Thursday, July 31, 2014

He Was Loving Me All the Time -- Wow!

Even when I was angry with Him and did not like what was going on in my life, He loved me.

Even when I was frustrated by the circumstances, He was loving me and caring for me.

We do not yield to our feelings. We rest in His Truth.

It's just that simple.

I am not good at this, yet. He is good at everything, and our understanding of how good He is takes time.

He was loving me all the time, even if Satan is the source of great opposition in our lives.

He is loving you, too.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

It Was My Fault (Yet He Loved Me Anyway)

I thought that how I thought made the difference whether He cared for me or not.

Such self-centered thinking is bankrupted and false.

He has been taking care of us because He is a God who wants to care for us:

"6Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (1 Peter 5: 6-7)

Never once was His favor in my life, or in our lives, dependent on how we feel.

Ever.

That was not my mother or my father's fault.

It was my fault.

The Bible is very clear -- I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, and it has nothing to do with how I feel.

Or how any of us feel.

Simple as that.

I was constantly asking God to show me that He loved me.

In the Bible, He already has:

"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)

The issue was not the need for proof, but the unwillingness to open my eyes to all that He had already done, and was still doing.

As long as we do not rest in a purged conscience, if we do not feel that He completed the work of redemption at the Cross, we will not be able to see all the other good that He is doing for us.

More on the True Conception of God

God was always taking care of me and helping me, even when I did not feel, know, or even believe it.

He was taking care of me, even when I thought I had to take care of myself.

He was saving me from perils, even when I was not aware of the perils.

Consider this proverb:

"A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished." (Proverbs 22: 3)

Now, one interpretation of Proverbs would focus on what we do.

However, for the believer in Christ, we are dead to ourselves and alive in Him.

Let us see every wise and prudent person in Proverbs as Christ Jesus:

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:" (1 Corinthians 1: 30)

Jesus is our wisdom, and He foresees many dangers before we do, or ever could:

"Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered." (Psalm 40: 5)

We cannot count the number of times God has been good to us and taken care of us.

We simply can't.

Even when we think that that He wasn't taking care of us, He was taking care of us.

I lived in fear for so long, wondering whether God would protect me or not. The lie inside of me pressed against me so many times, such that I could get no peace.

The fear, the same was so crippling, and I was afraid to come to God and ask Him, convinced that how I felt indicated how God felt about me.

Such is the danger of being carnally minded:

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." (Romans 8: 6)\

Part of the reason we cannot be carnally minded is that God is doing, and has been doing, so much in our lives, that our senses alone simply cannot discern what He is doing.

I cannot touch but I can discern through the mind and His Word what Jesus was doing for me during hard times in earlier days.

When I thought that I was alone, or rather when I felt that I was alone, the truth is that He was so close.

The psalmist even writes that when we try to get away from God, He actually guides us all the more:

"9If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
 
"10Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." (Psalm 139: 9-10)
 
For David, the depths of the sea were further away than hell, since he mentioned taking the wings of the morning to seek the deepest parts of the sea after mentioning that even if he went to hell, God was there. To this day the uncharted regions of the sea challenge our understanding and baffle our comprehension.
 
How great He is. We cannot conceive how good He is. It's just not possible.
 
We need to grow in grace and knowledge of the LORD, and the first barrier to this growth begins with the false notion that I understand God, or that I have conceived of Him.
 
Such limited thinking creates bankrupted frustration in our lives and pushes us to ignore the revelation of His gracious love.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Not Afraid As Much As Ashamed

I felt bad about being afraid.

The issue was not the fear.

The real issue was the shame about my feelings.

I really believed that I had to undo my fears and resentments in order to come to God.

This issue is not a new one, which I have commented on in this blog.

The issue begins and ends with thinking that we have to bring something to God, when God alone brings all things to us.

If I felt bad, I felt bad about it.

I have commented at length how carnal I was, and I submit that many Christians can be, too.

Thank God for the ministries of many people on television and around the world.

We are not our feelings, and more importantly, no matter what we feel, no matter how bad we feel, He is at work in our lives, in fact, He is our life, because of all that Jesus did at the Cross.

Yet for so long, I attached so many hardships to my feelings, if I felt bad, I would struggle with all my might not to feel bad.

The grace of God was never clear in my life.

I still kept thinking, like many people, that I had to add something, to do something, or to complete the work.

Not even.

So, the feelings of fear and anger would erupt inside -- yet that is not who any of us are.

We are not our feelings, and never should we tie the goodness of God with the badness, or the frustrations, in our flesh.

This "indwelling sin" which all of us have might explain the difficulties, if not the intense mental struggles (and illnesses) which individuals face on an ongoing basis.

