Holy Door Mats

Christians should be doormats. Contrary to popular opinion, the abundant life is lived by washing feet. This is the example Jesus Christ himself gave to his disciples. He who approaches God’s throne of grace must do so with a humble and a contrite heart. A door mat is a mat that people use to wipe the bottom of their shoes to clean them off. Jesus Christ has washed us and cleansed us from all unrighteousness for He who knew no sin became the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. Before salvation, we were clothed in the filthy rags of our carnal nature and lived in the muck and mire of this world. We were dead in trespasses and sin. According to 1 Corinthians 6:11, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. We are now clothed in his righteous robes of our new spiritual nature of life in Christ.

Jesus said, don’t resist the evil person…if someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other cheek… A slap on the cheek is a sign of humiliation and shame. When we walk in love our “shame is undone.” To turn the other cheek is to approach God with a humble and a contrite heart. Only then can we pray as Jesus did, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” As Paul said, “for I am not ashamed of the gospel of the cross, for it is unto those who are saved the sweet fragrance of life unto life. Therefore, love your enemies, pray for them that persecute you and despitefully use you. Pray that God will bless them. This is not a “sacrifice.” This is a joy and a privilege to love with the love of God with a heart of humility.

We’re in a battle that we need to win. What is winning according to God’s economy? Love Wins. Loving kindness and tender mercy is the nature of God himself. The winning is against our human nature’s selfish desire to be the center of our own universe. Winning is obedience to the first and great commandment, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. The battle belongs to the Lord, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness from above.

Anyone without the Holy Spirit cannot understand the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. The nature of love is the nature of the spirit of God in Christ in me. Jesus said to Peter, “do you really love me?” Obedience to the Word of God is easy if done with the love of God as the motive behind the action. Those who love the Lord, “live to do the master’s will.” A bond slave whose motivation is love says, “my wish is thy command.” However, if we approach God with a heart of vengeance and retribution in order to exact our “just rewards” from those who have wronged us, then we’re not approaching the true God, we’re approaching the God of this world who has blinded the eyes of those who have been deceived. The world teaches that winning is to “get even” with those who have treated us unjustly. However, according to Romans 12:19, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. If we seek vengeance, we are usurping God’s authority for he alone is the righteous judge.

To focus on the Love of God, we must set aside our selfish self. We must relinquish our attitude that says “I’ve been wronged.” God said that “my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” In order to enter into the presence of our Lord, we must see according to his heavenly perspective. Jesus reminded us that in this world, we will be treated unfairly. The freedom is in forgiveness..in setting the captives free, only to find that the prisoner was me. Jesus said, “bless them who persecute you and despitefully use you, for great is your reward in heaven.

If you don’t hate your selfish life, Jesus said, you can’t be my disciple. The unforgiving heart does not know the heart of God who forgave us all our iniquities. Jesus said that anyone who gave up their homes and families to serve me will receive a hundred times what they left in order to follow me. Therefore Paul said, “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” The reward is now and in eternity. The commitment to which Jesus has called us is to follow him…to die unto self to find the joy in forsaking all to follow him alone. The answer to God’s call is not to say “I will,” but to answer by following in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, If you continue in my Word, Then shall you be my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Love Wins: Overcome Evil with Good

Love wins. According to 2 Corinthians 2:14, Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

The spiritual warfare is raging around us like never before. Although there have always been wars and rumors of wars and cultures that rise and fall, we’re living unprecedented times. The events unfolding in the world today have never happened before. The Culture and the world that we’ve known is disintegrating before our eyes. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and dominion, against spiritual wickedness from on high. When a nation turns its back on God and his Word, the Evil One will have his way. Like Israel who said we don’t want God as our sovereign Lord, we want an earthly King, the United States has been deceived by the devil, the “God of this world.” According to 2 Corinthians 4:4, In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. The Devil is the Evil One, the “prince of the power of the air” the power that is now at work in the children of disobedience.

However, blessed is the nation whose God the Lord is. According to 2 Chronicles 7:14, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

The devil has no new strategy. He is the deceiver, a liar and the father of lies. His purpose is to steal, to kill and to destroy. There is nothing new under the sun. There are many manifestations of the evil one in the spiritual warfare in this world. When the culture of “moral relativism” calls evil good and good evil, the culture will crumble before our eyes. However, what men meant for evil God meant for good. God uses the brokenness of individuals and of nations in order to bring the nation to its knees. We must be broken before we can repent and turn from our evil ways unto the Lord. The devil’s duty is to tear down. However, God’s purpose is to build up. God’s purpose is to “pick up the threads of broken hearts and weave them together again.” He is a God of reconciliation…to build up, to edify and to comfort those in need of renovation and reconstruction.

