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You Are One With The Master

“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit”
1 Corinthians 6:17

 

The believer and Jesus are one. Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches . . .” (1 John 15:5). When you look at a tree you don’t think of the branches as one part. You see it as one – as a unity. All who believe in Him are one with Christ. Our spirits are one with Him.

 

How are you demonstrating this unity in today’s divisive environment?
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You Are A New Creature

“. . . but though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day”
(2 Corinthians 4:16)

 

In the New Birth, our spirits are recreated, our bodies are not. It is in our spirit where all things have become new. We still have the same bodies we always had. There is a man who lives inside the body. Paul calls him “the inward man of the heart” (1 Peter 3:4).

 

This man is hidden to the physical eye. No one can see the real you – the inward man. They may think they do but they only see the house you live in. You are on the inside looking out. The same thing is true with the people you know; you’ve never really seen the real man on the inside.

 

When a man’s house is decaying, the real man still lives. The real man never dies. It is this inward man who is born into the family of God, who is in perfect union with the Master.
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You Are A Child of God

 

No truth in all the Bible is as far reaching as the blessed fact that when we are born again into the family of God – God the Father is our Father. He cares for us! He is interested in us, each of us individually, not just as a group, or as a body, or a church. He is interested in each of His children and loves each one of us with the same love.

 

Get acquainted with your Father through the Word. When you were saved, you were born into His family as a spiritual body. Babies in the natural must eat natural food to develop and grow. The Bible instructs the children of God: “As newborn babies, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby . . . “ (1 Peter 2:2).

 

It is in the Word where we find out about our Father, about His love, His nature, how He cares for us, and how He loves us. He is everything the Word says He is. He will do everything the Word says He will do.
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Do You Know The Reason For The Season?

 

We are in the season we pause with our family and friends to celebrate the blessings of the past year. We have come through difficult times, and as Christians, we know it is because of the grace of God. Our belief in Jesus Christ and what His Word says has transformed our life. And when we mess up, He has already paid the price, and we are forgiven. His forgiveness is not an excuse to continue sinning. When we slip, He understands. When we practice sin, we must reassess if we really believe in Him and His Word.
 

Do you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back, and food on your table? Sure, you may have worked to buy those things, but who gave you a body and a brain? Deuteronomy 8:18 tells us it is God “who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” So, let’s not forget from whom all blessings flow.

 

I was taught that he who controls the diameter of your thinking also controls the circumference of your possibilities. And relative to this season, the narratives of the holidays have not been designed to focus you on the real reason for this present season.

 

My family worked hard to dispel the Thanksgiving narrative because the origin story of the friendly dinner between Native Americans and Pilgrims that’s often told in school — is inaccurate. Native Americans describe the holiday as a “National Day of Mourning.”

 

The actual origin of the national holiday dates to Abraham Lincoln. On October 3, 1863, he called for the country, “in the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity,” to set aside the last Thursday in November as “a day of Thanksgiving.” The Times published his Thanksgiving proclamation on the front page and several times subsequently.

 

And the Christmas holiday is also a false narrative of a fat guy in a red suit. The overarching theme of Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ and is one of the Christian high holidays. But the celebration of Christmas has become a mixture of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular traditions.

 

Christmas trees are widely associated with the Christian holiday, but their origins are far from the Christ-worshipping standards they represent today. Christmas trees began as a pagan tradition as early as the fourth century C.E. European pagans were primarily responsible for dressing their homes with the branches of evergreen fir trees to bring color and light into their dull winters. But pagans weren’t the only people to do this. Romans also used the branches for decoration during the festival of Saturnalia, which took place from December 17 to December 23 in honor of the god Saturn.

 

The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back to a monk named St. Nicholas in Turkey. St. Nicholas gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside, helping the poor and sick, becoming known as the protector of children and sailors. Today we focus on 28 days of shopping madness where if you can’t afford to buy gifts or don’t receive the latest, your life is unfulfilled.

