Recovered In Christ

What if God has something to say to you? Are you listening? I’m not talking about trancing out for 45 minutes listening to musical chimes kind of listening either! Is your heart honest, obedient and willing? ….are you listening? Are you able to hear – or are your excuses and “progress rather than perfection” anthem drowning out the voice of God?

The scary thing about excuses – is that after a time you will believe them yourself…and you will be lost at sea inside your own self. The compass of truth that God has given everyone – our conscience, has been seared that’s true…we need the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in us that’s true…but God cannot and will not restore to you what he knows in His heart you refuse to accept.

So many people come to me wanting evidence and confirmation that they have been forgiven – desperate to believe that God can and has released them from their debts (sometimes it’s to secretly let themselves off the hook to keep sinning). But often they are like Simon…more interested in debating what God should and should not forgive, all in an attempt to hide their own sin, rather than fall at his feet asking forgiveness.

What’s at the heart of this? The heart of it is their refusal to admit what REALLY needs to be forgiven! Oh sure, they’ll list to me all kinds of nasty things…woeful sins..lusts…stealing…anger…etc. etc. and yet they walk away with their pride and their SIN fully intact. They have invited Jesus over for dinner to discuss confession and forgiveness in theory….but they know nothing of what it means to weep at his feet.

I don’t mean this as a demand for an emotional repentance or physical sign of remorse. I mean this in the sense of the level of HONESTY and sincerity.

God will not forgive or heal or remove what you deny, what you cling to. But he will use many different ways to get your attention. Are you listening? Are you sure? Can you hear and see and feel all the ways you hide from him? All the ways you control what you confess and what you keep to yourself…the subtle ways in which you try to save face.

God FORGAVE me much and so I LOVE much….and…I loved Him much before I knew I was forgiven…that is what he means by “your faith has saved you”….I told him and showed him everything. And I am willing to show him everything. I don’t care what it costs me, I don’t care if I lose “face”, I don’t care if it makes me look weak, I don’t care if people think less of me, I don’t care if it makes me vulnerable, I don’t care. All I really care about is what God has given me. The 100% ABSOLUTE confirmation that I AM FORGIVEN. No shame, no guilt, no openings to give Satan a foothold to work on me…..Jesus Christ has forgiven me MUCH….it is the ONLY reason why I Love much.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner.”

And Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Say it, Teacher.”

“A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?”

Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.”

Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. “You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. “You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:39-50)

Read Full Post »

If it was once or twice I’d probably just let it go….this foolish trend that some of you have in trying to trace your “lineage” of sponsorship and create some kind of a spiritual family tree of how close of a descendant you are to the founders or to your current recovery celebrity! Foolish blind peasant thinking!!!!! Do you not understand that the Holy Spirit of God cannot be controlled or manipulated by any human construct!! Is your mind really this unregenerate – still?? Do you really think that God follows your way of thinking? Have you learned nothing of the fact that Christ did not come into this world to fit into your system of hierarchy – he came to DESTROY it – “God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.” for He alone is the only one standing before God on your behalf. Stop acting like a peasant hoping your distant relation to the Prince or Duke will grant you some esteem and power – the KING Himself has chosen you – the peasants of this world – to be His royal people – start acting like it!

“I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.”

Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not! I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, for now no one can say they were baptized in my name. (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.) For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say,

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise

and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.’

So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:10-31

Read Full Post »

Thank you God for persisting in getting our attention to “test” every spirit we are presented with…to be like the Bereans who were open minded to Paul’s message…but tested every word he said by studying the scriptures daily. Amen!

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits  whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1-6

“And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.” Acts 17:11

“The undeceived and dis-possessed believer also becomes intensely practical. He finds that God is “practical.” The devil is practical, and man must be practical to join with the One against the other. The believer sees that one of the ways in which the Son of God destroys the work of the devil, is through the instrumentality of prayer, and that he must now live a prayer-life, since prayer is the mightiest weapon against the foe.

Through his undeceiving, the undeceived believer has been made conscious of the actual force which the powers of darkness bring to bear upon and against his tripartite being, and thus learns that all the strength of his redeemed, renewed, and liberated powers–mental, spiritual and physical–must be set against them in order that he may keep at liberty. In the experience he has gone through, he has become more and more conscious of his own spirit, and the need of using it in strength, purity, and power against them.

