• About
    • Welcome
    • Prayer Partners
    • Ministry Partners
    • Angel Partners
    • How to Promote
    • Crowdfunding
    • Statement of Faith
    • The Desert Warrior
    • The Temptations of the Cross (A Novel)
    • Jesus was an Alien (and Other Stories of Faith)
  • Desert Warrior
    • Tears of the Desert Warrior – The Absurdity of an Abnormal Existence
      • Prologue
      • Introduction
      • 1. The Secular Problem of Evil
      • 2. The Essence of Religion
      • 3. The Heart of the Human Experience
      • 4. The Moral Interpretation of Religion
      • 5. Finding Life in the Face of Death
      • 6. Reality, Language and Meaning
      • 7. The Myth of Human Morality
      • 8. The Dangers of the Divine Ethic
      • 9. The Religious Problem of Evil
      • Conclusion
    • Whispers of the Desert Warrior – Evidence of the God who is There
      • Prologue
      • Introduction
      • 1. The God Who is There
      • 2. The Breath of Life
      • 3. Pride and Prejudice
      • 4. The Divine Perspective
      • 5. Return to Babel
      • Conclusion
    • God of the Desert Warrior – Evil and the Goodness of God
      • Prologue
      • Introduction
    • The Desert Warrior – Finding Strength in Difficult Times
      • Series Introduction
      • Prologue
      • Introduction
    • The Way of a Desert Warrior – How the Desert can give you Courage
      • Prologue
      • Introduction
    • The Heart of a Desert Warrior – How Reality can set you Free
      • Prologue
      • Introduction
    • The Life of a Desert Warrior – How a Conversation can Change your Life
      • Prologue
      • Introduction
  • Family Secrets
    • Family Secrets – Chapter One
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Two
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Three
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Four
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Five
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Six
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Seven
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Eight
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Nine
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Ten
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Eleven
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Twelve
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Thirteen
    • Family Secrets – Chapter Fourteen
  • Jesus was an Alien
    • Preface
    • Created For His Pleasure
    • 1. Charles Benton. Neighbor.
    • 2. The Wedding
    • 3. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
    • 4. Truth in Flip Flops
    • 5. Jesus was an Alien
    • 6. Lucifer at the Cross
    • 7. The Way of the Desert Warrior
    • 8. The Anointing
    • 9. The Tower of Babel
    • 10. The Eight Year Old Evangelist
    • 11. Dr. House. Brilliant. Idiot.
    • 12. The Old Lady and the Giant
    • Return of the Prodigal
  • Seeking Jerusalem
    • Seeking Jerusalem – Days 1 to 10
      • Day 1 – The Plan
      • Day 2 – The Confession
      • Day 3 – The Rebuke
      • Day 4 – The Denial
      • Day 5 – The Judgment
      • Day 6 – The Power and The Glory
      • Day 7 – Holiness
      • Day 8 – The Cost (1)
      • Day 9 – The Cost (2)
      • Day 10 – Transfiguration
    • Seeking Jerusalem – Days 11 to 20
      • Day 11 – Desert Warriors
      • Day 12 – Revealing the Glory
      • Day 13 – Maturity
      • Day 14 – Spiritual Conversations
      • Day 15 – Hard Questions
      • Day 16 – The Weakness
      • Day 18 – Your Life Ministry
      • Day 19 – The Gift of Significance
      • Day 20 – Joshua
      • Day 17 – Spiritual Warfare
    • Seeking Jerusalem – Days 21 to 30
      • Day 21 – True Confessions
      • Day 22 – The Courage of Confession
      • Day 23 – Brokenness
      • Day 24 – The Culture of Grace
      • Day 25 – FaithWalk
      • Day 26 – Dr. House. Brilliant. Idiot.
      • Day 27 – Healing Power
      • Day 29 – Spiritual Unity
      • Day 28 – Spiritual Trust
      • Day 30 – The Anointing
    • Seeking Jerusalem – Days 31 to 40
      • Day 31 – The Sanctification Gap
      • Day 32 – The Sweet Spot
      • Day 33 – Hosea and Gomer
      • Day 34 – The Wedding
      • Day 35 – The Delivery
      • Day 36 – The Struggle
      • Day 37 – The Helper
      • Day 38 – The Secret
      • Day 39 – Messianic Prophesy
      • Day 40 – The Gathering Darkness
    • Seeking Jerusalem – Days 41 to 50
      • Day 41 – Dark Night of the Soul
      • Day 42 – The Divine Irony
      • Day 43 – Truth on Trial
      • Day 44 – The Descent into Hell
      • Day 45 – Death Comes in Darkness
      • Day 46 – The Divine Sting
      • Day 47 – Divine Visitation
      • Day 48 – The Kingdom Come
      • Day 49 – Transformation
      • Day 50 – The Road to Jerusalem
  • Temptations
    • Prologue
    • 1. Death of a Warrior
    • 2. The Old Man in the Temple
    • 3. Memories from the Past
    • 4. Battle Over Jerusalem
    • 5. Passover in the Holy City
    • 6. The Shedding of Blood
    • 7.Messianic Prophecy
    • 8. Ten Divine Words
    • 9. The Days of Artistry
    • 10. Breaking the Alliance
    • 11. The Covenant of Promise
    • 12. Birth Pangs
    • 13. Temptation in the Desert
    • 14. Prophet, Priest, and King
    • 15. Mobilizing the Forces
    • 16. The Gathering Darkness
    • 17. The Dark Night of the Soul
    • 18. The Divine Irony
    • 19. Truth on Trial
    • 20. The Descent into Hell
    • 21. Death Comes in Darkness
    • 22. The Divine Sting
    • 23. Divine Visitations
    • 24. Thy Kingdom Come
    • 25. Transformation
    • Epilogue
  • The Roman Road
    • Walking the Roman Road of Salvation – Days 1-10
      • Day 1 – All Roads Lead to Rome
      • Day 2 – “Let me Introduce myself….”
      • Day 3 – “….and my Ministry”
      • Day 4 – The Fight with Peter
      • Day 5 – Getting our Hearts in the Right Place
      • Day 6 – Getting our Heads on Straight
      • Day 7 – ……and the Demons tremble.
      • Day 8 – The Five Pillars of Evangelism
      • Day 9 – Truth in Flip Flops
      • Day 10 – A Conversation with Jesus
    • Walking the Roman Road of Salvation – Days 11-20
      • Day 11 – Jesus Was An Alien
      • Day 12 – Don’t Kill the Messenger
      • Day 13 – The Holy Hiatus
      • Day 14 – The Dilemma of Love
      • Day 15 – The Enigma of Evil
      • Day 16 – Dr. House. Brilliant. Idiot.
      • Day 17 – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
      • Day 18 – No Wonder God is Upset
      • Day 19 – Suppressing the Truth
      • Day 20 – A Law Unto Themselves
    • Walking the Roman Road of Salvation – Days 21-30
      • Day 21 – Intelligent Design for Stupid Fools
      • Day 22 – Evil is it’s Own Punishment
      • Day 23 – The Revelation of Wrath
      • Day 24 – But for the Grace of God
      • Day 25 – I’m A Good Guy
      • Day 26 – The Sin of Jonah
      • Day 27 – Reality is the Ultimate Judge
      • Day 28 – Obedience is the Ultimate Goal
      • Day 29 – The Heart is the Ultimate Standard
      • Day 30 – Blasphemer or True Heart
    • Walking the Roman Road of Salvation – Days 31-40
      • Day 31 – Sin Addiction
      • Day 32 – Friendship with God
      • Day 33 – Breaking the Alliance
      • Day 34 – Religious Virtues
      • Day 35 – Spiritual Warfare
      • Day 36 – The Path
      • Day 37 – The Holy Guarantee
      • Day 38 – Charlie Benton. Neighbor.
      • Day 39 – The Sacred Moment
      • Day 40 – The Nature of Our Struggle
    • Walking the Roman Road of Salvation – Days 41-50
      • Day 41 – The Quality of Our Struggle
      • Day 42 – Walking In The Spirit
      • Day 43 – More Than Conquerors
      • Day 44 – Living Sacrifices
      • Day 45 – Love Must Be Sincere
      • Day 46 – The Secret
      • Day 47 – Resurrection Maturity
      • Day 48 – Kingdom Evangelism
      • Day 49 – Seeking Jerusalem
      • Day 50 – Walking with Purpose