 

In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In the fourth century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention the date of His birth.

 

Pope Julius I chose December 25. It is commonly believed that the church chose this date to adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and England by the end of the sixth century.

 

Christmas in the twenty-first century is a mixture of various cultures that have shaped how we think of the holiday season today. So, skip the worldwide commercialization phenomenon, skip the fat guy in a red suit, skip fretting over decorating, skip focusing on food, and skip worrying about the right gifts.

 

Let’s focus on preparing our hearts to celebrate our Savior’s birth by reflecting on the hope, peace, love, and joy that Jesus brought to the world.
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A Crisis in Christian Integrity

 

Could you do the right thing if called upon to respond? Stand up to family or friends if you saw them doing something wrong? Risk alienating your friends and family to do what is right when everyone else was being rewarded for going along with the crowd? Would your inner moral compass work if True North suddenly disappeared and the very ground beneath your feet underwent a seismic shift?

 

Some say they understand the fear that grips Christians who refuse to speak out against the divisive madness transpiring in this country, but when we are followers of Christ, our integrity and faith will cause us to stand against division. Will the impulses of violence, racism and intolerance be too strong for our faith to contain? Or will we commit to becoming God’s Revelation 7:9-17 vision – a vibrant, forward-looking multiracial family.

 

We can have different ideas about how the country should deal with its many challenges but not how we view and treat people. We can lose any moral high ground or spiritual authority with a generation through hypocrisy, inconsistency, incredibly selective mercy, and thinly veiled supremacy.

 

These tendencies bring us all dangerously close to those who were “confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else,” leading one of them to pray, in public, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—extortioners, unjust, adulterers robbers, evildoers, adulterers” (Luke 18:11).

 

You cannot devise your own morals to fit your situation. We’ve been told by popular theologians for some years that “the situation determines morals.” Now we are reaping the bitter fruits of practicing that kind of ethics. If God is, then what God says must be “absolute”—man must have moral boundaries.

 

The Bible tells us that with what judgment we judge, we shall be judged. So we must avoid hypocritical and self-righteous glee at the evil that is being done.

 

Let us hope that by God’s grace, we may turn the corner. Let’s hope we realize that the crisis in Christian integrity is the most serious we can face.

 

Discern the will of God and use wisdom in your words and actions.  

 

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The Journey 2021

PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR

 

Your  practical, inspirational resource for supporting your spiritual walk

 

 

After a year of focus on God’s faithfulness to us, we shift to how we remain faithful to Him by dedicating 2021 to accessing our patterns of behavior that don’t always agree with the Word of God. Patterns of behavior that, when not dealt with, spread like cancer. Those that start in private or out of sight of the public. Once they become entrenched into your lifestyle, it’s only a matter of time until they manifest in other areas of your life.

 

For the maturing Christian, sinful patterns of behavior are an agent of decay. Once sin is introduced into a relationship, a community, or an individual, spiritual productivity is diminished. The enemy gains a foothold when these defeating patterns of behavior rob you of your confidence in the power of God to give you victory over it.

 

You must be willing to get involved again in the process of working with God to gain consistent victory over the temptations your patterns of behavior create. To get the truth back the enemy has convinced you are a lie. The fact that David was a man after God’s own heart illustrates that the righteous person is not sinless but is always eager to correct his errors. There is no magic plan, prayer, or practice. There is, however, a loving Father who is ready to provide “the way of escape” if you are prepared to engage and take advantage.

 

All our struggles are spiritual in nature. Our inner turmoil, not  issues with other people. Each one is part of an ongoing struggle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan to control our patterns of behavior. Paul could not have been more explicit about this when he wrote:

 

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”                                                                                              (Eph 6:12)

 

 

My prayer for you this year is that in all you do, how you think about yourself, how you treat others, what you say about yourself and others, and that you will realize there is a war going on; you better fight!

