Author: admin

Have you ever wondered what God’s will is for you? I grew up thinking that God’s will was something that was difficult and certainly not anything which was enjoyable. I am not saying that I was ever taught such a thing about what God’s will is but it is the conclusion that I reached based upon life experience and observing people who were religious. It was my understanding that the will of God is expressed in the words of Colossians 2:21, “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” When I was a teenager I was drawn into sexual immorality of various forms after being introduced to pornography as a pre-teen. I knew what I was doing could not be God’s will for me but I felt trapped between the enjoyments of the immorality yet wanting to be free from it. What was I to do?

Out of fear of eternal condemnation for my participation in immorality I responded to what I understood the gospel to be when I was in the eighth grade. I had been taught that through Jesus that God had given us a plan of salvation from eternal condemnation that included five steps. Those steps were: to hear about Jesus and his death for our sins, to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, to confess my sin, repent from those sins and to be baptized. My response to the gospel was during what was called a gospel meeting at our church which were special times of preaching about the plan of salvation that were held twice a year. I honestly wanted to be changed so that I would no longer “handle, taste or touch” the things of sexual immorality or other sin and I fully expected for that change to happen when I was baptized. I was quite disappointed after being baptized that there was no change in my heart. However, I decided that since I had made the commitment to be a Christian that I would give it my best effort to not “handle, taste or touch”. That effort lasted about six weeks until I realized it was hopeless and so I stopped trying to be good and returned to my old ways. For many years I was trapped in the endless cycle of sin, confess, repent, sin…….., etc.

Years later I came to understand that the Christian life was not a life of human effort to not “handle, taste or touch” to be pleasing to God but rather it is Jesus himself alive and living in me, the hope of glory. Not only had he forgiven me of all my sin but he gave me a new heart and filled me with his Holy Spirit by which I would have power over sin controlling me. Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit I was able to turn away from pornography and its power over me was broken over a period of time.

I was quite surprised later when I read the words of Colossians 2:21 in the context of the passage in Colossians 2:20-23 which states, “Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” Wow, that is good news to realize that God never intended for me to live a life of trying to please him by “do not handle, do not taste, and do not touch”! So if that is true, then what does please God, and does this have anything to do with what is the will of God for me?

If God is love, if he is good, if his love endures forever and if he has promised to never leave us or forsake us then his will must be rooted and expressed in love, goodness and faithfulness towards us. I know this to be absolutely true but I find that I still have remnants in my thinking that are rooted in the empty way of life of the “do not handle, do not taste, and do not touch” approach to pleasing God.

I was quite surprised when I recently looked up the meaning of the Greek word that is translated as the English word will in the New Testament. The word has no negative connotation but rather means desire or pleasure. This reframes the question of, “What is God’s will for me?” to being “What is God’s desire or pleasure for me?” God’s desire and pleasure for us is that we would know him and enter into his very life and fellowship that exists between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We were created for that purpose but it got all messed up when Adam and Eve believed the lie of Satan when he accused God of being unloving by telling them to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Jesus told us that he came that we might have the abundant life of knowing God our Father. God was in Christ Jesus reconciling us to himself when Jesus was crucified and he is no longer counting our sins against us! The only thing that separates from knowing God is our own unbelief that he is that good and our efforts to come to him by the empty way of life of the “do not handle, do not taste, and do not touch” approach to pleasing him.

Please spend some time pondering the verse below and then join with me in believing what God has declared to be true about himself and us.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Rom 12:1-2)

Blessings,
Kevin

Never Will I Leave You, Never Will I Forsake You

There are many scriptures and phrases that our Abba Father has spoken to me that are precious to me and have sustained me through many trials of life. One of those is “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” These words appear in both the Old Testament and the New Testament and always in the context of not being afraid of whatever is before us that might make us believe that God is not with us in whatever we are facing. Those scriptures are:

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deu 31:6)

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deu 31:8)

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Heb 13:5)

As I was pondering these scriptures one day the thought came to me that it seems redundant to say “never will I leave you” and to say “never will I forsake you”. This led me to looking into the meaning of the words and I was significantly surprised at what I found. The word forsake is not a synonym for leave. Forsake is a compound word composed of “for” which is a negative modifier and “sake” which means seek. Therefore, forsake means to not seek out. Therefore, what God our Father has promised is that never will he leave us and never will he not seek us out! This is the great story of the gospel! You can see it in Genesis 3 when God comes looking for Adam and Eve in the garden where they are hiding after they believed the lie of Satan. He called to them in the middle of their deception of believing that they needed to hide from the one who is Love and who created them to be in fellowship with him. Even when they sinned by believing the lie, he did not abandon them to the consequences of the lie. You also see this in the parables that Jesus spoke in Luke 15 about the lost coin, the lost sheep and the lost son who demanded that his father give him his inheritance. Jesus told these parables to displace the lie of Satan that God cannot be near us when we sin by believing the lies of Satan. Not only can he be near us but he will come to where we are and enter into our darkness and brokenness to show us who he is! He is good and his love endures forever!