Not an issue of fear, but shame about the feelings, that was what was giving me such a hard time.

The notion that how one feels determines whether God is with us or against us.

That was the bondage I lived in, and I pray that anyone who reads this blog can learn that no matter what you feel. His righteousness is a gift which He keeps on giving, and you need never fear that how you feel or what you think will make something less of God living and  blessing you.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

"Defense" of AA Exposes Offense

:AA is not a cult. It has helped millions, including my dear nephew. If you don't like it, fine--that is your right. But don't spread you lies about it. You will be called on them."

Just saying something is not a cult does not mean that it is no longer a cult.

On this blog, and through the efforts and research of doctors, counselors, and empirical tests, the record is getting clearer: AA does not work.

Furthermore, the elements within the program, as well as the claims, distorted references to scripture, as well as competing demands of "The Program" further establish that AA is a cult.

And a cult which does not work, despite the pleadings of comments like the statement above.

There are not millions of people who have been helped by AA. The numbers are ever in dispute in the first place, and there are barely one to  two million people in meetings to begin with.

The above comment also breaks one of the key codes of AA, one of anonymity. It is a disgrace that individuals in the program, mor who are connected to the program, find their peace and privacy routinely invaded.

I have also read Twitter accounts were individuals promote their AA affiliation, all in direct violation of the hollow traditions of that cult.

Amazing!

The denial, hyperbole, and hypocrisy of every defense of this program is getting exposed more and more.

From what I have seen, and what I have witnessed, this is more than a mere disagreement about what works and what does not work.

This about truth and error, about freedom and bondage, about life and death.

AA leads to depression, illness, dysfunction, and death.

All the urban myths around the cult cannot do away with the simple truth, which is that the program does not work, and for those few who do get sober, it has nothing to do with AA in the first place.

What Forgiveness is Really All About -- About All

Forgiveness and the grace of God through His Blood is not a piecemeal affair.

Jesus' death on the Cross is a once, for all, forever deal.

He is the payment and the ongoing mercy seat for all the sins of all the world, too (1 John 2: 1-2)

Yet I struggled with forgiveness for many reasons.

There was a thick layer of lies and confusion which I struggled with for a long time.

I had believed that everything in my life depended on me.

Yet I do not have life of myself in the first place, for He is my life (Colossians 3: 4)

If you think that everything, or anything for that matter, depends on you, then you are trying to be God, when only God can provide all things.

Yes, AA talks about our need to quit playing God.

Yet as long as there is sin in our lives, there will be this unending compulsion to do something about the sin.

As long as we do not feel that the sin is paid for, we will live in our selves, in our flesh, and try to fix it.

Yet the Bible could not be clearer about the final sacrifice which Jesus made at the Cross for us:

"Be 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)

and

"13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2: 13-15)

and then

"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)

and also

"1God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." (Hebrews 1: 1-4)

How about this one?

"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)

Forgiveness is that Jesus has paid for all sins, including yours and mine, and your abusive mother, or the neighbor who molested you, or the credit card hack who stole your money, or the evil dictator who killed your family.

Does that offend you? Forgiveness is more than our sins being put away forever, but His life and protection accorded to us, too:

"10For 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:

11And 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.
 
12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
 
I have to bring out a powerful point in Ephesians 4: 31-32:
 
"31Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." (Ephesians  4: 31-32)
 
"Forgive" is better rendered "Be gracious"  or "grant favor", for God has superabounded in His grace toward us, where all our sins are forgiven, where even the sin in our flesh has been condemned (Romans 8: 3), where we can trust that with Christ God will freely give us all things (Romans 8: 32)
 
Forgiveness is more than letting bad stuff. It's about getting everything from Him who has been from the beginning (1 John 2: 12-14)

Everything is given to us, because all is gift, beginning with the twin gifts of righteousness and grace, which God gives to us in Christ (Romans 5: 17)

Forgiveness is all about seeing finding out about all that we have in Christ:

"16That 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)

and

"That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus." (Philemon 6)

The Source of the Confusion -- Wrongly Dividing the Word

I cannot blame only AA at this point.

Yet there were passages in the Bible which seemed to confuse me.

I was so mixed up about many things.

I did not know the Gospel in its fullest.

Here is the full message, delivered by Paul:

"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)

We are justified from all things, and that is the testimony of the Word of God.

The fault was never the Word of God, for there was nothing wrong with the message at all.

The real issue was the messengers whom I lived with, who were raising me.

My mother and father did not believe the Gospel.

They simply did not believe it.

Why did they not believe it? Because like many Christians, they understood salvation only as an initial reception, but that life after that is up to every person, on their own.

