Recovered In Christ

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Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

Romans 6: Dean To Sin, Alive To God

The real trouble about understanding the sixth of Romans is not a theological, but a moral one. When we sincerely want deliverance from the power of sin, it is within our reach. It lies just here for the simple soul who will take the statements as a fact. For the sake of a lost world, let us have no ‘moral’ hindrances to our knowing the reality of the Cross. If men and women would be utterly willing for the deepest work of the Cross to be wrought in or applied to them, there would be a trembling of the powers of hell, a shaking of the kingdom of darkness. The pivotal secret of God’s plan for the redemption of a lost world lies in the meaning of Romans 6. The central fact of the Cross being the sinner’s cross, as well as the Saviour’s.

Moreover, this Romans 6 meaning of the Cross must be recognized as the root foundation of the Christian life, just as the ‘root’ is necessary to the life of the tree. A tree cannot part with its root, but must strike it deeper into the ground, so that all external growth may have strong support in the earth, and strong life-force for its maintenance.

” We who have died to sin,” how can we any longer live under the mastery of sin? Or “have you forgotten that all of us … were baptized into fellowship with His death?” writes the Apostle. ‘All of us’-not the few who wish to be advanced souls, but young converts also! If every convert to Christ was ‘born again’ through the gospel message of this chapter, and they knew its power in experience at the very beginning of their Christian lives, there would be less backsliding, and need of careful nursing lest they fell away, for a new life would be imparted to them in stronger power, and Christ as the Living One would be known as a real Saviour.

I saw this in Finland some years ago, when the daughter of a professor sat in the front row of the Conference meetings. I was speaking, by translation into Finnish and Swedish, on the corn of wheat falling into the ground to die. There were delegates from all parts of Finland there. The occasion was such that I sought to make the most of my rare opportunity, and so I opened out all that I knew of the deeper meaning of the Cross. Someone said, “Will you speak to that girl, she is unconverted”. I said, “No, not today, I will wait!” At the end of the third day, the people were passing out, when the girl came along, and flung her arms around my neck, and burst into tears. I said, “What is it, dear? Have you come to Christ?” “Yes, I have.” “Thank God! What did you see that led you to Him?” And she replied, “The corn of wheat falling into the ground to die”. She was born again through the revelation of the Spirit of God, that “when Christ went to Calvary, He took the sinner too”. The result was that this soul became more ‘full-grown’ in three months, than the majority of Christians we meet today. When she was only three months old as a Christian, she was able to translate into Swedish (and to make arrangements for the publishing of) the whole of the book, The Cross of Calvary, and to do it intelligently and fully. This shows us what sort of converts they had in Pentecostal days. They were ‘born’ in Paul’s time on the truths of Romans 6.

Let us read the passage again: “We who have died to sin … or have you forgotten that all of us, when we were baptized into fellowship with Christ Jesus, were baptized into fellowship with His death? With Him therefore we were buried by the baptism wherein we shared His death; that even as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we likewise might walk in newness of life”. Now listen carefully to the next words-“For if we have been grafted into the likeness of His death, so shall we also share His resurrection”.

Note the repetition of the words about the Cross, making it the ‘fixed point’ of the message. ” We who died”-Calvary! “His death”-Calvary! “Shared His death”-Calvary! “Grafted. into … His death”-Calvary! And again in verses 6 and 8, “Crucified with Christ”-Calvary! “Shared the death of Christ” -Calvary! How clear it is. The Cross of Christ is the sinner’s Cross. And why? Because the whole Adam life of nature is absolutely fallen. It cannot be improved. It is fallen and poisoned by the serpent in root and branch. The whole scheme of redemption lies in the fact that God must begin again, so to speak, and make a new creation. Through the Cross He plans to bring to an end the old Adam life of the fallen race, and build again a new creation in the midst of its ruins. There is not even a ‘divine spark’ in the fallen man which He can fan into life as the basis for the new.