Today is what is called Good Friday in remembrance of when Jesus was crucified. It is commonly taught that God our Father poured out wrath upon Jesus and turned his back on or abandoned Jesus as he was dying on the cross. The teaching further indicates that the reason that this happened was that all of the sin of mankind was heaped upon Jesus and therefore, God who is holy, could not look upon him. (See my previous post titled “When Did God Become Holy and Are You Holy” about how we have misunderstood what it means that God is holy.) The Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in fellowship with each other and that did not cease when Jesus became a man. He came to look for us in our darkness just as he did with Adam and Eve except that he came as a man who could experience our world and the effects of sin in our world. He literally met us in our brokenness to show us who Abba Father really is and what he is really like.

But that was not enough, he also took all of our brokenness and sin unto himself and took it to death on the cross! But he did not do it alone! Jesus repeatedly said that he only did and said what he saw his Abba Father doing. John 16:32 make this even clearer when Jesus speaks to his disciples of his soon to come death, “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.” However, this seems to be in conflict with Matthew 27:46 when Jesus cried out about three in the afternoon in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) Jesus was quoting a very short portion of Psalm 22 which is a very accurate prophecy about Jesus being crucified. Jesus, who is the Word who became flesh, knew this Psalm very well in its entirety. This includes verse 24 which states, “For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” As a man, he felt forsaken, because he took and entered into all the brokenness and darkness of all mankind. But he knew is his spirit the truth that Abba Father would not abandon him. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 makes this even clearer, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit have been in fellowship with one another since before the foundation of the world and this entire creation was spoken into being out of that fellowship. It is their desire for us to share in that fellowship. Therefore, we were created to enter into their fellowship and nothing, not even our rebellion, will change that desire. When Jesus cried out just before his death, “It is finished” it meant that the work of God our Father reconciling us to himself was done. He is not counting our sins against us! Therefore, the only thing hindering us from entering into the eternal fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is our unbelief that he is really that good!

During this season of remembering and celebrating the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus please read and ponder Psalm 22 and rejoice that we have been reconciled unto God and that nothing shall ever separate from his love in Christ Jesus.

Blessings,
Kevin

I have titled this post as “When Did God Become Holy and Are You Holy?” The question of “When did God become Holy” may seem to be a rather strange question. This question occurred to me one day as I was pondering the scripture “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 5:15-16). I realized from this passage that I would never understand what it means for me to be holy in all I do unless I understood what makes God holy. Part of the challenge in understanding what makes God holy is the common belief that God cannot have anything to do with what is not holy, i.e sin. If this is true then it leads me back to my question of when did God become holy, if my understanding of holiness is in anyway defined by sin. God is holy because it is his nature! He was holy before the creation of the cosmos and humanity and before sin entered this world! He will never be anything other than holy! Therefore, I am to be holy in all I do because it is my nature as a born again son of God.

God is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 90:2), he is the uncreated one, without beginning or end. From his very being he spoke the entire created world into being (Genesis 1:1-31). The Hebrew word used for God in the Genesis creation account is elohim. It is a plural expression of the person of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit yet they are one. This is a divine mystery of how three persons can be one. Moses told the people “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God (Elohim) is one LORD” (Deut 6:4). It is commonly understood that being holy is being set apart. We tend to think that this means being set apart from something, i.e. sin. However, if God was holy before sin entered this world then it has to mean something more than being set apart from anything. Being holy has to mean being set apart unto something and that something is God himself. This is because God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit, are holy or set apart unto each other, in being one. Their entire being is relational, they are in fellowship with one another and the entire cosmos and humanity came into being out of that fellowship that they have shared from everlasting to everlasting. From that eternal fellowship we were chosen by God before the foundation of the earth to be holy and blameless before him (Ephesians 1:3-14). He set us apart unto himself before we ever came to be!