What does the Bible say about that?

"Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3: 3)

and also

"10For 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:
 
11And 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.
 
12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
 
He is a God for us, if we will let Him, and we can begin to let Him when we recognize that He remembers our sins no more, and that there is no more conscience of sins (Hebrews 10: 2, 14)
This statement I do not offer in order to justify bitterness or frustration with them -- no more, for as I had written earlier on this blog, I do not get to blame my parents and their parenting of yesteryear for my failures and the sin of Adam.

Besides, the grace of God super-abounds in the face of sin (Romans 5:  20)

My mother believed AA, and my father believed the traditions of his parents, his father particularly. The wisdom of men is foolishness to God. There is no nice way to put it.

My father told me: "Don't tell lies, because you cannot keep up with your lies."

Yet that does not stop people from lying. Not at all.

What does the Bible say about why we do not lie anymore?

"Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;" (Colossians 3: 9)

We do not lie, because that is not who we are in Christ.

Paul also writes to the Ephesians:

"Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another." (Ephesians 4: 25)

Bam!

The Word of God speaks to every need in our lives -- and the redemption which we have received by grace through faith speaks all the more, because of Jesus' blood:

"And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." (Hebrews 12: 24)

Wow!

Instead of listening to the blood of Abel, which cries out for judgment, vengeance, and death, let us listen to the Blood of Jesus, which speaks forgiveness, redemption, and favor.

I was wrongly dividing the word, though, in part because I was heeding the counsel of the ungodly, wisdom of man which is foolishness, which blends the Old and New Covenants.

Jesus: A Savior Beyond Our Conception

I have to revisit this truth again and again.

The basic lie in AA, and any other man-made, thus man-centered cult, is that God can be what we conceive Him (or Her) to be.

Yet the end result is that we worship ourselves, and we make terrible gods, facing a world which is bigger than our meager resources, and defies our comprehension.

Consider the very temptation which Satan offered to Eve, and thus Adam:

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3: 4-5)

Now, they were already like God when God had made them:

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Genesis 1: 26)

Not only did God make man, but He gave man dominion over the whole earth.

Satan lied to Eve, and when man become conscious of right and wrong, he saw nothing but wrong in himself:

"7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves." (Genesis 3: 7)

To this day, man wants to look at himself and try to fix the imperfections he sees.

Whether covering himself with fig leaves, or offering sacrifices of our labor (like Cain in Genesis 4: 1-11), man wants to make himself right in everything and make everything right for him.

Yet we did not make ourselves:

"3Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." (Psalm 100: 3)

If He made us, then where do we get the idea that we can conceive Him in our minds?

Now, what is it today, this morning even, which I have learned, in the face of this crucial reality?

We need to understand that He is at work in our lives, even when we do not feel Him or see Him at work with our senses.

Sadly, as I have shared many times before on this blog, I felt that God was with me or not with depending on how I felt, as thought His caring for me depended on my feelings or my thoughts.

Yet even when Adam and Eve sinned against God, God still spoke with them, prophesied redemption, and provided for them:

"And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? " (Genesis 3: 11)

and then

"14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
 
"15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Genesis 3: 14-15)
 
How about this?:
 
"21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them." (Genesis 3: 21)
 
Now, critics who seek to justify man instead of God will counter that God was cruel to Adam and Eve because He threw them out of the garden.
 
What does the Bible actually say?
 
"22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Genesis 3: 22-24)
 
If Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of life while dead in sin, filled with the never-ending sense of guilt, shame, and the obsession to do something about it, that existence would have been the most unbearable, the most unimaginable of terrors. Imagine living every day dying, and yet not being able to die? Terrible.
 
It was the goodness of God which actually sent them forth (the proper rendering for the passage "drove them out") with the intention that He would reconcile man to Himself once again.
 
And that is exactly what God did, through His Son:
 
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5: 17-19)
 
In fact, God had planned for Adam's fall even before He had made Adam to begin with:
 
"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:" (Ephesians 1: 4)
 
and
 
"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Revelation 13:8)
 
Jesus is the Mediator of a New Covenant for us, too, not just in that He died for our sins, and gave us His life, but that He has ensured that God will always be for us, and we need never fear the reproach of sin or God's wrath for our sin ever again.
 
Job, who is a picture of man trying to make sense of sin and evil in a fallen world, longed for a mediator when he was facing unspeakable trials:
 
"33Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.
 
"34Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me. (Job 9: 33-34)
 
If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness:" (Job 33:23)
 
What Job wanted, we have today in Jesus:
 
"33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8: 33-34)
 
and
 
"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" (1 Timothy 2:5)
 
Consider also this verse:
 
"And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." (Hebrews 12: 24)
 
Jesus is our mediator today; He is our Savior NOW!
 