Desert Warrior Ministries

~ A Burden of Glory

Desert Warrior Ministries

Tag Archives: Romans 8

Seeking Jerusalem – Day 26 “Suffering and Glory”

07 Sunday Jun 2020

Posted by Bert Amsing in 3. Steps To Maturity, Seeking Jerusalem

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Tags

Abundance Theology, an eternal weight of glory, Death, Discipleship, discipline, glorification, glory, joy, Maturity, maturity in Christ, Pain, Pastor John Piper, Philippians 3:10, Prosperity Theology, redemptive emergency, Rom. 5, Rom. 8, Romans 5, Romans 5:4, Romans 8, Romans 8:11, Romans 8:17, Shane and Shane, spiritual immaturity, spiritual maturity, Suffering

THE WAY OF THE CROSSThe Way of the Cross – Lenten Season 2018

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.  I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”  (Romans 8: 17,18 NIV)

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10,11 NIV).

“And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given you” (Romans 5:2b-5 NIV).

The Suffering and the Glory (4)

I have an idea for a book (and maybe a movie) called A Glimpse of Glory.  It’s the story of a black worship leader who loses his sister to a mugging gone wrong and she is stabbed and killed.  Of course this creates a crisis of faith and he goes into a tailspin of grief and guilt which leads him into a frantic search for his sister’s killer.  He ends up one night in the very same bar, nursing a drink and wondering what he is doing with his life.  He decides to leave and try to get his life back on track but, first, he has to go to the bathroom.

On the way to relieve himself, he feels a knife pressed into his back and a voice in his ear telling him to step outside through the back door.  Once in the alley behind the bar, his assailant demands all of his money, using his knife as a warning and a motivation to hurry.

But Brandon wants nothing to do with it and starts to argue with him, asking him if he is the same thief who killed his sister weeks ago.  The mugger is confused and obviously high on something, but Brandon won’t let it go and starts to push back – hard.

The thief reacts like a crazy man, shoves Brandon back against the brick wall so fiercely that Brandon’s head cracks against the hard surface sharply.  At the same time, he feels the knife in his gut and he sinks to the ground in a heap.

Here is where things get interesting.

The book is called A Glimpse of Glory because Brandon is transported back into ancient Israel (or is it heaven?) at the time of David in his early years when he first became King.  A lot of other things happen, but one of the key moments is when Brandon insists on going into the Holy of Holies, unafraid for his life and only focused on his grief.  David warns him of the dangers, but Brandon goes ahead with his plan and enters the Temple bent on confronting God with his grief.

Outside, while David is waiting for the inevitable to happen, he sings one of my favorite songs (all of my books are actually musicals).  The song is from Shane and Shane and is called Though You Slay Me.

In the middle of the song, at least on YouTube, Pastor John Piper has a few words to say to those who are suffering grief and hardship.

“Not only is all your affliction momentary…

Not only is all your affliction light….in comparison to eternity and the glory there…

But all of it is totally meaningful.

Every millisecond of your pain from the fallen nature or the fallen man….

Every millisecond of your misery in the path of obedience

is producing a peculiar glory you will get because of that.

I don’t care if it was cancer or criticism…

I don’t care if it was slander or sickness…

It wasn’t meaningless.

It’s doing something.  It’s not meaningless.

Of course you can’t see what it’s doing.

Don’t look to what is seen…

When your Mom dies…when your kid dies…when you’ve got cancer at 40….when a car careens into the sidewalk and takes her out…

Don’t say “It’s meaningless…”    It’s not.

It’s working for you an eternal weight of glory.

Therefore, therefore, do not lose heart but take these truths and day-by-day focus on them.  Preach them to yourself every morning.

Get alone with God and preach His Word into your mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are new and cared for.


And then Shane and Shane come back singing their song one last time.

