"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to
make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of
hell than yourselves." (Matthew 23: 15)
Telling people to share the good news about one's recovery, if it is indeed "good news".
Here is the Gospel in its simple form:
"38Be it known unto you
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that
believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by
the law of Moses." (Acts 13: 38-39)
Paul preached this in Antioch in Pisidia. Notice how simple the message is -- through "this man" Jesus Christ is preached forgiveness of sins. There is no limit on the forgiveness, there is no temporal block or any sin that is too great. All our sins. and in Him we are justified, a righteousness that we could never receive in obeying the law of Moses, from which the Twelve Steps derives the notion of confession and works as a means to earn God's favor, freely given through Christ Jesus!
The whole AA set up does more harm than good, since members of the program look for prospects in sanitariums and hospitals, when sick men and women are at their most vulnerable. Members of AA then tell them about their program, outlining for them that if they follow these "twelve steps", then they will have the life that they are looking for.
I have seen this program "at work" in friends and family, and the whole "Twelve Steps" program is a bill of goods! The people who push this program need to take their inventory and put it under the blood of Jesus Christ, who takes care of sin, penalty, record, with grace that restores and renders double for all our trouble!
The AA program cannot grant us the much-needed knowledge of righteousness and justification from the our sins, all our sins. The very idea that I have to look over every day and take my inventory sent me into a tailspin every day. I was so pressed to look over my life, constantly taking my inventory. Martin Luther entered the confessional every twenty minutes. Pastor Joseph Prince of Singapore would confess his sins while talking to people or while playing soccer. The whole notion of confessing one's sins and making amends will take you to the insane asylum or around the bend, if you really believe that you must confess to be set free.
Members of AA can never feel free, since they are told that "alcohol" is a subtle foe. Imagine no rest for the rest of one's life. No wonder many people in AA end up as "white-knucklers" who never have any fun!
Sunday, October 28, 2012
AA, Psychiatry, Psychology -- All Get an F
Here is the crux of the matter for people who are in bondage to substances.
They feel guilty and ashamed. Guilt and shame are two very powerful forces in this world. Sadly, they drive too much of our learning and our growth in this life.
Shame and guilt focus us on ourselves. The problem for all of us is "self", but more specifically, this "self" that is saddled with shame and sin. The "sin conscience" which indicts us often as orphans, unwanted, unacceptable in a fallen world.
The last thing that people in bondage to shame need is a program which tells them that they are sick alcoholics who are not normal people, but are like men who have "lost their legs."
Since when do we ever set people free from sin and shame by attaching the whole mess to people in order to define them as such? What a travesty!
What's worse, many AA programs connect with professionals -- psychologists, psychiatrists, and even social workers -- who cannot do anything about the guilt and the shame which men and women have endured in their lives, or the shame of abusing alcohol and committing crimes are hurting loved ones afterwards.
No wonder people who abuse substances never break free. They have done so much wrong in part because they abuse alcohol or some other drug, then they try harder to break free, only to end up in greater bondage. The answer to condemnation is righteousness, not working "Twelve Steps".
No matter what I do, what I have done cannot be undone by anything that I say, think, or do. I can sit in a professional's office and talk about my feelings, talk about my shame, my fears, but all of that talk cannot get me to escape. In every person's mind, especially for the wrongs which we have done in the past which has caused great harm to others, the guilt and condemnation, our conscience, will not be satisfied. Something inside of us demands: "Someone has to pay!"
Only the blood of Jesus Christ provides us the peace and the appeasement of our conscience, for in dying for all the sins of the world, Jesus Christ solved the "sin and death" problem which afflicts every human being.
One huge problem with AA, and all other forms of secular "counseling" is that fixing a man's thinking is simply not enough. Telling a person that he or she is OK just does not do enough for a man. To tell someone that his feelings are OK, that everything in his life is bad because of his bad upbringing, simply does not supply a man with life and that more abundantly.
We need more than a sense of well-being. We need life, and that more abundantly. We need righteousness and grace supplied to us in full measure, and this life is offered in full through Jesus Christ, whose death paid the sin debt of every man in full forever!
They feel guilty and ashamed. Guilt and shame are two very powerful forces in this world. Sadly, they drive too much of our learning and our growth in this life.
Shame and guilt focus us on ourselves. The problem for all of us is "self", but more specifically, this "self" that is saddled with shame and sin. The "sin conscience" which indicts us often as orphans, unwanted, unacceptable in a fallen world.
The last thing that people in bondage to shame need is a program which tells them that they are sick alcoholics who are not normal people, but are like men who have "lost their legs."
Since when do we ever set people free from sin and shame by attaching the whole mess to people in order to define them as such? What a travesty!
What's worse, many AA programs connect with professionals -- psychologists, psychiatrists, and even social workers -- who cannot do anything about the guilt and the shame which men and women have endured in their lives, or the shame of abusing alcohol and committing crimes are hurting loved ones afterwards.
No wonder people who abuse substances never break free. They have done so much wrong in part because they abuse alcohol or some other drug, then they try harder to break free, only to end up in greater bondage. The answer to condemnation is righteousness, not working "Twelve Steps".
No matter what I do, what I have done cannot be undone by anything that I say, think, or do. I can sit in a professional's office and talk about my feelings, talk about my shame, my fears, but all of that talk cannot get me to escape. In every person's mind, especially for the wrongs which we have done in the past which has caused great harm to others, the guilt and condemnation, our conscience, will not be satisfied. Something inside of us demands: "Someone has to pay!"
Only the blood of Jesus Christ provides us the peace and the appeasement of our conscience, for in dying for all the sins of the world, Jesus Christ solved the "sin and death" problem which afflicts every human being.
One huge problem with AA, and all other forms of secular "counseling" is that fixing a man's thinking is simply not enough. Telling a person that he or she is OK just does not do enough for a man. To tell someone that his feelings are OK, that everything in his life is bad because of his bad upbringing, simply does not supply a man with life and that more abundantly.
We need more than a sense of well-being. We need life, and that more abundantly. We need righteousness and grace supplied to us in full measure, and this life is offered in full through Jesus Christ, whose death paid the sin debt of every man in full forever!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Bill W. -- A Mere Variant of Moses
"But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart." (2 Corinthians 3: 15)
I did not believe this for a long time, for AA is just Moses dress up in "Bill W." trappings, a lot of laws which cannot make a man righteousness or holy or good.
Moses represents the Law, the Old Covenant in which man had to obey God's law.
Yet even when God laid out the Ten Commandments, he provided the shedding of blood for the remission of sins:
22And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. 24An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. 25And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. 26Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon." (Exodus 20: 22-26)
Christians in the United States are clamoring for the reinstatement of the Ten Commandments.
But that is the Old Covenant, a covenant which God found fault with:
"For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
"For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:" (Hebrews 8: 7-8)
This Old Covenant including confessing one's sins and offering sacrifices.
This Old Covenant is done away with through the New Covenant, in Christ:
"But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ." (2 Corinthians 3: 14)
and then
"Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." (2 Corinthinas 3: 16)
The Lord is the beginning and end of our life. We do not need the laws and rules to guide us, for in the New Covenant, based on His Finished Work of forgiving all our sins and giving us His righteousness, He then writes on our hearts and minds His laws, and His Spirit lives and guides us from within!
Bill W., like every human being who creates human solutions to get to God, merely took the Law, then dressed up a set of inventories as a "program" for living.
But what is the Law:
"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious," (2 Corinthians 3: 7)
and
"For if the ministration of condemnation be glory" (2 Corinthians 3: 9)
Ministry of death, ministry of condemnation. . .
No wonder I was often frustrated and depressed as I was growing up, tutored to live life according to the Cold, Hard Twelve Steps.
Paul writes to the Romans that the Law cannot justify us at all:
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3: 20)
and
"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." (Romans 7: 7)
The law is meant to bring us to Christ, then we no longer need the law (Galatians 3: 24-25)
The writer of Hebrews could not be more blunt or clear-cut:
"5And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (Hebrews 3: 5-6)
Moses was a faithful servant, but Jesus is the faithful Son who ministers on our behalf forevermore.
Paul tells us what to do with the servant the law:
"Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
"So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. " (Galatians 4: 30-31)
So, believer, cast out Bill W., and let the Son reign in you!
I did not believe this for a long time, for AA is just Moses dress up in "Bill W." trappings, a lot of laws which cannot make a man righteousness or holy or good.
Moses represents the Law, the Old Covenant in which man had to obey God's law.
Yet even when God laid out the Ten Commandments, he provided the shedding of blood for the remission of sins:
22And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. 24An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. 25And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. 26Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon." (Exodus 20: 22-26)
Christians in the United States are clamoring for the reinstatement of the Ten Commandments.
But that is the Old Covenant, a covenant which God found fault with:
"For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
"For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:" (Hebrews 8: 7-8)
This Old Covenant including confessing one's sins and offering sacrifices.
This Old Covenant is done away with through the New Covenant, in Christ:
"But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ." (2 Corinthians 3: 14)
and then
"Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." (2 Corinthinas 3: 16)
The Lord is the beginning and end of our life. We do not need the laws and rules to guide us, for in the New Covenant, based on His Finished Work of forgiving all our sins and giving us His righteousness, He then writes on our hearts and minds His laws, and His Spirit lives and guides us from within!
Bill W., like every human being who creates human solutions to get to God, merely took the Law, then dressed up a set of inventories as a "program" for living.
But what is the Law:
"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious," (2 Corinthians 3: 7)
and
"For if the ministration of condemnation be glory" (2 Corinthians 3: 9)
Ministry of death, ministry of condemnation. . .
No wonder I was often frustrated and depressed as I was growing up, tutored to live life according to the Cold, Hard Twelve Steps.
Paul writes to the Romans that the Law cannot justify us at all:
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3: 20)
and
"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." (Romans 7: 7)
The law is meant to bring us to Christ, then we no longer need the law (Galatians 3: 24-25)
The writer of Hebrews could not be more blunt or clear-cut:
"5And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (Hebrews 3: 5-6)
Moses was a faithful servant, but Jesus is the faithful Son who ministers on our behalf forevermore.
Paul tells us what to do with the servant the law:
"Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
"So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. " (Galatians 4: 30-31)
So, believer, cast out Bill W., and let the Son reign in you!
The Real Root of Resentment: Condemnation
This revelation just opens to me more wonders than ever before, and I am just blessed.
Indeed, "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8: 32)
I did not know this Truth that sets me free. I did not believe that believing is what it is all about:
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6: 29)
Yet to believe on Him whom God the Father has sent means that we take in the entire message:
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2: 1-2)
He is the mercy seat for the sins of the entire world!
I did not know that. I never thought about it.
I knew that He died on the Cross, but like many believers I did not think much about it. For years, I was convinced that my life on this earth was up to me.
A sense of inadequacy plagued me for many years. I often wondered if God was on my side. I would look at myself, look at my feelings. If I kept thinking about God, for example, then I believed that I was safe. If I watched my thoughts, to make sure that they never strayed, then I was OK.
A lot of this mixed-up, messed-up thinking stemmed from an extensive AA background when I was growing up. I was told that my thoughts and feelings could block God from living and working in my life.
The New Covenant, though, has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with what Jesus did at the Cross for me.
Still, I felt a sting of pain in my life from previous circumstances which I had endured. In a way, I did not trust God because I had endured some heavy and unpleasant circumstances in my life, like the distorted upbringing of AA.
Yet the grace of God is so great, so grand, so good, that He is in the business of taking our pains and turning them into gains.
In fact, the Cross itself is the most powerful proof of this! Imagine --- human beings putting their Creator and Savior on the Cross because He told them that He was the Messiah. He came among his own, and they did not receive Him! Yet in the darkest moment in human history, God as man crucified in open shame and then rejected by His own Father, this moment is the greatest moment in all eternity, for at the Cross God the Father reconciled all of humanity by turning His Son into the Sin Offering, the Propitiation for all of our sins!
If we would only believe on Him whom He has sent, then we would receive power and life and all that we need yet so lack in this life.
It is so simple, yet the world has made it complicated or distorted. AA is one of those distortions. Men and women full of pain and despair fall into drinking, only to find something that takes away life and gives them death. I am not suprised that there are many "white knucklers" in many AA meeting rooms, for the program of Twelve Steps does not give to man what he really needs: righteousness: the standing of complete acceptance and justification before God; Peace: that the hostility between God and us has ceased, and that every need is met in Him; Joy: the strength of living life with greatest joy and intensity and rest, with no fears or worries.