You’re most like those with whom you spend most of your time. With whom do you associate at work, in church, in your community? Who are your three and who are your twelve? We need to surround ourselves with men of God who make faith based and not fear based decisions. Our pursuit is to “choke in the dust” of those who are chasing after our Lord Jesus Christ.

Love wins. According to Romans 12: 9-21, Have faith in God to love others as God has called us to love one another. Love is the basis of winning the spiritual battle, for greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Love activates the power of the Holy Spirit by believing action according to the Word of truth. Loving kindness and tender mercy is the nature of God himself. Love activates sharing, faithfulness, and generosity. Therefore let your love be genuine (without dissimulation.) Love one another with genuine affection. Detest that which is evil and cleave unto that which is good. Think of others as more important than yourself. Make sure the other person gets the advantage. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly kindness in love preferring one another. Work hard and serve the Lord with enthusiasm and eagerness. Be eager to offer hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and curse not. As much as in you is, live peaceably with all men. Do good unto all men. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. Love genuinely, live peaceably, and love unconditionally. Leave room for God’s righteous justice. To seek vengeance is to usurp God’s authority. Love wins. Therefore be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

According to Oswald Chambers, Matt 5:39-48 says that when you are mistreated and someone slaps you, turn the other cheek. These verses reveal the humiliation of being a Christian…to obey him in everything he taught. Retaliation from a heart of vengeance and retribution is the natural response of the sinful nature we inherited from Adam. However, turning the other cheek this is the response of Christ in you. When you are insulted, make it an occasion to manifest the love of God. When you’ve been cheated, count it all joy because this is the disposition of Christ himself. You cannot imitate the disposition of Jesus…either you have it or you don’t. To commit yourself to be God’s ambassador, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ…clothed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. Therefore, bless them that persecute you and despite-fully use you, bless and curse not, for great is your reward in heaven. Others are not your enemy. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness from above. Humiliation is an opportunity and an occasion to show the love of God in manifestation. To insist on my “human rights” is to insult the Son of God. However, turning the other cheek proves that humility is the response of Christ in me. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ…for it is the power of God unto salvation. To those who are born again, it is the sweet spelling savor of life unto life. Fighting the fire of evil with evil fire in return is not the solution. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Fight evil hatred with the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.

May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Love Wins, Part 3

Ephesians 2: 8- 9 says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, It is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he has before ordained that we should walk in them.

To approach the throne of grace, we must forsake our pride and enter into his presence with a heart of humility, brokenness and meekness. Love wins. The biggest enemy to the love of God is our prideful selves. According to 1 Corinthians 13, the love of God “seeketh not her own.” In order to end strife and contention against our own sin nature and against the sin nature of others in the church, we must swallow our pride and meet each other at the foot of the cross.

In John 13: 34-35 Jesus said that his disciples were ready for a new commandment: To love one another. There are no conditions on loving one another. Love is not contingent the other party’s deserving love. Love is to live in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. Our pride is the only thing standing in the way of our fellowship with God our Father, Jesus Christ his son, and one with another in the household of faith.

The natural man understands brotherly love and familial love. However, only Christians can understand the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. A key to understanding 1 Corinthians 13 is to read it and to substitute our own name for “love” in the “charity checklist” in verses 4 through 8. According to verse 13, For now abides faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is Love… Love takes the preeminence: it is outstanding in rank, supreme, superlative, rising above the norm. Love supersedes “giving my body to be burned.” Without love, anything that we do will come to naught…it will be of no value whatsoever. Jesus Christ’s is the standard for loving according to the love of God in the renewed mind.

Focusing on anything except Jesus Christ will cause division within the body of Christ. If you’re justifying your actions, you’ve missed the point. The point is to love unconditionally, not because they deserve it, but because in the act of loving, we exemplify the very nature of God himself.

Love is genuinely patient, and genuinely kind. It demonstrates a gentle nature with a genuine desire to help others. Love is the nature of God, for he gave his only begotten son, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus Christ who knew no sin became the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The love of God is not jealous…it never suspects unfaithfulness. Love exemplifies trust. To see through the eyes of Christ, grace and mercy must overcome our fleshly desire for “just retribution.” The standard of love thinks no evil, is not easily provoked, seeks not her own. Agape love is the only kind of love that loves without conditions. All other types of love are capricious, and can change on a whim. If love is conditional on performance, it is an earthly love and not the Love of God. The only condition for Agape Love, is the spirit of God in Christ in us. The spirit of God will love through us unconditionally when we tap into the supernatural heart of Christ in us.

