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Category: Salvation (Page 17 of 34)

Promised Sanctification

July 2, 2015 / / 0 Comments

CrossRoads

Salvation is a process. Slow and painful, mysterious, with many ups and downs, and largely hidden from view. By the grace of God and the power of his Spirit, we are becoming more and more like Christ. And it’s difficult.

I was reminded during some prayer time this morning of a passage in C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity that addresses the topic of sanctification from Jesus’ point of view:

“The moment you put yourself in my hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push me away. But if you do not push me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, and whatever it costs me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect — until my Father can say without reservation that he is well pleased with you, as he said he was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less.”

Our Lord has promised to bring that thing he has started in me to completion. It’s not happening as quickly as I had hoped. Sometimes it’s not as much fun as I imagined. And there are times I honestly don’t feel like it’s happening at all. But I trust him. I trust him.

And you can, too.

Peace,

Allan

Things Can Change

May 21, 2015 / / 0 Comments

BarsOpen3When God tells Abraham he’s going to have a son and more descendants than he’ll ever possibly be able to count, the old man informs the Lord that what he’s saying cannot come true: “Yeah, right! I’m a hundred years old! And my wife if ninety!” Sarah herself, upon hearing that she is going to have a child laughs out loud, right in front of God: “I’m worn out and my husband is old! I’m not having a kid!”

But God answers: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

When God is involved, things can change. When God is involved, ten lepers who are not whole and have no community walk away completely clean. When God is involved, the town sleaze who can’t get water from the well without insult and rejection becomes a Gospel preacher. A loud-mouthed unstable fisherman becomes a pillar of God’s Church. Dead Lazarus, rotting away in the grave for four days, walks out of the tomb. Saul, the persecutor of Christians, becomes Paul, the Christian missionary. When God is involved, things can change.

It’s so crucial that we get this point. If we don’t have this picture of dramatic change, we’ll never anticipate the Gospel. All of us will stay locked up in our prisons.

Abraham and Sarah couldn’t let go of the other picture: worn out old people don’t have babies. That’s just the way it is. That’s the way it’s always been and the way it’ll always be. But, no, things can change.

When Sarah has her son she says, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6). People who knew Abraham and Sarah were saying, “Seriously? They had a baby?!?” And now all these people also have this new picture of the good news that when God is involved things can change.

As followers and imitators of the risen Christ who saves us, we are charged to proclaim this good news. We’re called to preach it and embody it and share it. God through Christ has defeated the evil empire and we shout that from the rooftops as loudly as we can and we work with everything we’re got to liberate others.

Remember when Jesus was resurrected, he didn’t appear to everybody. Scripture tells us he appeared only to those who had been chosen. He appeared to the people he knew would keep it going, people he knew would keep telling the story, keep declaring the Gospel of the Kingdom of God: that God is still involved and things can still change. That’s our job. Because the fight continues.

The wreckage is all around us. The carnage, the twisted bodies and warped minds, the moral and institutional vileness that surrounds us tells us that the fight is still on. Satan is defeated, yes. He’s done for and he knows it. But he’s working with every power he’s got to take as many as he can to hell with him. Establishing the Kingdom of God isn’t easy. It requires conflict and struggle. It comes with a price.

Jesus gives his followers the power to engage and defeat the enemy: “…that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons” (Mark 3:14-15).

So, yeah, the Church needs to do more than just talk about it. We have to be a community that exhibits the evidence of that power. We don’t just confess Jesus as the Son of God; that’s no more than what the demons do. We don’t just sit on the sidelines, watching the world go by, and do nothing more than offer another religious option for salvation. The Church is charged with standing up and confronting the devil. We are in the rescuing business.

And our greatest weapon is the knowledge and our individual and corporate experience that our God is involved and things can change.

Peace,

Allan

God Is Involved

May 19, 2015 / / 0 Comments

PrisonChainsThe Gospel is not just one point in history. We know the Gospel is not just the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel is eternal. It’s what God is doing and what God has always been doing. One way to sum up the enormous scope of the good news of God is to say that God is involved and things can change.