Yet the biggest problem for man, then, is not a drinking problem or his money problems or his sex issues or his self-esteem problems. The biggest need, man's greatest burden, is that he is dead in trespasses, assaulted with a sin conscience which attacks us in our flesh, in our spirit that is separate from God, that falls upon us in a fallen world. All of man's shocks and hurts, including "the number one offender" resentment.
What causes us a sense of resentment? That someone has done something to wrong or harm us, and either we have to retaliate or take it in to ourselves.
I would also submit that those who walk around feeling down, depressed, sad, filled with guilt and shame -- in short, with a sin conscience -- are more sensitive because who they are rests on themselves: what they do, what they think, how they feel. I know that I struggled with this. I always felt pressured with fear when pressed by someone, afraid to do something wrong.
Yet in Christ, all of my sins are forgiven, a river of Emmanuel's pure and perfect blood which washes me from all my guilty stains. This is more than any God "as I understand him".
Jesus Christ came down not just to change our lives, but to exchange His life for our sin and death and loss. He came to give us everything:
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
"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?" (Romans 8: 31-32)
Do we believe it or not?
Indeed, "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8: 32)
I did not know this Truth that sets me free. I did not believe that believing is what it is all about:
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6: 29)
Yet to believe on Him whom God the Father has sent means that we take in the entire message:
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2: 1-2)
He is the mercy seat for the sins of the entire world!
I did not know that. I never thought about it.
I knew that He died on the Cross, but like many believers I did not think much about it. For years, I was convinced that my life on this earth was up to me.
A sense of inadequacy plagued me for many years. I often wondered if God was on my side. I would look at myself, look at my feelings. If I kept thinking about God, for example, then I believed that I was safe. If I watched my thoughts, to make sure that they never strayed, then I was OK.
A lot of this mixed-up, messed-up thinking stemmed from an extensive AA background when I was growing up. I was told that my thoughts and feelings could block God from living and working in my life.
The New Covenant, though, has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with what Jesus did at the Cross for me.
Still, I felt a sting of pain in my life from previous circumstances which I had endured. In a way, I did not trust God because I had endured some heavy and unpleasant circumstances in my life, like the distorted upbringing of AA.
Yet the grace of God is so great, so grand, so good, that He is in the business of taking our pains and turning them into gains.
In fact, the Cross itself is the most powerful proof of this! Imagine --- human beings putting their Creator and Savior on the Cross because He told them that He was the Messiah. He came among his own, and they did not receive Him! Yet in the darkest moment in human history, God as man crucified in open shame and then rejected by His own Father, this moment is the greatest moment in all eternity, for at the Cross God the Father reconciled all of humanity by turning His Son into the Sin Offering, the Propitiation for all of our sins!
If we would only believe on Him whom He has sent, then we would receive power and life and all that we need yet so lack in this life.
It is so simple, yet the world has made it complicated or distorted. AA is one of those distortions. Men and women full of pain and despair fall into drinking, only to find something that takes away life and gives them death. I am not suprised that there are many "white knucklers" in many AA meeting rooms, for the program of Twelve Steps does not give to man what he really needs: righteousness: the standing of complete acceptance and justification before God; Peace: that the hostility between God and us has ceased, and that every need is met in Him; Joy: the strength of living life with greatest joy and intensity and rest, with no fears or worries.
Yet the biggest problem for man, then, is not a drinking problem or his money problems or his sex issues or his self-esteem problems. The biggest need, man's greatest burden, is that he is dead in trespasses, assaulted with a sin conscience which attacks us in our flesh, in our spirit that is separate from God, that falls upon us in a fallen world. All of man's shocks and hurts, including "the number one offender" resentment.
What causes us a sense of resentment? That someone has done something to wrong or harm us, and either we have to retaliate or take it in to ourselves.
I would also submit that those who walk around feeling down, depressed, sad, filled with guilt and shame -- in short, with a sin conscience -- are more sensitive because who they are rests on themselves: what they do, what they think, how they feel. I know that I struggled with this. I always felt pressured with fear when pressed by someone, afraid to do something wrong.
Yet in Christ, all of my sins are forgiven, a river of Emmanuel's pure and perfect blood which washes me from all my guilty stains. This is more than any God "as I understand him".
Jesus Christ came down not just to change our lives, but to exchange His life for our sin and death and loss. He came to give us everything:
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
"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?" (Romans 8: 31-32)
Do we believe it or not?
If Not Motivated by Sin -- then By Grace!
So, I now realize that a life based on sin and trying to keep sin at bay in my life is not what it's all about.
Even Jesus promised this:
"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10)
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14: 6)
So, how are we supposed to live if we are not living to keep a lid on our sin? If life is not about staying sober, then what is is all about?
Knowing Him and all that He is and has and does for us, so that we may bear fruit and share this Life with others!
He leads us from within:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
He puts His laws within us -- we no longer have to run around and find someone or something to tell us what to do:
"But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." (1 John 2: 20)
and
"But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." (1 John 2: 27)
The Holy Spirit now lives in every believer and by His peace we can know what to do or what not to do!
This righteousness gives us access to His grace, his unmerited favor in our lives, which defines us and drives us:
"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Corinthians 15: 10)
His grace defends us and rewards us in the face of attack:
"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10)
We are called to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3: 18),seeing Him doing all things on our behalf, and by His grace we are led to fulfill the purposes which He is already working within us (Philippians 2: 12-13).
We are not motivated by sin or by penance, but we are motivated by the Spirit of God and His grace in our lives! AA cannot, does not, will not teach this, and for that reason, every believer must get away from AA!
Even Jesus promised this:
"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10)
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14: 6)
So, how are we supposed to live if we are not living to keep a lid on our sin? If life is not about staying sober, then what is is all about?
Knowing Him and all that He is and has and does for us, so that we may bear fruit and share this Life with others!
He leads us from within:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
He puts His laws within us -- we no longer have to run around and find someone or something to tell us what to do:
"But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." (1 John 2: 20)
and
"But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." (1 John 2: 27)
The Holy Spirit now lives in every believer and by His peace we can know what to do or what not to do!
This righteousness gives us access to His grace, his unmerited favor in our lives, which defines us and drives us:
"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Corinthians 15: 10)
His grace defends us and rewards us in the face of attack:
"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10)
We are called to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3: 18),seeing Him doing all things on our behalf, and by His grace we are led to fulfill the purposes which He is already working within us (Philippians 2: 12-13).
We are not motivated by sin or by penance, but we are motivated by the Spirit of God and His grace in our lives! AA cannot, does not, will not teach this, and for that reason, every believer must get away from AA!
Sin Conscience Makes us Sensitive
People used to make me mad.
I was so riven on the inside, worried about saying or doing the wrong things. When you are focused on yourself, you are easily hurt.
Someone very close to me, who was knee-deep in this program, lived that life. She was constantly thinking about herself, even though she would feel bad because she was thinking about herself all the time.
That's what ends up happening in this program. We cannot deliver ourselves from ourselves. We need life, and that more abundantly. We need to identify with Him whom God the Father has sent for us (John 6: 29)
But this issue of sin conscience is crucial to our peace and our prosperity as believers.
What am I talking about? Let's take a look in the Book of Hebrews:
"Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 8The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." (Hebrews 9: 6-10)
The Jews in the Old Testament never had a perfect or a clear conscience forever because the blood of bulls and goats could never wash away sin, only atone or cover for it. So, every day, every year when they sinned, or when the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies to atone for the people, they would enjoy a respite for their wrongdoing, but over time, they would sin and do wrong, and thus a sense of wrongdoing would creep up once again.
Now, Jesus Christ is the final sacrifice, the one who fulfills the Old Covenant once and for all,thus perfecting our conscience by giving us a never-ending source of righteousness, for His Blood atones once and for all and forever.
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9: 14)
Imagine that! No more sacrifices! And in the event that a person feels guilty or upset in some way, all we have to do is rest on the Finished Work, send away every sin, every hurt, every resentment, every reproach to the Body of Christ, we has made us righteous and give us this righteousness as a gift, not something that we have to work for our atone.
In the next chapter, the writer of Hebrews reminds his Jewish audience that the sacrifices of bulls and goats never worked:
"For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." (Hebrews 10: 2)
The purging of our sins through animals was just not good enough!
"3But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." (Hebrews 10: 3-4)
Imagine that! In sacrificing animals, there is still a remembrace of sins!
In the same way, when we take our inventory, when we go over all the bad things that we have done, we do not break free from sin, but we find instead that sin breaks us even more! For the concept of confessing one's sins is part of this old covenant of temporary atonement!
But Jesus has come down as our final sin offering, the Lamb who takes [present tense!] the sins of the world:
"14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."
This perfection does not deal with behavior, for believers still walk around in fallen bodies in a fallen world with a fallen enemy. Yet even the Old Testament provides comfort:
"For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief." (Proverbs 24: 16)
"Just" means "righteous", and we are the righteousness of God in Christ -- there is no falling down for us that will last forever. In Christ, we fall up, for where sin abounds, grace does more abound (Romans 3:23) Of course, the born-again believer does not sin on purpose, for fear of taking in death in our bodies, but God takes our failures and turns them into successes.
For years, I struggled with fears and resentments, convinced that I had to do something about them. In Christ, I receive the rich and never-ending reward that I can never be brought into condemnation every again.
The sense of sin, of wrongdoing, of fear of reprisal or punishment is forever taken away in all that Christ Jesus has done at the Cross.
Yet in AA, the sin conscience is perpetuated in taking our inventories over and over.
What's worse, people today do not have animal sacrifices that they can make, yet they are not informed of the truth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that in Him all our sins are taken away forever.
No wonder so many believers struggle and fail in Twelve Step Programs. They believe in a Savior who died for all their sins, yet at the same time they are told that they must confess their sins in order to be set free from condemnation.
There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, none! That is the Gospel!
Sin conscience makes us sensitive, a sense of sin and wrongdoing that must be punished in us. That conscience is taken away in Christ. No need to fight with resentments and fears.
I was so riven on the inside, worried about saying or doing the wrong things. When you are focused on yourself, you are easily hurt.
Someone very close to me, who was knee-deep in this program, lived that life. She was constantly thinking about herself, even though she would feel bad because she was thinking about herself all the time.
That's what ends up happening in this program. We cannot deliver ourselves from ourselves. We need life, and that more abundantly. We need to identify with Him whom God the Father has sent for us (John 6: 29)
But this issue of sin conscience is crucial to our peace and our prosperity as believers.
What am I talking about? Let's take a look in the Book of Hebrews:
"Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 8The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." (Hebrews 9: 6-10)
The Jews in the Old Testament never had a perfect or a clear conscience forever because the blood of bulls and goats could never wash away sin, only atone or cover for it. So, every day, every year when they sinned, or when the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies to atone for the people, they would enjoy a respite for their wrongdoing, but over time, they would sin and do wrong, and thus a sense of wrongdoing would creep up once again.
Now, Jesus Christ is the final sacrifice, the one who fulfills the Old Covenant once and for all,thus perfecting our conscience by giving us a never-ending source of righteousness, for His Blood atones once and for all and forever.
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9: 14)
Imagine that! No more sacrifices! And in the event that a person feels guilty or upset in some way, all we have to do is rest on the Finished Work, send away every sin, every hurt, every resentment, every reproach to the Body of Christ, we has made us righteous and give us this righteousness as a gift, not something that we have to work for our atone.
In the next chapter, the writer of Hebrews reminds his Jewish audience that the sacrifices of bulls and goats never worked:
"For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." (Hebrews 10: 2)
The purging of our sins through animals was just not good enough!
"3But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." (Hebrews 10: 3-4)
Imagine that! In sacrificing animals, there is still a remembrace of sins!
In the same way, when we take our inventory, when we go over all the bad things that we have done, we do not break free from sin, but we find instead that sin breaks us even more! For the concept of confessing one's sins is part of this old covenant of temporary atonement!
But Jesus has come down as our final sin offering, the Lamb who takes [present tense!] the sins of the world:
"14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."
