Tag Archives: Faith

Faith

Thank You God


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:2 HCSB

1:2 χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

GRACE – χάρις – Transliteration: charis  Pronunciation: khä’-rēs   Part of Speech: feminine noun

Outline of Biblical Usage
GRACE:  a free gift.  God’s ability.  grace is that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech good will, loving-kindness, favour of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues, what is due to grace, the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace, the token or proof of grace, benefit, a gift, bounty,thanks, (for benefits, services, favours), recompense, reward
PEACE – εἰρήνη – Transliteration: eirēnē   Pronunciation: ā-rā’-nā   Part of Speech: feminine noun

Outline of Biblical Usage
a state of national tranquillity, exemption from the rage and havoc of war
peace between individuals, i.e. harmony, concord, security, safety, prosperity, felicity, (because peace and harmony make and keep things safe and prosperous), of the Messiah’s peace, the way that leads to peace (salvation)
of Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is, the blessed state of devout and upright men after death
from – ἀπό Transliteration: apo   Pronunciation: ä-po’   Part of Speech: preposition

Outline of Biblical Usage (In the context of this sentence):
of origin
of the place whence anything is, comes, befalls, is taken
of origin of a cause

Dear God,

How do I tell others what a magnificent thing you have done in me?

Where a cauldron of angry fire once lived deep in me, now exists a calm peace, a tranquility that can come only from you. God, you have seen me struggle for decades with my overwhelmingly sinful nature, yet, in a day, in a single hour, your gift of love was poured into my heart, and I now know peace, love, joy, harmony, the stillness of soul only you can bring.

The first thing your word taught me is that you are not angry at me, but that you love me infinitely.  You proved this when You sent Jesus.

This changed me.

Where I was unable to change, your gift of love to me made me able to receive. In receiving, I became a new creation. There was no self to repair once I understood that, because Jesus died, my self died with Him. The “Me” that used to be no longer exists. The echo of memories are only a dim note, drowned out by your beauty, grace and love.

When I understood that, when Christ rose from the dead, so did I; This new man was born the day I understood that I have a new life in the risen Christ.

What words or actions can you lead me to that will help others know that you can change them, just as you have changed me?

There are those who knew me before this change, and they know me now that I have changed. Let your love so shine in my soul that they will understand that this is real, and it is all because of You, Lord God. Because of Jesus’s sacrifice, the sinless one who became all sin and shame, I, a terribly sinful one, full of darkness and corruption, became holy and acceptable to you. I accepted this free gift of your grace. Not that I can brag or draw attention to me, but that, because of the wonderful thing you have done in me will lead others to the cross of Christ.

I know people will only believe what they only want to believe, there is nothing I can do about them. But, Lord, even with them, let the light of your love and grace be so full and alive in me that even they will see, and have to choose whom they will believe.

What joy and wonder you have written on my heart, Dear God. Thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Thank you for the great exchange that makes me wholly acceptable to you, dear God. I have all the promise living in me, and all sin is forgiven and destroyed. Your mighty work defeated all the darkness in the universe.

All we have to do is accept this free gift.

Dearest God,

Make me an instrument of the Gospel of Peace. Let my life be the grace and love that was Jesus’ life. No matter where I go, no matter what I do, let me always remember what you have done for me.

I love you, Dear God, because of the life of Jesus that is now abiding in me. I am complete, and lack nothing. You prove to me daily that you are all my provision. Where I was homeless, I now have a home. Where I was unemployed, I now have a job. Where I was penniless, you have provided all I need.

The greatest thing, though, you have given me, Lord, is eternal life. So, I ask, Dear Lord, that you take my life and make it your instrument of the Gospel of Peace.

I thank you and praise you, God, because of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

ROMANS 12:1 – Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. HCSB

Let’s be about it.

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Faith

Transition States – Leaving My ‘Old time Religion’ and Learning to Walk in Grace.


