example' that Jesus set for us. He was fully dependent on the Father every step of the way. God moved Him so that He could serve us,...and now He calls us to the same. This very Jesus, the servant Jesus, lives in us. As we live in Him, it will become the most natural thing in the world, for us to serve others.

Just know that God has placed you where you are,...so that He can serve others, through you.

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Lord Jesus, make us servant! No, more than that,...would You serve through us today? We are fully dependent on You to love, and serve those around us,...particularly the difficult ones! We stand aside, surrendering our self-efforts. We give in to Your Spirit in us… give us some feet to wash. Amen!

"So even if we've chosen the Lord God in the past,...the real challenge; like Joshua is to choose This Day, whom we will serve."

Chosen

Good Morning!! If we complain about "favoritism", more times than not, it's because we're not the one being favored.  In the world, it's all about favorites. We reward those who behave as we wish,...act as we wish,...look as we wish. That's how it works in the flesh,...but God has a different standard in His family. 

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.—Galatians 3:26-29 (NIV)

Knowing who we are as individuals in Christ, can transform our individual lives. In the same way, a corporate understanding of who we all are in Christ, will transform the Church. God's truth trumps temporary social distinctions. Earthly ethnicity, gender, or social standing does not define us in God’s eyes,...if we are in Christ, we are all brothers and sisters. 

The Church is the one place where ethnicity, gender, and social standing should never matter.

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Heavenly Father, You show no favorites. In Your infinite love, You love all Your children with individual, eternal equality! We praise You that we're,...that we all, are Your favorite. Thank You for forgiving us all,...for the favoritism we show every day in Your family. By the power of Your Spirit, free us to see all others as "one in Christ"… and give us the willingness to let You love all equally,...through us. Amen.

"So even if we've chosen the Lord God in the past,...the real challenge; like Joshua is to choose This Day, whom we will serve."

Love, Dependence, And Obedience

Good Morning!! We love God, and we want to be obedient,...but we don't want to be dependent on Him, or anyone else. We tend to say, "I love God, thus I must obey!" "I want to please God, so I will obey Him." We often skip a vital part,...dependency,...and try to do it in our own strength, in order to please God,...rather than by faith, and trust, in God. Our love for Him = dependency on Him = obedience to Him.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.—Hebrews 11:7 (NIV)

How do we know Noah  had faith? We see his faith, because he built a boat. True faith will display itself! Likewise, our faith should lead to action,...as Christ lives His life through us. The Christian life is not lived on the couch, flicking through the channels with a spiritual remote. Christian faith leads to action in the power of Christ, through us,...as we trust in Him.

Our identity in Christ is not determined by our deeds,...our identity in Christ is displayed by our deeds.

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Father God, we love You! Break the independent desires of our flesh. Give us the wisdom and faith to depend on You with increasing trust. Then, God, we ask that You would enable us to follow You in joyful obedience, into any work that You have prepared for us to do. Amen.

"So even if we've chosen the Lord God in the past,...the real challenge; like Joshua is to choose This Day, whom we will serve."

A Faith Fight

Good Morning, My Friend!! Living out who we are in Christ, and experiencing who Christ is in us, is a challenge. There are reasons this does not come easily! Every step requires faith, and that faith has some powerful enemies. We battle at lease three things that keep us from trusting God:

• Christian dogma and philosophy
• Paralyzing fear
• Our own personal fleshly desires
  

And each of these " foes of faith " carries thoughts and ideas that war with our minds,...daily.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.—2 Corinthians 10:4,5 (NIV)

If your desire is to please God, the way you accomplish that is by trusting Him. It is through faith that we bring pleasure to Him. If we wake up today and say, " I'm going to trust Him today, I'm going to trust Him moment by moment," we're going to end up in quite a fight! But thank God, that we do not fight this battle for the mind alone,...because just as He was with the Israelites, He is in us.

" The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you, in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing."—Zephaniah 3:17

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Mighty Warrior, as we head into this week, we praise You for Your presence in us, and around use. We proclaim Your victory. In the days ahead, reveal the philosophical, fearful, fleshly enemies that attack our faith, and quiet our hearts in Your love. We trust in You to fight this battle. Amen.

"So even if we've chosen the Lord God in the past,...the real challenge; like Joshua is to choose This Day, whom we will serve."

Who And What, Do You Trust?

Good Morning!! The problem with questions, I'm almost positive that no one liked the idea of having to choose between those two questions from yesterday. They seemed to be boiling down to this:

1. I can choose to trust in myself, and in my own efforts in order to earn God's pleasure.
2. I can choose to trust in Christ, allowing Him to live His life through me, to enable me to live a life that is pleasing to God.

At first, it seemed like a very subtle difference. Maybe this was all just a little word game?

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.—Psalm 139:23 (NIV)

But the more you think about it, the more the significance of this choice impacted you.

• The question revealed what you believed about your own abilities outside of Christ.
• The question revealed you true beliefs about God's grace and mercy.
• The question revealed a lot about the natural tendency all humans have towards self-righteousness.
• The question revealed what you believed about God, and how you think He sees you in Christ.

" You are doomed to make choices. This is life's greatest paradox."—Wayne Dyer

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Holy Spirit, You are our counselor. By the truth of Your living Word, and the reality of Your presence inside of us, we ask that You would lead us this week. Lord, we stand aside and ask for You to work in our hearts and minds. Give us the willingness to allow You to search our hearts,...and reveal our thoughts so You can answer our questions correctly. Amen.

"Revival restores our first love for the Lord, and brings unquenchable joy of service."