"(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)" (2 Corinthians 6: 2)
 
He is a Savior Now, and He has been at work in our lives, even when we did not understand what He was doing.
 
For years, I lived in so much pain, trying to understand where God was when so much was falling apart, or seemed so empty in my life.
 
The fact is that He has been with me since the beginning:
 
"And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." (John 15: 27)
 
He has been saving us even when we weren't paying attention:
 
"My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof." (Psalm 71: 15)
 
Wow!
 
"Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered." (Psalm 40: 5)
 
and also
 
"17How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!" (Psalm 139:17)
 
Where do we get this idea that we  can conceive of God, let alone understand how good He is?!
 
For this reason, and many more, we should throw away this silly and evil notion that we can be like God. Why bother? God has manifested an everlasting love to us, and He wants to do everything for us, too!
 
"31What 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)
 
Also, Jesus declared to His disciples (who would soon become sons of God in Christ):
 
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15: 5)

I am learning about this now in greater detail than I had ever understood before. Jesus is a Savior for me now, today, and forever:

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." (Hebrews 13: 8)

Jesus Christ, our anointed Savior, is still saving today -- and that is something that I cannot fathom or understand.

Still learning!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Why I Tried to Fix My Feelings

I believed that how I felt determined whether God was with me or against me.

I had not understood the riches of God's grace, as I do now.

The abundance of grace and the gifts of righteousness are now flowing fully in my life.

Yet for too long, I connected how I felt with how God felt about me.

That was never the case.

What I am thinking informs what I am feeling -- it's just that simple.

The man-centered cults and religions of our day try to induce to fix our feelings, to get our minds off of our problems rather than resting in the truth that Jesus has taken away all the pain and shame of our sin, as well as the sins of others.

Every time that I had a sense of panic or fear, I then felt that I had to do something about how I felt, so that then God could work in my life.

The truth is that He is working all the time, and when I recognize that He is taking care of all things, then there is no force to do something about how I feel, as much as to let everything go so that He can live in me.

Hallelujah!

Because I know that He is taking care of everything, I know that I do not have to worry about how I feel.

The New Covenant, which God the Father has cut with God the Son, ensures His full protection and provision in my life.

All of it rests on the truth that He has provided the full payment for my sins, and my unrighteousness and lawless deeds He will remember no more (Hebrews 8: 12)

This New Covenant is not based on my feelings, but His promise, His word, and His deed.

I do not have to fix my feelings, but rather fix my eyes on His promise.

Wow!

Therapy Culture Has Hurt Us -- Christ Transforms Us

"Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core." (Jude 11)

What is the way of Cain? Trying to come to God and get His favor/acceptance through our efforts:

"And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD." (Genesis 4: 3)

At this time, the fruit of the ground was cursed, because of Adam's sin, and thus all of mankind's sin:

"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;" (Genesis 3: 17)

It took the flood and then Noah's sacrifice -- a symbol of our baptism in Jesus by His Spirit -- for this curse to be reversed:

"And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done." (Genesis 8: 21)

We cannot remove this curse through our own efforts, nor can we ignore it.

We need the cleansing of Jesus' blood, not our own efforts toward self-improvement:

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." (Matthew 16: 25-27)

The Message provides the following rendition of this passage:

"Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. 26 What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? 27 "Don't be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself. Before you know it the Son of Man will arrive with all the splendor of his Father, accompanied by an army of angels. You'll get everything you have coming to you, a personal gift."

Just think about it -- How can self-help really help ourselves? If we need help, it follows that we have no help in ourselves in the first place.

Therapy culture today suggests that we can improve ourselves.

Yet from the moment when Adam at from the forbidden tree, man has become dead in his trespasses.

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2: 17)

Oaul explains to the Romans the pains caused to the human race because of Adam's sin, and how the Work of the Second Adam overcame the sin of the first Adam:

"12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15But 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. 16And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17For 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: 12-17)
 
Dead men need life, and that life must come from the outside, thus cannot be found in our efforts:

"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)

He grants us eternal life, and this life grants us the grace and righteousness to reign, in spite of our sins, for just as God undid the curse on the ground because of the sacrifice, so too today we have the ultimate sacrifice in Christ's blood, which keeps on cleansing us from all sin (1 John 1: 7)

Not our efforts, but His effort, not our brute force, but His red blood, not therapy but the Truth sets us free.

Let Christ Jesus transform you today.

Still, It Is Really Hard to Let God

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday.

It is really hard to let go of our concerns to God. There is so much in our bodies which press us to do something in the face of our hardships.

Still. . .