This perfection does not deal with behavior, for believers still walk around in fallen bodies in a fallen world with a fallen enemy. Yet even the Old Testament provides comfort:
"For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief." (Proverbs 24: 16)
"Just" means "righteous", and we are the righteousness of God in Christ -- there is no falling down for us that will last forever. In Christ, we fall up, for where sin abounds, grace does more abound (Romans 3:23) Of course, the born-again believer does not sin on purpose, for fear of taking in death in our bodies, but God takes our failures and turns them into successes.
For years, I struggled with fears and resentments, convinced that I had to do something about them. In Christ, I receive the rich and never-ending reward that I can never be brought into condemnation every again.
The sense of sin, of wrongdoing, of fear of reprisal or punishment is forever taken away in all that Christ Jesus has done at the Cross.
Yet in AA, the sin conscience is perpetuated in taking our inventories over and over.
What's worse, people today do not have animal sacrifices that they can make, yet they are not informed of the truth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that in Him all our sins are taken away forever.
No wonder so many believers struggle and fail in Twelve Step Programs. They believe in a Savior who died for all their sins, yet at the same time they are told that they must confess their sins in order to be set free from condemnation.
There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, none! That is the Gospel!
Sin conscience makes us sensitive, a sense of sin and wrongdoing that must be punished in us. That conscience is taken away in Christ. No need to fight with resentments and fears.
No Resentments to Undo -- Rest in His Righteousness
I am so upset with the whole AA program.
The Twelve Steps tell you to take your inventory, to look at yourself, to check over yourself when "these things crop up."
I was appalled and now I am dismayed that so many people sit in meetings week after week, or worse day after day taking their inventory, talking about how other people make them mad.
In truth, people cannot make us mad, but the infirmity of our flesh, coupled with abuse which may have suffered in the past, or the upsetting circumstances which we could not overcome on our own, may press us into thinking that we have to do and take care of things on our own.
The fact is, that resentments, fears, worries, and the rest all stem from our trusting in ourselves instead of resting in his righteousness.
I cannot write this enough times. I was taught in this program that how I felt or what I was thinking would effect how close I was to God, or how close God is to me.
The Bible teaches that where He is in us has nothing to do with us at all. Thank You, God the Father for cuttting the New Covenant:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
I did not do one thing so that God would no longer remember my sins. Everything is connected to what God has done through His Son:
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He 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?" (Romans 8: 31-32)
and
"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." (Colossians 1: 27-28)
We are complete in Him, too (Colossians 2: 10). Wow!
While AA teaches people that they have to engage in action and still more action, the Bible witnesses of Christ and Him Crucified, who has made all things new!
The Twelve Steps tell you to take your inventory, to look at yourself, to check over yourself when "these things crop up."
I was appalled and now I am dismayed that so many people sit in meetings week after week, or worse day after day taking their inventory, talking about how other people make them mad.
In truth, people cannot make us mad, but the infirmity of our flesh, coupled with abuse which may have suffered in the past, or the upsetting circumstances which we could not overcome on our own, may press us into thinking that we have to do and take care of things on our own.
The fact is, that resentments, fears, worries, and the rest all stem from our trusting in ourselves instead of resting in his righteousness.
I cannot write this enough times. I was taught in this program that how I felt or what I was thinking would effect how close I was to God, or how close God is to me.
The Bible teaches that where He is in us has nothing to do with us at all. Thank You, God the Father for cuttting the New Covenant:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
I did not do one thing so that God would no longer remember my sins. Everything is connected to what God has done through His Son:
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He 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?" (Romans 8: 31-32)
and
"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." (Colossians 1: 27-28)
We are complete in Him, too (Colossians 2: 10). Wow!
While AA teaches people that they have to engage in action and still more action, the Bible witnesses of Christ and Him Crucified, who has made all things new!
For the Believer, there is no Inventory to Take!
"For this is
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts:
and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not
teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:
for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. "For I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12) This is the New Covenant for every believer in the Body of Christ. We do not sit and itemize our sins from day to day. We are not called to look at ourselves or depend on ourselves anymore. Paul explains this in the Book of Colossians: "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on
the right hand of God. 2Set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3: 1-4) He is our new life, Jesus Christ! He is actively working on our behalf. The New Covenant is based on everything that Jesus Christ has done for us. Our job -- and it's so easy that it's hard for the man who wants to be complicated: Believe! "Jesus answered and said
unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John6: 29) It is appalling how little this has been preached! But because Jesus Christ is right now the propitiation for all of our sins (1 John 2: 1-2), we can rest assured that in Christ we are forever righteous (Daniel 9: 24; 2 Corinthians 5: 21) So, all of our sins are forever forgiven. As far as God is concerned, we are no longer that person in our fleshly, fallen body! "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6: 11) When a sense of resentment, of fear, of anger, of any hostile emotion rises up within us, we must rest in our new righteousness standing before God, no longer identifying with hostile feelings of the flesh: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20Idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21Envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I
have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5: 19-21) We do not have to feel ashamed of our old Adam nature, for it has been crucified with Christ: "20I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate
the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is
dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21) For the believer in Jesus Christ, we do not take our inventories over and over, every day. We do not seek forgiveness because Jesus Christ has already forgiven all of our sins: "And you, being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians 2: 13) "All" means "all"! Don't believe it? Here's another account: "But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1: 7) "All sin"-- did you read that? and "If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness." (1 John 1: 9) "All unrighteousness" - this passage in itself, and coupled with the context of the entire first chapter of John, outlines clearly that we do not keep confessing our sins, for the blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness! We do not confess our sins over and over, because he has forgiven us our sins and all unrighteousness. Not just the unrighteousness from your past, not just the unrighteousness of your present, but of your entire life! In effect, believers do not have an "inventory to take" because Jesus Christ has taken stock of our sin problem and effectively dealt with it entirely at the Cross. That is why we can boldly proclaim: "I am the righteousness of God in Christ!" (2 Corinthians 5: 21) He only asks that we keep receiving the gift of righteousness and grace: "For if by one man's
offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 17) The Devil wants us to focus on ourselves, our sins, and our circumstances. God wants us to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, who is our propitiation and our righteousness, ever-reminding us through His Holy Spirit that we have righteousness forever! (John 16: 8-11) For the believer, there is no inventory to take, for Christ has taken every bad stock in our lives, forever!
Monday, October 22, 2012
Third Step Nonsense
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
The third step made no sense to me at all.
How do I turn my will and life over to God? Does that mean that I sit down and wait for God to tell me what to do?
Do I wait for the sponsor or the leader of the meeting explain to me? The moment that I was told that I was wrong on many issues, that I would be best served by turning my will and life over to someone who could take care of things, I assumed that all would be well.
That has simply not been the case.
God wants to put His laws in our hearts and minds (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
He works within us both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2: 12-13)
He has even fashioned us with the works that He wants us to do (Ephesians 2: 10)
AA gives the terrible, tyrannical impression that we need to turn our will and our live over to another person, the sponsor, and the group. The nutty ideas which proceed out of these meetings is just dizzying in their complex stupidity. Some people think of the Ocean as their "Higher Power", while others have little "My Little Pony" statues in their home. People in the throes of alcohol addiction will go to any lengths to break free of alcohol, even if it means turning themselves over to dead stones and empty idols.
The whole program takes people at their weakest and invests them with dependence, only to deprive them with the skills to break free of their shame and fear and frustration. Shame on AA!
I do not need a God that I understand -- I need a God who gives me beyond what I ask or think! (Ephesians 3: 20). Anything less is just not worth settling for.
The third step made no sense to me at all.
How do I turn my will and life over to God? Does that mean that I sit down and wait for God to tell me what to do?
Do I wait for the sponsor or the leader of the meeting explain to me? The moment that I was told that I was wrong on many issues, that I would be best served by turning my will and life over to someone who could take care of things, I assumed that all would be well.
That has simply not been the case.
God wants to put His laws in our hearts and minds (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
He works within us both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2: 12-13)
He has even fashioned us with the works that He wants us to do (Ephesians 2: 10)
AA gives the terrible, tyrannical impression that we need to turn our will and our live over to another person, the sponsor, and the group. The nutty ideas which proceed out of these meetings is just dizzying in their complex stupidity. Some people think of the Ocean as their "Higher Power", while others have little "My Little Pony" statues in their home. People in the throes of alcohol addiction will go to any lengths to break free of alcohol, even if it means turning themselves over to dead stones and empty idols.
The whole program takes people at their weakest and invests them with dependence, only to deprive them with the skills to break free of their shame and fear and frustration. Shame on AA!
I do not need a God that I understand -- I need a God who gives me beyond what I ask or think! (Ephesians 3: 20). Anything less is just not worth settling for.
How Loving is AA's Loving God?
We, in our turn, sought the same escape with all the desperation of drowning men. What seemed at first a flimsy reed, has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God. A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, "a design for living "that really works. (AA, pg 28)
This is a lie, pure and simple. I would not care all that much, except for the damage which this lying program, masquerading as the truth, can do to people who are sincere and well-meaning, only to be end with a conscience seared with the hot iron of sin, never finding peace and respite, perpetually trying to purge themselves of all sin.
A design for living for a dead man is a design that will resign itself to doing nothing.
We do not need a plan for living, we need LIFE and that more abundantly, and that life is found in Jesus Christ!
"The loving and powerful hand of God" means nothing when God is just some idea that you come with on your own. If I am head-deep in trouble, I cannot think of God in any way based on my own circumstances to break me free.
Paul did not claim to have figured out the Gospel, at all, and he was the most well-read of Pharisees:
"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
"For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." (Galatians 1: 11-12)
In other words, man cannot conceive of this Gospel, one in which God sends His Son in the form of fallen man to die for our sins, to be raised from the dead, to sit at the right hand of the Father and extend to us His Holy Spirit as a gift of His loving and blessing presence forever in our lives!
This Good News must be believed and received as a matter of truth, just like we breathe whether we want to our not. If we choose not to breathe, we die. If we choose not to believe, we die eternally.
The loving hand of God means nothing without a clear proof this love. The Bible outlines in two ways how God has loved us:
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)
and then
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
Choose life, Choose Him, for God is Love (1 John 4: 16) and forget about Bill W.!
This is a lie, pure and simple. I would not care all that much, except for the damage which this lying program, masquerading as the truth, can do to people who are sincere and well-meaning, only to be end with a conscience seared with the hot iron of sin, never finding peace and respite, perpetually trying to purge themselves of all sin.
A design for living for a dead man is a design that will resign itself to doing nothing.
We do not need a plan for living, we need LIFE and that more abundantly, and that life is found in Jesus Christ!
"The loving and powerful hand of God" means nothing when God is just some idea that you come with on your own. If I am head-deep in trouble, I cannot think of God in any way based on my own circumstances to break me free.
Paul did not claim to have figured out the Gospel, at all, and he was the most well-read of Pharisees:
"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
"For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." (Galatians 1: 11-12)
In other words, man cannot conceive of this Gospel, one in which God sends His Son in the form of fallen man to die for our sins, to be raised from the dead, to sit at the right hand of the Father and extend to us His Holy Spirit as a gift of His loving and blessing presence forever in our lives!
This Good News must be believed and received as a matter of truth, just like we breathe whether we want to our not. If we choose not to breathe, we die. If we choose not to believe, we die eternally.
The loving hand of God means nothing without a clear proof this love. The Bible outlines in two ways how God has loved us:
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)
and then
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
Choose life, Choose Him, for God is Love (1 John 4: 16) and forget about Bill W.!
Resentment, Fear, Guilt, Self-Seeking: Answered in Christ
The answer is so simple, too simple for some, I suppose!
The goal of this life is not to drink, nor is the goal of life to stay sober.
Life is not a goal, but a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.
The problem for the world, and even many believers in the Body of Christ, is that they do not see Jesus as more than the Way to Heaven.
But he is also the Way on Earth, for why else would he declare
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14: 6)
He is the Life that we need to get through this world. He is our Mercy Seat, the propitiation now and forever for all of our sins. In Christ, we have an eternal credit card of grace, one which transforms us from dead in our trespasses to alive and led by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Life is not Twelve Steps, not a set of steps and traditions, nor attendance in abortive meetings where people smoke and drink caffeine to their hearts' detriment, where men and women listen to the same sob stories of men and women who no longer drink but still hope that there is more to life than being sober and sitting around to tell people the daily drag troubles that they still must overcome in their own flustered efforts.