He has also discovered that in the perpetual war which the deceiving spirits wage against him, neither time, place, nor season, are exempt from their attacks. Therefore, wherever he is, whatever he does, whatever state he is in, he must wage equally persistent war upon them. If he finds himself in keen suffering and anguish, he knows that it is “the hour and power of darkness”; and learns by the suffering they cause that they are unmerciful, as well as evil; intensely evil; nothing but evil; aiming at nothing but evil, and with all the power they are able to wield, endeavouring to draw him into evil, doggedly, silently, persistently, wickedly, always at work; actuated by undying hatred and malice against the human race. Enemies they are, and will be. What they are they were, and what they were, they are still – evil, and evil only. Thus he learns and knows that he must resist them and, that the fight to keep his spirit strong, pure and buoyant for victory over them needs all the force of his being, in the power of God, to enable him to be victorious.

In the discovery of the wickedness and hatred of the supernatural powers of evil against him, the believer learns he is not fighting against the intelligence of one supernatural being, but against principalities and powers, with vast resources at their command, and that IF HE STANDS VICTORIOUS AGAINST THEIR WILES, HE HAS CONQUERED, NOT ONLY ONE EVIL SPIRIT, BUT ALL HELL. He finds that the powers of darkness will not allow one single believer to be victor over them, until they as a whole (Ephes. 6: 12) have failed to conquer him. Hence their onslaught on him who elects to be victorious over them all, in vital union with the Victor Lord, Who put them to open shame through His death on the Cross of Calvary.

The believer is called to triumph over all the powers of darkness, but to reach the goal he must put on the whole armour of God, and lay hold of Divine strength, truth, righteousness, peace, faith, the mighty sword of the Scriptures, watchfulness and prayer. This armour, and the weapons belonging to it, will enable him to “stand against all” the wiles of Satan. If he stands, all heaven sees it; if he is defeated, all hell knows it. If he triumphs, the hosts of darkness are not only conquered, but discouraged, and rendered less effective in their schemes. The believer who would overcome such a disciplined and pertinacious foe, will never dare put his armour by, or give himself to careless work, for he finds that the foe is as tenacious and desirous to conquer as he himself is. But he who fully knows the foe and the warfare, and its eternal issues, finds his joy in the joy of war against an enemy devastating the earth, and the joy of victory, as a foretaste of the future triumph with the Lord Christ over all His foes. (Heb. 10: 13; 1 Cor. 15: 25, 26).

It is essential to study the powers of darkness from the point of view of their depraved nature. To be conquered, or to lose a point, is torment to them, for the fallen nature, both of men and angels, rebels against confessing itself vanquished. In the days of Christ, to be driven out of their hiding places, commanded to go, and thus be deprived of rest, was to demons “torment” before their time (see Matt. 8:29). They are being thus tormented by any truth made known about them to-day. The truth concerning them and their workings, with its consequent liberation of men from their power, is disturbing their rest at the present time, and what happened when Christ was on earth, will happen again when the casting out of evil spirits will become a recognized part of all Christian and ministerial activity. The Gospels record how Satan and his minions objected to Christ’s presence on earth, for He moved about as the Victor, and they were shown to be the vanquished ones.” – Jessie Penn-Lewis; War On The Saints, Chapter 11

Read Full Post »

Walking In The Dust Of Jesus
By Layla Nadda
Friday, April 5, 2013

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:9-21)

Hold on one second!! Is Paul saying I get to throw burning hot coals on my “enemy’s” head?? On a bad day I may want to sign up for that – or in the past I’d have used that statement to hold something against the Bible, or just try and ignore it – thinking I’m doing God a favor by overlooking some harsh statement!

But what is the truth here? With our individualism, secularism, materialism, and biblical and cultural illiteracy I am surprised that we can read and understand the Bible at all! No – textbooks and research and a PhD in Jewish culture are not necessary to accept Christ as Savior and be filled with the Holy Spirit that WILL open the scriptures for us to understand and give us the power to live according to God’s laws. But so much of our difficulty in understanding and delays in living God’s Way of life, not only come from ignorance of the cultural context of scripture – but comes from our cultural self-centeredness to not even wonder about these things – it does not even occur to us that we are not to just “apply” Christ and biblical morality to our lives – but to instead fit ourselves according to God’s plan! What does this mean – should I trade the subway train I take to work for a camel ride? No. It means being willing to cross the cultural gulf through whatever means I have available.