 

“For thought we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”                                                                        (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

 

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Your Calling Is Calling

 

This virus and election season have exposed our innermost thinking, beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Many have looked to those called by God for understanding and support. Yet, some influential Christian leaders are saying to overlook the wrongs of politicians, who support their self-interest, but condemn the wrongs of those considered the “other”. Many people ask me why Christians plant their flags on things not spoken of in the Bible but ignore what is clearly laid out? So rather than giving my opinion, I took to the phone, called ten pastors to hear their answers to the question. The most common responses were “what the scripture meant was” and “God uses flawed people to do his work.”

 

The first answer, I believe, is the foundational basis of the challenge this country faces—interpretation based on self-interest rather than self-sacrifice. We tend to ignore the parts that challenge us or call us to make that great sacrifice. It’s much easier to point the finger at someone else. But as momma used to say, “when you point to what you think is someone else’s issue, there are always three fingers pointing back at you and your issues.” Or to use scripture. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matt. 7:3). From Lucifer’s desire to be like God to the last sin we committed, every sin committed is grounded in self-interest.

 

The second answer, I agree God used flawed people. For instance, the stories of Zacchaeus and Matthew, both tax collectors who cheated people. Jesus spent time with them, and once knowing Jesus, they turned their lives around. Zacchaeus paid back all whom he’d cheated, and even more, than he had taken. (Luke 19: 1-10) Matthew dropped everything and became a disciple. (Matthew 9:9) Just two of the many examples that demonstrate they repented, and because they came to know Jesus, their lives became different. People could see evidence of their faith.

 

 

2021 will provide us an opportunity for a mental and spiritual reset. Love instead of hate; understanding instead of judgment; critical thinking instead of homogeneous bubbles; values instead of violence; dialogue instead of division; sacrifice instead of self-interest; influence instead of control; Imago Dei instead of class systems; living out the Word instead of talking about it.

 

People are walking away from the Church in record numbers. When they can’t hear what you’re saying because of what they see you doing, you have to ask yourself – what are your patterns of behavior saying?

 

Your calling is calling you. Will you answer the call in 2021?
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A Time For Humility

 

Ezekiel 28-29

 

Holiness and humility are inextricably linked. Jesus showed us that at the heart of holiness is humility. On the other hand, pride is at the root of all sin. It was pride that led to Satan’s downfall. According to the biblical world-view, behind the evil in the world there lies the devil. The Greek word for devil, diabolos, translates the Hebrew word satan. We are not told very much about the origins of Satan in the Bible. But this passage is one of the few that might give some hint of the origin of Satan.

 

Although the original context is the fall of the King of Tyre, it seems that Satan, the ruler of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), was behind the ruler of Tyre.
Read alongside Isaiah 14:12–23 and Revelation 12, it appears that both humans and Satan were created good: ‘You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God’ (Ezekiel 28:12–13).

 

It appears that Satan was an angel: ‘You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God’ (v.14). Satan had access to the throne of grace and to the presence of the Lord. He was blameless in his ways (v.15). Instead of worshipping God on the mountain of God ‘his heart became proud, going around saying, “I’m a god. I sit on God’s divine throne, ruling the sea”’ (v.2, MSG). He was ‘trying to be a god’ (v.3, MSG). ‘By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, and because of your wealth your heart has grown proud’ (v.5). Just as great skills and wealth can lead to pride, so can good looks: ‘Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendour’ (v.17).

 

 

This is a description of self-worship, which happens when we put our success down to our own wisdom, skill and abilities (v.4), without realising that these things come from God and that we should worship him alone. Instead of worshipping the Sovereign Lord, the temptation is to worship success, wealth and beauty – the gods of our culture – they are ‘god-pretentions’ (v.7, MSG).

 

God brings down the proud and exalts the humble. As a result of his pride and sin, Satan was expelled from the presence of God: ‘you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you’ (v.16), ‘So I threw you to the earth’ (v.17; see Isaiah 14:12; Luke 10:18). Satan’s final destruction is assured (Ezekiel 28:18b–19). Jesus defeated Satan by his death and resurrection.

