Thursday, May 31, 2018

First Love

Something to think about.

First Love

“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Revelations 2:2-4

Have we become so busy in the doing that we have lost the reason for the doing? We have become too distracted in the doing of Christianity to even notice we have drifted from the cause of our doing. There are too many of us pointing out the shortcomings of others like us. Some of us are consumed with correcting the lot of us. We nick pick the leader, we question their motivations we condemn their methods. We demand perfect righteousness.

We should question our leaders and are ourselves against the standard of Christ.  We should put Christ at the head of all we do and use what He taught us a standard of behavior and morality. All of this should be employed;  this is what the church in Ephesus was doing. But even after doing all of this Christ says to them I have "this" against you. "You have abandoned the love you had at first." We need to stop nick picking each other on obscure or even flagrant disagreements in theology. We need to return to the reason we stay in the body of Christ. Why we identify with Christ. The reason is a love relationship. "The greatest of these is love" the bible does say.  It is through love that we understand who God is. It is love that explains and validates the word of God. It is love that is the fuel, the passion of God. It is the motivation for the sacrifice of His Son.

If we focus on the cause of our conviction, it will purify our actions. If love permeates our thoughts and actions, we will be righteous. There is no sin in love there is no injustice in love there is no selflessness in love. God prefers we become experts in love rather than in theology, doctrine, and righteousness. 

Let this not overwhelm you, you are not to love the world. Love, those around you, love those God has put in your life for this season for this time. Love those whom you can. If everyone loved those around them, then everyone would be loved.  

Let God be your first love, let Him be the receiver of your love. In this relationship with Him, you will find the love you need for yourself and all others. Love comes from God not from us. To receive the most from God you need to first love Him. We need to keep Gods love in the forefront of our minds. What is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all of your heart soul and mind, and the second Love your neighbor as your self. 

Leia Mais…

Friday, May 25, 2018

Perfect

Something to think about.


Perfect


48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Mathew 5:48


Was Matthew in his right mind when he made this statement? I have read this verse many times and have blown right by it because the implications are mind-boggling.


God is perfect,  a concept that is as foreign to us as understanding the life of an ever existing being. To me, perfection is something that has always been perfect because perfection cannot come from imperfection. Because if it came from imperfection, it would then be imperfect.  It would mean that at some point in the perfections existence it was imperfect.  Regardless of the time spent removing imperfection from the would be perfection there would always be the smallest part of imperfection and as such perfection would forever be tainted by the one instance of imperfection.


Let's define imperfection as sin. God is perfect and has never sinned. Throughout His existence, He has not ever sinned not once, not by mistake, not unintentionally not by omission. Nope never ever sinned.  If the smallest of sin were to penetrate into Gods existence all of the perfection would be lost forever.  One sin one tiny insignificant sin would destroy perfection.  Perfection and sin can't coexist perfection must always destroy sin.


When I was in the Airforce, I work on aircraft fuel systems. This required climbing into aircraft fuel tanks. This process required purging fuel tanks of fumes. We purge them until they were at an acceptable level, expressed in parts per million.  The acceptable level was not perfectly clean air. If you applied parts per million to perfection, you would realize perfection does not allow for parts per million.  As soon as you let the smallest sin into perfection, it would cease to perfect.

The question is how does sinful man gain approved access to the realm of God? The answer is the complete and total cleaning of sinful man.  The problem is how does man become perfect so he can enter into the presence of God?  Perfection implies everything around God, everything in His presence must be perfect.  He is perfect in Holiness,  righteousness, love, power, and justice. Since God is perfect, He and only He is responsible for maintaining perfection. He is responsible for eradicating sin as to make it as it never occurred. The destruction and cleaning of sin is so complete that even the memory of it does not exist.


God's perfection does two things. First, it invalidates the ideology of attaining access to God through works or earning your way into His presence.  Since He is perfect and everything around Him must be perfect even the memory of your sin must not exit. Since you cannot remove your sin and you can not clean your sin. You at best can only dilute it your work is worthless. The stain of sin any wrongdoing will always destroy perfection. That is something God will not allow.

The second thing God's perfection does is it creates a wall of impenetrable separation between God and man. We can't cross over into His realm of existence, and He will not cross over into ours. If we were to enter into His realm as we are or He to enter ours, the result would be the total annihilation of humanity. The eradication of humanity would be so complete it would not leave a trace of evidence, a memory of our existence. You must understand God's perfection requires perfection nothing less.