Many years ago my mother used to tease me that my “watered down” knowledge of our Arab culture was that of a pheasant visiting a King’s palace for the first time! How was she able to preserve our Arab heritage and way of life and customs and morality into my very DNA? She didn’t give me a book. She didn’t send to “Arabic” class or seem to teach me anything. She simply lived that way of life. It is who she is. “I walked in her dust”. A term that comes from Jewish discipleship. Men who walked so closely in their Rabbi’s way of life, that the Rabbi’s dust kicked up from their daily walk would cover the disciple walking with him!

I ate my mother’s food, I listened to her stories – told through her understanding, I was raised in her interpretation of her Arabic culture – and it is now as much a part of me living in downtown Toronto, Canada as if I had stayed in Damascus, Syria. She crossed and covered the gulf for me. She was my bridge.

Interestingly enough – she as a Palestinian Muslim woman who had never studied Jesus Christ or read a single book about Him – seemed to know so much more about Him than I did at the time, as I was studying and reading and researching!! It was like she knew His family, like he was a distant relative rather than an ideology! Many of the biblical customs and morality that stumped me and my friends; she waved away the confusion and explained in 5 minutes in between sips of tea!

I began to see that the difficulty and struggle for so many “westernized” Christians to live according to God’s word comes from this gulf that needs to be bridged.

I am not suggesting taking a sabbatical to live in Jerusalem or living in a tent to “feel” closer to Jesus – I am also not suggesting reducing the word of God to cultural context only. The Bible has a historical framework. Its characters are real people that lived in verifiable locations during historical events. It also reveals God’s eternal plan of redeeming the fallen human race.  It is the account of God’s action in the world and his purpose with all creation.

My point is that whatever gets lost in ‘translation’ that seems to put Christ in such a dusty dry box for so many people won’t be fixed only by focusing on your singular, individual experience and understanding of Christ, but it will also not be fixed by taking a crash course in biblical culture! The REAL solution is to allow the Holy Spirit to do His job! He is the Bridge, the Teacher, The Comforter, The Helper…He is the one who will lead you into all knowledge and understanding! He will be able to help you not only learn and apply what it means to place coals on your enemies’ heads – but He will progressively change us into His likeness that His life may be lived in and through us.

Paul says that if we give food and drink to our enemies, we shall be heaping “coals of fire on their heads.” To us this doesn’t sound like forgiveness, but like taking vengeance.

In the Bible lands almost everything is carried on the head – water jars, baskets of fruit, vegetables, fish or any other article. Those carrying the burden rarely touch it with the hands, and they walk through crowded streets and lanes with perfect ease. In many homes the only fire they have is kept in a brazier, which they use for simple cooking as well as for warmth. They plan to always keep it burning. If it should go out, some member of the family will take the brazier to a neighbor’s house to borrow fire.

Then she will lift the brazier to her head and start for home. If her neighbor is a generous woman, she will heap the brazier full of coals. To feed an enemy and give him drink was like heaping the empty brazier with live coals – which meant food, warmth and almost life itself to the person or home needing it, and was the symbol of finest generosity. – B.M. Bowen, Strange Scriptures that Perplex the Western Mind

We, Westerners, usually picture vengeance when we think of pouring hot coals on someone’s heads. The Semites pictured something completely different … We, Westerners, must break some of our traditions, if we are to ever come to a deep understanding of the God of the Bible. It is full of beautiful pictures like this one. – Gary Amirault, Tentmaker

“It’s hard not to wonder if the early Jerusalem church might have had a few advantages in understanding Jesus that can help us as disciples today. In the first chapters in Acts we read of their amazing passion — their Spirit-filled prayers, their joyful gatherings, their loving generosity, and their dynamic witness to their neighbors. Until a few years ago, it never occurred to me that the first believers of the infant Jerusalem church in Acts were all observant Jews, men and women who continued to study the Torah and worship in the Temple, even after they came to faith in Christ. In fact, for the first half of Acts, the rapidly expanding church was almost entirely Jewish. It was only after God pushed Peter out of his comfort zone to witness to the Gentile centurion Cornelius that the church considered the possibility that the gospel was for Gentiles too (Acts 10).