“Though you slay me, Yet I will praise you.

Though you take from me, I will bless your name.

Though you ruin me, still I will worship.

Sing a song to the One who is all I need.”

Do you see it?  Right there is your glimpse of glory.  Right there is the character of Christ revealed in us.  It makes no sense.  It shouldn’t be there.  But it is.  It’s not something you can create on your own by sheer will power or training.

It is something created by God in the midst of suffering.

You would have every right to complain, to argue, to get mad at God and turn away from him forever.  No one would blame you.  In fact, there may be more than one who, like Job’s wife, suggest that you just “curse God and die.”  After all, it is clear that God has abandoned you, so why not turn your back on Him as well.

Yes, you could.  But you don’t.

Instead, you go to God with your pain and grief and pour it all out before him in the Holy of Holies and, like Jesus in Gethsemane, you finally whisper “Not my will, but your’s be done.”  Not that it is easy.  Far from it.  But you do it anyway because, in the end, God is all you need and all you want.

That is the glory of God revealed in you.  Just as it was for Jesus.

It makes your testimony meaningful and real to the people around you who are also hurting and in pain.  Now you can pray for them.  Now you understand them.  Now you can tell them the good news that Jesus also endured pain and suffering for their sake, to save them from their sins.

That is what Paul is talking about here in our passage.

To the degree that we share in the suffering of Christ for the gospel, to that degree we will share in his character and glory both now in this life and, even more, in the life to come.

It is only in the context of suffering for the gospel that God can create the character of Christ.  There is no other way.  That is why we must rejoice in our sufferings because it produces hope (Romans 5:4).  It forces us to take God’s promises seriously and to risk our lives on them.  God calls that faith.  It forces us to look forward to our final redemption and the resurrection of our bodies and the defeat of death and the end of our struggle with our sinful natures.  God calls that hope.  It forces us to look at our neighbor and deal with them not in pettiness about mundane things, but in terms of issues that have an eternal weight to them.  God calls that love.  

So far in our study, we have talked about the first promise in Romans 8:1 that “there is no condemnation fro those who are in Christ Jesus.”  This promise includes FAITH, HOPE and LOVE.

Then we looked at the second promise of Holy Spirit power in our lives in Romans 8:11 where Paul reminds us that “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”

Not only is there NO CONDEMNATION but there are also NO EXCUSES.  We have the power of the Holy Spirit within us to deal with temptation and sin and we therefore need to be trained in the ways of righteousness.  The Bible calls that Discipleship.  We don’t want to fall into the trap of perfectionism but rather understand that this is a struggle and that we need to go on from glory to glory, becoming more and more like Christ each day.  Training in righteousness will be needed.

Then we looked at the third promise of the ASSURANCE of our salvation given to us by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit – that is, if you actually have the Holy Spirit within you.

A lot of people assume that it is so but don’t demonstrate any evidence that it is so.  We talked about having EVIDENCE OF LIFE and what that would look like.  If you have that evidence, you will have the assurance of your salvation.  The evidence does not save you, it only tells you that you are saved.

Both the power of the Holy Spirit and the assurance of salvation that He gives us are appropriated by FAITH.  We talked about David and his Mighty Men and the faith that they needed to have to fight the Philistines on the one hand and hide from Saul, their King, on the other.  It was a balancing act of faith that bore much fruit.

Now we go on to the fourth and fifth promise in Romans 8 which requires us to turn our thoughts to the concept of HOPE.  And HOPE is desperately needed in this crazy life of faith where things do not always go as planned.

In fact, if you are still under the impression that the Christian life is one free of pain and suffering where God will protect you from all harm and danger, then I have some bad news for you.

Our example is Jesus Christ, and, although we do not have to go to the cross and suffer the wrath of God, we still must pick up our cross daily, take on His same attitude toward the cross, die to self and live for God.

Prosperity theology does not do well in this context and if you are still suffering under those lies and deceit, perhaps this is the time to renounce the pleasures and passions of this world and start to live for God.  Exchange your Prosperity Theology for Abundance Theology.

Remember that we are talking about suffering for the gospel, not just suffering the circumstances of life like everyone else.  Yes, that too counts in terms of how you deal with it (see my next post) but the true disciple of Christ follows Him into the world to bring the gospel to those who need it and in that context will suffer as Christ did and therefore, be glorified as Christ is glorified.

It is all meaningful.  No matter what you go through.  You matter to God.  Every tear is precious to Him.

You may not know specifically why God is allowing you to suffer but somehow you need to get to that place where you can say with the apostles that you rejoice in that suffering for the gospel because it produces perseverance and that, in turn, produces hope.

This is not an insipid, weak-kneed hope in a better future but rather a strong conviction that God will fulfill His promises to us and save us from this body (and world) of death.  That is why we persevere.  That is where the patience comes from.  Hope.  Without it we could never endure the suffering and pain of this world much less that persecution inflicted on us in our efforts to spread the gospel.

So, like Pastor John Piper suggests, we need to get alone with God and preach these truths to ourselves, remind ourselves that we are new and cared for, that this is part of the process to become like Christ.

It does NOT mean that God is against us or that He is punishing us for some sin we have committed.  We are still polluted with sin and we still consciously commit sin (even when it makes us sick to do so).  Welcome to the struggle.

God disciplines those He loves and He loves us as His children.  So, no, it isn’t punishment.  It is always discipline and discipline is always for our good.

Yes, God is willing that we suffer to become like Christ.

Yes, God is willing that we endure persecution to bring the gospel to those who do not have it.

He sees the eternal ramifications of sin and is willing to do almost anything to save people from that eternal fate.

Are you?  Are you willing, like Paul, to do whatever it takes?  That is the question after all, isn’t it?

Do we agree with God’s eternal perspective, his loving priorities, His tough but good will?  If you remember our discussion of Romans 12:1-4, we talked about spiritual maturity and the process we go through to become more like Christ.  In the end, will we agree with God that His eternal perspective on this redemptive emergency is good, pleasing and perfect?  Or not?

If we are in agreement with God, then there is a price to pay.