New Creation

Transition States

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”  Ezekiel 36:26 NASB

DEFINITIONS:

Masoretic Text of Ezekiel 36:26

וְנָתַתִּ֤י לָכֶם֙ לֵ֣ב חָדָ֔שׁ וְר֥וּחַ חֲדָשָׁ֖ה אֶתֵּ֣ן בְּקִרְבְּכֶ֑ם וַהֲסִ֨רֹתִ֜י אֶת־לֵ֤ב הָאֶ֨בֶן֙ מִבְּשַׂרְכֶ֔ם וְנָתַתִּ֥י לָכֶ֖ם לֵ֥ב בָּשָֽׂר׃

Reverse Interlinear

“Moreover, I will give” – nathan – gift (A form of the word GRACE.)  – to give, bestow, grant, permit, ascribe, employ, devote, consecrate, dedicate, pay wages, sell, exchange, lend, commit, entrust, give over, deliver up, yield produce, occasion, produce, requite to, report, mention, utter, stretch out, extend

“You a new” – chadash – new, new thing, fresh

“heart” – leb – Outline of Biblical Usage

  1. inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding

    1. inner part, midst
      1. midst (of things)
      2. heart (of man)
      3. soul, heart (of man)
      4. mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory

      5. inclination, resolution, determination (of will)

      6. conscience
      7. heart (of moral character)

      8. as seat of appetites

      9. as seat of emotions and passions

      10. as seat of courage

“spirit” – ruwach – 

  1. wind, breath, mind, spirit

    1. Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son
      1. as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy
      2. as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning
      3. imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power
      4. as endowing men with various gifts
      5. as energy of life

      6. as manifest in the Shekinah glory

      7. never referred to as a depersonalised force

“within” quereb – midst, among, inner part, middle

  1. inward part

    1. physical sense

    2. as seat of thought and emotion

    3. as faculty of thought and emotion

“and I will remove” – cuwr – (Pronounced ‘suwr’) –

  1. to turn aside, depart

    1. (Qal)

      1. to turn aside, turn in unto

      2. to depart, depart from way, avoid

      3. to be removed

      4. to come to an end

    2. (Polel) to turn aside

    3. (Hiphil)
      1. to cause to turn aside, cause to depart, remove, take away, put away, depose
      2. to put aside, leave undone, retract, reject, abolish

    4. (Hophal) to be taken away, be removed

 

“stone” – ‘eben – perverse, hard heart

“flesh” – basar –

  1. flesh

    1. of the body
      1. of humans
      2. of animals

    2. the body itself

    3. male organ of generation (euphemism)
    4. kindred, blood-relations

    5. flesh as frail or erring (man against God)

    6. all living things

    7. animals

    8. mankind

English (NASB)   [?] Strong’s Root Form (Hebrew)

“Moreover, I will give

 h5414 נָתַן nathan

you a new

 h2319 חָדָשׁ chadash
heart h3820 לֵב leb
and put h5414 נָתַן nathan
a new h2319 חָדָשׁ chadash
spirit h7307 רוּחַ ruwach

within

 h7130 קֶרֶב qereb
you; and I will remove h5493 סוּר cuwr
the heart h3820 לֵב leb

of stone

 h68 אֶבֶן ‘eben
from your flesh h1320 בָּשָׂר basar

and give

 h5414 נָתַן nathan

you a heart

 h3820 לֵב leb
of flesh. h1320 בָּשָׂר basar

36:26  καὶ δώσω ὑμῖν καρδίαν καινὴν καὶ πνεῦμα καινὸν δώσω ἐν ὑμῖν καὶ ἀφελῶ τὴν καρδίαν τὴν λιθίνην ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν καὶ δώσω ὑμῖν καρδίαν σαρκίνην

Thank you for dredging through all those definitions.  It may be a stretch to prove a point, but I wanted to make sure the point was understood based on what the bible is actually saying.  BASICALLY this verse is saying that GOD will take away my mind, will, heart, understanding, and place inside me HIS mind, will, heart, understanding, and remove my dead spirit and replace it with HIS living and holy spirit.

I have been going through radical changes in my thinking (To change your thinking,  means to repent, and to repent is to change your thinking).

Here is what happened: I prayed.

I prayed that God remove from me every thing that stands between me and Him.  I confessed I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, and that Christ died on the cross for my sin (He BECAME all sin, and God judged HIM for being sin, and He died).  Then He, being sin, was cast into hell.  But while He was there, He was brought back to life in the transfigured form that the apostles saw on the streets three days later.  He did all this so that I would not have to die.  He did this so all law and prophecy will be fulfilled.  He did this so that, instead of we humans souls having to suffer the complete wrath of God, we inherited eternal life instead.  I prayed that God remove anything and everything that stands between me and Him.

If you have been reading my poor blog, you know what happened.  If not, the reader’s digest version is that God answered my prayer.  Everything that could be removed from me was removed from me.  What I have left is a loving wife, a beautiful family, and the presence of God.  Oh, and we were able to keep our clothes and our car and our cats.

