Tag Archives: overcoming sin

What Does Jesus Do?

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Jesus will forgive your sins.  How would it feel to have a clean conscience for a change? Will others understand?  No, but you will.

He will teach you to listen.  If you let him, he will teach you how to obey his Heavenly Father.  Even if you are full of rebellion and are difficult to teach, he will provoke you to obedience.  If only you will continue to call on him.

He will teach you of the eternal way.  What men say is good, changes from hour to hour.  He will teach you what lasts forever.

One thing at a time, you will overcome difficulties in your life that you did not even know you had.  Then as the appearance of maturity arrives, you and He will do a significant work to obliterate rebellion.

In the process of becoming a man of God you will develop peace.  With a clean conscience, and proof in your soul that God has accepted you, you will find you have no fear.  And the longer you walk with Him as your Lord, the deeper that peace will penetrate.

You will find yourself teaching others.  Not because someone told you you have to go out and evangelize, but because you simply can’t keep your mouth shut.  And you will not only tell them the words, but you will act them out in the their presence.

In time you will come to know you have eternal life.  You will not just believe the words that you were told, you will know, with clarity, those words are true, and that they belong to you. 

Because he is always reliable, you will find yourself looking to him for every possible solution to every possible problem.  It won’t be a matter of discipline to go to prayer.  You will find you never leave it.

What does jesus do?  He will create such a change in you, that you will not be any resemblance to what you were.  And if you continue in the way, all this will happen to you while you were here.  Yes he can prepare you to be a citizen of heaven here.

By His Grace

The Aberrant Me

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The wisdom of God, now attends my days.  If someone must place a percentage, I confess that the Lord Jesus rules, well over, 90% of my thoughts.  Personally I think that is a conservative percentage.  But the opinion of man cannot be trusted.

He has done all this!  The entirety of the gospel belongs to him.  And from the message of the gospel the ascension from sin has become.

I am not saying I am sinless.  Rather I am saying there is placed a brutal guard over all my thoughts and actions.  And if one escapes, he is captured and brought back for examination.  Execution belongs to the culprit.

Yet more credit belongs to the power of God to transform.  For God instructs, moment by moment, according to His perfect righteous ways.  According to my willing ability to obey.

These things are marvelous, and a very welcome life!  But something “other”, even more amazing, comes to visit from time to time.  And this “other”, is the provocation for this writing.

I am often reminded, by some familiarity, of the man I used to be.  And with stunning clarity,, and regularity, I find no righteousness in my past.  The word “no” has a definitive meaning.

Let any memory come to mind, and my response is shocking revulsion.  At first I am shocked that I would do such things for such reasons.  And then quickly comes the shocking revelation that I am not dead.

We have all heard it said, in one fashion or another, “If it were not for Christ Jesus I would have no life at all”.

If confession were made, most Christians would confess, their nod is without full understanding.  By what they know of Christianity, that saying must be true.  Though they embrace it, spiritual fruit in their life displays their lack.

In this the saying of the Lord is true, he who is forgiven much loves much.  Conversely, he who finds little need for forgiveness, is likely to rely on his own ability.  This one’s love is likely to be split between the Sovereign God and himself.

I do not mean to say this with judgment.  It is simply a fact of life.

But the longer and farther I walk with Jesus, the more alien and repulsive my past becomes.  It can be likened to a virus, which has attached itself to every memory; this lack which provokes amazement.

I pray this has some value to my brothers and sisters, and to those who desire to become Christians.  May every child of God come to abhor who he was.

It occurs to me, that there may be an oddball or two out there like me.  A few who actually desire this place the Lord has brought me to stand.

How can such a one hope to arrive?  The answer is rather simple.  However the journey is anything but.

Give yourself permission to examine every action and every motive you have ever had.  Hold it up as one would a transparency into the light.  Examine it before the righteousness of God.  The comparison will be stunning.

Such a life is not for the faint of heart.  But wasn’t it said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven is forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it”?

By His Grace

Faith From Death Alone

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A pathetically struggling Christian is hardly any Christian at all.  While he may still be a Christian, by a margin only God himself can know, his testimony is exceedingly small, if alive at all.

What can he say if he decides to testify?  Will he say, “Jesus saves”, while he dabbles deeply in sin?  What proof does he have that his words are true?  And though a man may believe his words, in three days time no proof will appear.