All God asks us to is -- trust Him.

That is really hard.

We are not just sensate creatures, we are creatures of habit and business.

Instead of resting, we want to work.

For years, I had believed that if I do not do anything, then nothing will be done.

Yet such thinking is truly nonsense, if we accept the inspired Word of God as true. God created the heavens and the earth in five days (five is the number of grace). On the sixth day, God created then animals, and then He made man, so that He could enjoy everything that God made, so that everything would be prepared for him and not hurt him, and also so that man would not take any credit for everything which God has done:

"26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Genesis 1: 26)

and then

"And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." (Genesis 2: 15)

In this verse, God's Covenant name is listed for us, so that we can see that God saw Himself not just providing man a place and a profession, but profession that He will keep the man in all things, too.

The very sin which brought down Adam, and the sin which infects all man today, started with Adam and Eve believing that they had to do something in order to be like God, when He had already made them in their image.

To this day, even Christians (and I was one of them) still believe that they have to add something to what Jesus has done at the Cross, as though He did not Finish the Work.

Yet just as God the Father had given Adam authority over all things, God has granted the same to His Son, and thus to all of us:

"Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." (Ephesians 1: 20-23)

and then

"4But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2: 4-6)

Because of what Jesus did at the Cross, we are not just restored to Adam's first position, but now have a greater dominion in Christ, where God the Father sees us in His Son:

"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)

So, the only reason why it is so hard to let God is that we do not realize that God has done everything and let all things fall at our feet through Christ.

For this reason, Paul prayed for us to receive  a growing revelation of God's love for us (Ephesians 3: 16-19) and Peter also prayed:

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." (2 Peter 3: 18)

I Was Asking for What He Already Did

"1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5: 1-2)

Jesus has already justified me before God the Father.

Already.

Why a lot of Christians find that they struggle in their lives flows from the false notion that God has not finished the work.

If we feel bad, or if we see bad circumstances in our lives, we falsely conclude that we have done something wrong in our lives, or that God is punishing us from something which we have or have not done.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Part of the reason why I believed that the work was not done? I was working "a program" which was supposed to help me maintain some kind of life before God in my own efforts.

I cannot just rail against AA, though, or other man-centered religious programs. I have to acknowledge that my own thinking, apart from the revelation of the Word of God, gave me the impression that I could figure things out on my own.

I would read the Bible much of the time because I wanted to feel better..

However, the reason that I felt bad, in many cases, was simply that I was trying to feel forgiven, when I was supposed to submit to the truth of God's Word, and then the feelings would follow.

Paul warns all of us about being preoccupied with our feelings:

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." (Romans 8: 6)

For us to think about our feelings, or to focus on our feelings instead of His Word, creates frustration, pain, despair, and ultimately death.

We are now children of God because of Jesus, and we come to Him as our Daddy!

He is our Father now! There is no reason for us to beg and plead with Him as if He is some stern task-master.

In fact, for us to beg and plead before God suggests that we can (and must) do something to earn His favor. Paul has this to say about our efforts:

"For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." (Philippians 3: 3)

Resting in His righteousness is hard for us, because much of our learning, training, and the traditions which we have learned, whether from our parents or even our churches, imposes on us doing our part, as if we have a part which we can add:

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15: 5)

then

"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)

He is already working in us both to will and to for His good pleasure, too (Philippians 2: 12-13)

Instead of asking God to do something, let us start asking God to reveal to us all the things that He has done and is doing already:

"17That 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: 18The 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, 19And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power," (Ephesians 1: 17-19)

and then

"16That 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)

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

No More Bitterness Against Mom, Dad (or Anyone Else)

"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)

We cannot keep working steps or doing religious duties in order to purge from us a sense of guilt and shame.

Because of all that Jesus did at the Cross, we are called no longer to repent from sin, but rather from dead works:

"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God" (Hebrews 6: 1)

and then

"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)

Sin is not going away as long as we walk around in these bodies.

We will get new bodies, but in the mean time, we are called to rest in the grace of God, and recognize that Jesus died for all our sins and condemned sin in the flesh, as well:

"1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8: 1-4)

I had to take another look at Hebrews 10: 2.

Because of what Jesus did at the Cross, there is no more conscience of sins:

"14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 14)

We have  a perfected standing in His righteousness before God the Father because of His Son.

Now, part of recognizing the blessed wonder of His grace is that He covers not just my sins but the sins of the entire world:

"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)

I was angry for a long time at my parents, and sometimes the anger rises up from time to time.

If they had taught me the Truth who sets free, if they really believed in the Truth of the Gospel, then all of those terrible things would not have happened to me. . .