I digress, though.  I prayed.  My hearts desire is to know Christ and be like Him.  In the above verse, we learn many things.  We learn that it is NOT our selves that does the work.  It is God that does all the work.  My efforts not only get in the way, but prohibit God from working in me.  I know this is true because I have tried all my life to understand what it means to be like Christ.

This is where, recently, I found the difference between “Theology” and “Religious Dogma”.  Theology is simply “The knowledge of God”.  “Religious Dogma” is self explanatory, but I will expound on it as we go.

Albert Einstein once said, “I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”  That is where I stand.  That is basically where I have always stood.  I was raised in a very traditional, large, protestant religion.  Where this religion’s dogma aligned with the doctrines of God, we were taught the doctrines of God.  Where they differed, we were taught a very skewed religious bias, a dogma that placed more importance on our religion and our religious movement than on the will of the Living God through Christ Jesus.  We were basically renting the parts of scripture that suited us, and changed the understanding of the rest.   This kind of dogma replaces a genuine understanding of the Living God, via the work of the Holy Spirit, and replaces it with man’s interpretation of God and His role in the Universe, Life, and our selves.

But the promise of God is that HE will do this work, and HE will replace my corrupted thoughts with HIS thoughts, His will, HIS understanding of things, His Spirit will be my new life as I was dead in my spirit.

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Ephesians 2:1-10 NASB

God took out all my dead junk and replaced it with HIS life.  Literally.  His name is Jesus.

But religious dogma taught me a knowledge ABOUT God, based on evaluations derived from external observation…a what you see is the sum of the knowledge of God.  It emphasized imitating Christ by MY strength, and not resting in the Lord.

Theology, real theology, describes, instead, an intimate knowledge of God.  It is based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  The intimacy is more profound than the intimacy between lovers.    It is attained only when you have accepted the free gift of Salvation brought by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The religious dogma I was taught was simply a mental knowledge of the scriptures.  It was a cerebral understanding of what Christ accomplished through His life, Death and Resurrection.  To reinforce all this knowledge, we studied, in depth, the writings of the Church Leaders (By that I mean, mostly the leaders of our religion, and, where they applied, the writings of all the commentaries and letters of all the historical Church Leaders.)  If there was a commentary that did not quite line up with our dogma, it was either ignored or explained away.  It is called “rationalizing”.

God never said we are to rationalize our faith.  He asked us to come and reason with Him.  HE will make us clean.  He will do all the work.  He and He alone can accomplish in us all the works that He promised.

All the self-inflicted rules and dogma of my former religion were emphasized in the light of the idea that WE must do all WE can to be like Christ.  We were taught many amazing things that remained in our heads, but never reached our hearts.  This Head Knowledge is a walk that relies on self-enforced rules.  This affliction is the religious dogma that has turned every person on earth away from Christ.  It has proven over time that all it does is  condemn you, and try to force you to behave in a way that is not in your nature.  It disregards the fact that our flesh (Heart, Mind, Soul, Will) is at war with God.  It is a self reliance that works only for a little while until we fatigue of doing something that is not in us to do in the first place.

In the opening verse, we see that these changes can only be done by God, according to His will, through His spirit.  This is done when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior.

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” II Corinthians 5:17 NASB

When we rest in the completed work of Christ, we are no longer guilty.  We are no longer in sin.  We are no longer in rebellion against God.  We are NEW creatures.  And the changes that are made start from the inside, not the outside.  They are a vine that, as we grow in Christ Likeness, produce the fruit of the spirit.

Where religious dogma emphasizes a memorized set of rules that force you to rely on yourself to fulfill, the Knowledge of God, through a changed mind, heart, and spirit in Christ, emphasizes the work of God in you through the Holy Spirit.  You receive as a gift the Mind of Christ.  You receive as a gift the will of God.  You receive as a gift the total forgiveness of all your sin.  This fruit of the Spirit will eventually manifest itself outwardly as you make the transition inwardly.

I am writing about this now because I am in that transition state.  I am leaving a dead life of works based faith behind, and am transitioning into a life of faith based walk in Christ.  The biggest difference, besides the change of heart, the change of attitude, the change in the way you view the world, is, you no longer walk in sin and rebellion, and it becomes effortless as you begin to rest in the completed work of Christ.  You can still sin, but the more of the Mind of Christ you allow the Spirit of God to reveal to you, the less you will want to sin.

