Question for
the Counselor:
First I'd like to thank you for your
email response on premarital sex scriptures a few months back -- it helped a
lot.
I was just curious what your take is on
scriptural evidence on
maintaining physical fitness. Specifically does 1 Cor 6:19 directly allude
to that? Also what other verses make a case for staying physically fit?
Thanks again and God's continued blessings on
your life and your wonderful ministry.
Answer
from the Scriptures:
The Scripture reference 1Cor. 6:19 "Do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you,
whom you have received from God?" has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
to do with the health of the body.
The context BEFORE
this verse is "Do you not know that
your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the
members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do
you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with
her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But
he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee
from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his
body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body."
And the conclusion AFTER this verse is: "Therefore
honor God with your body."
There is not a single
admonition of Scripture to be healthy in your body. What did they know
about health in that day. Even as recent as George Washington, they thought
"bleeding" him would cure him and instead it killed him. God's Word is not
a book of science even though it is scientifically correct. Natural law is
something that God requires us to learn by experience. (Cf. Noah getting
drunk after the flood knowing nothing by experience of ultra-violet rays and
decay and fermentation.)
There is even a warning
from Paul to Timothy to keep a balanced understanding of what is important
and lasting when it comes to the body and the spirit. "For
bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all
things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."
(1Tim 4:8) While Paul is NOT speaking against "bodily
exercise", he is warning that your investment has a better return
from that which is profitable for both "now"
and "to come."
Investing in the body has benefit, but the benefit is short lived.
It doesn't take much
research of the Word to see what God thinks of the flesh. "They
that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are
after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. {to
be carnally...: Gr. the minding of the flesh} {to be spiritually...: Gr. the
minding of the Spirit} Because the
carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. " "Therefore,
brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh."
"They which are the children of the
flesh, these are not the children of God." "Put
ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to
fulfill the lusts thereof." "For
ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble, are called." "That
no flesh should glory in his presence." "for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." "Are
ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the
flesh?" "Walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." "And
they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts."
Certain "religious" people
think that the proof of their rightness is seen in their flesh: "As
many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be
circumcised" or to follow any number of "fleshly" conditions
their laws require. But "We are the
circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh."
Good health is just common
sense. You will die when God says you will die, but your journey can be a
whole lot better and more comfortable in health and vigor than it can in
disease and disability. The Bible doesn't tell you not to smoke, but any
reasonable person would know it is not in your best interest to do so. As
much as one can argue that good health is desirable, it cannot be supported
by any Bible verse addressing it directly.
Like I said, the Bible certainly
is not against good health, but when it provides another person a
justification to judge and condemn a person with "unhealthy" practices, it
seems to me the person doing the condemning is denying the more obvious
Scripture that tells us "love covers"
(or look what love does and doesn't do in the list in 1Cor.13). And Jesus said, "By
this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to
another."
I hope this helps. God
bless you as you seek Him.
Question for
the Counselor:
I am still here in Yerevan and the
snow is gone now. I should be here for another month or so. Do not know
where I will be after here.
Here, the locals claim they are Christians,
but a lot of them steal everything from the job; like tools, etc.... So,
one day I asked one of them: If you people hate the Muslims and are
Christians, then why do you feel it is OK to steal? He said "God knows
we are poor, He forgive us!" I don't know what to think about these
people.
Some are very nice, but alot of them are
trying to rip us off. That is their way of life. They have had it very
hard, with the Turks stealing their land and killing a lot of them back in
1915. The Turks still deny this to this day. The Armenians have "enemies"
all around them, so they think. I am thankful for my home and country!!!
Answer
from the Scriptures:
Since you brought it up, regarding the “Christians” stealing
and excusing it: Christians, of course can and do sin, but they don’t make a
lifestyle of it. People in third world countries have the designation of
“Christian” many times just to distinguish themselves from the other social
class. Example: Ireland Catholics and “Christians”. Such designation has
nothing to do with a Scriptural identity of a Christian.
In a nutshell, a Biblical definition of a
Christian is a person who has come to the point of receiving the indwelling
Spirit of Christ and has then set out on a lifetime quest of learning how to
walk according to the leading of Christ’s Spirit within him. The conflict
is that his “flesh”
(his natural self given him by his natural birth) is in opposition to his
spiritual self that was made alive in his regeneration and salvation. It
takes all of a person’s life to learn to “walk
in the Spirit”. The typical
person who calls themselves Christian has no interest to even know what the
desire of the Spirit is. They just profess to be a Christian, but there is
no evidence of the Spirit ever leading them.
A few Scriptures that address this are:
Joh 3:6-7
That which has birth from the flesh is flesh, and
that which has birth from the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised that I
say to you, It is necessary for you to have a second birth.