The last meeting that I went to -- the first day of 2011 -- 01--01--2011 -- I saw the same faces with the same traces of "barely getting by", the same social club with men and women jumping up to claim a birthday or two, still holding on to the notion that "we are not a glum lot." Two people whom I had met years earlier, a Christian couple, were going through more trouble. The husband had relapsed a number of times. He has shared how upsetting he made other members of the AA meetings when he share his faith in Jesus Christ. He stopped going to meetings, then he started drinking again. I believe that the reason he started drinking was that he did not know that in Christ he is a new creation, and therefore he does not identify with his fallen body or the physical desire to drink. When we are established in righteousness, then no weapon formed against us can prosper, including addictions and bad habits which war against our peace.
Resentment, fear, and guilt are all answered in the Cross. Jesus provided an eternal source for our pain, our misery, our shame, for the hardships of this life, where we can now revel in His grace, which abounds even when we sin, and especially when others sin against us. This is the release and the relief which men relish yet cannot find, and AA not only does not bring them any closer to finding this Life, but actually takes people away from the truth with distractions and distortions. Churches which insist on incorporating the Twelve Step program in its services invite a sickened hybrid form of Galatianism, where men and women start in faith but end up in bondage once again to the law.
The answer to our problems, all of them, is in Christ, for He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and He is close as believing in your heart and confessing out your mouth that He is Lord!
The goal of this life is not to drink, nor is the goal of life to stay sober.
Life is not a goal, but a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.
The problem for the world, and even many believers in the Body of Christ, is that they do not see Jesus as more than the Way to Heaven.
But he is also the Way on Earth, for why else would he declare
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14: 6)
He is the Life that we need to get through this world. He is our Mercy Seat, the propitiation now and forever for all of our sins. In Christ, we have an eternal credit card of grace, one which transforms us from dead in our trespasses to alive and led by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Life is not Twelve Steps, not a set of steps and traditions, nor attendance in abortive meetings where people smoke and drink caffeine to their hearts' detriment, where men and women listen to the same sob stories of men and women who no longer drink but still hope that there is more to life than being sober and sitting around to tell people the daily drag troubles that they still must overcome in their own flustered efforts.
The last meeting that I went to -- the first day of 2011 -- 01--01--2011 -- I saw the same faces with the same traces of "barely getting by", the same social club with men and women jumping up to claim a birthday or two, still holding on to the notion that "we are not a glum lot." Two people whom I had met years earlier, a Christian couple, were going through more trouble. The husband had relapsed a number of times. He has shared how upsetting he made other members of the AA meetings when he share his faith in Jesus Christ. He stopped going to meetings, then he started drinking again. I believe that the reason he started drinking was that he did not know that in Christ he is a new creation, and therefore he does not identify with his fallen body or the physical desire to drink. When we are established in righteousness, then no weapon formed against us can prosper, including addictions and bad habits which war against our peace.
Resentment, fear, and guilt are all answered in the Cross. Jesus provided an eternal source for our pain, our misery, our shame, for the hardships of this life, where we can now revel in His grace, which abounds even when we sin, and especially when others sin against us. This is the release and the relief which men relish yet cannot find, and AA not only does not bring them any closer to finding this Life, but actually takes people away from the truth with distractions and distortions. Churches which insist on incorporating the Twelve Step program in its services invite a sickened hybrid form of Galatianism, where men and women start in faith but end up in bondage once again to the law.
The answer to our problems, all of them, is in Christ, for He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and He is close as believing in your heart and confessing out your mouth that He is Lord!
The Truth vs. The Tradition -- Christ vs. AA
Often, I have looked over the hardships in my life, trying to understand why I struggled in certain ways, could not stand up to creating problems, or often walked around with a sense of guilt, sin, and worthlessness.
I believed that Jesus Christ died for my sins, but I did not believe that Jesus Christ died for all of my sins -- past, present, future. I also believed that I was on my own in this world, as if Jesus Christ had died for me, then went off and I was left alone to get by in this world.
The biggest reason why I had such a mixed message -- I grew up in a household where AA was preached morning, noon, and night. I grew up in a home where the answer was in the Twelve Steps, as though the Gospel of Jesus Christ was somehow not enough!
This mindset stuck with me for a long time, but this all too common a problem for believers, many who have not bothered to sit down and take in what the Bible says, without adding from the tradition of the elders or the habits of their former denominations.
Jesus gave us Holy Spirit, His very presence in our lives, who by His peace leads us into all knowledge and understanding. Unlike the crowing of members in AA, believers do not need a little Blue Book to tell them how to live from day to day.
Unfortunately, though, I was raised to believe that I should sit and wait for God to send me a deliberate message, or that I needed to wait for someone outside of me to give me signals on how to live.
The Holy Spirit grants us life! This all too neglected Third Person of the Trinity brings Christ Jesus to live in us, the Hope of Glory (Colossians 1: 27) The same Holy Spirit convicts us of righteousness, a necessary witness as we live in a world hell-bent and hellish on reminding us how often we fail, how often we miss the mark, how much we need more than what we already have in us through Christ Jesus.
This lack, this alienation, this emptiness leads men and women to drink, use drugs, and engage in other perversions. Men and women seek freedom from the death and condemnation within them. They want have peace, freedom from the fear of death. The loneliness, the emptiness, the weariness and boredom which afflicts man is a manifestation of human nature trying to get what can only be received by faith -- Life and that More Abundantly!
So, I had received a mixed message and an incomplete Gospel. Jesus died for my sins, yes indeed. Yet the way that my parents had raised me, that did not matter one bit. I was raised to believe that I was on my own in this world, and growing up I found myself constantly looking for something or someone that I could stand on, since I was taught that the same Jesus who had died for me was not doing anything else for me.
No wonder my mother was so attached to AA. She had gone along with the same religious upbringing which tells people that Jesus died for your sins, but you still have to confess your sins to maintain fellowship with God. The whole blessings of God still depend our obeying Him.
Yet the New Covenant has been outlined so clearly:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
The New Covenant has nothing to do with us.
Even in the Old Testament, Abraham's Covenant had nothing to do with what he did:
"And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
"And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." (Genesis 15: 6)
Later, God cut the covenant with Jesus, not with Abraham, because he was mere mortal and could not keep the standard of righteousness by faith in his effort:
"And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces." (Genesis 15: 17)
Interestingly enough, "17" speaks of victory, and fittingly this seventeenth verse outlines the "smoking furnace and the burning lamp" -- the same smoking and fire that Isaiah saw just before his sins were purged by coal fire (Isaiah 6).
Despite the Biblical record which outlines that our only "part" is to believe -- just as Abraham believed, just as Jesus tells us to believe on Him (John 6: 29), I was living a life of trying to please and trying to get God's approval and favor in my life.
Even as a child, the program of AA and Jesus did not make much sense to me. If my sins are forgiven because Jesus died on the Cross, then why did I have to confess my sins in order to be forgiven? Holiness is something that I cannot earn, only something that I can receive by faith. A "god of my understanding" makes no sense. At one point in my life, I had the courage to tell my own mother that I did not believe in that "AA stuff."
But since I was not thoroughly skilled in righteousness, I faced trouble and was then convinced that I had to do something about it. When times got tough at one point in my life, my mother trotted out AA as the answer, and so I agreed to go along with it. For a long time, I did not know what else to do when I was filled with fear or upset or any other resentment because I had been taught for so long to "take my inventory." For a long time, I never understood why so many people around me were not as easily offended as I was, why they could make mistakes and not brow-beat themselves about their problems. I was so uptight, yet everyone else was not. It made no sense to me, for a long time.
Now I look back on so many upsets and mishaps in my life, and the one common denominator comes through: I did not believe, simply believe that all of my sins -- all, all, all -- were forgiven at the Cross. The reason why people were able to "mess" with me for so long, whether intentionally or not, is that I did not have peace with God. Instead, I made my peace a factor of who I was with and what they said or did to me or around me. What a terrible way to live, trying to get love, joy and peace, when the Holy Spirit brings and bears forth these fruits as a matter of faith.
The Truth is so simple and so great. Jesus died for all of my sins, all of them, and His blood continues cleansing us! My mother did not believe this, and she even pushed it aside, choosing to trust what she had learned in AA. The nightmare of taking your inventory over and over, the nightmare of trying to catch yourself to make sure that you never have a bad thought or do something wrong, the whole religious nonsense of trying to "keep short accounts" with others is just pure insanity, if not arrogance.
By Christ's death and resurrection, I am made clean and ready to receive His Life. Jesus Christ did not die on the Cross so that we would spend the rest of our lives going through the motions of confessing our sins and trying to maintain through our own efforts what God so freely gives, and only by receiving what He so freely gives by faith do we receive it!
The Truth is older than every tradition of man, since Jesus was in the Beginning with God (John 1: 1-2). The Gospel is as simple as every sin paid for in Christ, forever! We can then rest in His life and love, no longer responding to shame about the past or fears about the future, for in Christ we have a new life, a new self free of oneself trying to do and to get, for in Christ everything is granted to us (1 Corinthians 3: 22)
I believed that Jesus Christ died for my sins, but I did not believe that Jesus Christ died for all of my sins -- past, present, future. I also believed that I was on my own in this world, as if Jesus Christ had died for me, then went off and I was left alone to get by in this world.
The biggest reason why I had such a mixed message -- I grew up in a household where AA was preached morning, noon, and night. I grew up in a home where the answer was in the Twelve Steps, as though the Gospel of Jesus Christ was somehow not enough!
This mindset stuck with me for a long time, but this all too common a problem for believers, many who have not bothered to sit down and take in what the Bible says, without adding from the tradition of the elders or the habits of their former denominations.
Jesus gave us Holy Spirit, His very presence in our lives, who by His peace leads us into all knowledge and understanding. Unlike the crowing of members in AA, believers do not need a little Blue Book to tell them how to live from day to day.
Unfortunately, though, I was raised to believe that I should sit and wait for God to send me a deliberate message, or that I needed to wait for someone outside of me to give me signals on how to live.
The Holy Spirit grants us life! This all too neglected Third Person of the Trinity brings Christ Jesus to live in us, the Hope of Glory (Colossians 1: 27) The same Holy Spirit convicts us of righteousness, a necessary witness as we live in a world hell-bent and hellish on reminding us how often we fail, how often we miss the mark, how much we need more than what we already have in us through Christ Jesus.
This lack, this alienation, this emptiness leads men and women to drink, use drugs, and engage in other perversions. Men and women seek freedom from the death and condemnation within them. They want have peace, freedom from the fear of death. The loneliness, the emptiness, the weariness and boredom which afflicts man is a manifestation of human nature trying to get what can only be received by faith -- Life and that More Abundantly!
So, I had received a mixed message and an incomplete Gospel. Jesus died for my sins, yes indeed. Yet the way that my parents had raised me, that did not matter one bit. I was raised to believe that I was on my own in this world, and growing up I found myself constantly looking for something or someone that I could stand on, since I was taught that the same Jesus who had died for me was not doing anything else for me.
No wonder my mother was so attached to AA. She had gone along with the same religious upbringing which tells people that Jesus died for your sins, but you still have to confess your sins to maintain fellowship with God. The whole blessings of God still depend our obeying Him.
Yet the New Covenant has been outlined so clearly:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
The New Covenant has nothing to do with us.
Even in the Old Testament, Abraham's Covenant had nothing to do with what he did:
"And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
"And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." (Genesis 15: 6)
Later, God cut the covenant with Jesus, not with Abraham, because he was mere mortal and could not keep the standard of righteousness by faith in his effort:
"And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces." (Genesis 15: 17)
Interestingly enough, "17" speaks of victory, and fittingly this seventeenth verse outlines the "smoking furnace and the burning lamp" -- the same smoking and fire that Isaiah saw just before his sins were purged by coal fire (Isaiah 6).
Despite the Biblical record which outlines that our only "part" is to believe -- just as Abraham believed, just as Jesus tells us to believe on Him (John 6: 29), I was living a life of trying to please and trying to get God's approval and favor in my life.
Even as a child, the program of AA and Jesus did not make much sense to me. If my sins are forgiven because Jesus died on the Cross, then why did I have to confess my sins in order to be forgiven? Holiness is something that I cannot earn, only something that I can receive by faith. A "god of my understanding" makes no sense. At one point in my life, I had the courage to tell my own mother that I did not believe in that "AA stuff."
