To live by the Word of God

...It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Luke 4:4b

What do we live by? What IS the living of a life? It is to make decisions and choices. Our life consists of what we do with our life. What we do entails deciding things. If i’m going to live by the Word that proceeds from God it means that i bring the things of life, the matters i face, to Him, and i wait to hear what He has to say to me. He brings a Word to my spirit. And this is the Word i then live by. It is what helps me to decide and to know God’s way. This partly describes the process of living a life by the Word of God, and by the Holy Spirit. There is obviously much, much more.

This process may happen intuitively and speedily, and it may happen more slowly, taking time to hear the Word of the LORD, for any matter. But the point is we MUST hear the Word of the LORD and live by His Word, His Truth.

Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain that build it… Psalm 127:1a

Our life is a house being built by the LORD. We can either build it ourselves, or the LORD build it. If the LORD is building it then it means we are ALWAYS sensitive to what He is building. If not, it could be that WE are building the house. How true it is that every Christian needs to learn that what is not built by the LORD comes to nothing.

Grace

is all that YOU can’t do. You CAN do works, but you can’t DO grace.

Not conformed to…. what?

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:1-2

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8:29

Non-conformity to the world and conformity to the Son of God. This is the dynamic. Meaning, we are to be conformed singularly to the Son. Conformed to anything or anyone else is wrong. We are to come out of God’s mold and not be the product of any other mold.

Here is a difficulty: we are to be ONE with our brethren in Christ Jesus, yet we are not to be conformed to any particular expression of Christianity; not to any group. Belong to, Yes! Most certainly, but not be conformed to.

Conformed to means shaped by. We must be shaped by Christ. We must be whom He created us to be, and whom He redeemed us to be.

True fellowship in the Light and in Spirit and Truth is on this basis: that we all individually and corporately are God’s workmanship. We are not the products of men.

How do we know the difference between

self-condemnation, the condemnation of the enemy, and conviction by the Holy Spirit? It’s the same way we know anything: by knowing Jesus : by waiting on Him.

We should wait on Him for He is worthy : it is a question of glory. Yet we learn, time and again, His wisdom in ordering things this way – the benefits. One benefit (which is for His glory) is that we will know the difference between His voice and the enemy’s, and our own voice. We will know the difference between the pure and holy conviction (convincing) of the Holy Spirit, and the tainted condemnation of our sinful flesh, and the enemy and his agents.

As the sufferings of Christ abound in us

so our comfort also abounds by Christ. 2 Cor 1:5

Suffering and comfort at the same time. What a strange people we are!

The Roman Baptist Church

http://fleebabylon.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/i%e2%80%99ll-be-honest-about-the-roman-baptist-church-will-you/

Where to begin with this mess? Ask the man to provide a scripture that says it’s “the church” that saves and not the Blood of Christ? That what he describes as “church” is not even remotely similar to what is described in the NT?

What the man is describing as the “local church” is in fact a cult, and what he is teaching is cultic, when you compare it with the NT church and life.

Appreciate and Cultivate

Yesterday we were visiting a hospital and we saw a man who’s wife had just passed away. He was sitting in the dirt outside weeping inconsoleably. The scene was really heartbreaking. Why does it take things like this to jolt us into appreciating more what really matters in life, and the preciousness of the things God establishes in our lives: like love, marriage, family, brotherhood, brotherly love, etc. ? These are great things. The loss of them underscores that. And these are things established by God, so let’s more fully appreciate and cultivate the things which God has given us.

The house of Stephanas

I beseech you, brethren, (you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the serving of the saints,) That you submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that works with us, and labors. 1 Cor 16:15-16

Wait

God has always kept His servants waiting. This is the prerogitive of a king, so how much MORE for the King of Kings? An earthly king may keep his subjects waiting for reasons of vanity. But God keeps us waiting for us to discover His glory. He knows that if we don’t wait, we will never have a correct view of Him, and we will never be properly changed into His likeness. The person who doesn’t wait on the LORD never has a correct view of God. Their view may lean more toward an idol than that of the reality of the Living God. They have not understood His glory. Which is a fertile ground for idolatry.

But He DOES keep us waiting (and we should rejoice that He does). He almost never does things when WE think He should, according to our timetable. Which is just one reason out of many why we should get back to the NT pattern, and throw off the modern performance-oriented model.

With Israel, and with every servant of God since Adam, the command has been to wait. The waiting is just as important as the going.

The final controversy

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, unto a land that I will show you: And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12:1-3

And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto your descendants will I give this land: and there built he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. Genesis 12:7

The God-fearing person will say Amen to this. The mocker of God will make a long diatribe as to how this could not be: Not so, Lord! The land belongs to the Arabs! The Jews have illegally occupied the land!

These mockers are cursed, for God cannot lie. These accursed people are now running the shop, at the helm of christendom. They have no fear of God.