The hearer may prosper in time, but the testimony of the weakened one will prove to be a block and a wall; a hindrance rather than a help.

I do not say this to shame my weaker brother.  Rather I say this to spur him on.  And I do not say these things without knowledge.  For I lived that fruitless and pathetic life for 20 years or more.

Do you really want to conquer sin?  Do you really want to become profitable for the Holy Lord of life?  Are you willing to confess that being a victim is a very comfortable way to live?  Despite your tears, which only oil your next slide to hell.

The victim rises up toward righteousness then falls back quickly for, “It is too hard.”  So he squanders hours and days filling himself with pleasure.  “I will repent soon and the Lord will take me back.”

Such behavior only produces a kind of faith that raises this one from the dead, over and over and over.  Why do you spend your faith on such a trivial life?  When, if such a faith were applied toward righteousness and obedience, it would conquer the very sin you love so much.

This is what I have found.  This key unlocks the chains of death and folly.  Using my faith to bring Him glory instead of pleasure for me.

There is no excuse for the man who lives swinging precariously between life and death.  For what we practice so we are.  He who practices failure is a failure!  While he who practices righteousness, even to the death, is righteous.

“Salvation belongs to our God and to the lamb!”  Have you read the lyrics to the new song in Revelation?   And have you heard that there is no one righteous but God alone?  Have you read and understood that the Lord Jesus came as the willing proof of God’s desire to save his creation?

Did he come to save us that we may squander our life in pathetic dangling between heaven and hell?  Did he not warn us that those who gamble their eternity in unrighteous, ungodly, unholy, wicked and perverse behavior, will certainly not enter the kingdom of God?

All the while you suffer and struggle, your heavenly Father desires to give you righteousness.  But by the confession of your habits you say he is powerless to save you.  Thus your testimony is worthless.  Your prayers are ineffective and infrequent.  Your faith waxes dead more than alive.  And you have gained no ground worthy of mention.

When you could have so very much, if you simply asked, with earnest and truth filled heart, your hands are thoroughly empty of gifts for the crowned King of glory.

You do not pray for release, you simply pray for a calm in the enticements.  You pray for forgiveness while you secretly plot for your next adventure to wickedness. 

Just how long do you expect the Holy Lord of life to display his patience kindness to you?  Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, your neat little trick of rising from the dead will no longer have any effect.

Pray for wisdom and do not cease.  Pray for understanding and cease your desire to lie to God.  Ask for desire toward righteousness.  Beg him that you may learn to abhor your sins.

Turn from your endless wandering.  Let him open your eyes to see the hideous nature of what you have loved to embrace.

I testify to you that there is such a thing as overcoming sin.  You may say you know that but where is your proof?

Those who humble themselves before God seeking what is absolute and true, and turn from their wicked ways, these find favor with God and receive His righteousness upon them even now! 

To say otherwise makes God out to be a liar.  And it pronounces the victory of Christ as if it is of no effect at all!

Answer yourself for yourself:  who has been the liar and of no effect at all?

“So. . . Ya Wanna Be Well Huh?

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Vase

Vase (Photo credit: Sunil Photos)

“Do you want to be well?”  The answer was blame.  “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.”  The answer is clearly disconnected from the question.  But which one of us can point a finger at that man and accuse him?  Jesus healed him regardless his willingness to have a vibrant conversation.  If the man had understood who he was talking to I’m sure there would have been a whole lot more words than something stupid like casting blame.  He was talking face to face with the One who made him.

Someone has told you about the Gospel.  You heard of how you’re supposed to be free from sin.  But you find yourself reverting back and back again to the same old ways.  Now you’re lost in a fog of doubt.   “Maybe this Jesus thing doesn’t work because it can’t.  Maybe I’m too stubborn.  Maybe He can’t love me because of the things that plague my heart.”

The example above isn’t really fair in this context.  It’s not your legs that are paralyzed.  It’s your attitude and willingness to do what is pure and right, isn’t it.  To be fair to you, I’ll say this:  You don’t even know why you do what you do.  It’s just something you’ve become accustomed to doing when you’re stressed.  And let’s be real here.  You’re stressed all the time.  So you blame anything for your lack of desire and dedication to serve God with clean hands and a pure heart.  That isn’t a slam up against your head, my friend.  It’s the truth of slavery to sin.