We Christians often neglect this as we retell the stories of the early believers’ joyful fellowship. We assume that the remarkable success of the Jerusalem church came from the fact that believers were freshly filled with the Holy Spirit. But Paul’s Gentile church at Corinth had experienced the same outpouring, yet it struggled with immaturity, division, and sexual immorality. Why the difference? As wonderful as it was that the Corinthians found Christ, most had come out of a pagan reality, and their lives had not been saturated by the Scriptures that Jesus read, our Old Testament. They lacked the Torah’s training in moral laws that Christ built upon. They had a lot of catching up to do. Moreover, while the Gentiles worshiped Jesus as their Savior and God, the Jewish believers also knew him as their rabbi. As Jesus’ disciples, they knew their obligation was to memorize his words and live according to his halakha, his interpretation of how God’s Word teaches us to live.” – AR

http://dailygoodies.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/heaping-coals-of-fire-a-figure-of-speech/

Read Full Post »

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! Perhaps they clung to their ideology that there is no “us” versus “them”…there is only love!! 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.

“Blessed 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; but 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 that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Psalm 1

Amen.

(prayers and posts – 2012 – a year in review)

Read Full Post »

These prayers were born out of the greatest suffering I lived through – in the relentless task of being broken down into something that God could build up. Painful and necessary. They were not “incantations” to produce a spiritual fertilizer, or some kind of process to avoid pain, the pain of being carved out from the inside out to produce the depth that is required to not only endure the race that is the faith, but to be able to contain the love that is poured into our hearts. Thank God for the great teachers and mentors who walked with me during this time, and thank God for Christ who is in complete control.

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5

With God’s help today I am willing to be teachable, and a proper student. I am willing to take direction. I am willing to accept the truth that I am a student.

With God’s help today I will not censor my thoughts and feelings, I will express them truthfully, ignoring the urge to “tidy up” the scene in my heart or mind before “snapping the Polaroid”, expressing only the accurate snapshot of my true thoughts and feelings.

With God’s help today I do not require the attention and approval of others in order to be at peace with myself.

With God’s help today, I renounce all pride, vanity, and the need to be perceived as spiritual and wise.

With God’s help today, I will not hide my painful defects and weakness and cowardice behind spiritual “specialness” I will face up to the painful truth that I am afraid, awkward, and needy, and will not move to hide these things about myself from others or God.

With God’s help today I will pray honestly to Jesus Christ, telling him exactly what I feel and think, never telling him what solution I need, asking Him to tell me what I should next to be more AUTHENTIC, and how to heal on a deeper soul level.

Dear Holy Spirit of God, please go deep into me, deep into the cellular memory, and heal the cellular imprint that is lodged there connected with this pain. I ask in Jesus’ holy name that you bring it up and out, to be released, removed and dissolved by the Holy Light of your Love, and replace it with your Holy Spirit, and do so now.

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I offer you every single part of me, my memories and pain, and everything that has imprinted on my soul. I commit my soul into your hands. I offer you every cell, and every strand of raw energy vibrating in my existence. Mold me in any way you so choose. I give you complete control of my thoughts, emotions and will. I command every part of me, conscious and unconscious to submit to God, and obey only the Will of Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear Lord Jesus, I ask that you ignore any request that I have that is not perfectly aligned with your Will. I ask you for the miracle of forgiveness; please forgive me for everything I have ever done to hurt people and myself. Please forgive me for hating the people who hurt me, and for hating myself. Release us all in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and let the white Light of God himself shine down on us and fill every single cell with Love and Light, and heal every single iota of hurt.

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, you said that if I call out your name I will be saved. From the deepest part of who and what I am I call upon you Lord Jesus. From the secret pocket of my heart I call your Name Lord Jesus. From the deepest recess of my mind I call out your Name Lord Jesus Christ. From the loneliest desert that my soul has been hiding, I call out your Name, Lord Jesus the Christ. Dear Jesus of Nazareth, from the feeblest fragment of my will, I call out to you. I call out to you. I call out to you Lord Jesus. With every beat of my heart, and breath of my lungs, may each be a calling to you, oh my Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus Christ convict my heart unto repentance. Let me not hide any secret hate or shame from you. Let me eat of your flesh and drink of your blood, this day Lord Jesus, that every single part of me may be reborn in your image and likeness extending into Eternity. Soften the hardness of my heart Lord, that the words may flow easily from my mouth to your ear. In you I Trust Lord Jesus, in you I hide, in you is my deepest call answered. I call out your Name; I call out your Name Lord. I call out your Name, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:8-13

Read Full Post »