God is involved in real human need. Real, practical, physical, earthly, human need. It’s not metaphorical, allegorical, or symbolic. It’s real. When Adam and Eve are naked and afraid, God gives them clothes and protection. When Cain is worried about being killed, God gives him a mark of safety. When Israel is trapped in bondage to slavery, God delivers them to freedom. When David was a sinner, God forgave him. God is involved in real human need.

And we see this so clearly in his Son. Jesus came to show us what it looks like when God is involved. He tells us the stories and embodies it in his actions. God is involved in real human needs. And that’s really good news. A man is bleeding to death in a ditch and along comes a good Samaritan. Yes! A runaway son comes home smelling like a pig pen and his father runs to hug him and restore him to the family. Excellent! A man says to Jesus, “You can heal me if you are willing.” And Jesus replies, “I am willing.” That’s the Gospel! That’s the good news!

The Kingdom of God is hurting people being comforted. It’s distressed people being encouraged. It’s about hopeless people being given hope. The Gospel is captives being freed, prisoners being released, outcasts being brought in to a family. It’s cold people being warmed, sinful men and women receiving full forgiveness and Satan’s grip being broken forever.

God is involved right now today in your situation. The almighty Creator of heaven and earth is not some distant despot, a remote ruler who only watches from afar. He sees your plight, he hears your cries, he feels compassion for you, and he is mighty to save. He is intimately involved.

Peace,

Allan

Heirs with Christ

May 1, 2015 / / 0 Comments

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” ~Romans 8:17

Heirs with ChristThere was a super rich couple being interviewed by a magazine. The reporter asked, “How did you get to be so rich?”

The man looked at his wife and said, “When we were first married, we had only one can of beans and a nickel. I bought an apple with that nickel and polished it up really pretty and sold it for a dime. Then I bought two apples and shined them up really nice and sold them for a quarter. Then my father died and left us sixty-five million dollars.”

You are saved not because you can shine yourself up real pretty and polish yourself up real nice. You are saved because your Father is the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth and he has decided to give you everything he has! What belongs to the Father belongs to us. What is Jesus’ is ours. Not because you’re good; not because you’re worthy. But because our Father is super rich and you are his child.

Pharaoh had all the military, but God wasn’t for Pharaoh; he was for Moses. Goliath had all the technology, but God wasn’t for Goliath; he was for David. The Sanhedrin had all the votes, but God wasn’t for the Sanhedrin; he was for Peter and John. When you belong to God, everything is turned upside down. As heirs with Christ, we are the poor turned rich, we’re the losers turned winners, we’re the weak turned super strong!

Jesus says the Son can do nothing by himself. And we think, “What? He’s Jesus! What do you mean? Jesus could do anything!” But, no. Jesus did not and could not bring himself out of the grave. He put his total trust in his Father. He gave himself completely to God in faith. And God raised him up and seated him at his right hand in glory.

God will always raise us up. We are heirs with Christ.

Peace,

Allan

Saved in Christ

April 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I need to acknowledge the disturbing link that has recently popped up next to the tagline at the top of this website. It says “prescription frr Cialis.” Before that, for maybe a week or so, it said, “Pokémon buy gold Viagra.” Nice. I was first alerted to it early last week. It doesn’t show up on my computer because I’m the administrator, but everybody else sees it. Sneaky. It’s a hack. The links are dead so it’s not hurting anybody. But it’s not what I want at the top of my website. A couple of you have asked if I’ve tapped into a revenue stream. No. But, it’s not a bad idea. If that’s going to be at the top of my blog, I ought to at least be getting paid for it!

We have our very best people working on this, but it’s apparently very complicated. Don’t worry — I’ve been assured it can’t hurt anybody’s computers. It’s just a nuisance. But, yeah, I’m aware of it now.