Jesus paid the ultimate price and we don’t have to face the wrath of God.  But we can share in his sufferings for the gospel and, in that context, become more like Him.  That glory, that character, will be revealed in us here and now as well as on the last day.  That glory, that attitude of Christ, that mind-set of Jesus, will empower our testimony and life ministry and we will have the anointing of God to fulfill our purpose on earth.

Frankly, it doesn’t get any better than that.  It is the source of meaning and all joy for each of us.  A joy that is not bound by circumstances but one that is in us always no matter what we go through.

I want that joy for myself.  Don’t you?

The Desert Warrior

Lord, I want to have that joy that passes all understanding.  It is rooted in hope and springs forth in the context of suffering but I want it badly.  Please continue to reveal Christ’s character in me until my final day.  In your name I pray.  Amen.

Seeking Jerusalem – Day 23 “No Condemnation”

10 Sunday May 2020

Posted by Bert Amsing in 3. Steps To Maturity, Seeking Jerusalem

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Tags

Alpha Series, Colossians 1:27, Discipleship, Ephesians 2:14, Ephesians 2:8, Glory of God, holiness, I Corinthians 13:13, living sacrifice, morality, No condemnation, Romans 12:1, Romans 7, Romans 7:24, Romans 8, Romans 8:1, Romans 8:17, sanctification, Suffering, the good fight, the hope of glory, weakness

THE WAY OF THE CROSSThe Way of the Cross – Lenten Season 2018

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  (Romans 7:24,25a NIV)

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1,2 NIV)

No Condemnation (1)

“I believe that God is love and that I am a good guy and it will all work out in the end.”

My friend, John, was talking and he was serious.  He had been a member of our church for years.  He was over 80 years old and still of sound body and mind.  But not of spirit.  I had asked him why he did not leave the Catholic church and become an official member of our church.

“No, no, I can’t leave the Catholic Church.  I would be excommunicated,” he insisted.

We were at one of our ALPHA meetings and John was sitting at the English table by himself.  We were doing bilingual meetings and the leader of that small group was not able to be there that night.  John and I have known each other for years and I sat with him and we had our own private talk.

I was a bit surprised at his attitude to tell you the truth.  You tend to think that people who come to church “religiously” were more or less alright.  But our church was a mismatched bunch of people from every denomination; Protestants, Catholics and even a Greek Orthodox once in a while, not to mention every other denomination from Pentacostal to Baptist to Methodist.  John was no exception and I had to learn not to take anything for granted.

Still, it surprised me a bit.  This attitude.  We were talking about there being “no condemnation” for those who were in Christ and John embraced the idea with vigor.  He didn’t like judgmental people and this approach seemed to fit his beliefs perfectly.  God is love.  I am good.  Everything will be fine.  No condemnation.  Period.

Sadly, that is not the gospel and I tried to explain things to him in more detail.  But it was no good.  This fortress was years in the making and it wasn’t coming down any time soon.  The problem is that there are a lot of people like John in our churches and they would be shocked to hear what I am saying.  They are not all right.  Not in any way, shape or form.  Each and every one of them will be condemned to eternal damnation.

Why?

After all, God is love, you might say.

True.  But we are not good.  And so everything will not be fine.

But don’t you think that John meant that he was good “in Christ”?  As a Christian clothed in the “goodness” of Christ?

I wish.  But sadly, no.  That is not what he meant.

We talked it through for quite a while actually.  He considers himself to be a moral person.  Which he is.  He thinks of himself as fair and honest in his dealings with others.  He isn’t corrupt.  He is a good professional and made his living honestly in a country where corruption is rampant at every level.  But most of all, he brings up the specific good deeds he has done in his life.  He talks of his brother who was sick and in trouble in another country and how he spent his own hard earned money to go to his rescue and bring him back to Argentina and took care of him.  Like the Good Samaritan, he would be praised by God and accepted into His kingdom because he, John, was a good man.

No.  It doesn’t work that way.  If that were true, then the cross of Christ is worthless and the gospel is useless.  There is “no condemnation” only for those who are “in Christ Jesus.”

He may consider himself to be a Christian and therefore “in Christ Jesus” in some sense, but we all know that a true Christian would never get these basics wrong.  No matter how good I may seem to the people around me, all of my good deeds are like dirty rags in the eyes of God and it is only the righteousness of Christ and his death on the cross as a substitute for me that can save me from the loving wrath of God.  That is the heart of the gospel.

I remember one time near the end of our ALPHA series when I brought up this issue again but in a different context.  We had two guys off of the streets who had been coming to ALPHA and we had just finished the Holy Spirit Weekend and were starting to talk about the church and getting baptized.  There were people who still had to make a decision to follow Christ and be baptized either in the Spanish church or the English church.

And there were two guys, that we had been working closely with, who were sitting there on the front row.  One of them, Alberto, had a dark past.  He was a manipulator, a political animal, an enforcer and associated with some very dark people.  He had been given the choice to disappear or be disappeared.  He chose the anonymity of the streets and became a nobody until the political winds started to blow his way again.  The other, Rafa, was a good person.  He was divorced but committed to his only daughter and visited her regularly.  He was a personal trainer and deeply involved with Eastern ways of thinking.

Each one of them had a story that would make the hair on your arms stand at attention.  But morally, one of them was basically a good guy and the other was morally corrupt.  And they knew it.

With their permission, I spoke about these two types of people who both needed to come to the Lord and make a decision to follow Him especially by taking the step of getting baptized.

“The problem with both of these situations is that they look to be on two sides of the issue.  One person is good and the other person is bad,” I said.  I looked around at the rest of the group of around fifty people.  Even John was there, listening intently.

“The Devil doesn’t care which game you want to play,” I said.  “If you want to play the good guy.  Perfect.  He can live with that.  And if you want to play the bad guy.  Even better.  He loves that even more.”  I paused, looking around at all of them.  “As long as you are willing to play games, he will play along.  His only goal is to keep you playing games until your time runs out.  In either case, you will be spending eternity with him and that suits him just fine.”

The room was completely silent.

