Encouraging, Empowering & Equipping Ordinary Christians To Live Powerful Missional Lives!
As Followers of Christ we have experienced spiritual freedom. That idea of freedom leaves us with the impression that before we knew Christ we were slaves and indeed we were truly slaves.
This post is given to help us understand our spiritual freedom and how we are to use it. Watch it! Be challenged by it! And go out and live that freedom.
The reason I call Romans chapter 8 the most important chapter in the New Testament is because this particular chapter address the dilemma that is brought up in chapter 7. This dilemma is a common problem that all Christian experience as they strive to live a life that pleases God and worthy of our calling in Christ.
Romans chapter 8 starts off with the word, “Therefore”. Whenever you see this word it is always referencing to what has just be said and in this case what was said in chapter 7. So what exactly is the dilemma expressed in chapter 7? Simply this:
Read what the Apostle Paul Actually Says,
“For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but i practice the evil that I do not want to do … What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Romans 7:18,19, 24
I think it is important to note that even the Apostle Paul struggled with desiring to do what is good but finding that he lacked the ability to do so. If this was a struggle with the Apostle Paul then surely all of us will struggle with it also.
This struggle is a common Christian experience. All of us more often than not finding ourselves doing things that we know we shouldn’t do. We feel helpless and hopeless. We hate ourselves for it! After another failure we look into the mirror and see our reflection with disgust. We are ashamed, embarrassed and wish we could go hide somewhere so no one can see us. But since we can’t go physically hide somewhere we instead we hide by putting on a pretense in front of others. We smile and pretend that all is going just perfectly with our spiritually lives in front of our Christian friends and family. And this is done all because we don’t want others to see the real spiritual condition of our lives.
But all this pretending only serves to perpetuate our failure and our struggle. We can’t fake our way out of this dilemma and as we have discovered over and over again we can’t force or will our way out of it. If we could we would have already done it.
So what then is the alternative? If faking it doesn’t help and if our own personal strength fails us to live right, then what is the solution? That’s what chapter eight of Romans deals with. Chapter eight reveals God’s strategy for overcoming the power of sin in our lives and the way to live a life that is pleasing to God.
In the upcoming posts in this series of blogs we will unpack exactly what the Bible says about overcoming the power and influence of our sinful flesh and how to live a life that please God and worthy of our calling.
Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash
As fully devoted followers of Christ we need to give careful attention to what things we pursue in life! Why? Because they can either help us grow in our devotion to Christ or hinder us. A Godly goal is a good thing but a worldly pursuit is not.
In this post I want to share with you 4 reasons why God’s people should at all cost avoid pursuing worldly goals and in particular keep themselves from getting entangled in the love of money. The Love of Money, by the way, according to the Bible is one particular way Christian quite often get caught up in the things of the world.
To accomplish I will be sharing 3 Pitfalls that come with choosing worldly goals and what happens to those who stumble into those pitfalls. These pitfall’s are found in 1 Timothy 6:9-10:
“But those who want to get rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires. , which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” ((CSB)
These pitfalls are:
It Makes You susceptible To Temptation: When our heart longs for the things of this world we become more vulnerable to the wiles and schemes of the devil. Temptations in and of themselves are not sins but they are the doorway that leads a person to sin. The primary reason a person commits a sin is because they have some kind of worldly desire they are trying to satisfy. And that unmet satisfaction cause people to look for its fulfillment in ways that God says is sinful. Therefore, the cure is not to continually fight off the temptation but to root out the evil and sinful desires and replace them with God honoring desires. So, if your sincere desire is to live a life that pleases God then you need to make sure that your hearts desires are on the things of Heaven and off the things of this world.
It’s a trap that will ensnare you. Traps have been used throughout the ages by hunters who are want to catch unsuspecting animals. They are usually camouflage so the animal will not see it and step into it. And this is the way it is with the goals of this world and especially the love of money. The true intent of these longings are hidden and dressed up to look like things that are good. After all, what could be wrong with being rich if it allows me to give more money to help the poor? What’s wrong with having a nicer and bigger home for my family to live in? Shouldn’t they be able to live in a nice place? You see the issue isn’t what you can do with the money but what you are willing to do to get the money or your true motivation for getting the money.
It Ignites Feelings That You Shouldn’t Have: The problem with the love of money or the desire to have the things of the world is that it doesn’t stay satisfied with the fulfillment of those desires. As a result of pursing them newer and more harmful desires start to grow. There are some feelings that we were never intended to have or experience. The “Love of Money” is described as a “root”. If temptation is the seed then the love of money (materialism) is the root that is form from that seed and it in turns grows into a blooming plant of all kinds of other evil and more harmful desires. If you think that you can control your love for money and keep it contained then you are only fooling yourself. The only way to keep yourself from growth of all kinds of evil in your life is to uproot the love of the world and replace it with a root that exclusively loves God.