In our slavery to the things we shouldn’t do we can’t even put our finger out and point to the real reason why.  So we wave our hand broadly and say, “It’s because of all those things.”  If that is true, then you’re helplessly lost and destined for destruction.  And that seems to be enough for you.  Somehow your plight is pushed out-of-the-way because you simply can’t do what’s right.  You simply CAN’T.  Good lie, but even you can see right through it.

You haven’t given up totally, however.  That vase of hope still sits on the corner table near the door.  And you tend to glance at it often enough to remember.  It gathers a dust of neglect.  Yet that is enough for you?  That’s not true and you know it.  Hopelessly you sit in the living room of your mind and gaze at that once beautiful treasure.  You grew tired of picking it up and examining its beauty.  So you put it near the door.  I notice you didn’t stick it away in the basement.

I have something for you.  How long ago was it when you sat on that couch and held that precious promise?  What has happened in the mean time?  Didn’t you grow up a bit more?  Haven’t you learned a few things about life you didn’t know when you last held “hope”?  What if you were to go get that gorgeous thing.  Dust it off.  And just go sit with it for a while.  You don’t have to reach in, wet your finger with the oil, and put it on your lips.  Just sit there and be silent with it for a while.

Now, while you’re sitting there, ponder what has happened to you since you last found yourself in this position.  Look hard for the things you learned.  Try not to look at the wickedness you embraced.  Just look at how you’ve learned to cope with certain issues.  In other words, look for success.  Strive to find the tiniest threads of “win”.  You have those because you had put that vase on a table right next to the door of your heart.  Every time you came in or went out you passed it by.  And your mind noticed.

The “great winning” doesn’t just fall on us.  It comes to us by a series of tiny “wins”.  Win once.  Then quickly gather yourself to cause another win.  Then do it again in rapid fire.  That’s what causes the “great winning”.  We overcome our folly by making it a habit of doing what’s right.  That’s what is in that vase my friend.  Even if you poured the entire contents on your head it would still result in a singular win.  And you know that’s not enough.

Stop looking to gain the great prize of righteousness in one fell swoop.  Start forcing yourself to learn to win in tiny things.  And do these in rapid fire.  I say “forcing” because you and I both know we don’t really want to be well.  We just think we do.

Is it time to do the dishes?  Then get your ragged butt up and go do them.  Is it time to do the laundry?  Then get up and walk to the washer.  Do you want to learn about something?  Then go look for resources.  Did the thought cross your mind to go pray?  Then get off your duff and find a place quiet to kneel!  You don’t have to say much.  Just go!  The next time you “hear” that urging, do it again!  This is how to gain that “Great Win”.  And you’ve known it all along.

Stop blaming and start walking.  He healed your noodle legs by leaving that vase of hope with you.  You were smart enough to put it in a place where you’d pass it often enough to notice it.  See, it’s not what’s in the vase that causes you hope.  It’s the very fact that you know about Him.

It is quite possible that the man healed, so that he could walk, went away and played like he couldn’t walk anyway.  He might have even come back to the pool and just lay down.  He missed the way people cared for him.  And he allowed himself to live a lie like you and I do.  Well, it’s possible isn’t it?  It’s your life.  It’s your responsibility to do what is right.  Dishes, laundry, learning, and prayer don’t get themselves done.  It takes an attitude change.  It’s your attitude.  Change it or don’t.  It’s your choice.

Now, this post wouldn’t be complete without these things:

This “winning” applies to all aspects of the Gospel.  Immorality – just don’t do it.  Lies – shut your mouth.  Stealing – keep your grubby hands off it.  Speeding – lift your foot off the gas.  Arriving on time – leave.  Forgiveness – offer it and do it.  Saving money – don’t spend it.  Giving to charity – hand over the cash.  You see how hard it’s not?  Just because I didn’t mention your particular sin here doesn’t mean the “just do it” doesn’t apply.

Every aspect of the Gospel comes down to a singular choice all day long every day and every year.  If you’ve asked the Son of God to become your Lord, then you’ve been set free from the necessity and stupor of sin.  The choice is ours individually.  How do you get to a holy life?  One action at a time is the path.  Inaction is to refuse to do what is right.  If you want eternal life, then go do what is right to do now.  Hope will come to live in you as you obey.  Begin with the tiny things.  Learn to do them on a consistent basis.  Then the larger things will appear much smaller.  It’s kind of like making a mole hill out of a mountain, one handful of dirt at a time.  You might not finish reducing that mountain of sin in this life.  But make sure you get caught trying.