“Frankly, I’m more scared for the good guys than the bad guys.  Chuck Colson, the president of Prison Fellowship, often said that the bad guys in jail, or on the street, or in gangs are often closer to the kingdom of God than the corporate businessman or even the elder in the church.  They know what they are.  They have no illusions.  They aren’t fooled by hypocritical posturing and moral game playing.”

“They still need to accept the gospel of Christ and repent of their immoral lifestyle but at least they have a more realistic grasp of who they are especially in the eyes of God who uses the standard of absolute love as His measuring stick.”

“No, the ones that I fear for the most are the good guys.  The ones who are actually decent human beings.  Who have not really done anything seriously wrong ever in their lives.  They are in the most danger because their self-deception is the deepest.  They are the ones who have a hard time understanding why God would be upset with them.  Why they would be condemned.  They consider themselves to be fine, upstanding members of the community and they would be shocked at any indication that they may not, in fact, be Christians at all.”

“Playing the bad guy, Satan loves, but he knows from experience that it can blow up in his face at any moment.  Playing the good guy, makes Satan sick, but he knows from experience that he can hold on to these people much easier until it is too late.”

I looked around the room.

“The question is, which game are you playing?  Good guy or bad guy.  The solution is stop playing games, leave it all behind, the good, the bad and the ugly, and start following Jesus.  It begins with baptism.”

So what does this all have to do with our passage today?

A lot, actually.  Romans 8: 1 tells us that there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” but most people just remember the first couple of words.  They focus on the fact that there is “no condemnation” and ignore the part about being in Christ Jesus or, even worse, assume that they are “in” Christ Jesus because they go to church, or because they are good, moral, upstanding members of the church.  Not true.

So, please don’t make the same mistake.  It takes humility to bend the knee and enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whether your burden is one of immorality or the burden of good deeds, it must all be left behind and a new start must be made, like newborn infants, in the path of discipleship.

This, too, is part of the battle.  In fact, it is often the heart of the “good fight” we spoke of in our last post on Romans 7.  This internal battle on the moral level between what we want to do and what we end up doing.  Remember the question.  Who can save me from this body of death?  I can’t save myself.  Only by being “in Christ Jesus” can I live in the truth of a “no condemnation” lifestyle.

Only a new relationship with God through Christ can save me from the moral corruption of my lifestyle.  Morality cannot create relationship but relationship can create morality.  The moral problem needs a relational solution mostly because the moral problem is a result of a broken relationship with God in the first place.

No judging allowed among followers is the idea.  And, yet, the church is often the most “judging” place on the face of the earth.  The testimony of countless people who have left the church gives evidence of that (not to mention the majority of people still going to church but not getting too involved).  Still, this is the first and foremost truth that we need to hang on to if we want to survive the “good fight” of the faith.

This is the first of seven truths that we will look at together in this eighth chapter of Romans which are meant to help us survive and overcome the good fight of faith that is described by Paul in Romans 7.  Seven truths that can transform your life.  Do you remember our discussion on Romans 12:1 and 2 where we discussed the path to spiritual maturity and the necessity of transforming our minds through the truths found in the Word of God.  Paul gives us a wonderful summary of seven of those truths in this famous and beloved chapter of Romans.

In my mind, two of these truths have to do with faith, two with hope and two with love.  Paul concludes his famous passage on love with these words:  “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:13 NIV).

They are considered the religious virtues, bestowed on us by the Holy Spirit when we are baptized and developed as we gain spiritual maturity.  It makes sense, then, that these truths in Romans 8 are rooted in faith, hope and love.

But the very first truth, the one we all quote so quickly and eagerly, if understood correctly, is rooted in all three: faith, hope and love.  “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”

Did you see that little word, “now,” right there in the middle?  It means that something has changed.  Before there was condemnation.  Now there is no condemnation.  Before we were not “in Christ Jesus” but now we are “in Christ Jesus.”  That wonderful little word makes all the difference in the world.  It condemns the inclusiveness of liberal Christianity and, at the same time, puts the lie to the exclusiveness of moral religiosity.  A pox on both your houses.

There is no way to accept this life transforming truth without faith, first and foremost.  It comes after seven chapters of discussion on our sin and wretchedness and the loving wrath of God which is poured out on all mankind.  Do not divorce the after from the before.  Context is everything.  Before we were condemned.  After we are not condemned.

It takes faith (and grace) to see our sin and faith (and grace) to look to our salvation.  I always liked the second verse of Amazing Grace, where it says, “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.”  Exactly.  Without faith, coming and going, before and after, we cannot get there, we cannot appropriate this truth.

And faith is a gift of grace.  As Paul points out in Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…”

It takes faith to get there, but it is love that keeps us there.  Not our love, you understand, but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.  This is what is meant by being “in Christ Jesus.”

It is a deep and mysterious truth that we are talking about here.  It is the truth of relationships the world over that provide the merest glimpse into the godhead, the relationship we can have with our Creator.  He has not left himself without a witness in the relationships we have among ourselves.  A father with his child.  A mother with her infant.  A husband and wife in marital bliss.  A friend who is closer than a brother.  All of it gives us a glimpse of the glory of the godhead, veiled and hidden though it may be to many.  Love is the key to life.  It has always been so because God is love.  His wrath is based on his love.  His sacrifice on the cross is based on his love.  It is we who are willing to sacrifice the demands of love for the sake of our own convenience and safety.  It is we who struggle with the true nature of love.

All the best things in life are not things, so the saying goes.  And they are free, though they cost you everything.  Love is free, entering into a relationship with someone is free, but it will cost you everything.  Having a child is free, but, as any parent knows, it will cost you everything.  Especially in this world of hurt and suffering, pain and evil, where anything can happen.  Some even choose not to love, not to get involved, not to hurt or be hurt.  Love is a harsh taskmaster but it is what makes this life worthwhile.  God is love.  He hurts.  He gets involved.  He pays the price.

To be “in Christ Jesus” is both a judicial statement as well as a relational one.

