Crap Or Life?

The mind set on the flesh is, well, crap, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. You, a Spirit-born person, will be feeling the flesh and it’s view of things when your mind goes there. That’s the old, empty and twisted way. However, turning your thoughts to God and His view of things will result in feeling and knowing Him. That’s the new, full and normal way.

(I’ll be showing you this tomorrow at Grace Life Church, in Woodstock, GA. http://www.gracelifeonline.org/)

Speaking Next Sunday

I will be speaking at Grace Life Church, in Woodstock, Georgia, this coming Sunday, January 29. The main service begins at 11:00am, and you can get more information at http://www.gracelifeonline.org/.

I love these people.

What If Jesus Didn't Fail?

All of us endure a constant offering of camouflage so that we will view people as if Jesus failed at the cross and resurrection. But He didn’t.

If we do not choose to know people as Christ has identified them through what He did at the cross and resurrection—yes, it’s invisible, but no less real—then we are crippled and see darkly. Conversely, if we see them as He has made them by His actions, we are made strong through faith because we see clearly.

"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

God Without Religion

God without Religion: Can It Really Be This Simple? by Andrew Farley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Andrew Farley is a unique and fantastic communicator. He has a terrific way of getting to the heart of the matter in a way that truly counts for the reader--with nothing wasted. Chapter after chapter, you will be deeply encouraged and satisfied, not only because He presents the truth in an almost startling manner, but because the clutter and confusion of past doubts and deceptions will be removed.



God Without Religion is that good.



View all my reviews

Jealous?

There's no holding me back now! I've officially got it goin' on. My daughters have confirmed it. Here's the evidence, my bluejeans are fraying! Woohoo!

Anyone jealous?

Have a great weekend!

Where You At?

Have you seen any of the commercials that frequently ask, “Where You At?” Sponsored by a clever mobile phone company that is offering GPS (Global Positioning System) as a benefit with it's phones, I have found several of their ads more than funny—they’ve struck a chord.

Here’s one of their ads to get you up to speed.



One of the most significant aspects of life in Christ is that, bad grammar aside, that’s where we’re at—in Christ. Ever since God put us there through the new birth in Christ, that’s where we’re found at every moment—in Him. Oh, I know it doesn’t look like it. Come by my house and you’ll swear you’ve seen me in jeans and a sweater, drawn up to my desk and laptop. That’s what your eyes see. And if during our visit I told you to close your eyes so you could see better, more clearly, you’d think I was nuts. But I’d be trying to help you to live according to what’s really real, and you can’t get too much of that.

You and I are learning more and more to live by faith—in what God says is true of Himself, and in what He says is true of us. If we only look with the eyes in our head, we’ll frustrate our growth and twist our experience. It can’t be helped. We’ve got to look, we’ve got to see with the eyes of our heart, the ones Paul asked God to open for the Ephesians so they would know the great hope to which He had called them, the wealth of His incredible inheritance now in the saints, and so they would know His “incomparably great power” for them (Eph 1:18-21).

I think that because we rarely use the eyes of our heart, the ones that believe and see people the way they have become in Christ, we miss hope, we forsake our inheritance and poorly experience the power of God.

If you’re a Christian, then right now you’re in Christ! Yes, He is in you, and that’s fantastic to know and discover—God in you! But according to God, you’re also in Him. What does that mean? Well, that’s Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Eph 1:7,8)

If your wife is a Christian, then right now, “Where’s she at?”

If God is right now in your children, then “Where they at?”

If you’ve got friends who are Christians, then right now, “Where they at?”

Do you suppose they know? Could it be that they see what you see? Are they using the eyes of their heart or the eyes in their head? Do you suspect you could help them benefit form the sight you now have?

When you know you’re in Christ, your worries tend to dissipate, your hope increase, and your confidence in God and in yourself leap. Everything changes when you know where you are.

So right now, “Where you at?”

Knowing Determines Seeing

Why do we no longer see ANYONE as the world portrays them? Because we see them as Jesus has made them. People are holy and blameless new creations if they're in Christ—that’s who they are. And since God is “not counting men’s sins against them,” even those in darkness are rather well off—that’s what He’s done.

How might that effect our days?

All Things

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Luke 11:9-10

What a promise--we have all things because of Jesus. It is given, we do find, and the door is open.

This Works

When you consider how much obscures and twists who we truly are, this song brings us to what’s truly true and to what alone works for us in this life—God’s incredible opinion of us. Have a look and see if your heart doesn’t yearn.

Religion Versus Jesus

Here's a great video I think you'll like. And I hope you're enjoying your weekend.

Mel Brooks In Jesus' Day?

What If?