If you understand, only perfection can completely clean and destroy sin. It is Gods responsibility to clean and destroy sin. If you comprehend only a perfect God can accomplish these things, you begin to understand the need for a Christ. Only perfection can clean sin. Only perfection can remove every vestige of sin only perfection can remove the memory of sin. In the simplest terms, it is God and only God that can purify us from our sin and grant us access to Him.


This is why Jesus. Because only perfection can clean the sin of humanity. A perfect sacrifice for our sin. The sacrifice and death of His son occurred for the destruction and cleansing of sin. That is the only way sin will not destroy us. Without a perfect sacrifice, we would be left alone to face a perfect God with the responsibility of maintaining perfection. That is why Jesus is the way the truth and the light. Because only through perfection can we gain access to heaven and that perfection in every way is Jesus, the door to our salvation.


We are not filtered through Jesus because every filter only collects dirt it does not cleanse anything. The filter must always be disposed of and changed. Because the perfection of  Jesus, we are made new, a new creation free from the stain of sin we are made Holy and acceptable to God. The perfection of Christ destroys and cleanses us from all sin. Only God Himself can completely and totally, remove, destroy and cleanse us of our sin.


Since perfection can't come from imperfection, imperfection cannot produce perfection. Our sin nature regardless of what we do within our own abilities can't eradicate the sin in our lives. Simply put sin can't make you sinless. Only a perfect God can eliminate sin entirely so as to remove even the instance of sin. 

Leia Mais…

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Faith and Works


Something to think about. 

Faith and Works 


18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
James 2:18

There is a profound theological principle in this verse. It is the juxtaposition of work and faith. Work and faith can you have one without the other? 

When I was in the hospital, and the doctor told my wife "I am going to do everything I can to help him." What he was saying was I will do all I can do, all that I have been trained to do but the outcome is not in my hands. He was promising to do the work, but where was the faith?

Faith is where the rubber meets the road for Christians it is where we experience God. What James is saying is, it is through faith that I have accomplished whatever I have accomplished. It is in the exercise of faith that Christianity will leap off the pages of the bible and come alive. What in your life which requires faith? What problem, dream, goal do you have that needs an influx of faith? I'm not talking about intellectual faith. That which defines faith but rather that which requires faith. If your living your life and  your endeavors do not require faith why not?  If you can accomplish all you want on your own, if all you do is within your capacity how can God be displayed in your life?

Everyone Christian or not is looking for the evidence of God. And faith is where we find it. Every accomplishment great our small is bathed submerged in faith. Every endeavor regardless of what it is, is wholly infused with faith. A few years ago the driverless car was a dream. That dream was not based in reality it was based in the belief that it could be done. Then from that belief faith had to be engaged in order for it to become a reality. We have a space program because someone employed faith. To bring something into existence that never existed before.

Faith does not remove obstacles it motivates us to find solutions to the problems which hinder us. Faith is not a belief system it is the fire which fuels the engine of what we believe in. The belief that we can accomplish the dream, goal, purpose we are striving for without knowing the outcome.
Are you activity engaging faith? Are you building your faith? Are you doing those things that require faith? Small things, big things, things and ideas that make other people think you're insane. Are you pushing the envelope of what's possible. 

If you are one of those people God has given the capacity to dream big dreams are you dreaming. Are you allowing the obstacles of your endeavor to define your faith or are you infusing your faith to define your dream. It is not ability that defines your accomplishments it is faith. Can you believe in something you have never done before?  Faith is required in your business, faith is required in your personal life. Faith is required for the future. 

Faith is required to delay the return of Christ. Faith is required for us to look at prophecy see it for what it is and work to delay its fulfillment. Just because we are living in the end days does not mean that we should be praying seeking welcoming the return of Christ. The return of Christ the second coming is not something that the majority of the world is looking forward to. It is not something we see coming throw up our hands and say yes Jesus come quickly. 

We as the body of Christ should not be celebrating the return of Christ. That day will be the best and worst day in the history of the world it will be a day of great joy for those of us that believe and the most fearful day for those that don't. We can celebrate Jesus return at the appropriate time, but this is not the time. We need to engage faith in bringing the gospel to the world. We need to engage faith to change the world toward Christ. Especially today when our society and the world is hell-bent on silencing us and trying to make the gospel of Jesus of no value. We need to engage faith to turn back the encroachment of sin into our society. We need to turn our lives to a basis of faith to fight the forces of evil which are assailing us on every side. Faith is the engine that will light the fire in our souls to make the change that needs to happen for the salvation of the world.

Leia Mais…