If we are Christians, God has declared us to be righteous with the righteousness of Christ and has declared Christ to be a sinner worthy of his loving wrath with the sin that belonged to us.  It has been declared and it is true already now and will continue to be true for all time.  In that sense, judgment has already been passed on the cross and it only remains for us, in a temporal sense, to “confess with our mouth and belive in our hearts” in order for us to have that judgment (and mercy) applied to us.

But in a deeper, more mysterious sense, beyond the judicial but rooted in it, there is a relational, even physical, change that takes place.  When we are “in Christ,” he is also “in us.”  Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:14 “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance…”

Entire books have been written on this topic and I can only touch on it briefly but the point must be made clearly.  If you are truly a Christian, you have received the Holy Spirit and there will be evidence of “Christ in you.” Evidence not just in terms of morality.  That is true but nowhere near enough.  It is in terms of relational truths, such as godly sorrow, true confession and repentance, forgiveness of others and self based on the cross of Christ and an unwavering commitment and pursuit of true reconciliation with God and others especially among believers that provides the real evidence of a new relationship with God through Christ.

The fundamental virtue that undergirds all of this is humility since the cross takes away every excuse to rely on our own efforts and transforms our addiction to ego into the dignity of self worth in the context of transforming love.

Yes, it takes faith to get there, but it takes the love of God expressed through us and in us that keeps us there.  But finally, it takes hope.  Specifically, the hope of glory.

That is the thing, isn’t it?

Christians are a bit nuts after all.  It is such a basic truth of human existence that this life is to be protected above all, that this life is what matters more than anything, and anyone who thinks differently is suspect.  Think about it.  How many movies have you watched where the hero does amazing things to save people’s lives, especially the lives of his family or friends.

Satan thinks like a man, but God thinks of eternity.

So the saying goes.  And that is the difference, isn’t it.  When we start to think like God, people think we are off our rocker… just a bit.

But Jesus invited us to think like God.  To have our eyes and our hearts set on eternity.  To be willing to sacrifice this life for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of eternity.  Paul said that if we are only hoping for some sort of recompense in this life, then we are truly to be pitied.  It only makes sense to sacrifice this life if we believe in the life to come.  Otherwise, we are just stupid.

All of the suffering and persecution, all of the pain and evil, all of the difficulties that come to us because we follow the gospel of Christ and prioritize (even in the church) the agenda of God, all of it is without value if we are without hope for the future.

The problem is that there is real hope and there is false hope.  It depends on what your hope is based on.

My friend, John, and many others like him, have hope for the future based on their own goodness.  They are blind to the truth.  Their hope is false and has no foundation.  The religious majority in our churches are dedicated to the status quo not to the furtherance of the gospel.  They are more interested in programs than people and more committed to the prosperity gospel than to the gospel of suffering that Paul preaches.  It is a false hope that is divorced from faith and does not express the love of God which now lives in our hearts.

What is true hope, then?

Paul tells us in Colossans 1:27b that it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Christ in you.  Did you see that?  Paul roots our hope in this deep, mysterious judicial and relational experience of the Holy Spirit within us as a seal guaranteeing our “glory.”

Paul tells us later on in Romans 8:17, that “if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

Like any relationship, it is free but it will cost you everything.  And it’s worth it.

What would life be like without someone to love, without children, without friends.  But it means that you have to get involved and getting involved can get messy and hurt.  Suffering is a good bet.  In this case, to suffer with Christ means to suffer for the gospel.  The point is that we identify with Christ and with his plan to save the world.  We have a purpose and that purpose will cost us dearly and we will pay the price because our hope is in another life, not in this life.

Yes, it takes faith to believe in another life after this one but, more importantly, it takes love.  What binds us to the life to come as our top priority is a relationship.  Anyone who has lost someone dear to them begins to understand this.

But we are not just hoping for salvation.  If we are “in Christ” that is a done deal.  We have been declared righteous with the righteousness of Christ.  There is “no condemnation,” not now and not then.  Not ever.  That is our new status “in Christ.”  If God does not judge us, then who can condemn us?  No one.

No, it isn’t just the hope of salvation that motivates us.  It is the hope of glory.  The same glory that Christ receives from the Father, we will share in, if we share in his sufferings.  That “glory” as we have pointed out before is the character of Christ.

The glory of God is in his character of goodness.  Perfect justice.  Perfect love.  The one rooted in the other.  The other fulfilling the first.  Both parts one integrated whole.  His glory.  His character.  The willingness to die for his enemies to make them friends.  God made human for all eternity.  The glory of true love in the face of real evil.

That glory will become ours as well, fully expressed in the life to come but rooted in the experiences and trials and tribulations of this life as we suffer for the gospel as emissaries of the One who suffered and paid the ultimate price to save us on the cross.  He leads the way and we follow.

Our hope is to become like him.  Our hope, as we fight the good fight, is to overcome, to be more than conquerors, to prevail in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Our hope is that the fight, itself, will come to an end, that there will be no more night, no more struggle, no more addictions, no more pain, no more weakness, and temptation, and trial.

Not because it is all taken away when we enter into our glory.  Which is true.  But, more importantly, because, in this life, we have been made new, we have endured our hardships as discipline and because we have learned the lessons of our sufferings and, through faith, in hope and rooted in love, we are transformed.

In our minds, in our hearts, in our behavior, in our attitudes, in our relationships, in our priorities, in our values, in our perspective.  Addictions will be overcome.  Temptations will be dealt with.  Relationships will be restored.  Not perfectly.  Not completely.  But we will move on from glory to glory, increasingly mature in our use of the Way of the Cross, and increasingly focused and committed to suffer for the gospel of Christ in radical discipleship.

That glory is the hope of those who are fighting the “good fight” of faith in the ongoing rescue operation that God is committed to until the end of days.  If you are not in the fight, no doubt, you aren’t that interested in overcoming anything, much less your own sin and weakness.

It is a key element to your spiritual maturity that you want this glory and you are willing to fight for it.  That is also a gift from God.  But your sinful desires are at war with your new spiritual desires.  That is the battle.  You must set your mind on things which are above and not on things which are below.  You will get better at it as you go along.

You can’t do it on your own, you know.  You’ll figure that out soon enough.  It can only be done as you rely on God and are grafted into the vine, which is Christ.  At first you will struggle with all of what that means but you will get there.  The Holy Spirit is a patient teacher.