Ro 8:5-9 For
those who are living in the way of the flesh give their minds to the things
of the flesh, but those who go in the way of the Spirit, to the things of
the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit
is life and peace: because the mind of the flesh is opposite to God; it is
not under the law of God, and is not able to be: so that those who are in
the flesh are not able to give pleasure to God. You are not in the flesh
but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God is in you. But if any man has not
the Spirit of Christ he is not one of his.
Ga 5:16 But I
say, Go on in the Spirit, and you will not come under the rule of the evil
desires of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh; because these are opposite the one to the other;
so that you may not do the things which you have a mind to do.
So, even a Christian whose mind is set on the
flesh can rationalize and justify anything that anyone else can, stealing,
sexual sin, lying, etc. But the person who has a lifestyle of stealing,
sexual sin, lying, etc. simply proves they have never been born of the
Spirit. While, on the other hand, a true Christian who has fallen to the “desires
of the flesh” will eventually
repent of that sin and by turning back to who he is in Christ, he will find
the grace to overcome what had once mislead him. “By
their fruit you shall know them.”
Question for
the Counselor:
I have been friends with a guy in my church for a few months. I am growing
quite fond of him. From what I have seen he loves and serves the Lord as much as I do. He is really fond of me too, and has asked me to date him. I
told him I wasn't ready and he said he was fine with that. We kept hanging
out and he brought it up again after some time. Again, I said I wasn't ready. He was still fine with it, but could tell he was perplexed. The
thing is, I found out he hasn't always been a Christian, and had sex once in
his previous life style. I am a virgin, and have been a Christian all my life, and am wondering if I should consider a guy who is not as a potential
mate. He hasn't told me himself. I learned from a mutual friend. But he's not a promiscuous type person. He fervently seeks the Lord, and did before I
met him. Thanks. I would really appreciate your advice.
Answer
from the Scriptures:
If this man is a Christian and loves the Lord as
you say and if he cares for you so much as to
continue “hanging out” with you and yet respecting
your reluctance to allow more than friendship,
that sounds very promising.
Who has “always” been a Christian? Was there not
a time when you weren’t a Christian? I didn’t
notice you mentioning any sin that Jesus did not
die for. His previous life, as well as yours,
should not be forgotten, but should not be
remembered against him.
If, on the other hand, you “do not consider him a
potential mate” and you would not marry a less
than perfect Christian, you not only should not
date him; I don’t think you should date anyone.
You would just set yourself up for the
disappointment of discovering that there is no one
without sin in their past.
I am glad you are a virgin. Don’t allow the
pressure of our immoral society to mislead you
into anything less than the pure goal of being a
virgin on your wedding night.
Your mutual “friend” may not be trustworthy. I am
not so sure that your friend did the correct thing
in telling you something that would have been
better told you at the appropriate time by the man
himself.
Never-the-less, if you date him (having decided
that his past does not exempt him from being a
potential mate) you should, when the Spirit leads
you, bring up the fact that you have been given
this information and allow him to address this
with you as he sees fit.
In this discussion with him, you should make it
very clear that you have no intention of being led
astray by him or anyone else and that you will be
a virgin, by God’s grace, on your wedding night.
Making that perfectly clear, clearly stating it up
front in your relationship with him, will increase
his responsibility to you before God.
Remember, you have no strength and no
power in yourself to resist the demands of the
flesh. You are headed for a fall if you begin to
think that you can handle it without a helpless
dependence on the Spirit of Christ in you. Your
flesh cannot be taught not to sin. Deliverance
from sinning is a work of the Spirit in us.
There are some basic principles laid down in
Scripture that are for our protection. By
following them we can avoid certain inevitable
pitfalls.
First of all, you should be certain of your own
salvation.
2Peter 1:10, “…give diligence to make your calling
and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye
shall never fall.”
John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come
into condemnation; but is passed from death unto
life.”
1John 3:18-19, “let us not love in word, neither
in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we
know that we are of the truth, and shall assure
our hearts before him.”
Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Secondly, you need to be assured of your friend’s
salvation.
2Co 6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers: for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? and what
communion hath light with darkness?”
Thirdly, you will need to seek the mind of the
Lord in your decision making. That is the way Jesus taught us to pray, Matthew
6:10, “Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven."
Jesus said that doing Father’s will would be
evidence of your salvation:
Matthew 12:50 “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is
in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and
mother.”
John 15:14, “Ye are my friends, if ye do
whatsoever I command you.”
Jesus lived as you and I are to live: John 5:30,
“I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear I
judge and my judgment is just; because I seek not
mine own will, but the will of the Father which
hath sent me.”
So, if you have (1) established your own
salvation, (2) received adequate assurance that he
is a Christian, and (3) if you then know the
leading of Father in this; it will just be a
matter of being obedient to Him in your decision
making.