Others loving us cannot dictate whether we love them in return. Unconditional Agape Love activates believing according to the Word of God that appropriates the power of God into manifestation. Our commandment is to love even also as we are loved by God. Jesus said, “In this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, that ye love one another.”

In the immortal words of the poem “The Love of God” by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai,

Could we with ink the ocean fill;
And were the sky of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll Contain the whole Though stretched from sky to sky.

Beloved of God,
May God richly bless you,
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Raising the Bar

Wherefore God has highly exalted him, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The politically correct of this world always attempt to silence the gospel of Jesus Christ. The leaders of the temple in Jerusalem commanded Peter not to speak in the name of Jesus. Peter and John answered and said, “whether it be right in the sight of God to harken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” As Jesus said, “if we don’t speak, even the rocks will cry out.” The devil can stand anything except the gospel of the Word of God rightly divided. Even the demons fear and tremble at the truth of Jesus Christ the living Word.

Many aspire, but few attain. Many begin well, but few end well. Paul said that I buffet my body to keep it under control, so that I might run well and then finish well. In the disciplined walk, we need to condition ourselves to follow after Christ and not be distracted by the things of this world. Paul saw all things in light of eternity. In Phil. 3:14 he said, “I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” The path to the heart of God begins with total abandonment and absolute trust.

The mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is a high bar. The Christian church in America has lowered the bar to appeal to the “average guy.” What is the characteristic of the “average” guy? Average means “typical of the group.” By this definition the average guy is lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. The church at Laodicea was lukewarm. They were an “average” church. Because they were neither hot nor cold, God said that he would spew them out of his mouth. Church is an easy target for the adversary when their “target demographic” is the “average guy.” If a church is focused on donations, age-specific outreach programs, missions, and attendance, then its members miss the mark of the high calling. There is nothing wrong with serving and giving to the “work of the ministry.” However, God does not want your money or your obligation, rather he wants your heart.

God did not call his men to be “Casual.” Casual Christians become casualties in the spiritual warfare. “Casual” means feeling little or no concern, indifferent, and lacking a high degree of emotion. A casual person is spiritless, careless, reckless, and apathetic. To the Casual Shepherds of the flock of Israel God said in Ezekiel 34, “woe to you shepherds who feed yourselves but not the flock. You have not bound up the broken, nor healed the diseased, nor sought those who were lost. Rather, you have forcefully and cruelly ruled over them. In Ezekiel 22 the people of the nation of Israel had turned their backs on the truth of the Word of God. God said through his prophet, “I look for a man who will stand in the gap and build up the hedge wall so I would not have to destroy Israel but I found no one.”

Isaiah 6 describes Isaiah’s vision when he saw the glory and the majesty of God filling his holy temple. He beheld in awe the seraphims worshiping God saying “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty and the earth is full of his glory.” Upon witnessing this spectacle, Isaiah, overcome with shame and unworthiness, said, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” The angel took a hot coal “And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” The angel touched a hot coal to Isaiah’s lips so that he would be purged to speak forth the Word of the Lord.

According to Jeremiah 1, God had called his prophet to speak on his behalf no matter what the audience of unbelievers thought about the message. We, like Jeremiah are called to deliver the message and to be the message. We’re no longer independent agents keeping our options open. For him to live in us, we need to relinquish our wills to his will by delighting ourselves in the Lord. As Jesus said to Peter, “lovest thou me more than these?” Do you love me more than these fish, this fishing business, your fishing buddies, your livelihood, your paycheck and your worldly influence? Your love is your delight.

God did not call us to “be delighted in Him.” Rather he said, “Delight thyself in the Lord.” This is a command from our Commander in Chief. We must deliberately focus our minds to intentionally, deliberately, and purposefully, actively delight ourselves in the Lord. Only when we obey his command to delight ourselves in him will we receive the promise of God… Delight thyself also in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. When our delight is his delight, and his desires our desires, then he will give us the desires of our heart.

The focus this year is to raise the bar of the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Our first priority is to raise the bar in our own lives. We do not have the luxury of being casual. O Lord, make me the man I knew to be… totally devoted, not to the things of this world, but totally devoted to you. Jesus said, abide in me and I in you and you will bear much fruit. Pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is to blaze a trail to God’s inner chamber. Those who dare enter into God’s inner chamber of the holy of holies must enter in with total abandonment and absolute trust… Nearer my God to thee, nearer to thee.