I no longer have to try, by my own strength, to be like Christ.  Christ is transitioning me from where I was to where He wants me to be.

This does not make God’s Grace a license to sin, but the freedom from the sin nature.  All I have to do is accept, in my heart, what the Word of God says about the accomplished work of Christ.  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So, I hope this tome will encourage you to change your mind about the knowledge of God.  Your religious dogma will not get you very far.  It only makes sin more exciting than knowing God.  Even Atheists have a religious dogma and a religious fervor.

I will write more on the details of Grace that brought about this transition.  It is difficult, only in the respect that I have to overcome a lot of my old thinking and believing patterns, and accept the thoughts of Christ.  Faith becomes reality.  No matter what you think about, that is what you become and receive,  It is a universal principle.  Faith in Christ will bring you a new life far beyond anything you ever imagined.  I know this because this is what is happening to me.

I am in the transition state that exists between my religious dogma, and my new walk in Christ.

Care to join me?

Let’s be about it.

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

 

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Growing In Christ – Is Your Water Safe?


Rivers-of-Living-WaterWatch over your heart with all diligence, 
For from it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 4:23 NASB

NOTE TO READER:  Sometimes I ask myself why I blog so many personal things?  My answer to myself is, there just might be someone else out there going through this, too.  If exposing myself, and showing what God is doing through my circumstances helps someone else, then I am glad to be laid bare so that God will be glorified.  God is doing a great work in all of us.

My mom wrote me, recently, and asked me if I have any good news to report.  I don’t want to lie to my mom, but I don’t want to go into a litany of how hard things are either.  

So, I thought about it for a few minutes.

I can say with great joy that a sink hole has NOT sprouted underneath our house.  THAT is very good news.  I actually feel like I dodged a bullet there.

What else is good news?  Let’s see… … OH!  Here is another bit of good news.  So far, the Bubonic Plague has avoided our neighborhood.  I can’t tell you what a relief THAT is.   Nothing like a flood of rats invading your neighborhood, and starting a plague, to put you in a foul mood.  I find it difficult to look on the bright side as I cough up a lung.  Call me a buzz kill, but there’s the truth at last.

Even more good news….my kittens have discovered the joys of attacking  rolls of toilet paper.  It looks as if teenagers sneaked into my home and rolled the interior of my house.  I am not sure I want to know how two very tiny kittens got toilet paper draped all over my ceiling fan.    But there it is.

Before I could burst into flames and get mad, I had to do a gut check.  These are, after-all, mere kittens.  Serving them up for dinner might be an overreaction on my behalf.  So, I wanted to look on the bright side.  I looked, and looked…and looked.

This is all I could come up with:  If we are ever invaded by hordes of ravaging rolls of toilet paper, our home is safe.  Our kittens would be heroes of epic proportions.

See… that is good news, right?

Aside from not having a sink-hole filled with plague, and toilet paper, in my neighborhood, I have been having a difficult time looking for excuses to do the happy dance.

There is this pesky thing called circumstances.  Some circumstances loom large enough to make you look forward to rampaging rolls of toilet paper.

What do I do with the circumstances in my life when all they want to do is bring me bad news?  Not bad news like, “Hey, Dude, you have a flat.”, but the bad news that the continued onset of unemployment brings?  What do I do when life gets real?

Do I embrace the fear and let it tear me apart?  Do I wallow in the immobility of that fear, like a deer in the headlights?  When life gets real, what do I do?

Here, again, is where we have had to learn that the Warriors of God do battle best when they are on their knees.  When the world is taking your home away, when your friends have given up on you for being a constant failure.  When no one will hire you for what ever the reason of the day is…what do you do?

Do I let the overwhelming doubt and fear I feel consume me?  Do I paint my world in the colors of fear and panic and doubt?  I have learned that, when I paint like that, I have put an ugly filter on every thing I see, do and believe.  It is in this fear that I can really mess up my head.  You can believe you are a failure.  You can believe this is the end.  You can believe there are no answers.  And that becomes your reality.

Some realities you may have to endure.  Looming homelessness is not one I want to experience, but if it does, what will flow through my heart?  I will I curse God and die?  Will I abandon this faith I have been writing about?  There are some circumstances that no amount of “Positive Affirmation” will overcome.