 

The attitude of Jesus is the complete opposite to that of Satan. He took the opposite path: ‘Who, being in very nature God… made himself nothing… he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2:6–11).

 

Worship Jesus today. As you draw close to him throughout your lifetime you will experience these benefits – happiness, holiness and humility.

 

Lord Jesus, today I bow my knee to worship you and confess that you are Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

Reprinted with permission, bibleinoneyear.org
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R U Looking 4 A King?

Scripture transcends ideology, identity, party allegiance, and is full of clear specific instructions on how we should treat each other. Today, I’ll let scripture speak for itself and in the words of Ray Charles, “do what it do. . .” Those who are serious about finding and following a king will heed Christ admonition that “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).
Read them carefully and consider how to apply them in your life:

 

Leviticus 19:11 Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another.

 

John 13:14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

 

John 13:34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

 

John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

 

Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

 

Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

 

Romans 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

 

Romans 14:13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.

 

Romans 15:7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

 

Romans 15:14 I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

 

Romans 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.

 

1 Peter 4:9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

 

1 Peter 5:5 Be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

 

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

 

1 John 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

 

1 John 3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

 

1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

 

1 John 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

 

1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

 

1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

 

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

 

James 5:9 Don’t grumble against each other, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
Hebrews 13:1 Keep on loving each other.

 

2 Thessalonians 1:3 We ought always to thank God for you, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:9 Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

 

1 Thessalonians 3:12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

 

Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

 

Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices

 

Philippians 4:2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.

 

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

Galatians 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

 

Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

 

1 Corinthians 12:25 There should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

 

Galatians 5:15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

 

1 Corinthians 11:33 When you come together to eat, wait for each other.

 

Romans 1:12 That is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.

 

Ephesians 4:16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

 

Philippians 2:3-5 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

 

We change our moral and ethical behavior by letting Christ live within us, so that he can shape us into what we should be. The scriptures call us to love as we have never loved before. This requires radical humility (next issue’s topic).

 

 

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The Toxic Source Of Inconsistency

Dr. I. David Byrd

 

An expected result of teaching God’s Word is demonstrating, distinguishing, and defending what we teach. In other words, live what we teach and teach what we live. 1 Corinthians 11:1 says, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” The great commission’s high calling is for believers to serve as a Godly example by living out our walk with God.

 

As the world “waxes worse and worse”, we must ponder – is our witness is losing its impact. If people listen more to what we do than what we say, the central question becomes, what are we doing that is driving the world away from the Church? Research shows people are leaving the Church in record numbers. What are they saying to us. Could they be telling us that they are not interested in being a part of what they see from the Church? What attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, or patterns of behavior are we projecting that have become our strongholds and turns people away? Once separated, the enemy has the opportunity to plant all kinds of false truths in their minds.

 

Some believe coercive force is to be used to restrain other people’s activities. Jesus demonstrated that proximity and the Word’s power are more than enough to change humankind’s hearts. Three examples of this:

 

In John 4:4-26, Jesus brought the Samaritan woman at the well to repentance using the Word and demonstrating to those ready to stone her that they too were sinners in need of grace.

 

In Mark 7:24-30, when the Syrophoenician came to speak to Jesus, the disciples dismissed her, labeled her, and advised Jesus to send her away. Yet, Jesus took the time to talk with her. And because of her faith, her daughter was healed.

 

In Luke 24, Jesus responded on the road to Emmaus by using scripture – “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” The Bible says they responded, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

 

The Word is enough to transform hearts and minds on its own. It doesn’t need our coercion, legislation, force, dominance, or judgment to help it. The only help it needs from us is to tell people about it and let them see us living it. Besides, we can’t put anyone in heaven or hell anyway. Only God can provide saving grace. When we come to this knowledge and understanding, our personnel theology will be an example of Christ to this wayward world.

 

I still believe the Church can be the example of Christ.