We are holy because he has made us holy by his own choosing and by his declaration (Hebrew 2:11 & Ephesians 5:25-27). Once I can see that God has made me holy and that holiness is my nature then I can begin to be holy in all that I do. Being holy is not defined by what I wear, eat, drink or do. But when I understand what being holy is, it will change what I do! We have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying (made holy) work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:2). Whatever I do that is because of being conscious of being in fellowship with Jesus who is alive in me, is holy. Whatever I do that is because I am going my own way is unholy because it does not flow out of fellowship with Jesus. But either way I am still holy because he has set me apart unto himself and set his seal upon me and has given me the Holy Spirit as a deposit guarantying what is to come (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Please join with me in believing what God has declared to be true about us. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 is a great comfort to me because it states what I used to be, but that I have been made holy by God’s doing.

“Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified (made holy), you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”. (1Co 6:9-11)

Blessings,
Kevin

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
(Php 4:4-7)

On June 13, 2005 I woke up in the night and could not go back to sleep. I had a definite sense that I was to get up and sit before the Lord with my Bible, paper and pen and to listen for what He desired to say. I sat there for quite some time and only heard “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” I pondered this for a while and then went back to bed and slept the rest of the night. The next night the same thing happened again. I got up ready to listen and write and immediately heard “Why do you worry? Who can add a second to his life through worry? I will be with you till the end of the age, never will I leave you, and never will I forsake you. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me. This is the way walk in it. I am the Lord who heals you of any disease. Be still and know that I am God. I work all things for good for those who love me and are called according to my purposes. Meet with me daily and eat of me. Come and eat of the richest of food that your soul my live.” Like the previous night I pondered the words for a while and then went back to bed. The next day as I realized how important the words were that Jesus had spoken to me the night before, therefore, I typed up the words on a card, laminated the card and placed it in my Bible. Little did I know at that time that my first wife would die of metastatic breast cancer within seven months and that my oldest son would die in a gun accident less than three years after his mother had died.

Some of the most precious experiences that I have had with God my Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit occurred after great loss and trauma. The words that Jesus spoke to me have been my refuge during and after those times. Jesus was faithful to demonstrate everything He spoke to me that night in 2005. There were promises in what He spoke but also things for me to believe and obey by faith. I never thought of myself as being anxious or worrying but I knew Jesus had a reason to ask me “Why do you worry?” He never asks a question that He does not know the answer to. His purpose was for me to see how I was anxious in ways in did not see.

After my son was killed I began to have an occasional knot in my stomach but I was not sure why it was there. When it would happen I would begin to pray and worship either silently or out loud. The knot would go away fairly quickly but at that point I was not making a connection between anxiety and the knot. This pattern continued for several years but the knot would be present more often and with greater intensity. Eventually I went through a very serious battle with fear and anxiety that rendered me to the point of barely being able to function for about two weeks. There were a few times when I would wake up at night and the fear was so tangible that all I could do was pray out load and verbally speak the truth of scriptures to rebuke the fear. It took the help of a spirit filled counselor and the prayers of others believers to pull me through those days. During those counseling sessions several memories from my teens and early adulthood surfaced that Jesus lovingly dealt with but we never go to the root of the persistent knot in my stomach.

One of most annoying things about the knot in my stomach is that it keeps me from being able to hear Jesus as easily as I did before it started being present. About a year ago Jesus showed my something that really helped me deal with this struggle but it still is a struggle and I have to be obedient to do the things he told me to do. I want to share what he showed me in the hopes that it may help others.

I went to Berlin, Germany in the summer of 2016 to help with a large effort that our church sponsored to reach out to the Syrian refugees all over Europe. On about the second day we were there I realized that our hotel was in what was formerly East Berlin in East Germany. This had a large impact on me and I tried to learn as much as I could about Berlin with respect to the time when it was divided before the fall of communism. As part of that effort we took a guided bus tour of Berlin. The tour included seeing where Checkpoint Charlie was located and where the Berlin Wall was once located.

 

There were actually once two walls that ran parallel to each other and the zone in between was patrolled by armed East German soldiers who would shoot anyone who went over the wall and tried to escape from East Berlin into the US sector of the divided city. Even though the wall was torn down after the fall of communism, they wisely left a small section of the wall intact as a memorial and to help people understand how communism held people captive behind the wall for many years. The section of wall left as a memorial was about fifty yards long and we along with other people walked up to it and tried to image what a formidable object to freedom it once was. Later Jesus brought this image to my mind and I realized that if a person stood with their nose against the wall, then all they could see was the remnant of the wall and never realize that it was only a remnant! All a person had to do was back away to see the larger picture and see that nothing, but unbelief that the majority of wall had been torn down, could keep them from walking around the end of the wall to cross to the other side!

