Month: October 2019

MY PURPOSE IN LIFE?

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Feeling as if you have no purpose can lead to depression.

I want tell you (and possibly you have never heard anyone say this,) the need for purpose is one of the great deceptions by the spirit of this age.

By feasting on the need for purpose within God’s people, ministries are making big profits with this proverbial carrot on a stick that keeps God’s heritage from their true calling, which to rest in God, who by his grace will fulfill his good pleasure in our lives as we trust in him.

The constant quest for purpose can lead a person’s soul into anxiety and discontentment, so much so that there is no rest in the soul.

Yet the call of Christ is quite the opposite.

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ~ Matthew 11:28-30

When we examine God’s people within scripture who made a significant mark in their generation and within history, they were were minding their own business when God arrested their attention for his purpose.

The truth is, God has a purpose for all of our lives, and that purpose is spelled out in the New Testament. He has called us to peace. He has called us to find our joy and rejoicing in knowing him, and that is the purpose to which we are called.

When we make it our aim to rest in him and rejoice in the fellowship of knowing him we will see his hand in our lives. The end result is our calling (what we refer to as purpose) will spring forth unto his glory.

Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep (rest). ~ Psalm 127:1-2

FAITH IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS

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Rooted and Grounded In Christ

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. ~ Romans 3:24-26

The word propitiation in Romans 3:25 does not mean appeasement, and has nothing to do with God pouring out wrath on Jesus at the cross.

The word propitiation, comes from the Greek word “hilasterion,” which is employed by the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) for the mercy seat. Also in Hebrews 9:5 it is translated as mercy seat.

A close observation of the context of Romans 3:25 shows that the word “hilasterion”…

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JESUS OUR SIN OFFERING

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Rooted and Grounded In Christ

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).

Paul’s reference to Christ being made sin for us is derived from the Old Testament motif of the sin offerings. The sin offerings were offered to make atonement for sin.

Throughout the Old Testament the word atonement was used to convey the idea of reconciliation, sanctification, consecration, and forgiveness. This is the context which surrounds Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 5.

Literally, Paul is telling us that Christ was made to be the offering for our sins, and that is how we are reconciled to God. Christ was made to be our sin offering not our literal sin.

Throughout the Old Testament the words sin and sin offeringare translated from the same Hebrew word “chattath”. One writer pointed…

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FORGIVING OTHERS

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We all experience offenses, and are at times faced with the need to forgive others, but what do we do when the wound is deep?

Being wounded is not a sin, but if we don’t address it, it can turn to bitterness (which is sin), even though we say we have verbally forgiven the offender.

Forgiveness in word only usually works when it is something minor, but when we have been cut to the heart, forgiving in word only is often not enough.

I have have found in my nearly 40 years as a Christian that when I either pray for, or do something kind towards the one who hurt me, the offense loses its power in my life. Praying for the one who wronged you, and/or doing something kind for them brings God’s love into the situation, and when you pray for them, or do something kind, God’s love flows through you, bringing healing.

When God saved us he did not forgive us in word only. He did something to demonstrate his love. The resurrected Christ, who died for us, will forever bear the scars of the crucifixion – scars we caused him. Yet those scars are not there to shame us or condemn us. They are there to heal us – by his stripe we are healed.

We are healed because those scars are the evidence of his love for us. There is no such things as the body of Christ without scars. And just as his physical body bears the marks of the crucifixion, even so his spiritual body (the church) is called to bear the marks of true forgiveness towards those who have hurt us.

Praying for the person who hurt you, or doing a kind deed is an “act of forgiveness” and as Christians we are called to be people of forgiveness.

If we forgive in word only it is possible we will continue to carry the hurts from those who wounded us, but when we return the offense with compassion, we experience healing, perspective, and the offense then becomes a life experience from which we grow in wisdom and grace.

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. ~ 1 John 3:18