The fact is, that none of us come to God in our own efforts to begin with:

"I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name." (Isaiah 65:1)

and

"And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." (John 6: 65)

and

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." (John 15: 16)

Now, in case you may think that this grace is only for some, and that God has figured out who would believe, and who would not (a faulty understanding of predestination), consider this verse:

"11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2: 11-14)

So . ..

I was bitter toward my parents because "they" had kept from hearing the truth.

Yet the truth is that the Bible has always been in my hands. The truth also remains that everyone of us is dead in Adam and needs to be made alive in Christ. We cannot blame our initial parents, but the blame starts with Adam, and even then we have no excuse for being bitter, because Jesus has brought us something much better which we do not have to work for at all:

"15But 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. 16And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17For 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: 15-17)

If we are blaming someone else for our setbacks and problems, we are basing these arrogant assertions on two things:

1. They did something to prevent us from being saved.

2. We can do something to save ourselves.

Both assertions are completely wrong.

Bitterness comes from a lack of grace in our lives, and grace is not something that we can earn at all.

God warned his people Israel against worshipping other gods, which would breed bitterness:

"Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;" (Deuteronomy 29: 18)

and then

"Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;" (Herbrews 12: 15)

How do we fall from grace? Not when we sin, but when we try to justify ourselves:

"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." (Galatian 5: 4)

In other words -- dead works, and these dead works are put away in Christ.

Why should I be bitter? Christ Jesus makes all things better.

Believe me, though, this lesson has taken me longer than I would like to learn. Thank God for the grace of God. All the sins of the world are put away, and I do not have to do one thing to put an end to the hurt and the pain of what my parents, or anyone else, did to me.

Yes, there is Something Better Than AA

"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)

I read in a post critical of AA: "If AA does not work, then do you have something better?"

That is a good point, and the answer is Yes!

Yes: the Blood of Jesus Christ, Our High Priest, who enacts the New Covenant:

I am now learning that it is not enough to tell people what not to do. There is no life or power in such hollow admonitions:


We have something better in Christ:

"How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119: 103)

and now

"But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak." (Hebrew 6: 9)

and

"For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God." (Hebrews 7: 19)

and also

"By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament." (Hebrews 7: 22)

and next

"

"But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." (Hebrews 8: 6)

and finally

"And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." (Hebrews 12: 24)

 There is a better way than AA - through Christ and His Finished Work at the Cross.


"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." (Hebrews 10: 19-22)

The blood of Jesus has granted us a new and living way, the New Covenant (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

Monday, July 21, 2014

"AA Helps Thousands Every Day!" Really?

This quote pops up frequently when someone challenges the effectiveness of any program.

"AA helps thousands every day!"

Where are those thousands?

How does this rhetoric stand up to the research and reality?

I have sat in meetings where individuals routinely cycled in and out.

They were not sober at all.

I have witnessed in my own household that one person may have given up alcohol, but she went on to abuse other things -- food, religious observances, etc.

Scientific American conduct a research survey, and while they discovered that some heavy drinkers do get sober ("tentatively yes"), they then added the following:

After reviewing the literature, we found that AA may help some people overcome alcoholism, especially if they also get some professional assistance, but the evidence is far from overwhelming, in part because of the nature of the program.

Imagine that. The very nature of the program precludes individuals from getting sober.

Earlier this year, Dr. Lance Dodes shared some damning evidence about the failures associated with AA:

Dodes tells NPR's Arun Rath that 12-step recovery simply doesn't work, despite anecdotes about success.

"We hear from the people who do well; we don't hear from the people who don't do well," he says.

Then:

There is a large body of evidence now looking at AA success rate, and the success rate of AA is between 5 and 10 percent. Most people don't seem to know that because it's not widely publicized. ... There are some studies that have claimed to show scientifically that AA is useful. These studies are riddled with scientific errors and they say no more than what we knew to begin with, which is that AA has probably the worst success rate in all of medicine.

After twenty years of studying addiction and recovery, Dodes concluded:

But unlike AA, I would never claim that what I've suggested is right for everybody. But ... let's say I had nothing better to offer: It wouldn't matter — we still need to change the system as it is because we are harming 90 percent of the people.

Lance Dodes shared these comments on Salon.com as well.

The Bible could not be clearer: You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Regarding AA, the truth is that AA is not the truth and has not set people free, at all.


He Perfects Us -- Not We Perfect Ourselves

"The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands." (Psalm 138: 8)

Take another look at this verse.

We do not perfect ourselves.

We do not make ourselves better.

Yet man-centered cults and religion has taught people that they make themselves  better by keeping certain rules, by attending religious services, that we can improve our standing before God.

Excuse me?!