This fact is vital for the understanding of God’s plan of redemption through His Son’s death upon a Cross. The devil opposes the doctrine of the Fall, because he knows that if men believe there was no ‘Fall’, they have no sense of need of the Cross. The two hang together. We must therefore be brought by the Holy Spirit to the place where we realize that we have nothing in us that can be ‘improved’, and be willing to come to that Cross, and to say “when He went to Calvary, He took the sinner too”. Oh defeated child of God, take the simple fact of faith in His words, that you died with Christ upon His Cross; that you were baptized ‘into His death’-put right into Him, and buried out of sight-and there leave yourself, reckoning that you have died unto sin, and as far as you are concerned, have finished with it. Then reckon upon union with Him in resurrection, i.e., that you have in Him a new life. If we would put it briefly, we might say that when you take the attitude, or place of death, God undertakes to put into you all that He wants out of you.

What a gospel for the people! Let us give it to them. It is truly a gospel of glad tidings-the Cross the place of victory over sin as well as the place of reconciliation with God.” – Jessie Penn-Lewis; The Centrality Of The Cross

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Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!! Here is my prayer today that came from meditating on the Bible!

Monday, March 5th, 2012

And He’ll Huff And He’ll Puff and He’ll Blow Your House Down!
Sometimes I love thinking about old children’s stories – like the 3 little pigs. I also love when God connects something so deep and profound with something so simple. 3 little pigs – 2 were lazy and half assed and built their houses out of straw and sticks…and got eaten by the wolf. The 3rd piggy built his house out of brick and not only didn’t get eaten…the wolf trying to come through another entryway…fell to his death in a fiery pot in the piggy’s house!!

I wonder if the other 2 piggy’s while alive felt  judged by the 3rd? Did they sit around dissecting complex socio/political ideas – and felt insulted by what they perceived were self-righteous “bricks” that Mr.3 was using to build his home?

Did they fight for their right to insist that straw and sticks were EQUAL and valid choices to the brick? Perhaps they weren’t even lazy. Perhaps they simply didn’t believe in a silly wolf who was on his way to devour them! Perhaps they had concluded that he was nothing more than a remnant of a popular “archetype”. Perhaps they did believe in the existance of the wolf – but felt he was misunderstood, he was just a gentle vegetarian who’d been falsely accused of eating piggys! Or maybe they really thought they could reason with him, live in harmony with him, perhaps they even sent Mr. 3 some books and articles on love and tolerance of wolfies! I wonder what they thought as he swallowed them?  

I believe with all my heart that God uses time and kindness to convince you to leave your house and philosphy of straw and knock on Mr.3’s door – he’ll let you in! God has not left you without a Mr.3 piggy in your neighborhood. The house of brick fits way more than just one little piggy.

1Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the lawof the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1

Amen.

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Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!!

Sunday, March 4th, 2012

“I thought of those six men back in Philadelphia who I felt had wronged me. They probably had, but I’d got so mixed up in the wrong that I was the seventh wrong man…. I began to see myself as God saw me, which was a very different picture than the one I had of myself. I don’t know how you explain it, I can only tell you I sat there and realized how my sin, my pride, my selfishness and my ill-will, had eclipsed me from God in Christ…. I was the centre of my own life. That big “I” had to be crossed out. I saw my resentments against those men standing out like tombstones in my heart. I asked God to change me and He told me to put things right with them. It produced in me a vibrant feeling, as though a strong current of life had suddenly been poured into me and afterwards a dazed sense of a great spiritual shaking-up.” – Frank Buchman

This man wrote six letters of apology to the board members asking their forgiveness for harboring ill will. He regarded this as a foundation experience and in later years frequently referred to it with his followers…who became members of the Oxford Group. Without which not one single recovery fellowship would exist.

What jump started this change of heart? He had already been a Christian for many years. Depressed, bitter and exhausted he’d taken a leave of absence from his ministry, as he sat and listened to Jesse Penn-Lewis preach about the power and simplicity of the Cross of Jesus Christ – and the transformation of our lives because of it, and the absolute necessity of a life centered around IT…he was led to a powerful healing experience with Jesus Christ. It’s time to revist the inspiration and Truth behind the movement that at its time saw 90% + success rates.

We’re starting with Jesse Penn-Lewis’ book War On The Saints….

“Deliverance from the power of the evil one comes through definite resistance on the ground of the Cross.” – J.O Fraser

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal 2:20

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Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!! Here is my prayer today that came from meditating on the Bible!

Saturday, March 3rd, 2012

I Will Put Them To Shame…
Sometimes it’s in looking back that I see how far you have brought me God. You rescued me! You rescued my son! Day and Night I prayed to you -Day and Night I held on to your promise to rescue my son from the HORROR of the school he was in. Surrounded by hatefulness. By people worshipping evil. My son became a target of foul demonic rage.