But since I was not thoroughly skilled in righteousness, I faced trouble and was then convinced that I had to do something about it. When times got tough at one point in my life, my mother trotted out AA as the answer, and so I agreed to go along with it. For a long time, I did not know what else to do when I was filled with fear or upset or any other resentment because I had been taught for so long to "take my inventory." For a long time, I never understood why so many people around me were not as easily offended as I was, why they could make mistakes and not brow-beat themselves about their problems. I was so uptight, yet everyone else was not. It made no sense to me, for a long time.
Now I look back on so many upsets and mishaps in my life, and the one common denominator comes through: I did not believe, simply believe that all of my sins -- all, all, all -- were forgiven at the Cross. The reason why people were able to "mess" with me for so long, whether intentionally or not, is that I did not have peace with God. Instead, I made my peace a factor of who I was with and what they said or did to me or around me. What a terrible way to live, trying to get love, joy and peace, when the Holy Spirit brings and bears forth these fruits as a matter of faith.
The Truth is so simple and so great. Jesus died for all of my sins, all of them, and His blood continues cleansing us! My mother did not believe this, and she even pushed it aside, choosing to trust what she had learned in AA. The nightmare of taking your inventory over and over, the nightmare of trying to catch yourself to make sure that you never have a bad thought or do something wrong, the whole religious nonsense of trying to "keep short accounts" with others is just pure insanity, if not arrogance.
By Christ's death and resurrection, I am made clean and ready to receive His Life. Jesus Christ did not die on the Cross so that we would spend the rest of our lives going through the motions of confessing our sins and trying to maintain through our own efforts what God so freely gives, and only by receiving what He so freely gives by faith do we receive it!
The Truth is older than every tradition of man, since Jesus was in the Beginning with God (John 1: 1-2). The Gospel is as simple as every sin paid for in Christ, forever! We can then rest in His life and love, no longer responding to shame about the past or fears about the future, for in Christ we have a new life, a new self free of oneself trying to do and to get, for in Christ everything is granted to us (1 Corinthians 3: 22)
Friday, October 19, 2012
Freedom from the Bondage of Self -- In Christ!
This revelation is just too much for me not to talk about again and again and again!
Yes, AA is correct, in that we need to be freed from the bondage of self.
Every one program of "self-help" advocates this. "We" are our biggest problem.
But then we run smack-dab against the "Buckaroo Bonzai" syndrome:
"'Cause, remember: no matter where you go... there you are."
We simply cannot escape from ourselves. We are dead in our trespasses, and therefore, we need someone who comes to us and grants us His life! We need someone to move on our behalf, not us to move for ourselves!
I am not surprised that there has been an explosion of "Self" studies and self-awareness, but this obsession with ourselves makes us bereft and broken, just like our first parents Adam and Eve, because a sin-consciousness -- from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil -- made them focus on themselves, then try to cover themselves. That is what the Law, this knowledge of Good and Evil, will eventually do!
We are now free from that Old Covenant of Law and Self-Occupation. In Christ, we receive Pardon for all our transgressions, plus covering for everything we will commit in the future, and He gives us the Life that we need. Do not put God in a box, though, concluding that He only moves in the Church service, but that your are on your own at the workplace, or in the supermarket. He is already there moving on your behalf.
What I am now learning is that it is not my job to "make him be there" by how I think or what I do. He is already there, and He is already helping me. Wow, it is amazing how self-absorbed we can be, even when we think about God!
He is your Life, He is the Self that we need. Yet He not only lives in us, but He has everything prepared for us in advance:
"3For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." (Hebrews 4: 3)
The problem for us, as for many people in the Body of Christ and in the Celebrate Recovery Programs -- we feel that God is, but not that God saves. We do not believe that He is moving in our lives, or we believe that He moves in our lives if we do or say or believe or think a certain way.
Yet what does the New Covenant say:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
Notice how this covenant has nothing to do with us! We do not do it, we believe it and receive it.
Now, the tripping point for many people still goes back to self. "But what am I supposed to do?"
We still have too narrow an understanding of God and His Son and His Holy Spirit, who are always with us! If God gave us His own Son, do we not believe that He will provide all things with Him? The same Jesus who holds the universe together, do we not rest and believe that He is working all things together for our good?
Like many people, I had too static an understanding of Jesus Christ -- as if He was somewhere far away not interested in my life. Yes, He died for my sins, yes He has prepared a place for me in heaven when I die, but then I would turn back to the three dimensions of this world, convinced that everything else depended on me.
Yet Paul blasts such selfish arrogance, weak and beggarly in its entirety:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21)
and
"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
"Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed." (1 Corinthians 15: 10-11)
Yet still we are often nagged with the idea of "What am I supposed to do?" Let's pick up on this issue specifically in the Bible:
"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6: 28-29)
Now, to believe seems simple enough - the problem lies, then, in do you know Him as He whom God the Father hath sent to deliver you? Do you see Jesus Christ as hanging on a Cross still? Do you see Him only as a king far away telling you what to do? Do you see Him only as a servant who moves when you tell Him to? Do you see Him as God Almighty and Eternal, yet moving in your life also as King, as Servant, and as Son of Man?
For example, I am now starting to realize that just as God was moving in the lives of Joseph's brothers and himself, even though they meant evil by betraying him into slavery, so God is now moving in your life, taking your past, having forgiven you for all your sins, and now taking those sins and make them into something glorious here and now today!
I am growing in grace when I realize that Jesus did not just die for my sins, but he took the penalty and the record -- and He restores to me double! This is what it means to walk in the Truth, seeing all that Jesus has done and keeps doing on our behalf!
AA cannot provide this because AA says that we choose "God as we understood Him" - a God who would send His own Son to die for us, to justify us and live evermore to give us His Life -- this is something that goes beyond what we can ask or think! This must be accepted as a matter of revelation, or we will not believe it at all! No man could think this stuff up, because man in himself is dour and depressed and down-trodden, or takes pride in himself, not Himself!
Jesus Christ is our life, our self, yet that does not mean we think about Him, but then worry about the details. What we do "need" to do is learn more about whom we believe on!
In Christ, though, we do not have to wonder like Dr. Emilio Lizardo and his cronies:
"When are we going home? Real soon!"
In Christ, you are already home! He is your life and your everything! We are freed from the bondage of self not just in living, but in all things being provided for us through Him!
Yes, AA is correct, in that we need to be freed from the bondage of self.
Every one program of "self-help" advocates this. "We" are our biggest problem.
But then we run smack-dab against the "Buckaroo Bonzai" syndrome:
"'Cause, remember: no matter where you go... there you are."
We simply cannot escape from ourselves. We are dead in our trespasses, and therefore, we need someone who comes to us and grants us His life! We need someone to move on our behalf, not us to move for ourselves!
I am not surprised that there has been an explosion of "Self" studies and self-awareness, but this obsession with ourselves makes us bereft and broken, just like our first parents Adam and Eve, because a sin-consciousness -- from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil -- made them focus on themselves, then try to cover themselves. That is what the Law, this knowledge of Good and Evil, will eventually do!
We are now free from that Old Covenant of Law and Self-Occupation. In Christ, we receive Pardon for all our transgressions, plus covering for everything we will commit in the future, and He gives us the Life that we need. Do not put God in a box, though, concluding that He only moves in the Church service, but that your are on your own at the workplace, or in the supermarket. He is already there moving on your behalf.
What I am now learning is that it is not my job to "make him be there" by how I think or what I do. He is already there, and He is already helping me. Wow, it is amazing how self-absorbed we can be, even when we think about God!
He is your Life, He is the Self that we need. Yet He not only lives in us, but He has everything prepared for us in advance:
"3For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." (Hebrews 4: 3)
The problem for us, as for many people in the Body of Christ and in the Celebrate Recovery Programs -- we feel that God is, but not that God saves. We do not believe that He is moving in our lives, or we believe that He moves in our lives if we do or say or believe or think a certain way.
Yet what does the New Covenant say:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
Notice how this covenant has nothing to do with us! We do not do it, we believe it and receive it.
Now, the tripping point for many people still goes back to self. "But what am I supposed to do?"
We still have too narrow an understanding of God and His Son and His Holy Spirit, who are always with us! If God gave us His own Son, do we not believe that He will provide all things with Him? The same Jesus who holds the universe together, do we not rest and believe that He is working all things together for our good?
Like many people, I had too static an understanding of Jesus Christ -- as if He was somewhere far away not interested in my life. Yes, He died for my sins, yes He has prepared a place for me in heaven when I die, but then I would turn back to the three dimensions of this world, convinced that everything else depended on me.
Yet Paul blasts such selfish arrogance, weak and beggarly in its entirety:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21)
and
"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
"Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed." (1 Corinthians 15: 10-11)
Yet still we are often nagged with the idea of "What am I supposed to do?" Let's pick up on this issue specifically in the Bible:
"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6: 28-29)
Now, to believe seems simple enough - the problem lies, then, in do you know Him as He whom God the Father hath sent to deliver you? Do you see Jesus Christ as hanging on a Cross still? Do you see Him only as a king far away telling you what to do? Do you see Him only as a servant who moves when you tell Him to? Do you see Him as God Almighty and Eternal, yet moving in your life also as King, as Servant, and as Son of Man?
For example, I am now starting to realize that just as God was moving in the lives of Joseph's brothers and himself, even though they meant evil by betraying him into slavery, so God is now moving in your life, taking your past, having forgiven you for all your sins, and now taking those sins and make them into something glorious here and now today!
I am growing in grace when I realize that Jesus did not just die for my sins, but he took the penalty and the record -- and He restores to me double! This is what it means to walk in the Truth, seeing all that Jesus has done and keeps doing on our behalf!
AA cannot provide this because AA says that we choose "God as we understood Him" - a God who would send His own Son to die for us, to justify us and live evermore to give us His Life -- this is something that goes beyond what we can ask or think! This must be accepted as a matter of revelation, or we will not believe it at all! No man could think this stuff up, because man in himself is dour and depressed and down-trodden, or takes pride in himself, not Himself!
Jesus Christ is our life, our self, yet that does not mean we think about Him, but then worry about the details. What we do "need" to do is learn more about whom we believe on!
In Christ, though, we do not have to wonder like Dr. Emilio Lizardo and his cronies:
"When are we going home? Real soon!"
In Christ, you are already home! He is your life and your everything! We are freed from the bondage of self not just in living, but in all things being provided for us through Him!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Resentment: That We Have to Do Everything
I think that I am starting to get the information that I have longed for yet have not been able to find about conflicts, confrontation, and assertiveness which so many people seem to lack.
AA teaches its members that they have to be free from anger.
The Bible teaches something different about anger:
"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath" (Ephesians 4: 26)
There is a time and place for getting angry, for facing up to provocation or perversion in our lives.
But for people in AA, what I experienced and what I saw, people were getting angry all the time, and the Steps did not work.
The Twelve Steps do not outline the peace and the righteousness that people really need to succeed or grow in our lives. They do not give people the Truth on which to stand, which gives man the power to know the different between good and evil.
In fact, the writer in the Book of Hebrews teaches us that we need to skilled in righteousness, that before God we are forever justified, and then we can rightly discern good and evil.
Yet another element needs discussion -- that we are not alone in this world, nor do we have to wonder whether God is on our side or not.
This righteousness has nothing to do with how we feel, but everything to do with what He has done for us at the Cross:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
People who do not rest in a sense of righteousness, who are not receiving the unmerited favor of God no matter how they feel or what they think, find themselves looking at themselves too much of the time. And all of that self-focus makes us sensitive, makes us easily hurt, as well.
I cannot share this revelation enough. For the longest time, I have been convinced that my joy, my peace, my well-being had to do with me, my thoughts, and everything that I said and did.
In truth, it has everything to do with Himself and His Kingdom:
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14: 17)
The righteousness is a gift (Romans 5: 17), the Peace is a Person (Ephesians 2: 14), and joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 2: 22). These things we receive by grace through faith.
It is amazing to me how little I knew about my standing before God, or worse I did not care, as if my identity in Christ meant nothing. Yet the greater our knowledge of God and His Son and all that He is doing for us, the greater the Life that we receive from Him!
Resentment comes down to the false belief, in many cases, that how I feel makes or breaks what I take from God the Father. In truth, there is nothing that can separate me from God, not one thing (Romans 8; 38-39) but my feelings were getting in the way all too often.