But when I am blocked by raw panic and fear, there is one thing I can do.  I can trust God that, no matter what my circumstances are, He is aware of them.  I know that God is my Father.  God has no evil intent for me.  He has only good and loving kindness for me.

I rest assured in His love for me.  Losing everything I have might be the very best thing that could happen to me.  I know that, when I come through this, I will be a better Child of God for it.  Sometimes God has to purify us so that all idolatry is burned away from our hearts.  What I will gain from this trial is far better than anything I will lose.

The blessings do not begin until I learn that I can trust God with all confidence and unconditionally.  In my poverty, I can assure you, dear reader, that God is love.  In my need, I have learned to pray blessings on you.  In my salvation, I pray for your salvation.  I have been given a gift of Love that was never there before.  And I can tell you, my brother, that I love you without condition, just as God loves me.

I have peace in the midst of this storm.   That is the benefit of knowing God.  I cannot imagine going through this trial without the strength of God in me.    I have been stricken in my body, I have been stricken in my wealth, I have been stricken in all the things I hold dear and valuable, but I am willing to lose all I am and have if it will draw me closer to God.

WATCHING MY HEART

Here is why I am writing you, my friend.  Jesus said this:  “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:38 NASB

Left to my own devices, raw sewage would flow from my heart.  But Christ has changed, and is changing me.  I just have to be careful to guard what I let into my heart.  It doesn’t take much plutonium to poison an entire river.

Because Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, I have something I never had before this.  I have hope.  I have faith.  I have love.  These things live in my heart.

HOPE:  I have hope that God will take away everything that gets in between He and I, and I will be made into the image of Christ.  I have the hope of eternal life in me.  I am saved.  Nothing the world can do can take that from me.

FAITH: I have faith that, no matter what my circumstances are… “…I know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  And I am definitely called according to His purpose.  It doesn’t matter why I am in the circumstances I am, whether my foolishness brought this on, or it is by design, or any other reason you can think of.  I know that GOd turns even our worst mistakes and trials and troubles into blessings.

I have faith that this is exactly what God is accomplishing in me, today.

LOVE:  I have Love in my heart where, just a few months ago, I had a heart of stone. I receive this love from the Father, and I gladly give this love to you, and anyone else that needs to see that; in this cold and callous world filled with darkness, fear and hatred, there is one who loves you more than anything else in all of creation.  God loves you.  God IS love.  Nothing can separate us from the Love of God when we belong to Him through Christ Jesus, our savior and lord.

BREAKING THE DAM

My fears can block that flow.  My doubts can turn this flowing river into a stagnant lake full of unclean things.  When I take the reins from God’s Hand, and tell God, “I got this, God”,I have just blocked the flow of faith, love, hope and joy.  I have turned the living waters into a cup of sweet poison.

Faith, Hope, Love, Joy…these are all gifts from the Loving and ever giving God.  They are our possession because of Jesus Christ.  They belong to us in abundance only in as much as we are willing to give it away.

I can look at my circumstances, or I can look at what I DO have.  I do not have wealth.  I do not have a home.  I do not have many possessions, but what I do have, I give freely.  I give because God gave freely to me through Jesus Christ.

It isn’t when we have things from God that we become wealthy, it is when we, in our poverty, approach God, our Loving Father, in Heaven, and trust Him that we have all our provision.  And what he gives in abundance, we give likewise.

Today, all I have to offer is this Hope:  You can have eternal life if you accept the sacrifice that Jesus made, on the cross, on your behalf.

Today, all I have to offer is Faith:  Faith in God, faith in the atonement for my sin, faith that all things will work out for my good.  How will I know what being poor is like unless I comprehend it?  How will I understand giving until I am in need?  How will I see God’s provision unless I have been driven to the place where that is all I have left?  I pray you never ask to be made into the image of Christ unless and until you understand this; God will do whatever it takes to humble you, and make you aware of what is important to him.

Today, all I have to offer you is this Love:    That God loves you enough that he, in the form of Jesus Christ, came to this earth in the flesh, a perfect man, and for our sake, took on the responsibility for all our sin, and died on the cross for that sin.  His love for us held Him to that cross until the entire debt was paid.

When Jesus said. “It is finished”, he announced the begging of your life, if you accept it.  You are already dead in your sin, if you chose to be.  You will have eternal life in Him, if you accept this free gift.

This is what I have to share with you.  Maybe in time, God will bless me in ways that I will have the heart and means to seek out the poor, the lost, the starving, the prisoner, the naked, the sick and bring them to the living waters I have found.