Now let me share a little bit about what the end result will be if you fall into one or all of these pitfalls and fail to uproot and guard agains the love of this world and the pursuit of worldly goals. Quite simple it is exactly what the Bible says,
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:10 (CSB)
In Luke chapter 8 Jesus tells a parable about a person who went sowing seed on different types of ground and then He explains the spiritual significance for each group. Here’s how Jesus describes the seed that feel on the ground filled with thorns and thistles.
“As for the seed that fell among the thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches, and pleasures of life and produce no mature fruit.” Luke 8:14 (CSB)
This is quite a visible picture, from Jesus, on what happens to people who have their hearts set on the things of this world and not on Christ. The riches and pleasures of life of life choke out or we could also, are more valuable to people than Christ is, and as a result they walk away. Another way of saying it is that people who hear the Gospel of Christ and are excited with the forgiveness of sins that come from following Christ but once they hear that they need to leave everything (including their riches) in order to follow Christ, they walk away sad because they love their money more than they do Jesus.
Also, notice that this is a self-inflicted wound. This is something you caused yourself and not something someone did to you. You’re the one who sets you life goal, you are the one who decides who your heart will be devoted to. To choose the world over Christ is your chose and the result is a harm that you brought on yourself. It is avoidable if you choose wisely but it is also unavoidable if you don’t choose wisely.
So many people suffer horribly simply because they have chosen to go after the things of this world, to give their heart over to what this world says is important. The pain is real but the pain was and is avoidable.
If you are intentionally living a missional life that brightly shines the Light of Christ in your part of this dark world then you know that life can be filled with lots of temptations. In this post I want to share with you 3 ways that Jesus can help you when you are in the midst of temptation and more importantly after you have given into temptation. The key all victory, when it comes to temptation, is Jesus!
"Therefore, since we have a great hight priest who has gone through the heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and grace in our time of need." Hebrews 4:14-16 (NIV)
The first thing we see in the passage of scripture from the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is our great high priest. The job of a high priest is to represent the people he is in charge over before God himself. He is to make petitions and request to God on behalf of the people. He is to ask God to be faithful to meet the needs of the people.
In this verse we see that it is Jesus, who is a our high priest, is the one who represents us before God the Father, and it is Jesus who is constantly interceding on our behalf. In other words Jesus is constantly praying for you and asking God to help you and especially during your times of temptations and spiritual warfare.
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31,32 (NIV)
Isn't that so cool? Jesus knows that Peter is about to go through the biggest temptation of his life. He is going to be tempted that he ever knew Jesus and was going to fail at it miserably BUT Jesus has prayed for him. He prayed to God the Father that Peter's faith would not fail, that Peter would recover from his failure and that Peter would be able to strengthen others even after he fails in his temptation.
Do you understand this? This is such an important Biblical principle to get! Jesus is in Heaven praying for you too! He's asking God to help you overcome temptations but just as important He is asking God to strengthen you when you blow it by giving into the temptation and to give you opportunities to be used once again to encourage others afterwards.
ISN'T THAT SO ENCOURAGING FOR YOU TO KNOW THAT AS YOU ARE GOING THROUGH THIS LIFE ON MISSION WITH CHRIST, THAT CHRIST HAS GOT YOUR BACK AND IS IN THE VERY PRESENCE OF GOD THE FATHER PRAYING FOR YOU. I KNOW IT IS FOR ME!
The next thing that we see on how Jesus can help us during our times of temptation is the fact that he is able to empathized with us. In this verse we read that Jesus has been tempted in every way! Satan has given Jesus his best shot and Jesus was able to take it and overcome it. Because Jesus has tempted in every way we are tempted he understands the struggle, the difficulty and hardship that is associate with being tempted. So, when Christ is praying for us he does it with passion, conviction and understanding. From experience Jesus is able to share with God the Father just how very hard it is when temptation hits.
Because Jesus understands he is able to comfort us like one who has been there. His tender touch, his loving eyes the sound of his compassionate voice is able to be there to encourage us because he can relate to what you are going through.
I love the last part of this verse. We are encouraged to to approach God's thrown of grace with confidence. We don't need to be shy. We don't need to be reluctant. Because Jesus is our High Priest we are to come before the thrown of grace with CONFIDENCE. I love the way this verse describes God's thrown! It;s called the Thrown of Grace! It is at the Thrown of God we find God's grace - God's unmerited favor! Forgiveness is always found at God's thrown. And in order to experience God's grace you must be willing to approach God's thrown. You can never experience God's grace hiding from Him, running from Him, or just avoiding Him. The people who experience God's grace are those who have come before his thrown in all their sinfulness pleading to him.
And what are they pleading for? MERCY & GRACE! When we stop the running and come before God in complete humility and begging for his forgiveness we are promised to experience two things:
And that is the confidence we are to approach God's thrown. Confident that because Jesus is our High Priest constantly being our advocate before God the Father that when we come to him we will receive both mercy and grace.
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