Now I am learning even more -- my feelings, that speaks of focusing on me instead of focusing on Him who has prepared all things for me, including the works that He wants me to do (Ephesians 2: 10) and the Reward of Rest and Righteousness (Hebrews 4: 11)
AA teaches its members that they have to be free from anger.
The Bible teaches something different about anger:
"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath" (Ephesians 4: 26)
There is a time and place for getting angry, for facing up to provocation or perversion in our lives.
But for people in AA, what I experienced and what I saw, people were getting angry all the time, and the Steps did not work.
The Twelve Steps do not outline the peace and the righteousness that people really need to succeed or grow in our lives. They do not give people the Truth on which to stand, which gives man the power to know the different between good and evil.
In fact, the writer in the Book of Hebrews teaches us that we need to skilled in righteousness, that before God we are forever justified, and then we can rightly discern good and evil.
Yet another element needs discussion -- that we are not alone in this world, nor do we have to wonder whether God is on our side or not.
This righteousness has nothing to do with how we feel, but everything to do with what He has done for us at the Cross:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
People who do not rest in a sense of righteousness, who are not receiving the unmerited favor of God no matter how they feel or what they think, find themselves looking at themselves too much of the time. And all of that self-focus makes us sensitive, makes us easily hurt, as well.
I cannot share this revelation enough. For the longest time, I have been convinced that my joy, my peace, my well-being had to do with me, my thoughts, and everything that I said and did.
In truth, it has everything to do with Himself and His Kingdom:
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14: 17)
The righteousness is a gift (Romans 5: 17), the Peace is a Person (Ephesians 2: 14), and joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 2: 22). These things we receive by grace through faith.
It is amazing to me how little I knew about my standing before God, or worse I did not care, as if my identity in Christ meant nothing. Yet the greater our knowledge of God and His Son and all that He is doing for us, the greater the Life that we receive from Him!
Resentment comes down to the false belief, in many cases, that how I feel makes or breaks what I take from God the Father. In truth, there is nothing that can separate me from God, not one thing (Romans 8; 38-39) but my feelings were getting in the way all too often.
Now I am learning even more -- my feelings, that speaks of focusing on me instead of focusing on Him who has prepared all things for me, including the works that He wants me to do (Ephesians 2: 10) and the Reward of Rest and Righteousness (Hebrews 4: 11)
Stop Looking at Yourself -- See His Perfect Love
The whole AA regime is centered around self.
I do not care how many times people pray "relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do thy will" found in the Third Step Prayer, because either Jesus Christ, in dying on the Cross, has set us free from ourselves, by taking s from dead in our trespasses, or He has not.
There is no grey, there is no maybe about the life of victory that He calls for us to live:
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." (Romans 8: 37)
This love with which He loved us is a love that we need to grow in knowledge of:
"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
"The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." (Ephesians 1: 17-18)
and then
"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3: 16-19)
This love casts out every fear, through this love God can then give us beyond what we ask or think.
This love is Jesus dying on the Cross for our sins (1 John 4: 10), and so no wonder the Enemy spends a lot of time keeping people in bondage to the Law, keeping people occupied with themselves, keeping men and women caught up in the turmoil of choices and consequences which for God are no longer present to Him, since He has pledges that He will remember our sins no more!
I do not care how many times people pray "relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do thy will" found in the Third Step Prayer, because either Jesus Christ, in dying on the Cross, has set us free from ourselves, by taking s from dead in our trespasses, or He has not.
There is no grey, there is no maybe about the life of victory that He calls for us to live:
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." (Romans 8: 37)
This love with which He loved us is a love that we need to grow in knowledge of:
"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
"The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." (Ephesians 1: 17-18)
and then
"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3: 16-19)
This love casts out every fear, through this love God can then give us beyond what we ask or think.
This love is Jesus dying on the Cross for our sins (1 John 4: 10), and so no wonder the Enemy spends a lot of time keeping people in bondage to the Law, keeping people occupied with themselves, keeping men and women caught up in the turmoil of choices and consequences which for God are no longer present to Him, since He has pledges that He will remember our sins no more!
Inventories, Fear, and the Truth
On our grudge list we set opposite each name our injuries. Was it our self-esteem, our security, our ambitions, our personal, or sex relations, which had been interfered with?
We were usually as definite as this example:
I'm resentful at: The Cause Affects my:Mr. Brown His attention to my Sex relations
wife. Self-esteem (fear)
Told my wife of my Sex relations
mistress. Self-esteem (fear)
Brown may get my job Security
at the office. Self-esteem (fear)Mrs. Jones She's a nut -- she Personal relation-
snubbed me. She ship. Self-esteem
committed her hus- (fear)
band for drinking.
He's my friend
She's a gossip.My employer Unreasonable -- Unjust Self-esteem (fear)
-- Overbearing -- Security.
Threatens to fire
me for my drinking
and padding my
expense account.My wife Misunderstands and Pride -- Personal
nags. Likes Brown. sex relations --
Wants house put in Security (fear)
her name.
We went back through our lives. Nothing counted but thoroughness and honesty. When we were finished we considered it carefully. (AA, pg 65)
This list is the classic reference in the AA Book.
The major theme, the major problem, for people who drink too much is "FEAR".
Yet the Word of God goes further, to the deeper cause:
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath
torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4: 18)
"Fear has torment" -- or "punishment" -- the sense within us of a "comeuppance" or a consequence for wrongdoing.
Yet Jesus Christ is the propitiation of our sins:
"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world. " (1 John 2: 2)
Your sins and my sins were all in the future when Jesus died on the Cross, so we can safely say, just based on common sense, that all of our sins are forgiven, punished, paid for.
Yet since common sense is not so common, let us refer once again to the Word of God (from which even the AA Book insists on quoting, even if not in proper context of the One who is the Word!):
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we
have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1: 7-10)
Verse seven states that if we walk in the Light - and that Light is God, not a mode of behavior or a line of thinking -- then Jesus' blood cleanses us, even now! Cleanses us from all sin, meaning that even if we wanted to take an inventory, as far as God is concerned, there is no sin, because we are in Christ, who is our righteousness and redemption (1 Corinthians 1: 30)
Now, John does not discount the truth that we have sin. If we say that we have sin, then and only then are we deceiving ourselves. Yet instead of trying to take account of our sins, we merely confess our sins, and God is both faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us (and this is an ongoing cleansing!) from all unrighteousness. This verse, coupled with all sin in 1 John 1: 7 makes it very clear -- we do not keep confessing our sin in order to maintain fellowship with God and our brethren in the Body of Christ!
Bill W. tell you to take your inventory and keep taking it. Jesus Christ, through His blood shed for your and the sins of the world, tells you that you are righteous, righteous, righteous in Him.
And if you are righteous in him, then there is no need fear punishment, since Jesus has fulfilled the law and all of its requirements against us! (Matthew 7: 14)
Indeed, we will know the Truth, and the Truth - that's Jesus! - will set us free!
Inventories, Fear, and God's Perfect Love
This struggle has been one of the greatest sources of trouble in my life, and I imagine the same is true for many people who have been taken through the AA wringer of inventories, confessions, and the rest.
I had a fear problem for the greater part of my life -- if I was jumpy about something, about anything, if I had a foreboding sense about life, I went with the "program" which made it my fault, and therefore something that I had to do something about:
Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code. (AA, pg 84)
Yet the Bible teaches that fear is not something that exists within the believer, per se, but is a Spirit:
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8: 15)
and
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1: 7)
Fear is a spirit, and thus we need the Spirit, which we receive by the Word of God, to deal with fear.
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6: 63)
If we are trying to reason out our fears, then we are still trying to accomplish through our flesh what His love does:
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4: 18)
This perfect love is not something that we do, but something that God has done through His Son, who won the victory over sin and death at Calvary:
"Herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)
Yet it is "perfect love" that casts out fear. John completes this truth:
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. " (1 John 4: 17)
This love has transformed us into sons of God, and we are growing more like Him:
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." (1 John 3: 1)
and then
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
"And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John 3: 2-3)
God's love, not our inventory taking, not our turning our thoughts resolutely toward helping others, not anything that we do, will remove fear from our lives!
God is love (1 John 4: 16), and His perfected love, not just toward us, but what this love turns us into, casts out every fear.
And how is "Jesus" now? He is not on a Cross dying, but sitting at the right hand of the Father, reigning:
"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3: 1-4)
And
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5: 21)
Instead of looking at ourselves, trying to think our way out of the fears in our lives, let us receive the righteousness that we have been made in Christ, and His righteousness and grace both enable us to reign in life (Romans 5: 17).
Forget the inventories, stop focusing on the fear, and let God's perfect love live in you!
I had a fear problem for the greater part of my life -- if I was jumpy about something, about anything, if I had a foreboding sense about life, I went with the "program" which made it my fault, and therefore something that I had to do something about:
Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code. (AA, pg 84)
Yet the Bible teaches that fear is not something that exists within the believer, per se, but is a Spirit:
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8: 15)
and
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1: 7)
Fear is a spirit, and thus we need the Spirit, which we receive by the Word of God, to deal with fear.
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6: 63)
If we are trying to reason out our fears, then we are still trying to accomplish through our flesh what His love does:
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4: 18)
This perfect love is not something that we do, but something that God has done through His Son, who won the victory over sin and death at Calvary:
Yet it is "perfect love" that casts out fear. John completes this truth:
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. " (1 John 4: 17)
This love has transformed us into sons of God, and we are growing more like Him:
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." (1 John 3: 1)
and then
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
"And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John 3: 2-3)
God's love, not our inventory taking, not our turning our thoughts resolutely toward helping others, not anything that we do, will remove fear from our lives!
God is love (1 John 4: 16), and His perfected love, not just toward us, but what this love turns us into, casts out every fear.
And how is "Jesus" now? He is not on a Cross dying, but sitting at the right hand of the Father, reigning:
"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3: 1-4)
And
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5: 21)
Instead of looking at ourselves, trying to think our way out of the fears in our lives, let us receive the righteousness that we have been made in Christ, and His righteousness and grace both enable us to reign in life (Romans 5: 17).
Forget the inventories, stop focusing on the fear, and let God's perfect love live in you!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
"Continue to Watch. . ."? -- No Way!
This thought brings us to Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code. (AA, pg. 84)
Ahem!
Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.
What ever happened to "One Day at a Time?"
Continue to watch for . . .
This final phrase underscores the real contradiction. When I look over this passage now, with the full revelation that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for all of my sins, and the sins of the entire world, and for all time -- I cannot help but shudder. A lifetime of taking my inventory, of looking over my shoulder, of pressing myself to make sure that in every way I measured up to some standard of goodness, when the Bible clearly teaches that no one is good, anyway, and that no one measures up to any standard.
Martin Luther got to the place where he went to the confessional every twenty minutes.
Pastor Joseph Prince of Singapore admitted that he would stop in between conversations and even in the middle of soccer games to confess every wrong thought, word, or deed that he had committed, so committed was he to "being right" with God!
I have had my fair share of these pains and sufferings, suffering with a conscience so evil, so full of the sense of sin, seared with this hot iron of condemnation, that I could never rest!
Thank God for the wonders of God's grace -- that He has thrown all our sins behind His back, that He does not remember them, that to God, everything is gone, gone, gone forever!
No more taking one's inventory, no more trying to keep oneself clean, for the Blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing us (1 John 1: 7)
May you receive this rest, may you receive this assurance now and forever that before God, you can never be anything but righteous, if you only believe!
"Continue to Watch" . . .? No Way! I'll let the Way, the Truth, and the Life show me, guide me, and give me all of His peace!
Ahem!
Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.
What ever happened to "One Day at a Time?"
Continue to watch for . . .
This final phrase underscores the real contradiction. When I look over this passage now, with the full revelation that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for all of my sins, and the sins of the entire world, and for all time -- I cannot help but shudder. A lifetime of taking my inventory, of looking over my shoulder, of pressing myself to make sure that in every way I measured up to some standard of goodness, when the Bible clearly teaches that no one is good, anyway, and that no one measures up to any standard.
Martin Luther got to the place where he went to the confessional every twenty minutes.
Pastor Joseph Prince of Singapore admitted that he would stop in between conversations and even in the middle of soccer games to confess every wrong thought, word, or deed that he had committed, so committed was he to "being right" with God!