The work of God touches everything

Comments on Romans 8:26-32

We don’t even know how to pray, but the Holy Spirit does, so we submit to His leading in prayer. How different to slogging it out by yourself! And He knows the will of God and causes us to pray the will of God into being. He makes intercession according to the will of God. This also tells us that there IS a specific will of God for every person. Modern man resents that. He thinks he has the authority to chart his own course as captain of his own destiny. The thought of God’s will for His life being pre-determined by God would be perceived to be an infringement of his human rights.

…According to the will of God… we either love this or hate it. If we love this, then we boldly press in and lay hold of the will of God, knowing it is ALL glory.

Then, Paul opens a wider vista. He says that God is in control of all things: that He works all things together for good. He wants the believer to know that the work of God touches every single thing. This is why we pray about every matter on our plate, bcos we know God is at work in every matter. We no longer think in terms of chance or coincidences. Our faith couldn’t be regarded as religious, for it defines all that we now are, and do and think.

Then we find out that God knew us before He made the world. Our faith reaches right back to before the creation to get it’s foothold, for that is when God’s work for us began. Our confidence is in the work of God.

And then He justified us. A finished work. Bcos we know that Jesus has justified us we have confidence. Our faith is based on the fact that this justification HAS already taken place, and it is grounded in just WHO did the justifying. Bcos it was Jesus who justified us we have confidence. I couldn’t have confidence in any one else’s justification, and certainly no trust in any self-justification. There is probably no more pathetic a sight than that of a man justifying himself by his religious zeal.

What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If we have an inferiority complex we might find it hard to accept that God is FOR us. How can He be for us? The natural man often rightly assumes that God is against him, but he may not understand why He is against him. Then, when we are justified by faith in Jesus, it may not immediately come to us that God is actually FOR us now, and no longer against us. We may still carry some inferiority over from the old life and the old man. That’s why our minds need to be renewed by the Word of God, and by not being conformed to this world.

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? This is HOW God is for us: the basis for us to believe such a radical thing. It goes back to the wonder of God’s love, in that just how He could have delivered up His own Son for us. We can’t figure that out. But we believe it and accept it is true. So, also accept that God is now FOR you and not against you. His plans are for blessing and for good, for His glory.

Shillong

Shillong Golf Course

Where am i today?

The perpetual nursery

What do we make of a church where the prevailing emphasis is on assuring people that all is well with them and God, that they don’t need to have a guilty conscience anymore, and that there’s no chance they could ever be judged for their sins now that they are believers?

I know that assurance of salvation, by the Holy Spirit and by the Promises of God, sealed by Jesus blood, death and resurrection, is the bedrock of the church. But if people need to be continuously affirmed, and that’s all they are interested in hearing, it could indicate that they don’t yet have assurance of salvation. They are being propped up by the continual assurances of a man. It’s like they are still seeking assurance, like a drug. They still serve themselves, yet they have a wide Christian vocabulary. The person who spends their life occupied with seeking their own salvation, or their own spiritual comfort, peace and well-being, is not yet a true disciple of the LORD Jesus Christ.

Four ways of speaking to the saints

Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by teaching? 1 Corinthians 14: 6

By revelation.
By knowledge.
By prophesying.
By teaching.

This is the speaking to the saints that profits them : speaking BY these four.

We need people like that

like Paul, Peter, John, Luke, Timothy, Titus…. We need them today.

I rarely, these days, visit an institutional church. Recently when i visited one, there was a guest speaker. What could be said about his message was that it was nice. It was Biblically correct. If someone was taking score, they couldn’t find much fault with his message. But here is the problem: NOTHING changes. Good message, yes, but the church is just as dead after hearing the message as it was before : nothing changes.

Grace is sufficient

And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Can you believe that His grace is sufficient for you, today, where you are at?

And when we pray for our brethren, do we believe that the Father will supply sufficient grace for them?

Discovering Jesus

Who are you, LORD?

Discover the unsearchable riches of Christ. Take the time.

The gift of wisdom & the gift of knowledge

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another various kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But in all these works that one and same Spirit, dividing to every man individually as he will. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11

These two gifts are largely ignored and not acknowledged. (Charismatics lean toward Kenneth Hagin’s interpretation of it, which has no Biblical basis). It’s not generally acknowledged that God can supernaturally give a person a word of wisdom : a specific wisdom about what to do concerning a situation. And likewise, a word of knowledge : to know what something means : to understand the meaning. Yes, people tend to acknowledge human study and accomplishment, but this is not referring to that. This is referring to when a person is given a free gift of wisdom and knowledge. Again, it’s not on the philosophical or theoretical level, it’s on the nitty-gritty-of-living-the-Christian-life level. And when these gifts show up in weak people, then people are apt to give glory to God and say, How do they know these things?