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Embracing our Struggles for the Good

Many of us, as we follow Christ, face a very troubling problem. We find that we just can’t do the good things we know we should do. Sometimes, we even feel a strong resistance inside us when it comes to obeying God’s will. The apostle Paul talked about this struggle in Romans 7: “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am flesh, sold as a slave to sin. I don’t understand my own actions. I don’t do what I want to do, but instead I do what I hate. And if I do what I don’t want, I am agreeing that the law is good. But really, it is not me doing it, but sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is good, but I can’t. I don’t do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil I don’t want to do. And if I do what I don’t want to do, it is not really me doing it but sin living in me.” Even if, for a time—maybe months or even years—we feel a sense of freedom and peace in our souls, the enemy will still try to use that against us...
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"O wondrous creature...?" (Aelred of Rievaulx)

  “O wondrous creature, inferior only to the Creator, how much will you debase yourself? Do you love the world? But you yourself are superior to the world. Do you admire the sun? But you yourself are brighter than the sun. Do you philosophize about the harmony of the revolving heavens? But you are more sublime than the heavens. Do you examine the mysterious causes of the creation? But no creature is a greater mystery than you. Do you doubt it, when you may pass judgement on all creatures, yet none of them on you? But if you wish to judge them, then do not love them. Do not love to judge them. Love him who set you over, not under, all creatures. He set you over them not that through them you might be happier, but that he might be the one through whom you would be superior, subjecting all things to you as a crowning honor and keeping himself for you as rewarding happiness. Why then do you pursue fleeting beauties, when your own beauty neither fades with age nor grows shabby with pove...
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What Kingdom People Pray and Work For (Dallas Willard)

  “[In praying for God’s Kingdom to come] we are also praying over the dark deeds of others in the world around us. We see how they are trapped in what they themselves often disown and despise. And we are especially praying about the structural or institutionalized evils that rule so much of the earth. These prevailing circumstances daily bring multitudes to do deeply wicked things they do not even give a thought to. They do not know what they are doing and do not have the ability to distance themselves from it so they can see it for what it is. That is the power of ‘culture.’   Culture is seen in what people do unthinkingly, what is ‘natural’ to them and therefore requires no explanation or justification. Everyone has a culture—or really, multidimensional cultures of various levels. These cultures structure their lives. And of course by far the most of everyone’s culture is right and good and essential. But not all.  For culture is the place where wickedness takes o...
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The Kingdom Heart and Task of an Apostle (Part 2)

Now the apostle Paul, in his correction to the misguided notions which the believers in Corinth had, assumed what our Lord told the 12. He had come to understand this fully and thus we find the Lord’s way of relating and loving as a spiritual leaders enacted in his ministry. Comments on Text: 1 Corinthians 4:1-21 First, notice that the apostle Paul gives them this corrective: “Think of us [apostles] in this way: as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.” (v.1) Apostles have been called and equipped and commissioned by Christ to proclaim and teach and lead others into an accurate knowledge of God, in knowing God’s Messiah and his way. They are entirely servants whose legitimacy as spiritual leaders and teachers comes from their fidelity to the Masters teaching and way of life. They protect   the Lord’s word by accurately teaching and shepherding others into practice of the faith of Jesus the Christ. There is no presumption here or selfish ambition or aim at self...
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The Kingdom Heart and Task of an Apostle (Part 1)

Today there is a resurgence in some Protestant circles about the position and ministry of apostles. In some current Protestant circles today that emphasize the charismata (“spiritual gifts”) heavily one will find teaching asserting that the “five-fold” ministry of the Church needs to be restored. They will cite Ephesians 4:11: “He himself granted that some are apostle, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, . . . ” (NRSVue) Some sociologists and historians who study Christianity in the modern period have designated this movement as part of the “third wave” of charismatic renewal movements in the Western world. I am all for people exercising the charismata, and for churches to have a genuine openness to the work of the Holy Spirit. But this movement needs to be noted because it unfortunately had deviated from biblical teaching and the historic practice of the Church. Thus I want to address this matt...
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Sabbath Keeping as Santification, Part 3

Andrew Murray makes a very helpful point about sanctification and what God wants from believers and further what God desires to do in our bodies. “Many believers fail to watch over their bodies, to observe a holy sobriety through the fear of rendering them unfit for the service of God. Eating and drinking should never impede communion with God. On the contrary, they should help us maintain the body in its normal condition. The apostle spoke also of fornication, this sin that defiles the body and that is in direct opposition to the words, ‘The body is for the Lord.’ It is not simply sexual promiscuity outside the married state, but all voluptuousness, all lack of sobriety regarding sensual pleasure that is condemned in these words: ‘ Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost ’ (1 Corinthians 6:19). In the same way, all that goes to maintain the body—to clothe it, strengthen it, give it rest or enjoyment—should be placed under the control of the Holy Spirit. Just as, under the old cove...
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Sabbath Keeping as Sanctification, Part 2

A friend of mine related to me that this past year Javalina came onto his property and dug up and tore out an irrigation line which he had put underground. This irrigation line stretched around his whole property (about one acre of his land). He had to replace the entire irrigation line because of the damage done by the Javalina—which cost him a lot of money and took a lot of time to replace! Javalina are notorious for scavenging whatever they think is needful for them to survive. Many people think that navigating through human experience requires more or less the equivalent behavior of the Javalina. Yet this is not God’s way revealed to us in Scripture but rather the perverse and insidious deception of sin and the demons. Sabbath keeping is revolutionary because it profoundly challenges and protests against the notion that we must initiate and establish our own security and safety in life by means of our own devising. Sabbath keeping is an act of faith in the living God to be one’s ke...
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