A Word From The Lord!

Isaiah 54:4-10

"Fear now; you will no longer live in shame. Don't be afraid; there is no more disgrace for you. You will no longer remember the shame of your youth and the sorrows of widowhood.

For you Creator will be your husband; the Lord of Heaven's Armies is his name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth.

For the Lord Has called you back from your grief-
as though you were a young wife abandoned by her husband," says your God.

"For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will take you back.

In a burst of anger I turned my face away for a little while. But with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the Lord, your Redeemer.

"Just as I swore in the time of Noah that I would never again let a flood cover the earth, so now I swear that I will never again be angry and punish you.

For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken," says the Lord, who has mercy on you.

Are you stuck on Calvary?

It has been a short time since my last post but I did want to go back and revisit it and continue on. I definitely want to emphasize the fact that in the relationship between obedience and grace we are only able to obey as the direct result of the grace relationship we have with God. We can only have that relationship with a holy God because of the death of Jesus on Calvary 2,000 years ago. This brings me to the questions of, "what did Jesus die for?", and, "Does he expect anything of us or are we just wrong beings?"

In looking at the first question, "What did Jesus die for?", we have to go back to the beginning in order to get where we are going. Going back to the garden of Eden, we see Adam and God in fellowship with one another, then we see the fellowship broken because of the sin of Independence. Basically doubting God's ability to know and do what is best for us. So then in the fullness of time, Jesus comes has a three year ministry and then dies an excruciating death on the cross of Calvary. Why? Because without the shedding of blood there can be no remission for sins. So Jesus shed his blood to put us in right standing again with God.

Colossians 1:20,22: and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.

Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.

2 Corinthians 5:19: For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

Okay, so I get it. But if he died to save us from the power of sin and death, then what was that whole resurrection thing about? I have believed that God not only sent his son here to die the substituionary death, (that we could not bear), but also to live a new resurrected life, (that we could not earn).

I believe when Paul says in Romans 6:5:

Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.

In John 10:10 Jesus says:

The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

I believe that just as much are we set free from the bondage of sin through Christ's death on the cross we are also raised to new life through his resurrection.

2 Corinthians 5:17

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

The word there is the word from which we get the word metamorphosis that we use to describe the change that takes place within a cocoon. This is why I love butterflies so much! They are a constant reminder that I am not the same person I once was. I have changed into a totally new creature in Christ Jesus. The old Lori has passed away(died), and the new me is alive(thrives)!

Should God expect any thing from us or are we just wrong beings? Should we just accept the fact that we are human and we won't change? I say emphatically, NO! I have a book from Lifetime Guarantee Ministries that is titled, "I Was Wrong But God Made Me Right!"

The whole purpose of Jesus coming was two fold. First, It was to come and fix the broken relationship and reconcile us to God. Secondly, it was to come and fix the broken person and reconcile us to ourselves. You see God never created us to dwell in a sinful environment. That was not the plan and because of where we have been dwelling we get some pretty kooky ideas about ourselves, well, I know I do. God had to send Jesus to give us the life he had always planned for us to soar. He did not plan for us to stay in a state of self loathing and unworthiness, he planned for us to be raised up to new life and all the beauty he desires for his children. He desires to give us good things, including a new identity in Him. God's desire is that we love him because he first loved us but also, yes God planned for us to love ourselves. As part of his wonderful work and the crown of all creation, we were designed to be the pinnacle! Whew! How great is that!!

My Pastor just started a great sermon series called, "Shift". Last week he spoke on, "Stinkin' Thinkin'. He talked about basically how you can choose to listen to the so-called truth of this world or the truth of the word. This was great for me because for one, the night before I had been speaking to a girlfriend about the very same things and two, I had preached the same sermon during my time as a youth pastor. I have to say with confidence that this sermon was probably the best one on the planet last Sunday!;) I have continued to think of how I have listened to the so-called truth of this world(AKA. Satan) for my life and how that has led me to some difficulties. Whereas, if I would listen to what I know is true, the word of God, then perhaps I can avoid or forgo those difficulties. Hmmm, something to think about isn't it?

Well it is like with all the economic unrest lately, because of other things, I just decided that listening to the news about all that would be just too much for me to take. It would breed huge fear that would have pushed me over the edge I was already teetering on. So I decided to trust God and ignored it. Some may say it was naive, but I have to say I didn't get as stressed out as I saw a lot of people. So I am alright with not having experienced that fear in my life. I have to think that if we trust God with everything, it may seem a little naive to some but perhaps we will weather the storms of life better! Just a thought.

So in closing I just want to say that if you're stuck on Calvary, well that isn't a bad place to be stuck, just don't forget about resurrection day! Jesus died to save us from our sins and he rose to save us unto abundant, empowered, joyful, jump up and spin around, glorious, shout hallelujah, new life! Why did he do it of course because he is love, he loves us, Praise him, but also because he is God and he can!

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Be blessed!