"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
2The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
3They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Psalm 14:1-3)
 
and
 
"Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Psalm 53: 3)
 
Solomon, the wisest man in the world, had to acknowledge in his time:
 
"For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." (Ecclesiastes 7: 20)

Let us not forget, however, that Solomon wrote these words before Jesus,  the righteousness of God, had become sin for us (2 Corinthians 5: 21).

Paul repeated this distressing reality about man (on his own, in himself):

"They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Romans 3: 12)

We cannot perfect ourselves, nor can we be received in ourselves, but only by the blood of Jesus are we accepted before the Father:

"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." (Ephesians 2: 13)

and

"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 6)

We are accepted because of His favor, not our labor.

He has perfected us in our conscience before God. Before explaining this perfect standing through Christ's blood, the writer of the Book of Hebrew elaborates on the imperfection of animal sacrifices:

"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 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: 1-4)

With the sacrifice of animals, there was a remembrance of sins. Ouch!

Another reason why I hate the AA cult -- a program which creates a remembrance of sins rather than permitting the final Work of Jesus to put away all sins forever. (Take that, Steps Eight, Nine, and Ten!)

Then the writer of Hebrews continues:

"11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 11-14)

Look at that last verse again: "perfected forever."

As far as God is concerned, as we stand before Him in Christ, we are perfect. In our conscience, the deepest part of us, we need never have a sense of guilt or wrongdoing ever again.

I had to meditate on that part a second time. If we have been perfected forever in Christ, then there is no reason for us to feel guilty about anything ever again. 

We should have no sense of guilt, because He has Finished the work.

Except, of course, if you have been raised in a household with the AA cult or where the Ten Commandments were prominently placed on the wall, as if the Servant deserved more preeminence than the Son.

As if!

Now, if we still feel bad, if we still do bad things, we must recognize that we have been forgiven of all things, but most importantly justified from all things, too:

"Be 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)

We have been justified forever, and now we can allow His Spirit to transform us, rather than our trying to fix ourselves:

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3: 18)44

He perfects us, not we ourselves.

We Are Not Our Feelings

Wow.

This revelation has taken me longer than I could have realized.

I am righteous not because of how I feel.

At all.

It has nothing to do with how I feel.

We are righteous because of what Jesus did for us at the Cross, and what He continues to do at the right hand of God the Father.

We are caught up in our feelings all too much.

It was my fault.

I believed that I had to feel a certain way in order to be at peace with God.

I had to feel good to know that God was being good to me.

I really believed that, and that was wrong.

All wrong.

I also believed for some reason that how I felt determined whether I was hearing from God or not.

If I felt bad, then I would not be able to hear from God.

Wow -- that was all wrong.

We are not our feelings, we are in Christ, and we believe that we are in Christ because we have been justified from all things (Acts 13: 38-39)

It does not matter how we feel at all. It simply does not matter.

Period.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

The Next Battle: The Answers for Yesterday's Pains

There were definite periods of time in my life when I felt this intense pain, this awful sense of shame.

When my mother left me at the airport when I was fourteen years old.

When I realized that my parents had not told me the full truth of the Gospel, that we are fully justified from all things that we could not receive in the law of Moses.

That my father did nothing while his wife abused me repeatedly as a kid, with religious perversions and distortions.

The chronic sense of fear that I faced every day, convinced that I had to hold the world together in my head.

The bitterness of being abandoned - that did not go away.

The sense of hurt and anger was so strong, and the shame that I tried to get away from. . .

I have lived so much of my time on this earth trying to take away a sense of "feeling bad"

Today, I know that Gospel, that I have been made the righteousness of God, in Christ.

It has nothing to do with my feelings, but everything to do with the fact of what Jesus did at the Cross, and what He does today at the right hand of God the Father.

Lately, though, a slightly different line of attack has assaulted my heart and mind.

Actually, just my mind, since today I know that I have a new heart.

So, the mind still gets attacked from time to time.

I remember the pain and frustration and desperation of years past.

Then I would get scared -- "What do I do if I start feeling that way again . . .?"

That question in itself shows a lack of understanding about rightesousness. I am righteous because of what Jesus did for me at the Cross.

Yet I did not believe that. I was going to Celebrate Recovery, which actually makes a mockery of the resurrection, as though what Jesus did at the Cross was not enough, and we have to do "our part" to make it all work.

Such anger takes over sometimes. I am outraged at the lies that many people are submitting to in our churches. People are hurting out there, and the only thing they are hearing is more man-centered shame and condemnation. There is no hope there. None.

The relief has emerged a few times in the last few days, though.

The problem was that I thought that I was wrong, or that I was doing something wrong, and therefore I had to do something in the first place.