My Prayer:  Dear God, My Heavenly Father, I praise you that you love me enough to discipline me.  I am joyful, deep in my soul, that you are making me into the image of your Son.  I pray, Lord, in Jesus Name, that you get me out of the way so that your son, Jesus Christ will be all people see when they meet me.  I pray abundant blessings on everyone who reads this  poor tome.  I pray you fill them with your love, just like you have filled me with your love.  I pray that you are their provision.  I pray that, where this ill-health, you heal it, where there is discord, you make holy harmony.  I pray where there is lack in you, you become the abundance they need.   Teach us to not inhibit the flow of your love and calling.  Make us all fountains of YOUR living water.

 In Christ here is life, love, healing, hope, faith, and most of all, there is LOVE.

Let’s be about it.

I love you

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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FEAR NOT


False Evidence Appearing Real

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

― Frank Herbert, Dune

Common sense tells me that the world is full of fright and fear.  We have endless war, we have a disastrous economy, and eventually, we wake up to discover that the people we voted into office, and the people who run things all over the world have only one desire:  Our Destruction.  And that those who they do not destroy, they intend to enslave.

In combat training, the biggest thing a soldier has to learn is to keep fear from locking his brain into immobilization.  Nothing makes life as real and scary as having a bunch of people you don’t know shoot at you.  That is why soldiers are put through an almost interminable set of training methods that break that fear.  You learn to step into a different place in your mind where fear may still present itself, but it is no more a bother to you than a gnat trying to hijack a freight train.  You learn to acknowledge the fear (It keeps you alive), but not to let that fear rule your heart.

When I fought in the Martial Arts, and faced an opponent that, from all visual signals, could mop the floor with my face, I used this as an opportunity to fall back on my training.  Part of that training was the comfort of knowing that I know all the skills and techniques that my worthy opponent knows.  I just have to tell fear to go sit in the corner while I fall into combinations I understand, that my opponent doesn’t. I can honestly say that I have lost as many fights as I have won.  Most of the fights I lost were because I let fear confuse me to the point that I forgot my training.

Those two examples describe having to face extreme fear.  Then there is the daily “Worry”, “Anger”, “Anxiety”, and basic hand wringing we all experience.  Trust me, these fears seem to me, at least, much more difficult to face than combat or Tournament Fighting.  Even Street Fighting has a basic set of rules, and I always fall back on my training. The Fear is real, but does not rule me.  And when I am able to work beyond the fear, fear loses all power over me.

Having recently joined God‘s army, I am learning a new set of skills to help me face my fears.  These skills exist to help me face the same fears I was facing anyway, but using a different set of techniques.

Fear is the prime motivator in the secular world.  Fear motivates greed, lust, power, and preservation.  The fear of losing is what drives this world.  The fact that fear is the prime motivator of secular life is an indication of a severe psychosis in our world.

We fear losing our homes, our status, not being able to pay our bills, not getting the respect from our spouses or children in the manner we think they should show.  We wonder what to do when we have overspent our limit on our credit cards.  But we use those cards because we want to maintain a lifestyle that is not maintainable otherwise.   Life becomes about things, and the things become our masters, and our masters are afraid of loss.

We are fearful of the punishment of a society that will think you are a failure of you do not march in the same lock-step manner it marches.  The biggest fear we have is the conflict over the loss of our uniqueness while trying to conform to an unforgiving world that demands you follow it’s rules.  And it rules by fear.  The World punishes, without mercy, anyone who cannot keep up.

The worst part is, the world insists that you achieve through debt.  The world wants to loan you what you already have, and charge you interest for it.  We are a debtor society who are about to see the final bill come due. The world wants you to think that there is no escaping this system.

Anyone who tries working outside the boundaries of this debtor system will be punished.  Just try to buy, sell or rent or get a job with a poor credit rating.  The credit system tells the world just how much you are able to play its game of slavery.  This system makes life more expensive than it really.  The fear of not keeping up, and the fear of losing all your status and stuff, drives you like a slave into deeper debt.

You will never be free as long as you wish to play this game.  You will be punished by this system.  There is seldom any real reward or freedom in this system.  What reward you receive is a bribe to keep you in the game.  Any freedom you have is an illusion used to make you happy you are in debt up to your eyeballs.