I still do not know what the root of the knot is and it still annoys me. I think it may be something like the thorn in the side of the apostle Paul. I have prayed many times, seen several good counselors and been prayed over many times but the knot still exists. However, when it does happen I begin to think about what Jesus showed my about the remnant of the once formidable Berlin Wall and begin to see the knot in the same manner. It is only a remnant of what was once a formidable object that Satan tried to use to destroy my faith and me.

“Abba Father, I pray that when anyone, who reads this ever becomes anxious and worries, that you will show them that you are near and will never leave them or forsake them. May they turn from every form of anxiety and worry in any situation, to prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, and present their requests to You. And may the peace of God, which transcends all understanding guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Jesus, thank You for giving us Your peace!”

 

Blessings,
Kevin

Several years ago I was working in the front yard cutting up a limb that had broken off a large cedar elm tree. As I was working I clearly heard God my Father say in my heart “how precious is the doing that comes out of being”. As I pondered this I heard my own heart respond with “I be because He Am”. I realized how important it was for me to believe what my Father had spoken because it was counter to my life experience but I knew it had to be true. Most of our lives we spend effort in doing, in the hope that someone will see us as being of value, i.e. precious because of what we do. But my Father had confronted me with the truth that I am precious because I am made in His image and therefore have intrinsic worth to him no matter what I have done or not done.

A diamond is called a precious jewel because of its nature even when it is in its natural state of being an odd shape and not polished to reveal its beauty.

 

 

So what does this all have to do with the title of this post, “Why Do I Do What I Do?” Several years ago a very wise management consultant at work taught us that what we do comes from what we believe is the truth. Every person lives from some philosophy about what is true and real in life. That philosophy gives us a perspective that acts like a lens that colors everything we see and hear. Two people can hear and see the same things at the same time and come away with a completely different understanding of what they just witnessed. This is because of the perspective that they have that is rooted in their philosophy of life and is largely shaped by their life experience. Their perspective then leads to what they do!

If I believe that I have to earn God’s and people’s approval then I will feel good about myself when they approve of me and will feel down if they do not show their approval. However, God our Father is not like people. He acts in perfect agreement with his nature and at the core of his nature he is love. Love (He) is patient, is kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. He never fails. (1Co 13:4-8)

“Abba Father, I pray that out of Your glorious riches that You may strengthen us with power through Your Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. And I pray that we, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to You who are able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to Your power that is at work within us, to You be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Eph 3:16-21)

Blessings,

Kevin

It  is very common to hear someone say “I am blessed” because of what someone has done towards us.  But have you ever thought about what the word bless or blessing means?  The Greek word used in the New Testament that is translated to the English word bless means to think and speak well of someone.  This being true then what does the following scripture tell us about how God our Father thinks about us.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
(Eph 1:3-4)

Do you see that before the foundation of the universe that God was thinking and speaking well of us?  This being true then can we grasp, that right now, he is thinking and speaking well of us?  His desire is for us and for us to know how great is the love that he has for us that we should be called the children God.  Children born not of natural descent or by a husband’s will but born of God.   Let us dare to believe what God has declared to be true about us and then be a blessing to others.

Blessings,

Kevin

 

I grew up in a farm community in the South Plains of Texas in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  That life experience will forever effect me even though I am not the same person I was when I left there after graduating from Texas Tech University in 1978.  This blog is a way for me to share my thoughts about being a follower of Jesus and life in general.

Quite a number of years ago I read the book “Windows of the Soul” by Ken Gire and it effected me deeply.  It speaks about how God uses the arts, our vocation, poetry, etc. as windows to our soul  to reveal his character.  One of the stories is about Vincent Van Gogh and why he painted the images that made him famous.  I learned from the book that painting is a way to express the inner feeling and thoughts of the artist.  This means they have to be vulnerable and they run the risk of their images being misunderstood.  When they are misunderstood it can be very hurtful to the artist.  Vincent was quite misunderstood and eventually committed suicide because of the inner struggles he had and tried to express through his paintings.  I cannot paint and can barely draw a recognizable stick figure.  However, the book helped me understand that God has given me a gift using words to express myself in the same way as Vincent Van Gogh used his gift of painting.  Therefore, I ask that you be gentle in any comments you may post about what I write.  If is blesses you then be thankful and if it does not then think about how to express your thoughts to encourage me.

Blessings,

Kevin