I have had my fair share of these pains and sufferings, suffering with a conscience so evil, so full of the sense of sin, seared with this hot iron of condemnation, that I could never rest!
Thank God for the wonders of God's grace -- that He has thrown all our sins behind His back, that He does not remember them, that to God, everything is gone, gone, gone forever!
No more taking one's inventory, no more trying to keep oneself clean, for the Blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing us (1 John 1: 7)
May you receive this rest, may you receive this assurance now and forever that before God, you can never be anything but righteous, if you only believe!
"Continue to Watch" . . .? No Way! I'll let the Way, the Truth, and the Life show me, guide me, and give me all of His peace!
AA says "Take Your Inventory" -- Jesus says "Receive My Grace!"
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them. (AA, pg 84)
All the promises in Christ are "Yea and Amen"
"For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the
glory of God by us." (2 Corinthians 1: 20)
The problem really settles on --- do you believe Him or not?
Do you believe the following:
"1My little children,
these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2And he is the
propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins
of the whole world." (1 John 2:1-2)
If you have entered the rest of Christ and His Finished Work, then indeed you accept that all has been paid for.
We are called to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3: 18), to see more of all that He has done for us at the Cross.
We must accept that not only has He died for our sins, He has taken away the curse (Galatians 3: 13) or the consequences of our sins. In His Body, all of our sins are sent away, and He refuses to remember them (Hebrews 8: 12).
Jesus Christ paid the price -- how, then, can we continue to "take our inventory" when all of our sins are forgiven, once and for all? He does not remember them, so what reason do we have to keep taking stock of our lives? In fact, the life that we now have in Him is His Life!
"I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20)
This grace is a gift that He keeps on giving, which He wants us to keep receiving!
"for if by the offence of the one the death did reign through the one, much more
those, who the abundance of the grace and of the free gift of the righteousness
are receiving, in life shall reign through the one -- Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 17, Youngs Literal Translation)
We are called not to take our inventories, but rather to keep receiving His grace:
"But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the
offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace,
which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." (Romans 5: 15)
and
"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound:" (Romans 5: 20)
We need to receive more revelation of God's grace in our lives. In his epistles, Paul addresses his readers right away with "Grace and peace to you" Grace is something that we need to keep receiving, which is part of our "laboring to enter the rest" (Hebrews 4: 11). We rest in His righteousness, receive His grace, and by receiving His grace, we honor God all the more!
This "requirement" on our behalf may help explain why "forgiving" someone is not enough for some people. If we do not have the manifested revelation that God's grace is greater than our sin, that His blood keeps cleansing us (1 John 1: 7), then very easily we can slip back into working and earning and striving in our own effort for a number of things.
Satan attacks us with fears, worries, regrets, upsets, and the rest -- we are called instead to keep our eyes on Him who has justified us, and keeps justifying us (Colossians 3:1; Romans 8: 33)
Stop taking your inventory -- keep receiving His grace!
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
He Has Put Away All Wrongdoings!
Referring to our list again. Putting out of our minds the wrongs others had done, we resolutely looked for our own mistakes. Where had we been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking and frightened? Though a situation had not been entirely our fault, we tried to disregard the other person involved entirely. Where were we to blame? The inventory was ours, not the other man's. When we saw our faults we listed them. We placed them before us in black and white. We admitted our wrongs honestly and were willing to set these matters straight. (AA, pg 67)
This "list" business is a fool's errand before one puts pen to paper.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:" (Psalm 139: 23)
The Psalmist asked God to do the searching! Imagine that!:
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17: 9)
Who can know it? Only God can! and in Christ, we then receive God's laws on our hearts and minds! (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
Micah prophesied what Jesus would do:
"He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7: 19)
and this has been done forever in the New Covenant:
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 12)
God remembers them NO MORE -- and this double negative is infinitely intensive -- no never!
If we feel a sense of guilt, or a sense of wrongdoing comes over us, we must rest in what has been done in His sacrifice, not our senses:
"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 14)
and behold, the Holy Spirit then reminds us of the following:
"Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
"And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
"Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. " (Hebrews 10: 15-18)
No more offering for sin - no more confessing, no more twisting oneself into a pretzel, no more doing dead works!
He has put away all our wrongdoings -- and thus we need not drink, smoke, or engage in any other perversion in order to break free! In Christ, we are free indeed (John 8: 36)
This "list" business is a fool's errand before one puts pen to paper.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:" (Psalm 139: 23)
The Psalmist asked God to do the searching! Imagine that!:
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17: 9)
Who can know it? Only God can! and in Christ, we then receive God's laws on our hearts and minds! (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
Micah prophesied what Jesus would do:
"He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7: 19)
and this has been done forever in the New Covenant:
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 12)
God remembers them NO MORE -- and this double negative is infinitely intensive -- no never!
If we feel a sense of guilt, or a sense of wrongdoing comes over us, we must rest in what has been done in His sacrifice, not our senses:
"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 14)
and behold, the Holy Spirit then reminds us of the following:
"Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
"And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
"Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. " (Hebrews 10: 15-18)
No more offering for sin - no more confessing, no more twisting oneself into a pretzel, no more doing dead works!
He has put away all our wrongdoings -- and thus we need not drink, smoke, or engage in any other perversion in order to break free! In Christ, we are free indeed (John 8: 36)
Forgiveness Based on His Blood, not our Mood
Though we did not like their symptoms and the way these disturbed us, they, like ourselves, were sick too. We asked God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. When a person offended we said to ourselves, "This is a sick man. How can I be helpful to him? God save me from being angry. Thy will be done."
We avoid retaliation or argument. We wouldn't treat sick people that way. If we do, we destroy our chance of being helpful. We cannot be helpful to all people, but at least God will show us how to take a kindly and tolerant view of each and every one. (AA, pg 67)
An attitude adjustment is simply not enough to overcome the hurts and pains that we have endured in our lives.
I remember one guy, Jack, who was still so bitter toward his dad after many years, fuming because his father had beaten his baby brother, while the little baby was still sleeping in his crib!
Another person very close to me, my mother, was still afflicted with intermittent rage against an abusive mother that she had endured for many years during her childhood. This woman's hurt still hit her conscience for many years, even after she had written her off in a note two years before she passed away, and many years after she was dead and buried.
Time does not heal all wounds, nor does taking one's inventory -- the blood of Jesus Christ alone shed for the remission of sins, of all sins, gives our conscience peace, not just for the sins that we have committed, but also for the wrongdoing that we have endured, for the bitter thoughts which the Enemy would like to tempt us with.
To just brush aside the hurts of other people does not satisfy a person's inner man. We need to know that our sins have been forgiven, and any upset in our lives afterward cannot break our fellowship with God, for He has given us an everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9: 24), the same righteousness as Jesus Christ, and this witness we receive at all times through the Holy Spirit, who convicts us of this righteousness!
Yet a man, a woman, a believer in the Body of Christ who believes that he has to confess his sins in order to maintain fellowhsip with God, well, that mars a man's mission on this earth. That creates a sin-conscience, a sense of never quite measuring up, and our lives end up being about barely getting by, instead of enjoying life and that more abundantly!
A man who does not feel forgiven, who does not have a sense within himself that all of his sins are paid for, that all things are taken care of through the grace of God, will in turn feel bitter, demand revenge, and know no peace in his life. The parable of the unjust -- unmerciful -- steward best illustrates this. The king captured the steward who owed him an astronomically amount, but just before he sold him and all he had into slavery, he declared:
"The servant
therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me,
and I will pay thee all." (Matthew 18: 26)
The King forgave his debt, but the steward walked away with the sense that he had to pay the debt, or that he could pay it in his own effort. This man had no awareness that his sins were forgiven, so he hit up another steward, who owed him far less!
We have to have a conscience perfected, the knowledge and belief within us that all our sins are forgiven. When we have this expansive knowledge of God's grace, that He moves in our lives, that His grace is our life, we find that the harms that we have endured not only no longer have any power over us -- because our own sins no longer keep us in bondage -- but we find that His love overtakes any hurt that others would perpetrate against us.
We then no longer define ourselves by our feelings, nor by our thoughts, but we take God at His Word that we are a new Creation in Him, when we see Him greater than our past, present, and future, we find that His righteousness and grace explode in our lives, and we reign in Him!
However, we cannot enjoy a perfect conscience if we believe that we have to take our inventory every time that we sin, or at the end of every day. If we have to take our inventory, then we never have a sense of rest, and the hurts of others become magnified in our lives, as well!
For many years, I could never understand why my mother could not let go of the upset in her lives. She would often complain that she was having bitter memories of people whom she had let go of many years ago. She would explode about people whom she had let go of, or of people whom she had reconciled with.
She even reminded me of things that I had done, and for a long time, I was in bondage to the wrongs that I had done. I also found myself giving a lot of credence to the things that other people were saying. More and more, I grew more sensitive and easily hurt because I was convinced that every time that I got angry or hurt, I had to do something about it.
But in Christ, I am not in bondage to sin or under law, but under grace, and so I reckon myself dead when I grow upset. I have no reason to hold a grudge, for His life and His glory fall on my life!
Forgiveness is based on His blood, not on my thoughts, not on my words, not on my feelings. It has nothing to do with me, and therefore I am free in Him, forever!
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Keep Trying? No -- Quit Trying and Start Living
Hitting bottom is about much more than trying something different.
In Christ, we are called to stop trying altogether.
We are not called to live the Christian life, just as we were never called to live out the law in our lives.
"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." (Romans 3: 19)
and
"But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Galatians 3: 25)
and
"Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers," (1 Timothy 1: 7)
The law was designed, brought back to its pristine perfection by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, so that men and women would despair of trying to earn their righteousness by works, and thus receive it by faith.
One of the greatest perversions in the Body of Christ is the mantra of "keep trying" and "keep going" - we do not live of ourselves anymore, but in Christ we are dead and hidden in Christ (Colossiasn 3: 3-4)
When we quit trying, then the grace of God can live in us, and then we start living:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20)
In Christ, we are called to stop trying altogether.
We are not called to live the Christian life, just as we were never called to live out the law in our lives.
"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." (Romans 3: 19)
and
"But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Galatians 3: 25)
and
"Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers," (1 Timothy 1: 7)
The law was designed, brought back to its pristine perfection by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, so that men and women would despair of trying to earn their righteousness by works, and thus receive it by faith.
One of the greatest perversions in the Body of Christ is the mantra of "keep trying" and "keep going" - we do not live of ourselves anymore, but in Christ we are dead and hidden in Christ (Colossiasn 3: 3-4)
When we quit trying, then the grace of God can live in us, and then we start living:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20)
Cannot Forgive if Not Forgiven
Many people in AA are told that the work is never finished, that Alcohol is a "subtle foe", and therefore we cannot rest.
Our feelings become a part of ourselves that we must respond to and manage.
For the believer, peace is the standard, the inheritance that we receive from Him:
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." (John 14: 1)
then
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14: 27)
Now, our hearts will remain troubled as long as we are convinced that in order to enjoy God's lavish forgiveness, we must still "do something".
The New Covenant, however, has nothing to do with us:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.: (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
"I will be to them a God"-- do we often sit down and think on this massive Truth? He takes care of us inside out, and therefore our job is to believe, to rest in this truth, allowing His grace to flow and lead us in our walk.
In fact, God has already created us, and created in us the works that He wants us to do:
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2: 10)
We walk in these works, for God is before us and behind us through His Son:
"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence" (Colossians1:16-18)
Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, and through His Spirit we receive His presence and power over our lives, and we can know and believe that wherever we go, He is there blessing and securing us through all things. Our job is to believe, to rest, which means that we must renew our minds to this truth (Romans 12: 2), growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord.
The more that we see all that God has done for us, even taking our painful past into a palatial present, then we receive the grace to forgive and release the hurts of others, receiving that we are set free from having to do anything in order to have righteousness, peace, and joy in our lives.
Forgiveness is easy when you keep seeing Jesus and all that He has done for you! In fact, you find that you rejoice in the hardships, knowing and believing that He is already turning those hardships into Lordship on your part.
Our feelings become a part of ourselves that we must respond to and manage.
For the believer, peace is the standard, the inheritance that we receive from Him:
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." (John 14: 1)
then
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14: 27)
Now, our hearts will remain troubled as long as we are convinced that in order to enjoy God's lavish forgiveness, we must still "do something".