But you have to be in the fight.  You have to be on the way.  There is no steering a parked car.  You have to try and move and “make every effort” as Peter would say.  Then you can learn.  The good fight is always in the context of ministry.  The ministry of reconciliation creates the tension, empowers the dichotomy, insists on a new standard, a new way of thinking, a transformation.

Paul talks at length about being “controlled by the Spirit” and not by “the sinful nature.”  Obviously, that is the goal.  But it it s a fight.  It isn’t automatic.  You need to “set your mind” on Christ and “reckon” yourself dead to sin, just to name two exhortations that Paul gives us in this battle.

But the battle is not divorced from ministry and it is rooted in the fundamental truth that we cannot lose.  Already now, there is “no condemnation.” The battle is already won.  We still need to fight because there are people to be saved and our spiritual maturity is a key element in our testimony that Jesus Christ can transform lives today.

We will start with these seven truths found in Romans 8.  It is a good starting point.  But without being “in Christ” none of it matters.  It is all worthless and none of it will be understood.  We start with “no condemnation” but the idea is to end with becoming “more than conquerors.”

The Desert Warrior

Let us pray…..

Lord, I want to become more than a conqueror and I know that that isn’t a free ride.  I don’t take it lightly and I know it will cost me everything.  But that’s all right.  Everything that I have and everything that I am today is nothing compared to the glory I will become when I finally stand before your throne.  Not because I did such a good job but because you did everything in me and through me.  Thank you.  I know that you are both the initiator and the finisher of my faith and that I can do nothing without you.  In your name I pray.  Amen.

 

Seeking Jerusalem – Day 30 “Steps to Maturity”

21 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by Bert Amsing in 3. Steps To Maturity, Seeking Jerusalem

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church discipline, consecration, Jude 21, Jude 24, Jude 25, just keep swimming, keep moving forward, Matthew 7:24, restoration, Romans 7, Romans 8, Romans 8:37, Romans 8:38, spiritual maturity

THE WAY OF THE CROSSThe Way of the Cross – Lenten Season 2018

Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life…..To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!  Amen.  (Jude 21, 24, 25 NIV)

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For 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: 37-39 NIV)

Keep Moving Forward

For those of you who know who Dory is, her words are an inspiration to children and adults alike.  “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming….”  Or in the immortal words of the Robinson family, “Keep moving forward….”

Why am I quoting children’s movies to talk about spiritual things.  Well, because this is not just a spiritual truth.  It is a creational truth.  Keep Moving Forward.  Keep going.  Don’t stop.  These are words to live by and take to heart.  In life a lot of people have stopped and are not going anywhere.  They mill around like sheep in a pen with no direction, no guidance, no interest in going anywhere.  All they do is survive.  That’s no way to live…

Of all things, our walk with God has purpose.  There is a reason why we still live, why we are still here, why we haven’t gone on to glory.  And if there is a reason, a purpose, a point to our continued existence, then we must keep moving forward.

But it isn’t easy.  There is opposition.  It is easier to just stay home, not try, avoid rejection, mistakes and shame.  If the Devil cannot keep you from heaven, he will certainly try to keep you from being effective in your life ministry.  It is a battle after all.  So don’t be surprised.  Keep moving forward.

In fact, if you don’t keep moving forward, keep doing good, keep working for the kingdom of God, then that is also a statement.  Perhaps more a statement of unbelief than belief, but a statement nonetheless.  What do I mean?

The main reason that people stop moving forward is either because they are convinced that their work is ineffective or that they are unworthy.  To think that your work is ineffective is arrogant.  After all, what do you know about the results that God will work through your efforts.  Yes, you can try and improve your ministry but without the arrogance of final answers or ultimate results.  Progress not perfection is the name of the game.

But what about this idea that we are unworthy of continuing our ministry.  Most likely because of some sin or moral failure that we have committed.  Divorce.  An affair that became public.  Misuse of funds.  Personality conflicts with key personnel in your ministry.  Whatever it is, you are ashamed of yourself and cannot move forward.  Restoration is necessary.

The point is to get restored.  That is what it means to move forward.  Move forward in the path that God has set before you.  Perhaps you will no longer lead your ministry.  Perhaps you will need to start at zero again, do something different, go somewhere else.  But keep moving forward in faith and with the Lord.  Do not let sin, even your own, keep you from fulfilling your life ministry.  If you end up in jail, start a jail ministry.  If you end up on the street, start to minister to the street people.  Wherever you are, no matter what has happened, there is forgiveness and there is restoration, even if it looks different and feels strange.  Keep moving forward in your life ministry.

But there is a danger here as well. 

On the one hand, we have talked about the struggle, about surrender, about consecration and how the Holy Spirit helps us in our need.  We have talked about the importance of prayer and the context of grace.  But, on the other hand, the purpose of all of this is to restore us to the joy of our salvation and help us to become effective (maybe even more effective) in our life ministry again.  Without the end goal of restoration to effective ministry, we have missed the entire point of the exercise.

But here is where the danger lurks.  We want that restoration so badly that we are willing (and quite able) to skip the necessary steps for true restoration to happen.

Keep moving forward does NOT mean to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, to cover up the shame, to avoid dealing with the consequences of our sins.  Keep moving forward always means to take the path of the Way of the Cross without skipping a single step.  Restoration without resurrection power is useless and, in fact, may keep you from the very blessing and anointing power that was available to you to mark your restoration with even more effectiveness than ever before.  There is nothing more powerful than a sinner restored through the blood of the cross.  It is what the world deeply desires and needs.

But our tendency is to avoid the cross, to avoid the difficult introspection, the shame, the confession, the brokenness that the cross demands of us.  And that avoidance can be costly.

Our obedience is rooted in love but it must still be obedience.  The path before us is always the Way of the Cross.  The focus is on the relationship, most certainly, but it does not ignore the morality of our lives.  Morality is the symptom, the result, the fruit of our relationship with God.  Most certainly.  That is why we must take the time and make the effort to deal with the underlying relational issues whenever a problem in morality rears its ugly head.