May God richly bless you.
Your brother in Christ,

Michael

Peace, Good Will Toward Men

We need to be reminded that Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. We must keep our mind’s eye focused on the target that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

There are four reasons to keep excited about walking in fellowship with him. The first is that we have been forgiven. We have been wrapped in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ. The second is character. His Character is the power in our lives to do that which he has called us to do for he has infused us with his spirit… the spirit of God in Christ in us the hope of glory. The third is purpose… we have been called holy, set apart for the purpose intended by the designer. Our life is significant because of what he made us in Christ Jesus to deliver the message and to be the message. The fourth is security… for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which he’s committed to me against that day of judgement. The fifth is Peace. Jesus said, “my peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you… let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid.”

Isaiah 9 says, “Unto us a child is born and his name shall be called… Prince of Peace and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” There is no peace without the prince of peace. This world is full of chaos and confusion, turmoil, tribulation, strife, and contention. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. Peace is the solution to confusion… it is the absolute end of strife and contention between God and man. We are no longer at war with God and his righteousness. For God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. On the first Christmas day, God sent his only begotten son, born of a virgin so that we could be reconciled to our heavenly father. According to Ephesians 2:14-18, “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”
Each moment in time is a point of decision… either to trust God and allow his peace to reign in our hearts, or to succumb to the confusion of the world.

Jesus said, “I have not come to bring a peace treaty with the evil spiritual powers of this earth, but to bring a sword to separate belief from unbelief… to set believing members of a household against the unbelievers. For the word of God is alive and powerful, and is sharper than a two edged sword to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and is a discerner between the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Word of God separates righteousness from unrighteousness and believing from unbelieving. The sword of the word of God must first separate the wretched sinful nature of the flesh from the righteous nature of the spirit of God in Christ in us. If we live in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

God’s purpose for trials is to drive us away from the world and back to Christ. Our hearts must first be broken in order for God to heal us by reconciling us back to himself through the righteous payment of the blood of Jesus Christ. Sin convicts us for he who knoweth to do righteousness and doeth it not, to him this is sin. Like the prodigal son, the point of repentance, of turning around, is when we realize that we are living in the pig pen of this world and say, “I will arise and go unto my father.” Every moment is a point of repentance: to turn from the sin nature of the flesh and the illusionary enticements of the world and to run back to our Father’s loving embrace. He has called us to live “in the eye of the hurricane.” Our comfort is that in the midst of the storms of life, Jesus says, “peace be still.”

To maintain the peace of God, blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree that is planted by the rivers of waters. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches… abide in me and I in you and he who abides in me shall bear much fruit.”

Therefore, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye have been called in one body, and be ye thankful.

As the angel said to the shepherds on a Judean hillside on that first Christmas day, “unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord”… And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

May God richly bless you.
Your brother in Christ,

Michael

One of the reasons for being excited about Jesus Christ is that he has given us Purpose and Meaning for life. Many people think that their purpose is to accomplish something significant. Meaning means “that which is significant.” What is meaningful? How do you know whether or not you’ve done enough, meditated enough, studied enough, and prayed enough? Meaning also means “that which is important.” How do you define that which is “significant” and “important?” Are significance and importance defined by the popular culture? What is worthy of significance? “Holiness” is a biblical term that encompasses God’s meaningful purpose for our lives. Holiness means “to be set aside for the purpose intended by the Designer.” God did not create us “at random.” Rather he created us intentionally for his holy purpose, “for we are his workmanship, his great work, his poem, his masterpiece… created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he has foreordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

Men need focus. Otherwise they don’t know what’s important, significant, and meaningful. “Focus” is the main point of concentration. Men need a focal point for their lives in the midst of the chaos of this world. The silver lining in the midst of confusion is that the world’s chaos causes men to look for order by turning their hearts toward God. Focus also means intent… that which we set our hearts on doing. We need something on which we can focus our attention, intention, and our resolve. Resolve is to make a commitment to accomplish what we have resolved. Resolve focuses our decision to do that which is significant in light of eternity. A legacy is to hand down from generation to generation that which is meaningful in the context of this life. We cannot be distracted from our purpose by a crumbling culture. The most important thing is that we leave a legacy so that those who come after us will inherit eternal life.

Matthew 28:19-20 is Christ’s “great commission” for his followers. “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” This is God’s mission for our lives as men of God and as believers within the household of faith. All men are either missionaries, or a “mission field.” Jesus said of those who would follow after him, “the works that I do shall they do, and greater works shall they do also, because I go unto my Father.” When God calls us to move out, our mission is to move, not to understand the destination. Our focus is to be in the center of God’s will and to walk one step at a time according to the path that he has prepared for us. He may not reveal the destination, but he will reveal the next step. A true disciple is one who is excited and committed to “eat his master’s dust” by following in his master’s footsteps. The purpose for our life will be revealed one step at a time for the Word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. According to John 15, Jesus Christ has called us for a purpose unto himself… that we should abide in him and he in us and that we would bear much fruit. Our purpose according to Ephesians 1:6 is “That we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he has made us acceptable in the beloved.”