I saw no way out.

I was alone defending him against a host of vipers.

Yet you rescued us! You pulled us out! And before you did…you put them to shame! I remember the day I walked to that school terrified of facing them – knowing they had planned a snare to trap us.

On the way to school I told you God, I was outnumbered by the demons there, yet as soon as I stepped into the school I felt the strongman being disabled…and God, you spoke this TO ME in and through my heart…though a thousand shall rise against you…you and yours will not be harmed in any way…for I AM your champion, and I will show you how truly weak and powerless this “enemy” is…I will make a spectacle of this. Do not apologize for removing yourself from the “counsel” of those who’s core fiber oppose me and my Law. So go in that school and show them, that you are not afraid to lead with the truth, that you will not play any game, or settle in any way, or sell out an inch of your son’s soul…and they will be ashamed. I will put them to shame.

You did. Every time one of them tried to speak evil or decepetion against me and my son – they would LITERALLY stumble on their words, to the point that they could not speak. They were so confused as to why they could not finish their sentences! The only thing that came out was their admission that they really did not know how to protect my son, from what they believed was an attack against him because of the light within him.!!

“You are my King and my God…Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.” Psalm 44:4

“At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you; I will rescue the lame and gather those who have been scattered. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they were put to shame. At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes” Zephaniah 3:19

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Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

The Truth…

Only God can “convert” a person’s heart by opening their eyes to the truth, I understand why people don’t want me to talk about it – because I was ‘allowed’ to have my own experience when I was a ‘non-christian’…when really I was an anti-christian, defending my right to be wrong…and people allowed me to do that – but it NEVER stopped them from sharing the truth.

I couldn’t ignore the fact, that I had never met anyone who was truly ‘clean’ and living a life of power who wasn’t a follower of Jesus Christ. Reading all of the first hand experiences of the people who started the recovery fellowships showed me by their own words how each and every single one of them suffered horribly and could never retain their state of grace when they pursued their own conception of God. I have never met anyone in recovery who had lasting peace, emotional recovery and the Spirit of God dwelling in them who were not SAVED by Christ.

It is usually through a deep experience with God, and True Repentance (which is what the recovery steps really are) that they are set on a path that if they truly follow through with earnestly seeking The Truth about God – always find Jesus.

You can believe in whatever you want – I won’t stop you or argue with you, or refuse you my friendship, but does that mean if I am asked point blank what I believe is the Truth I would deny Him, in the hopes of winning someone over? No. Never. Those games people play are evil. Alot of people have tried doing that to me. They want what I have, they want to work with me, but they don’t really want to change. They don’t follow through with the real work of repentance (Being HONEST, taking inventory, making amends, helping others, seeking God) instead they want to feed off of me, and when they can’t they turn on us and accuse us of trying to convert them! LOL.

You can have what I had before I knew Jesus Christ. I had true repentance, I recovered. I changed. I was healed, and set free from addiction. I had an experience with God, the Father. And I was given hope of something greater to come. That is all we have as non Christians. But people are not satified with that, not for very long. They want the LIGHT that they see in me now. And the Truth is, 100%, that the Light that is in me now, the power and authority that I have, is the Light of Christ. The Son of The Father. The Truth.

100%  no matter who you are, or what you believe, if you consistently ask God to Reveal the Truth to you, unadulterated, you will come to know it!

It blows me away, how many people I meet who are not in a life and death crisis, who enjoy a successful and stable life – and yet, are so willing to set aside their prejudice and talk about Jesus.

It equally blows my mind, how many people I meet in ‘recovery’ who claim to seek the Truth about God, who are adamant about respecting other people’s faith – deeply hate Christ. It makes me laugh to remember that about myself..I was a champion for freedom of religious expression, a warrior in defending people’s right to worship their exclusive God and express their beliefs that I didn’t share – except of course if it was Christianity!