As we obey, we will enter into struggle, no doubt.  As we struggle, God will uncover our idols of desire and our fortresses of fear and we will tear them down in the name and power of the Lord.  But it is a battle and sometimes we will fail, the temptation will take us by surprise, our faith will not be strong enough.  At that point, we must choose brokenness and surrender at the foot of the cross, embracing its shame and exchanging it for the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.  If we take that first step down the path in the Way of the Cross, it will lead us through a process of renewal and consecration that will make us even more effective as we return to our life ministry of obedience to God and struggle against sin.

Obviously, confession and repentance are key elements in the process and forgiveness and reconciliation the result.  This is always true between us and God and also true in terms of forgiving ourselves.  But what about other people….

This is where it gets difficult.  What do you do about other people who may or may not see things the same way?  What if they don’t agree or don’t even know about the Way of the Cross or the process of restoration?  What if they don’t understand that following means struggle and struggle means failure at times and failure needs to be surrendered and a renewed consecration be accepted?

Loving Obedience, Struggle in Faith, Surrender, Brokenness and Consecration are the natural spiritual steps in an ongoing virtuous circle of spiritual maturity.  In fact, if you ignore or deny any of these steps, your spiritual maturity is impossible for their is no spiritual maturity without the cross and learning to stay and walk in the Way of the Cross is the entire point of our Christian walk.

But what if your Board doesn’t see it that way?  They are ashamed of the problems of their pastor, their worship leader, their fellow board member.  They are confused about what to do about it and look to denominational guides and political handbooks instead of trying to understand the Way of the Cross.  I get it.  It has happened to me.

Jesus gave his disciples a simple parable that answers this question very well.  He tells his disciples that they should build their houses on the rock and not on sand (Matthew 7:24-27 NIV).  You do that by obeying his word.  Quite simple, really.  After all, Jesus didn’t say “if” the rains and floods come, he said “when” they come, you will stand, you will survive, if you built your life on the rock.

Of course, the first application of this saying of Jesus is to our salvation and discipleship.  But there is a general truth here as well.  Preparation is key.  If you are not prepared spiritually for the storms that will come, then you will have problems.  If your Board, or your partner, or your family is not prepared for the storms, you will get into problems.

And don’t just think about yourself.  Think about them.  If they are not prepared to understand what spiritual maturity is, or if they are not prepared for spiritual battle and warfare, or moral failure or disagreements in the church, then it can knock them off the path of their own obedience as well.   And that’s not good.

So, your job is to prepare your team, your Board, your family.  Your job is to teach them the Way of the Cross.  Train them in the priority of relationship over morality without excusing sin but learning to deal with it in a certain way, through confession, repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation.

Teach them that loving obedience always brings the struggle of faith and that in that struggle there are sometimes (many times) failures and problems as our idols and fortresses are uncovered and we are sometimes reluctant, sometimes even outright defiant in trying to maintain them because we need them, we want them, we would be lost without them.

It is a process of progressive sanctification.  The quality of our fight is what matters.  It is faith in the promises and truths of Romans 8 in the context of the struggle of Romans 7 that matters.  It is a rocky road on the way to spiritual maturity and many are those who do not find it.

But the solution is not rejection and fear but surrender and renewed consecration.  The goal is restoration.  The power is in the resurrection of our Lord and what that means for us today in terms of forgiveness and reconciliation.

But if we don’t train our team, our family, our church in these truths how will they learn spiritual maturity or deal with the storms when they come.  It isn’t just about us.

That doesn’t mean that we will keep our leadership position if we are in a particularly bad place in our spiritual progress.  Without condemnation, it may still be necessary to step down for a bit (or for good) but with restoration still the goal and faith that our life ministry may become even more powerful in the context of that restoration, and with faith that God has something different, better, more effective for us to do.

The point is to keep moving forward……with God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the truth that He keeps us in the palm of His hand, that our salvation is assured, that our job is to walk in the Way of the Cross and prioritize the relationship we have with Him.

Don’t let sin keep you from your purpose.  But also don’t let your purpose keep you from dealing with your sin.  Neither your sin nor your purpose is anything without your relationship with God.  Walking in the Spirit is our normal, mature place to be but even grieving the Spirit is relational.  We are still in the Spirit.  That makes everything spiritual.  Even our sin is a spiritual issue.  Our sin does not destroy the relationship but the joy of the relationship must be restored, otherwise what’s the point?

Spiritual maturity has to do with your ability to stay right there in that sweet spot at the foot of the cross.  Dealing with sin.  Confession and Repentance.  In the context of Grace.  Forgiveness and Reconciliation.  So that you can have even greater effectiveness in your Life Ministry.  Surrender and Consecration which is Spiritual Maturity.

It’s about the relationship, stupid.  It’s not about the sin.  The sin is a symptom of the relationship.  Sin has been dealt with at the cross.  Our job is to prioritize the relationship and deal with our sin through the cross.  The ability to do that consistently is spiritual maturity.  Spiritual maturity (which is relational) is the foundation and power-source for a life of morality and obedience in fulfilling our purpose and life ministry.

The Desert Warrior

Let’s talk to God…..

Lord, my sin sometimes overwhelms me.  Some of it is private enough to deal with quietly between you and me but other things are more public.  I’m scared of the fact that so few other people really understand any of this and I don’t want to be condemned out of hand.  But then I remember that you, too, were rejected by your own people, abandoned by your own disciples.  And you call me to share your suffering for the sake of the gospel so that I can also share your glory, your character, your spiritual maturity.  It takes faith and it is hard.  Of course.  Why am I surprised.  Like you, I have to choose to please God and follow Him no matter how those around me react or whether they even understand what I am going through.  Thank you that you will never leave me.  I want to stay in your love always.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen.

 

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© 2012 vanKregten Publishers and Desert Warrior Ministries. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to vanKregten Publishers, Desert Warrior Ministries and/or Bert A. Amsing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Specific reprint permission will be granted upon request via email for inclusion in digital and print media.

Scripture Copyright

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2012 by vanKregten Publishers. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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