In the mean time, fear keeps gnawing at you because you are falling behind.  You fear the ultimate rejection of this system, and fear the punishment it will bring.  This wold only has illusions of love and joy and freedom.  And these are also tools that are driven by fear…fear of loss.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  I John 4:18

Knowing that “The Lord disciplines the ones He loves…”, I have learned that I must be taken to the point of surrender.

  It is not at all what I am trained to do in the secular world.  It is not what is taught if you want to succeed on the world’s terms.  And surrender is one of the very top “bad words” in the military.  In the worlds way, there is only move forward, don’t hesitate, be decisive, rely on your strength, knowledge and courage.  And it is brutal.  You have to kill your opponent in order to win.  You get to keep all the spoils of that killing.

In God’s army, the very first thing a warrior has to learn to do is surrender; Not to fear, not to the enemy, but to the sovereignty of the Lord, Jesus Christ.  Surrender to the way and will of the Lord is the very first lesson in God’s boot camp.

It is Jesus who said this:

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.  “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?  “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?  “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.   “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much ore clothe you? You of little faith!  “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’  “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  Mat 6:24-33 NASB

I have prayed for this faith.  I have asked to know the Love of God.  But I had never had it vigorously tested until recently.  I am faced daily with the hard questions:  “Is this nonsense?”,   “Am I INSANE?”,  “Shouldn’t I just take matters into my own hands?”, “Is it true that God will supply all my needs, or is it true what the world says, that God will only go so far with me and I have to do the rest on my own.”

The hardest battles I have to face today is the uncertainty of not knowing outcomes, but learning to put my trust completely in God, who loves me.  I am learning that God is in control of ALL the outcomes.  The game is rigged in God’s favor.

I have to surrender all my doubt to Him.  I have to place all my trust in Him.  I have to surrender my pride, and my own resourcefulness, so that God will fill me with His faith, His love and His provision for my life.

The conundrum is that, left to my own strength, I cannot do any of these things.  Even in my surrender, I need God to work in me, via the Holy Spirit, to assure me that surrender is the first step to victory.

These past 5 months have been a real trial.  God has used it to teach me that He is in control.  He breaks my pride, and drowns my arrogance.  He shows me that His love, for Him and for Others, is the cure to fear.  He shows me that He is all my provision, that defeat is not what God has in store for me.  But for me to walk into the victory He has planned for me, I have to get out of His way.

I now know that, when things get real, and I want to fear, the thing that will defeat me is NOT the circumstance I am in.  What will defeat me is my fear of the circumstance I am in.  It is FEAR that defeats us.  Fear is unbelief.  It is anticipating a punishment that doesn’t exist.  Fear is its own punishment.  Fear is the willful disregard of the evidence of the love God has for me.

Fear made Peter sink into the sea when Christ was willing Him to walk on the water.  I am defeated when I lose sight of faith and love.  Faith that God has my back, no matter how ugly things look.  Love is from God.  When the light of the love of God resides in me, fear runs away, like a roach who has been exposed.  God’s love never leaves.  It is my perception of His love that changes, based on my faith and trust in Him.  But His love never goes away.  I just have to look at Him, instead of the waves of circumstance.

I affirm and avow that it is God who is sustaining me through my trials.  It is God who proves He is more powerful than any thing the World can throw at me.  It is God who shows me daily that, no weapon formed against me will prosper.  It is God who embraces me in His arms when I want to fear.  He does not judge me for being afraid, He loves me because He has become my first resort.  His love makes my fear vanish.

Where the World judges me as not fit for them, God has said I am perfect for Him.  I am redeemed through the Blood of Christ.  In God’s eyes, I am complete.  He is teaching me that, as my heart exchanges its attitudes for Godly values, I know that I can trust God to deliver me from anything that I face.

He may not make all my problems disappear, but He will be there to walk me through it.  He will be there to be my strength when I want to faint from fear.  He will carry me, He will sustain me.  I have learned that, no matter what, God is my provision.

All this is true because I have accepted the free gift of Salvation from death.  I accept that Jesus Christ IS the only begotten Son of God, and that Jesus took on all my sin and died for them in my place.  I know and confess that Jesus had the power to raise Himself from the dead, and that the Lord Jesus, having demonstrated that power, has proven that, if I will follow Him, I too will know the power of God.

When Jesus becomes my Savior and Lord, I see that the Love of God resides in me.  And I see that, as I submit to God, through the Holy Spirit, my heart will be transformed from doubt, fear, anger, selfishness, lust, and my will,  and into a vessel that carries all the character and power of Jesus.