When people got up and shared and spoke and went on and on in specific detail about their various religious and spiritual practices and how the rest of us should keep an open mind to trying what they did, we’d all nod in respect at how spiritual their twist on things were…but when someone got up and simply said, that the recovery process was helping them to become better Christians…we hit the roof. We recoiled. We squirmed. We started looking for some wood and nails to crucify and slander them, or at best roll our eyes…

Looking back – I am so grateful that I had that reaction…to me it was extra proof that Christ truly is a threat, to the darkness within, it was not because we all had negative experiences with ‘horrible’ Christianity. It’s because The Truth is uncomfortable when it confronts our secret desire to make up God instead of Seek Him. The non Christians in the room who were not offended were usually the ones who were more interested in seeking the Truth rather than defending their position.

At the time, that wasn’t me. At the time, I wanted my truth, rather than The Truth..and I can tell you in all sincerity, that I now, have never been more happy to have been wrong!

Jesus is The Son Of God, not because I am right, and not because someone else is wrong, but because He Is The Truth.

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Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!! Here is my prayer today that came from meditating on the Bible!

Friday, March 2nd, 2012

My City In A Nutshell…

You know who you are that are holding fast…keep holding fast…

“I know your tribulation and your poverty-yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life…The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death…I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth…to the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it…

…I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast to what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Revelation 2:9-29

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Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!! Here is my prayer today that came from meditating on the Bible!

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

Go Back…
Riding on the subway..crying into my Bible so that no one would see..heart burning with anger at people I had called my friends who were now slandering me, and making up lies so fantastical I could not believe that these were the same people to eat our food, and sleep in our homes, and live like family…I was Stalked by evil. Sworn at. Spit on. And on that subway ride, God showed me that He had seen it all, and that He knew the whole Truth – and that He was with me, but He wanted me to leave behind the anger and sadness and go back to my first Love. To the time when I loved Jesus openly and boldly..no matter who rejected me! He told me to go back, to the innocence of the day I sat on the bench breathing in the spring air, looking at God’s green everywhere, and seeing the tiny yellow flower – and Jesus telling me that He had made that flower just for me. He told me to go back to that Love. And I did.

Who knew that tender, innocent Love could forge the greatest armor that now shields my heart from all evil! God knew, that’s who!! Thanks for the Flower Jesus, I love you. Amen.

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” Revelation 2:2-7

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Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!! Here is my prayer today that came from meditating on the Bible!

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Wake Up, And Strengthen What Remains And is About To Die…
Wow! How many fellowships have I sat in that had the reputation of being “thumpers”, “on fire for God”, “hardcore recovery” etc. when in simple truth they were dead. At best – animated corpses worshipping a book or parroting a false prophet, not realizing that in order to keep the spiritual experience that began in them they had to complete their works in the sight of God – not preserve their works as is. Jesus says to Wake Up! So let’s Wake up!

“I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Revelation 3:1-6

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Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!! Here is my prayer today that came from meditating on the Bible!

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

I Know Your Works…
Jesus is pretty clear what He thinks about our accomplishments! ALL OF THEM. Even the spiritual ones! Even our best motives, in all of our success, and ridiculous religion of “I need nothing, I am complete and One with the Universe..in this present moment” …if our works don’t come from a genuine collaboration with the Holy Spirit – He’s going to spit us out…don’t shoot the messanger..read it for yourself!

I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing”, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 3:15-22

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Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!! Here is my prayer today that came from meditating on the Bible!

Monday, February 27th, 2012

Workers Of Lawlessness…

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7: 21-23

His words not mine! I am so tired of hearing people talk about Jesus and the Bible as if their opinion is equal to the truth! Safe in your arrogance that if you just keep quoting one thing He said “Judge not!” or “Love everyone!” somehow that will shut the real Christians up! Like – oh my! We’re waiting for a bunch of angry blind pharisees to misquote Jesus – take things out of context and clear it all up for us!!

YES – there is mercy and forgiveness for everyone. If. You. Repent. If you want to continue your evil lifestyle that contradicts the Bible then no, there will be no mercy or forgiveness for you! It’s the same as wanting to stay sober without prayer and amends. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Not if you’re a real alcoholic!

If you are a real sinner, of the hopeless variety – there is no wide road solution for you friend! Meditating on one thing Jesus said while denying the Will of His Father – which is to obey All of His commands will be as if you never knew Him.  Good luck doing to Jesus what Satan did in the desert – throw random Bible passages at Him to sneak in your hypocrisy. Whether or not you accept this makes absolutely no difference to me – we just shake off the dust from our shoes and move on! But it will make all of the difference to you!

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7: 24-27

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