Is your purpose defined by your worldly credentials, material prosperity, accomplishments, and the praise of men? According to Ecclesiastes, these are all vanities of vanities. All are emptiness… These worldly purposes will come to naught… for the things of this earth are temporal. They are here today and gone tomorrow. According to Matthew 6, “lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Our spiritual treasure allows us to know him and to spend time in his presence. He has called us to walk in fellowship with him and with our band of brothers, committed to the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the significance of his crucifixion, resurrection, and his soon return. For in Him we live and move and have our being.

Our purpose when we give ourselves to Jesus Christ, is to bring many Sons of God into God’s glory and that God’s glory will be manifest in our mortal flesh… that we will be the message of God in Christ in us the hope of glory. The purpose of a Man of God is that we who were dead in trespasses and sins have been made righteous because of the sinless sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for sin on our behalf. For he who knew no sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf, that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. Our purpose is to be in the middle of the will of God. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we do, as long as we abide in him and he in us. For I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ dwelleth in me, and the life that I now live I live by faith in the one who loved me and gave himself for me.

What is the significance of our lives? Our purpose, our value, and our significance is Jesus Christ himself… He is the way, the truth, and the life. Our significance and value is not in who we are but in whose we are… in him we live and move and have our being. According to Ephesians 4:1-3, “Therefore… walk worthy of the calling wherewith we have been called; with all lowliness of mind, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” As Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear (lovingly reverence, respect, and honor) God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

May God richly bless you.
Your brother in Christ,

Michael

A Christian’s Character

Forgiveness starts with grace… that undeserved undeniable gift of grace given by God because of the payment made by Jesus Christ on our behalf. To know forgiveness is to know that we were convicted and pronounced guilty before a righteous judge. However, the payment for our guilt was paid by the innocent blood of the lamb of God who taketh away our sin. For God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly. How much did God value your forgiveness? The value God places on our forgiveness from the penalty of death is the inestimable worth of the innocent blood of Jesus Christ, his only begotten son.

As a Christian, what is it that you value most? A Christian’s Value defines his character. Value means weight. What is most weighty in your life? God is committed to develop his character in me. Character according to his Word is that we may be conformed to the image of his son, Jesus Christ. If my prayer is “God help me to be the man that you created me to be,” God will develop my character to be just like Jesus. For it is God who works in you to will and to do of his good pleasure… Christ’s heart behind my heart, his eyes behind my eyes, his hands behind my hands, and his feet behind my feet.

At Gethsemane, Jesus knew his mission: to continue when everything on earth said to give up. Jesus prayed, “Lord, if there be any way, please let this cup pass from me… nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” Jesus had made the commitment to only do his Father’s will. Prayer is not to align God’s will with my will, but to align my will with God’s will. To finish well, we need the encouragement of our big brother our Lord Jesus Christ along the way. Jesus was willing to suffer a humiliating death and take upon himself the sin of the world as the perfect sacrifice for sin… he for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and is set down on the right hand of God. For he who knew no sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

There is a narrow gate that leads to the narrow way and few there be that find it. The journey of life proceeds through a long and winding road that God has prepared for us to walk with him. There are many pitfalls along the way. The pitfalls in life show us that we cannot make it on our own. We cannot be crucified apart from him. For those who live for the things of this world are unworthy to be his disciples, his disciplined followers. The first of the ten commandments is “thou shalt have no other gods between God’s face and my face.” Those who live intimately in God’s presence are those who come to him with total abandonment and absolute trust. We must give up the rights to our selfish self that we may be made the righteousness of God in Christ. As the apostle Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. After Paul had prayed three times for God to remove Paul’s “thorn in the flesh,” God finally said to Paul, “my grace is sufficient for thee.”

Success in God’s eyes is the exact opposite of success in the world’s eyes. Jesus said, he who finds his life shall lose it for my sake. He also said blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, and those who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Only when men of God have the heart attitudes of the “beatitudes” can they rejoice and be exceeding glad… for great is their reward in heaven. Jesus said, “a new commandment give I you, that ye love one another.” Like Jesus, who washed his disciples’ feet, we need to wash each other’s feet to cleanse ourselves as we walk upon the journey of this life.

Our culture has lost its value founded upon the Word of God and the original intent of the Constitution. In losing its value, America has lost her character. God has called us as his remnant, who are worthy (valuable) to be called his sons because of the righteous worthy payment (value) of his dear son. He has called us to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. Therefore let your light so shine among men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven… for it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.

May God richly bless you.
Your brother in Christ,

Michael