From God’s point of view, Armageddon has already happened, and Jesus is already on the throne of this world.  But from my perspective, that is in the future.  Even though all things are complete and finished from God’s point of view, I still have to experience time and life on this planet.  During that time, as I live this life, I have to learn that the only way THIS warrior will win is by surrendering – To the Love of God.

“Perfect Love casts out ALL fear.”

“God is Love.”

Let’s be about it.

I love you

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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Faith

Rest in the Lord


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This is dedicated to the original Christian blogger – Oswald Chambers.

This morning I opened my copy of “My Utmost For His Highest“.  It the classic edition of Chamber’s Daily Devotional.  The Classic Edition is how Chambers actually wrote in his devotional diary.  It is not modernized or watered down.  Back in his day, one was allowed to call things exactly as they saw them, and were ready to face whatever consequences they faced for speaking out.  And the listener had the right to not be offended.

I am always pleasantly surprised to discover that today’s entry just so happens to be an issue I am wrestling with at the very moment.

One of the repeated experiences Jesus dealt with concerning His disciples was their fear and unbelief.  Circumstances in my life, these last 6 months, have given me a new perspective on these items.  Rather than try to give you, the informed reader, my interpolation of what Chambers wrote, I am going to give it to you word for word, just as Chambers wrote it in his diary.  It was written in the British language as used during WWI, England.  Any spacing was added by me so that this can be digested in bite-sized paragraphs.  Chambers could pack a LOT into a sentence.  It is a skill I pray fervently for.

I want to thank my Christian Brother, Rick Mansfield, for giving me this special edition copy after I was saved.  God bless you Rick.  I love you.

Published by permission of DODD MEAD & Company, INC.

Copyright, 1935, by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc.  Copy right renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd.  ISBN-0-916441-42-3

p.225

August 12th

THE THEOLOGY OF REST

“Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?”  Matthew viii. 26 RV

When we are in fear, we can do nothing less than pray to God, but our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His Name should have an understanding confidence in Him.  God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the reliable ones.

Our trust is in God up to a certain point, then we go back to the elementary panic prayers of those who do not know God. We get to our wits’ end, showing that we have not the slightest confidence in Him and His government of the world;  He seems to be asleep, and we see nothing but breakers ahead.

“O ye of little faith!”  What a pang must have shot through the disciples – ‘Missed it again!’  And what a pang will go through us when we suddenly realize that we might have produced downright joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, no matter what was ahead.

There are stages in life when there is no storm, so crisis, when we do our human best;  it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely.  If we have been learning to worship God  and to trust Him, the crisis will reveal that we go to the breaking point and not break in our confidence in Him.

We have been talking a great deal about sanctification – what is it all going to amount to?  It should work out into rest in God which means oneness with God, a oneness which will make us not only blameless in His sight, but a deep joy to Him.

Let’s be about it!

Love always,

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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So Was Jesus


Endure“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Hebrews 4:14-16 NASB

I Prayed to God:  I confess…

…I am tempted to lust

God Answered me:

:So Was Jesus

….I am tempted to steal

:So Was Jesus

…I am tempted to lie

:So Was Jesus

…I am tempted to covet my neighbor’s wife, car, home, children, bank account, way of life.

:So was Jesus

…I am tempted to Murder

:So was Jesus

…I am tempted to blaspheme

:So Was Jesus

…I am tempted to bear false witness

:So Was Jesus

…I am tempted to never forgive, never forget, and hope that my enemy suffer greatly

:So Was Jesus

…I am tempted to get jealous and envious

:So Was Jesus

See…the covenant written long before the creation of the earth, before the angelic wars, before Lucifer fell from Grace is, “The Wages of Sin is Death”.  God will not tolerate sin in His kingdom. Sin is what ever I do that separates me from God.  I discovered there is nothing I can possibly do to cover my own sin…it lays me naked before God.   I need a cover because I am ashamed at being cold and naked in front of God. My best efforts at covering myself are transparent and useless.

God created me in His own image, and in his likeness.  I look like Him, and I am supposed to have His character.  I don’t.

I want to do God’s will and be pure before Him. I already know that I have nothing that will satisfy God in this regard, but, If it were possible, I am tempted to give everything I have, own, or can offer, everything that is me if it means saving me, or any other Human God created.

God answered me

:So Was Jesus  – And that is what counts.

 

Let’s Be About It

I Love You

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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