The jokes I’ve been told about it and some of your one-liners (thank you) are certainly hilarious. Just not publishable.

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Blue BellI need to also address the Blue Bell recall — I haven’t mentioned it yet on this site. I understand the widespread concern and want to assure you that, yes, I am just as concerned. Some friends and I are in the process right now of going back through Revelation to see if there is some cosmic connection between the end of times and what’s happening out of Brenham. This is heavy stuff and we all need to be paying close attention.

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“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” ~Romans 8:1

Saved in Christ!We’re considering this week why so many Christians feel like God is disappointed in them. In their honest moments, research indicates that most Christians feel more condemned by God’s judgment of them and less convinced of his great love for them. Of course, we don’t get that idea at all from Scripture. It comes from outside sources.

If you are in Christ, you are not condemned and cannot be condemned. You are saved. You cannot lose your salvation. You can throw it away, yes, but you cannot lose it. We don’t believe in once saved, always saved; but we certainly don’t believe in once saved, barely saved. There is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ.

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ~Romans 8:31-32

There’s not enough eternity to fathom that point. As the old hymn says, “When I think that God, his Son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in.” He did that. God did that for you. How will he not also graciously give you all things? Good question.

“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” ~Romans 5:8-10

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You were justified by the sin-forgiving, life-bestowing blood of Jesus while you were a sinner. While you were an enemy of God, he saved you. You were not declared righteous for anything you’ve done, so you won’t be declared unrighteous for anything you’ve done. You can’t let God down because you’re not holding God up. This is not related to anything you’ve done or haven’t done. You are saved because of what God has done through Christ Jesus on the cross.

Is God just going to forget about the cross? When it comes to you, is he just going to un-do the cross?

For some reason we get it in our minds that since Christians know better, since we know more, since we’ve been blessed by this saving blood of Christ, we’re going to be held more accountable than others. We’re going to be judged more strictly, more harshly. We know more, so we’re in more danger.

No! Hear the good news, Christian!

Since we’ve been justified, HOW MUCH MORE shall we be saved! Since we’ve been reconciled, HOW MUCH MORE shall we be saved! Why would we assume there is less grace for God’s children? There is more!

More grace. More salvation. No condemnation.

Peace,

Allan

Disappointing God

April 29, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I have a theory. I can’t prove this, I have no statistics or other evidence to substantiate this. It’s only a theory as to why so many Christians feel like God is disappointed in them.

God is an authority figure. He’s actually THE ultimate authority figure — we can all agree to that. And for most of our lives, authority figures are in the business of evaluating our performances and rewarding us or not based on those performances.

Disappointed MomMom says if you eat your peas, she’ll give you a piece of cake. Your teacher says if you write a good report, she’ll give you an ‘A.’ Your coach says if you catch all the passes in practice, he’ll make you a starter. Your boss says if you surpass all the company goals, he’ll give you a raise. Our lives are determined by these authority figures who judge our performances and decide to reward us or not based on those performances. So we go through live managing to perform and please the right people and receive the rewards with varying levels of success and failure.Disappointed Teacher

But when it comes to God, we know we don’t stack up. Ever. We are not holy, we are not perfect. Not even close. And our performance never has and never will measure up to our God’s divine standards. So God has to be disappointed.

Disappointed CoachMy mom is disappointed when I don’t clean up my plate. My teacher is disappointed when I flunk the English test. My coach is disappointed when I miss the block. And my boss is disappointed when I don’t hit my numbers. So, God… I know how God feels.

Just a theory.

“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies! Who is he that condemns?” ~Romans 8:33-34Disappointed Boss

Who is it? Who’s condemning you and making you feel this way? The devil? Your friends? Your enemies? Your own past, your sins, your feelings, your experiences with other authority figures?

“It is God who justifies! Who is he that condemns?”

“I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~Romans 8:38-39

God does not want us to feel condemned, but convinced. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” (Romans 8:1). We are not condemned by God’s judgment, we are convinced of his great love.

Peace,

Allan

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