No Longer Opposed Blog

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We just finished celebrating my son’s 15th birthday yesterday. I love celebrating him, because I can remind him especially on the day of his birth, how wonderful he was made (but I tell him this all the time anyway). Because of some of his awkwardness with his autism, kids that don’t understand him will bully him at school and then he struggles with his value of worth and identity in Christ.

I don’t like to think of self-esteem as an important goal for people to focus on, as I think it is a humanistic point of view that values self more than God. I do, however, think everyone should have a healthy view of who they are and how they are seen in God’s eyes. In fact on Day 6 of God’s creation, man was the only one of all of his creations that He said was “Very good.” Of course there are ramifications of sin after the Garden in which I can expound on later and I won’t get into all of that here in this post.

Ever think you’re not special? That you might be worthless?  That’s what the Enemy of God would have you think. You don’t have to go further than Psalm 139 to be proven wrong:

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days written for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (13-16, NIV)

As I think of the intricacies of a tapestry being woven and well thought out by the designer, I can’t help but think how much joy it must have brought God to design and weave each one of us. And He has known us before we were formed… how awesome is that. Don’t we struggle on this earth to want people to understand and really know us? Our God does! And He is with us and mighty to save. He takes great delight in us, quiets us with his love and rejoices over us with singing! (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV)

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This is a tough topic to consider and as well to live out. There is a fine line in our faith of being broken and living victorious, but may I suggest that if you are living “broken” in Christ, you are victorious.

There is a brokenness of our will that says, I need you God. I can’t do it my way anymore; I agree with you God that I am a sinner and I need your salvation. And when you first come to salvation in Christ this is where you need to be. But after you have been saved, there is still the process of being broken. It comes through the “working out of your salvation”; a continual dependency on the grace of God while living out the rest of your life here on earth. “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” Galatians 2:21, NIV We need to learn daily how to submit our will.

There is a type of humility that comes when we keep an accurate picture in our hearts and minds that we can’t live a moment without the grace of Christ in our lives. The moment we begin to think we can do anything without Him is the moment we need to realize that pride and self have just entered stage-left. As a result, we will reap natural consequences when we take our eyes off of Christ to take center stage. Every breath we have breathed and every next breath that we take has been given by Him. It is vital for us to always keep a sober view of ourselves and keep a close watch on how we live our lives. We do this by keeping a close comparison of our lives to the truth of Scripture and on Christ Jesus, not by comparing ourselves to others or what the world says we need or whom we should look like. Jesus Christ and His Word are our plumb lines.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17, NIV

God wants us broken because this is where He does His best work through our lives: when we have a broken spirit. He detests the proud. Out of brokenness comes new life. We have never “arrived” as Christians here on this earth. Our wills will continue to battle with us here in this life, until we have our new heavenly bodies. We must continually “die to self” to allow the will of God in our lives. Don’t ever be too far from brokenness, if at all.

A daily living out of your life in brokenness says, “I am so grateful, Savior, that not a day, not a single moment goes by without it being by Your grace. Thank you Jesus.”

We can rejoice in that!

 

George Barna has just started a blog series on brokenness that you might find interesting:

http://www.georgebarna.com/2012/04/the-maximum-faith-series-article-1-the-importance-of-brokenness/

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“Jesus wept.” John 11:35, ESV I was reminded of this verse today by a dear friend who also is an excellent Psychologist.

I think what is so profound about this short verse is that it shows the deep compassion and humanity of Christ for those He loves. He wept. It literally means that He shed tears and it means to weep silently or shed quiet (actual) tears. Christ wept when He heard the news of Lazarus’ death and when He witnessed those who were mourning for Lazarus. Not only did He weep, but it says He was deeply moved and His spirit was greatly troubled.

Have you wept like this? Remember “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16, NIV

And “we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”…”For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 17-18, ESV

Romans 12:15 says we are to weep with those who weep. When we weep, Christ weeps.

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As a therapist I like to use a Cognitive-Behavioral approach to work with my clients. This is because as a Christian, I know that the battle is for the mind and if we can be deceived in our minds, we will believe whatever comes at us. Satan knows this and if he can keep our minds deluded we can be rendered ineffective for the sake of Christ.

How we think (T) affects how we we feel (F) and our behavior (B). Also how we feel (F) affects what we think (T) and how we behave (B). How we behave (B) can affect what we think (T) and how we feel (F) and finally, how we behave (B) affects how we feel (F) and what we think (T). Its a cyclical effect no matter how you lay it out. Just imagine a circle with all 3 of these interacting a cause and effect between them.

As human beings we feel. You can’t get rid of your feelings. You can change how you think about them or how you behave with them, but otherwise, they just “are” and it is important to validate them. But feelings can’t be trusted, because they have potential to lead us astray. So it is always important to check your feelings. To not make rash decisions during times of intense emotions. The two places where we have power in Christ is through our thoughts and our behavior. But the thoughts truly trump everything.

This is why it is so important to remember, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. ” 2 Cor 10:3-5 (NIV)

So, take captive your thoughts. You have the Holy Spirit within you as a believer to help you in this. Are they godly thoughts or are they thoughts that are destructive or have potential to be destructive? Could they lead you astray? Read your Bible and pray. Take your thoughts to the word of God and see if there is any truth that would refute that thought. Ask God to show you those scriptures. Memorize that scripture that tells you what is true and say it out loud whenever those wrong thoughts come to mind.Write that scripture out and put it on a 3 x 5 card to put on your bathroom mirror or wherever you need to see it. In prayer time, ask Jesus to help you to be mindful of your thinking and to help you correct it towards the truth of His word. This is how we can hold our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ and demolish the places where there are strongholds in our mind. It is the truth that will set us free!