"What am I doing wrong?" was the wrong statement to make.

I have been justified from all things, and I simply did not believe that. There was that "I" which had suggested that something more needed to be done.

Wrong.

I have been justified from all things, and that is "the faith", that Jesus has taken care of all things for us.

For too long, I had believed that I had to be saved by faith and feelings.

I had to feel saved, in other words.

Wow!

I am not kidding you. I actually thought that God was far away because I felt that He was far away. That was never the case. I had created that silly rule. It simply was not true, at all.

At all.

Yesterday's pains are answered with the eternal truth of the Gospel, that in Christ I am justified from all things, from which I could not through the law of Moses (Acts 13: 38-39)

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Our Minds Rest on His Work

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26: 3)

When I read this passage, I was convinced that I had to control my thoughts, or that would mean God would not keep me in perfect peace.

I lived in such trauma and fear for so long, consumed with what I was thinking and feeling.

I did not learn to rightly divide the word of God (2 Timothy 2: 15).

Our minds are called to rest in the Finished Work of Jesus Christ, for through His blood we can receive the eternal gift of righteousness and grace:

"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)

Cleanses from all sin, which includes what we are thinking and feeling.

Yet because of the upbringing which I had endured in the AA cult, I was convinced that I had to control what I was thinking in order to maintain a right standing with God.

That makes no sense at all, considering all that the Bible says about righteousness:

"14In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee." (Isaiah 54: 14)

and then

"17No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 54: 17)

Righteousness is not from us, but from God:

"In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." (Jeremiah 23: 6)

Jesus exhorted the Israelites during His earthly ministry not settle for the righteousness of religious leaders:

"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5: 20)

and then

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6: 33)

This righteousness is not something that we earn, but we receive as a gift through what Jesus did for us at the Cross and does for us at the right hand of God the Father:

"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 then explains the greatness of this gift of righteousness that we receive through Christ Jesus:

"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)

and then

"33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8: 33-34)

To the Corinthians, Paul writes:

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:" (1 Corinthians 1: 30)

Later, Paul writes:

"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)

We can rest, we have peace with God, and His perfect peace takes hold of us, because we are justified before Him:

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" (Romans 5: 1)

Our minds rest in Him because we know that He has purged all our sins and granted us His perfect standing of righteousness through His Son.

We are not forgiven based on our knowledge of sin, but His knowledge of the fullness of redemption purchased through the Blood of the Lamb.

Now, the work of Christ does not just forgive our sins, but has condemned the sin in our flesh:

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:" (Romans 8: 3)

I have recently received the powerful revelation of this statement. Instead of trying to fix my thoughts and feelings, I need to rest in the truth that Jesus Christ's death and the blood he shed is continuing to cleanse me from all sins and unrighteousness.

I am no longer defined by me, or rather my flesh (the same struggles which Paul had faced, but by Jesus and all that He has done:

"Here in is our love perfected, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)

While I was spending so much time trying to control  my thoughts and feelings, the truth is that no one can control them. We have been born again in our spirit, but we still walk around in the flesh, in our bodies.

That is why Paul writes:

"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Romans 8: 13)

and then

"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:" (Colossians 3: 5)

We do this by walking, identifying with the Spirit of God in us:

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5: 16)

This speaks of our new identity in Christ, that we are Sons of God through Jesus:

Our minds rest because He is at work in us. He loves us, and thus we love others.

The big revelation today, however, rests in the new peace that I have understanding why I would still have bad or bitter thoughts, and why I was so often struggling.

I never understood sin in the flesh, because the premise in AA is that we can keep our bodies and minds in check if we work some kind of program. The problem, however, is that we end up breaking out in more sin and shame, since we can have no confidence in our flesh, and nothing good at all dwells in it.

Nothing.

I had spent so much time trying to control something which cannot be controlled and then I was consumed with fear and frustration over something that was beyond my control, yet had already been condemned.

This journey has taken me a long time to take, or rather receive.

But I thank God for His grace, and give thanks to Christ Jesus for His life in me and through me.

For years, I was plagued with fears. "What are you going to do if you feel this way or that way? What are you going to do if you get afraid?"

I kept thinking that these concerns, these fears were coming from me.

It has taken me so long to realize that much of this fear-mongering is from the Enemy, and that now I can rest in the truth that every thought is being brought into captivity to the  obedience of Christ, and further more He is a God to me not because of how I am thinking or feeling, but because He has provided a full, final, and forever payment for all my sins:

"10For 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:

"11And 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.
 
"12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
 Indeed, this is Good News! So good, no wonder Satan has gone out of his way with false ministers, like Bill W. and his followers, to deceive people.