The New Covenant, however, has nothing to do with us:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.: (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
"I will be to them a God"-- do we often sit down and think on this massive Truth? He takes care of us inside out, and therefore our job is to believe, to rest in this truth, allowing His grace to flow and lead us in our walk.
In fact, God has already created us, and created in us the works that He wants us to do:
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2: 10)
We walk in these works, for God is before us and behind us through His Son:
"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence" (Colossians1:16-18)
Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, and through His Spirit we receive His presence and power over our lives, and we can know and believe that wherever we go, He is there blessing and securing us through all things. Our job is to believe, to rest, which means that we must renew our minds to this truth (Romans 12: 2), growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord.
The more that we see all that God has done for us, even taking our painful past into a palatial present, then we receive the grace to forgive and release the hurts of others, receiving that we are set free from having to do anything in order to have righteousness, peace, and joy in our lives.
Forgiveness is easy when you keep seeing Jesus and all that He has done for you! In fact, you find that you rejoice in the hardships, knowing and believing that He is already turning those hardships into Lordship on your part.
How To Forgive: Rest and Receive Him!
This set of posts has been generating in my Spirit for a long time.
I have often wondered why people have a hard time when it comes to forgiving people when they have been harmed.
I know for my part that I had often struggled with forgiving other people.
I would fault myself over and over for letting people get away with hurting me, convinced that if I had only been a little more diligent, a little more vigilant, then I would never have gotten hurt in the first place.
Ironically, that stance of self-defense and punch back is a big problem, the very source of upset which brings people into bondage, the source of condemnation which causes us to hurt ourselves all the more.
Why do people have a hard time letting go, forgiving others?
In some cases, like my own, I was convinced that I had to adopt and maintain an attitude of peace and calm in my life.
Yet the Bible teaches very differently:
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" (Romans 5: 1)
and then
"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Romans 5: 5)
Peace comes to us because Jesus Christ is our peace (Ephesians 2: 14).
In fact, the New Covenant simply has nothing to do with us:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
It's all about what God will do -- because man could never keep the key elements of the Old Covenant. That's why God found fault with it.
Yet this New Covenant is based on grace, pure, unmerited favor from God.
He is watching over us, He is living within us, for by His grace, we are what we are -- more than conquerors -- in Christ (Romans 8: 37)
So, what is it about forgiving people that seems so difficult. Forgiving people, honestly, has nothing to do with us:
"And be ye kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you." (Ephesians 4: 32)
Many believers do not have the full understanding of what Jesus did for us on the Cross. John shared this revelation:
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." (1 John 3: 1)
Before that, let us take in the fullness of Jesus as our Sacrifice:
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2: 1)
Most people do not get the full gravity of this good and wonderful gift. Paul explains it thus:
"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;" (Colossians 2: 13)
All our trespasses. And His blood keeps on cleansing us:
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1: 7)
Yet knowing that we are forgiven of our sins is not enough, for then we may still look at ourselves with reserve and caution, trying to make sure that we do not sin.
Paul then shares what else has happened for us believers:
"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;" (Ephesians 2: 1)
and
"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2: 6)
We are now in Christ, who is our life (Colossiasn 3: 4)
"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20)
God through Christ has reconciled us to Himself, and in Him we area new creation (2 Corinthians 5: 17)
We are now a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2: 9), kings in Christ -- and that is why Jesus is King of Kings!
So, the grace of God not only forgives us of all our sins, but transforms us into children of God, having the same standing as Jesus:
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
We are also called to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 2: 18).
This grace abounds in our lives even when we sin (Romans 5: 20). When others sin against, we receive more grace:
"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10)
So, let me get back to formulating the struggles that I had with letting things go.
First of all, I believed that the feelings that I had, I had to do something about, whether they were fears or resentments. This was a terrible teaching which came to me through the AA cult, which teaches its members that they must deal with resentment, the "Number One Offender".
In Christ, we are called to reckon ourselves dead, yet alive in Christ:
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6: 11)
Resentmenst, tumults, upsets are all sin, works of the flesh (Galatians 5: 19-21). Strangely enough, then, all of our unrest is based on the lie that we must "do something" about our feelings, as if our peace and joy depend on us.
The Word teaches otherwise:
"17For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14: 17)
The Holy Spirit is a promise (Acts 2: 33), a gift which Jesus promised that the Father wanted to give to us (Luke 12: 32)
This Spirit of Adoption (Romans 8: 15) we receive by grace through faith - we hear the Word and believe it! That is the one "work" that we are called to do (John 6: 29)
The problem for me, as for others, is that we have been taught that we must do for God, when it truth God is the one who is working in us (Philippians 2: 12-13)
.
He has put His laws in our hearts and our minds. We do not have to have a set of feelings and thoughts in order to access God's gracious guidance in our lives.
The biggest stumbling block for many Christians, is the concept of rest:
"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
"For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (Hebrews 4: 9-11)
We are called to receive all the blessings of God through His Son, who is our life. We do nothing of ourselves, but rather abide in Him, for He is the Vine, and we are the branches (John 15: 4). Many believers have a real problem with this because they are still receiving the mixed message that Jesus died for our sins but we are on our own to live the Life on earth, when He has given us His life. We give God such short shrift in our walk on earth.
And thus we come to the crux of the problems when it comes to forgiveness. We "feel bad" about what others have done to us, as if we have to "do something" about those issues. In fact, we are called to stand in faith (Ephesians 6: 16), resisting the devil.
"But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." (James 4: 6-10)
We are called to rest in the growing revelation that everything has been taken care of us for us. God through His Son is greater than our pains, our sorrows, or traumas, our trials, our past, our present, our future. He takes our harships and enhances our Sonship. He takes the pain and turns it into gain, for He receives glory in taking every time we fall, that He can lift us up! We are called to submit ourselves to God. We do this to the extent that we receive the greater revelation of all that Jesus Christ did for us at the Cross:
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
"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?" (Romans 8: 31-32)
The trick for many believers is to accept that everything is taken care of:
"I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." (John 17: 4)
and
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2: 10)
and
"For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." (Hebrews 4: 3)
Being a Christian is all about Christ - and I Am Nothing - Christ-I-A-N.
When we let Him live through us, trusting that His Spirit leads us into all victory, the let-go life of trust and faith takes over, as we no longer look at ourselves and look at Him, who is making all things work for our good:
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." (Colossians 3: 1)
For this reason, David prophesied that his flesh would "rest in hope":
"Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:" (Acts 2: 26)
Imagine the blessedness of God Almighty, who now provides his Perfect Peace, His Son, that by resting in Him, His grace may flow in our lives.
This same grace flows all the more as we forgive those who have hurt us. In fact, we also find that as we let go of harships, knowing that indeed God makes all things work for our good, then we can step into our lives, trusting that he is covering us from before and behind, with nothing but belief on Him to quicken us to behave as He would have us.
I have often wondered why people have a hard time when it comes to forgiving people when they have been harmed.
I know for my part that I had often struggled with forgiving other people.
I would fault myself over and over for letting people get away with hurting me, convinced that if I had only been a little more diligent, a little more vigilant, then I would never have gotten hurt in the first place.
Ironically, that stance of self-defense and punch back is a big problem, the very source of upset which brings people into bondage, the source of condemnation which causes us to hurt ourselves all the more.
Why do people have a hard time letting go, forgiving others?
In some cases, like my own, I was convinced that I had to adopt and maintain an attitude of peace and calm in my life.
Yet the Bible teaches very differently:
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" (Romans 5: 1)
and then
"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Romans 5: 5)
Peace comes to us because Jesus Christ is our peace (Ephesians 2: 14).
In fact, the New Covenant simply has nothing to do with us:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
It's all about what God will do -- because man could never keep the key elements of the Old Covenant. That's why God found fault with it.
Yet this New Covenant is based on grace, pure, unmerited favor from God.
He is watching over us, He is living within us, for by His grace, we are what we are -- more than conquerors -- in Christ (Romans 8: 37)
So, what is it about forgiving people that seems so difficult. Forgiving people, honestly, has nothing to do with us:
Many believers do not have the full understanding of what Jesus did for us on the Cross. John shared this revelation:
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." (1 John 3: 1)
Before that, let us take in the fullness of Jesus as our Sacrifice:
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2: 1)
Most people do not get the full gravity of this good and wonderful gift. Paul explains it thus:
"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;" (Colossians 2: 13)
All our trespasses. And His blood keeps on cleansing us:
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1: 7)
Yet knowing that we are forgiven of our sins is not enough, for then we may still look at ourselves with reserve and caution, trying to make sure that we do not sin.
Paul then shares what else has happened for us believers:
"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;" (Ephesians 2: 1)
and
"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2: 6)
We are now in Christ, who is our life (Colossiasn 3: 4)
"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20)
God through Christ has reconciled us to Himself, and in Him we area new creation (2 Corinthians 5: 17)
We are now a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2: 9), kings in Christ -- and that is why Jesus is King of Kings!
So, the grace of God not only forgives us of all our sins, but transforms us into children of God, having the same standing as Jesus:
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
We are also called to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 2: 18).
This grace abounds in our lives even when we sin (Romans 5: 20). When others sin against, we receive more grace:
"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10)
So, let me get back to formulating the struggles that I had with letting things go.
First of all, I believed that the feelings that I had, I had to do something about, whether they were fears or resentments. This was a terrible teaching which came to me through the AA cult, which teaches its members that they must deal with resentment, the "Number One Offender".
In Christ, we are called to reckon ourselves dead, yet alive in Christ:
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6: 11)
Resentmenst, tumults, upsets are all sin, works of the flesh (Galatians 5: 19-21). Strangely enough, then, all of our unrest is based on the lie that we must "do something" about our feelings, as if our peace and joy depend on us.
The Word teaches otherwise:
"17For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14: 17)
The Holy Spirit is a promise (Acts 2: 33), a gift which Jesus promised that the Father wanted to give to us (Luke 12: 32)
This Spirit of Adoption (Romans 8: 15) we receive by grace through faith - we hear the Word and believe it! That is the one "work" that we are called to do (John 6: 29)
The problem for me, as for others, is that we have been taught that we must do for God, when it truth God is the one who is working in us (Philippians 2: 12-13)
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He has put His laws in our hearts and our minds. We do not have to have a set of feelings and thoughts in order to access God's gracious guidance in our lives.
The biggest stumbling block for many Christians, is the concept of rest:
"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
"For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (Hebrews 4: 9-11)
We are called to receive all the blessings of God through His Son, who is our life. We do nothing of ourselves, but rather abide in Him, for He is the Vine, and we are the branches (John 15: 4). Many believers have a real problem with this because they are still receiving the mixed message that Jesus died for our sins but we are on our own to live the Life on earth, when He has given us His life. We give God such short shrift in our walk on earth.
And thus we come to the crux of the problems when it comes to forgiveness. We "feel bad" about what others have done to us, as if we have to "do something" about those issues. In fact, we are called to stand in faith (Ephesians 6: 16), resisting the devil.
"But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." (James 4: 6-10)
We are called to rest in the growing revelation that everything has been taken care of us for us. God through His Son is greater than our pains, our sorrows, or traumas, our trials, our past, our present, our future. He takes our harships and enhances our Sonship. He takes the pain and turns it into gain, for He receives glory in taking every time we fall, that He can lift us up! We are called to submit ourselves to God. We do this to the extent that we receive the greater revelation of all that Jesus Christ did for us at the Cross:
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
"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?" (Romans 8: 31-32)
The trick for many believers is to accept that everything is taken care of:
"I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." (John 17: 4)
and
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2: 10)
and
"For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." (Hebrews 4: 3)
Being a Christian is all about Christ - and I Am Nothing - Christ-I-A-N.
When we let Him live through us, trusting that His Spirit leads us into all victory, the let-go life of trust and faith takes over, as we no longer look at ourselves and look at Him, who is making all things work for our good:
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." (Colossians 3: 1)
For this reason, David prophesied that his flesh would "rest in hope":
"Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:" (Acts 2: 26)
Imagine the blessedness of God Almighty, who now provides his Perfect Peace, His Son, that by resting in Him, His grace may flow in our lives.
This same grace flows all the more as we forgive those who have hurt us. In fact, we also find that as we let go of harships, knowing that indeed God makes all things work for our good, then we can step into our lives, trusting that he is covering us from before and behind, with nothing but belief on Him to quicken us to behave as He would have us.
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