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He is Risen!

He is risen indeed! John 20-21

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After Jesus prayed in Gethsemane for Himself and then the disciples, He prayed for those who would believe in Him through the message of His disciples. That would be us: Those of us who choose to believe in Him by His testimony through His Word that He gave through the letters of the disciples. We are so fortunate to have all of God’s word available to us today. Everything has been put together for us into one place: 66 books, 40 authors in one story that transcends all time, which we call The Bible.

Jesus asked the Father to make us all one. Just as He was one with the Father He wanted us to be one in Him and the Father so that the world would believe that God the Father had sent God the Son. He asked the Father for us to be brought to complete unity and He testified that He loved us just as the Father has loved Him. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”  (See John 17:20-26)

Why do we find it so hard to be in unity with each other as believers? Will we let love cover a multitude of sins? Will we do what we can to keep the peace with each other or do we have to prove that we are right or we have been wronged and we must be justified at any cost? We live in such a selfish world, I can’t help but wonder if we have let it infiltrate the church and our own hearts as believers? Certainly there is a place, time and way to address error. But does it violate love or will it prove that love is present?

When we live with envy and strife with one another as Christians we show disunity in the body of Christ and it wreaks havoc on our hearts and minds as believers and we become poor examples to those around us in the world who are watching us. Hopefully our souls trouble us at this point so that we take the time to take account and ask God to search and know our hearts; to try us and know our anxious thoughts and if there is any offensive way within us and to lead us in the way of everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24, NIV) Also see  2 Timothy 2:23-24 We have the help of the Holy Spirit to bring us into unity with each other, let’s draw on that and not major in the minors!

Image taken from: http://trueboat.wordpress.com/tag/church/

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Sometimes our sorrows and griefs can be so overwhelming that we wish we could die or have contemplated taking our lives in suicide. This is sorrow at its worst, when we think we can’t go on anymore. And then the Enemy uses our thoughts to attack us in these lowest times. He is the deceiver and destroyer of life. Don’t listen to the lies, you are not alone.

On a night of intense sorrows, and after Jesus had shared Passover with His disciples He went to Gethsemane to pray. He took three of his closest friends with Him: Peter, James and John. Jesus “began to be sorrowful and troubled and He said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.’ And going a little further he fell on his face and prayed saying. ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.’ And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping.” Matthew 26:36-40, ESV

Jesus was indeed sorrowful and anguished. Luke tells us that He even sweat drops of blood in that anguish. Even the grove itself was a place where olives were pressed. And Jesus was pressed here, in this moment; even before He experienced death on a cross for you and me. He suffered greatly. He was betrayed and then beaten and humiliated unto death. He bore it all. His purpose from before time, when He was in the Godhead was the way of the Cross.

Yes, He knows our deep sorrows and griefs that we suffer. He went to death so that we would be freed from the bondage of sin and death. No intense grief or sorrow that permeates our souls could ever be greater than what He bore in His body, because He bore it all, from all of us, for all of us. When all the sins of the world were laid upon His shoulders as the One and only perfect sacrifice, for that brief moment, He was all alone. Intense heaviness, through and through. Even in that moment, Satan thought he had defeated Jesus in death. But we know, on that third day, Christ raised Himself from the grave and He now lives. This is our hope for all humanity! Because He lives, we live!

Jesus has promised us, He is with us always – forever! He will never leave or forsake us. He is God with us and now His Holy Spirit lives in us as a deposit and guarantee that He is coming back for us! Lift your eyes up to the One who rescues you and forgives you of ALL your sins. He bears all of your burdens and sorrows. He mourns with those who mourn. He draws near to the broken-hearted. He is the forgiver of sins and He is the giver of all LIFE!

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In a recent Precepts Bible study, we were discussing what it meant as the church “to be the fullness in him (Christ) who fills everything in every way.” (Ephesians 1:23, NIV) The original Greek word for ‘fulness’ pleroma means to be replete or complete. Complete meaning completion, an object that is being filled with contents, or a container. And the root of that word came from the Greek word pleroo which also means to be replete or covered over. But the greatest word picture it gave me was the literal definition of which it meant ‘to cram’ as in a net. Hmmm…

I started to think of when Jesus was starting his ministry and was calling the first disciples. Early in the morning after they had been out all night fishing on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus approaches Simon & Co., as they start to clean their nets and close up shop. They had fished all night and not gotten a single fish! Jesus tells them to throw out their nets for a catch and Simon tries to explain to Jesus that there weren’t any fish to be caught out there, but then gives in and says he will do it. They put the nets down and then, “bam!” they are crammed so full of fish that the nets were starting to break. Another, hmmm…

I then looked up the definition of ‘replete’ and it stated that replete was not a synonym of ‘complete’ but rather meant to be abundantly supplied, abounding, filled to satiation, even gorged! Why did I ever think I was partially full: or like a glass of water, full to where I wouldn’t spill over, but short of completely full?

What if we truly began to believe as Christians that we are these vessels or containers that are crammed as full as those nets were, but in Christ, ready to burst with more than enough? As I pondered this profound word picture, I started to realize, I didn’t need to grasp at anything more to feel “filled up,” but thanks to my salvation in Christ, everything that I had was already enough – more than enough! I could finally understand the confidence I have in Him. No matter what hand life had dealt me, Jesus tells me I am replete and complete in Him! Crammed full!

If you are in Christ, you too, are crammed full! WOW! How exciting is that??!!

 

 

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“Hear , O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” Psalm 27: 7-8, ESV

Let the cries of Your people’s voices be heard, God. May we search for You and boldly ask You to answer us. Do not turn away and hide Your face from us. Let our hearts be set on You.