“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”
2 Timothy 4:1-5
Category: discipline
Overcoming
“For everything that has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.
Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” 1 John 5:4-5
Belief here is not just knowledge, but of entrusting oneself to Jesus Christ as Lord. We must continue to do that very thing every minute of every day, and even more intentionally as the days grow more evil.
Spiritual Vision
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
“One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” John 9:25
Up until the very moment I was saved, I had always believed two things: that God and satan were equal powers at opposite ends of the spectrum of good and evil, and that abortion was acceptable.
But the second I believed in Christ and was filled with the Holy Spirit, my spiritual eyes were opened and I knew those things I had believed were lies.
In Christ, through the Holy Spirit, we have been given a second set of eyes, if you will, that gives us the vision to see, to walk, to know, to trust, in the Spirit. That spiritual vision allows us to see the truth that is Christ, and to walk this journey in the light of God.
We have a choice every day to use only the eyes in our head by feeding our flesh, or to use the spiritual eyes of our hearts by feeding our spirit.
While on the island of Patmos, John wrote that he was in the Spirit as he was given a revelation of Jesus Christ, a vision of Him in all His glory in the heavenly realm. He saw Him dressed in holy robes with a golden sash, eyes blazing like fire, feet like bronze glowing in a furnace, voice like the sound of rushing waters, a face like the sun shining in all its brilliance. He was the One Who had the authority to hold the angels and the churches in his hand, and also the keys of death and Hades.
When John wept because no one was found worthy to break the seals and open the scroll that would unleash the timely events of the future of all things, an elder comforted him with this, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Revelation 5:5
When we, too, are walking in the Spirit – praying, worshipping, taking in the Word of God, obeying, forgiving, fellowshipping, loving – our spiritual vision will become clearer, and our foundations stronger. We will see Christ for who He is, high and exalted, with authority over all things. We will believe and experience the depth of His power and love in our lives, along with His wisdom and discernment, and no puny trial will take us down.
It’s easy, though, with all that goes on in our busy lives to forget to feed the spiritual life, and then our dim, human eyesight prevails again, the flesh follows it, and we revert back to seeing and living and believing like the world.
We see (and judge) others by how they look outwardly instead of by the beauty of their souls. We see them through their worldly wealth or poverty instead of by the riches of their inherent value as one made in the image of God. We see them through their sins instead of as people whom Christ died for and who are in need of prayer and a Savior.
John told us that “…anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.” 1 John 2:11
We can choose, instead, to see with our spiritual eyes – the vision we’ve been given through the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as we’ll see and know Christ more clearly, we’ll see others through His eyes, the spiritual lens of His grace and mercy and forgiveness.
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24
Holy Spirit, please interrupt our busyness and remind us to seek you in all we do. Remind us to stay in prayer about all things at all times; remind us to be thankful; remind us to feed on the bread of your Word; remind us to fellowship with other believers, that we might encourage and be encouraged. Help us to see with the unique vision You give us, to love You, Your people, and even those who consider us their enemies. Help us to walk in You, that we might grow in faith and grace, and not stumble when the enemy comes.Help us to be disciplined to allow Your light to shine through us in this ever-darkening world. Help us to discern Your still, small voice, that we might follow You on our constantly winding journeys, that we might one day hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
In Jesus’ Precious Name, Amen.
It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over
“Never stop learning.”
“Keep learning.”
“Don’t give up learning.”
I must have heard this admonition at least three or four times over the past couple of weeks. Heaven help us if we ever come to the place where we think we have it all figured out. Or that we’re too old or too young or too busy, or too anything to learn new things.
There is no where that is truer than in our walk with Christ on our journey through life.
God is always speaking, as long as we’re listening.
In Peter’s second letter to those living in faith in Christ, he writes:
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” 2 Peter 1:5-7
Faith is not a badge we put on at the moment of conversion as if the race were over and the rewards already given. Faith is the starting point. Then, with our faith in hand, we run the race.
Virtue
Live with high moral standards. That is a daily, conscious effort in this morally-declining world. Up is down, right is wrong and wrong is right. But we know where to go to cut to the chase and find the absolute truth, and that is always God’s Word.
Knowledge
God tells us in scripture that we are to grow in the knowledge of Christ, grow in the wisdom and knowledge that Christ gives, and, interestingly, that husbands are to live in an understanding (knowledgeable) way with their wives.
Self-control
The more we allow the Holy Spirit to rein in our hearts and lives, the more we will learn to restrain ourselves from the things of the world that create division from Him, and vice versa.
Steadfastness
This is a cheerful, patient endurance through all our trials, ever-increasing in hope that through it all our God is molding us into the image of His Son. We learn to wait – to wait for direction, to wait for discernment, to wait for rescue, to wait for healing, to wait on our God and know that He hears, He loves us, and His timing and ways are perfect.
Godliness
Simply, less of me and more of Him.
Brotherly affection
Daily we are to grow in our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Love
This is agape, the highest form of love. It is the pinnacle of sacrificial, unconditional love that puts ourselves on the alter to serve another.
To grow in these godly qualities takes a willingness to be humble. It takes being able to admit when we’re wrong so we can repent and grow. It is taking regular stock of our hearts through scripture as the Sword “penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Heb 4:12)
It takes walking out of the shadows into the bright and baring light of Christ and letting Him examine us, burning off those ungodly traits through the fire of trial, and knowing that those same flames burn with His love and grace and mercy and forgiveness.
Why? Why do we want to do these things instead of just coasting through life, knowing that we have salvation at the end of it? Peter tells us in the next verse:
“For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:8
I don’t know about you, but I want to be effective. I want my life to count for good. It was used for enough pain and sorrow before Christ graciously invaded my life. I want to learn and grow and trip and get back up and try again, trust more, pray more, yield more, love more.
In this one life I get, I want Christ to have His way in and through me. I want to learn the way of my Master and be prepared and unashamed when I meet Him face to face.
But it won’t come by osmosis.
So I take the faith handed to me by the Holy Spirit, and together we run…
Grace and Peace in Abundance,