What if God thinks He became sin and you became righteous?

POP QUIZ: Someone with a serious look on his face bursts into the room where you are and demands, “I need a righteous person right now!” Would you raise your hand and offer yourself? (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We Want Him

Sometimes our determination to believe the right truth becomes an impediment to Jesus and His ability with us—to convince us about Himself. What people really want is Jesus—it’s Him. Do you recognize that? He IS the truth and He will bring and reveal and encourage you with what He is. And then you’ll want Him and know Him throughout your days.

The byproduct of wanting and knowing Him—the result—is authentic love for you and the life of God for those around.

What If?

What if your sin problem has already been conquered, and the remainder of your days are about trusting and resting and receiving the love of God for you? What then?

I Like Colorado

On the edge of town, this was yesterday at 60 degrees. Today it's 22 and lightly snowing. I like Colorado.

Are You Counting?

Are you counting sins (your sins, my sins, anybody’s sins) when God is not? (2 Cor 5:18-19)

What If?

What if God's every approach toward you is not concerning sin but love, and His desire to express Himself to you? What then?

Life Suckers

Have you ever seen The African Queen? Starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, it’s a film classic, one I’ve seen lots of times if you count seeing it in bits and pieces.

A part I’ll never forget—probably because it’s so gross—is when Charlie (Bogart) pulls the boat through acrid swamp water, clogged with muck and reeds and algae and bugs and crocodiles. The worst part of it? Leeches. I hate ‘em. Because Charlie and Rose (Hepburn) are riveted upon their destination, the slimy, blood sucking critters latch on to him without his knowing. When Charlie finally climbs back into the boat, there they are, in all their awful life-sucking glory. Horrors. I hate leeches.

Ever ready, Rose quickly applies salt to the bloodsuckers, which don’t take kindly to it at all, and regretfully drop off. (Side note: the film could have been better if, like snails, the leeches had gone all bubbly from the salt. Opportunity missed? I think so.) Rose and Charlie knew that if they were to proceed toward their goal of freedom, they had to momentarily break their focus and deal with the life-sucking leeches.

Yesterday I noticed there were some leech-like things clinging to me and draining life out of me.

Simply, what was leading me through my day was not Jesus, but a crude, almost unrecognizable form of legalism. This time of year often produces a bumper crop of standards and behaviors by which to measure oneself—and I was. I hadn't been entirely into Christmas joy and all that, so my family couldn’t be either. Bummer. I hadn’t been properly shepherding my girls, reading to them and praying with them, and I felt badly about that. I hadn’t been loving my wife enough. I hadn’t written enough or telephoned people enough or emailed people enough. I was pretty pathetic.

Do you see it? In each case there was a perfect grade I could get on the report card of my day, and in the fleshly estimation of that perceived goal, I fell short. Foolishly, I didn’t bother to check with God. After all, wasn’t it true?! So why check?

Leeches. I had ‘em all over me.

So last night I climbed out of the routine boat of my day, and said a few fairly meaningless words to God. “Hey, Lord. How’s your day? Have you made some new year resolutions?” or something like that. And perhaps because I didn’t come to Him carrying my deserved condemnation ("I'm such a loser!"), but my weariness only, He began to lift and free me of worldly condemnation. And I remembered: God is my life and peace and freedom and rest and joy and love. I do not live well by what I do alone (which is not to say it’s unimportant), but by who I know. When what I’m doing is influenced and fed by that (life by the Spirit), it’s all good.

Well, damn the leeches.

You and I have been made free in Christ—stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. . .you, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh;. . .(Gal 5:1, 13) The “yoke of slavery” or the indulgence of the flesh threatening the Galatians wasn’t drunkenness or cheating or lust, it was life by measurements, life by standards on the way to getting the perfect grade on life’s report card. What a deception--they already had it! God had given them everything with Him. But Satan had induced them to believe that life by checklist, life by accomplishment was better than life by knowing and trusting Christ—God for us and God with us and God in us. As long as they believed they weren’t yet free, weren’t yet good enough, hadn’t yet done enough, or hadn’t received every gift from God already, living was a long, hard pull through a mucky, leech filled swamp.

If that’s where you are, get some salt—you’ve got leeches.

With God in mind, talk at Him while you cook a meal ("Jesus, do you like your eggs easy over?"), sing a song (even a silly one), read a Bible verse aloud, take a walk and ask God why the sky is blue, throw a rock and tell Him you could have been a great quarterback "if only", and see what He does for you—the inside you. He is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and He loves being that for you, since He made you a perfect place for Himself.

Take a moment and stop pulling so hard. You are His boat—He’ll do the pulling. And He’ll pour salt on your leeches.