The most important issue is your own relationship
with God, because without that HOW WILL YOU KNOW
WHAT FATHER WANTS YOU TO DO?
I must commend you for your concern and
sensibilities in this matter. Many a person in
your place has been too hasty and jumped into a
relationship that proved to be disastrous.
Question for
the Counselor:
I need some kind of answers. I hope you can help. My dad was a
Baptist
preacher but a true man of God he was not. He was very abusive, physically
and sexually. He even dabbled in group abuse. by that I mean he would allow several friends along with him to do things to his family. Out of 5
kids, 2 have committed suicide already. Dad committed suicide 3 weeks ago.
To keep from writing a book, the jest of
it is. The cat got out of the bag eight months ago about his abuse with me.
His reputation was ruined. His secret life became public. I didn't let it out.
I was advised many times to though. It became a battle with him of either him or me. He pushed to the limits to see me dead. I carry such a guilt,
feeling that things should have been different. None of this is how I would have had things turn out.
I feel responsible and the cause for his death.
My question is: if a person has a secret life the world doesn't know
about, are they doing good in God's eyes in reaching our lost and dying
world even though it's all put on and manipulation?. Does God hold me
accountable for the world seeing his true colors and does God hold me
accountable for his death? The pain is unreal.
Answer
from the Scriptures:
You have a heart wrenching story. I am so sorry for all you have been
through. Of course, what has happened to you can not be undone. I
would love to reach up and pull a string that would release a cleansing
flow that would wash away all the bad memories and harm that has been
done to you and your family; however, there is no such fountain that
will wash away all the pain and the regret. There are things you can do
and things that will help you get on with your life.
To address your concerns: No, you are not responsible for his death.
He made his own choices and he lived and died with the consequences. I
am sure he suffered a great deal over what "sin in him" caused him to
do. That is over now. He is gone and you remain. What you do from now
on is vitally important for your future.
No, God does not hold you accountable for his death. As for the pain,
of course there is pain. You probably have a sense of loss even though he made terrible choices. It is appropriate for you to feel pain and
loss; however, you do not want to live there. Thoughts will come to
your mind that are not healthy and are not true, but you don't have to
live with those thoughts. You can't keep birds from flying over your
head, but can keep them from building a nest in your hair.
The Bible teaches us to "set" our minds. Colossians 3:2 say, "Set your
mind on things above and not on things of the earth." The Bible says to
let the mind of Christ be in you, to let His Words dwell in you richly.
It says in Philippians 4:8 "whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of
praise, let your mind dwell on these things."
Every time you repeat your story to someone, you are rehearsing the
opposite of what the Bible says to think on. Every time you play reruns
in your mind of what has happened, you are hurting yourself and will be
tempted to immerse yourself in self-pity. I would strongly suggest that
you not keep repeating these things, but replace these things with the
facts of God's love, with truth about Jesus Christ, with thoughts of
His loving care for you and preservation of you. See if He may be
leading you to minister to other people who are hurting.
The Spirit of Christ in you is a SELF FOR OTHERS. In our flesh it
is natural to be a SELF FOR SELF. Don't default to the flesh. Set your mind.
"Fix your
eyes upon Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith."
Heb.12:2 You will drown in sorrow if you fix your mind on yourself. Do not
play the "WHAT IF" or "IF ONLY" tapes in your head. There will be no
good come of it.
Read the Word.
Stay in the company of believers who are sharing things about our Lord.
Pray without ceasing.
Seek to be whole and you will be whole.
If you seek sympathy and pity you will destroy yourself in it. Don't do it.
I will give you a lesson that may be of help to you from the letter to
the Philippians, written by the Apostle Paul. If you spend the time
going over it, perhaps Father will apply some of these principles to
your heart.
Phil. 3:13 - “Forgetting what is behind ....”
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU BLOW IT?
Paul is speaking directly to a certain aspect of the will of God in this
verse, a very important aspect. I might begin by asking, “What do you
do when you seem to completely blow the will of God?” When it seems
that you have so messed up life that you must surely now settle for a
sort of second hand Christianity. You have certainly missed the
“freeway” of God’s will and you are now destined to a “country road” of
God’s will. What happens then?
GO THROUGH THE FIRST THIRTEEN VERSES
Here in Philippians chapter three, Paul is considering his days as a
Pharisee. Read all the verses. He tells us exactly what he was like as
a Pharisee. He tells us how he struggled to do right and to please God
.... how he worshipped religion instead of God ... worshipped his good
deeds.
Things he “counted” gain is a term used for a miser counting his money
with devotion and love. “I counted it all out and it was gain.” Stock
of Israel, Hebrew of Hebrews, etc. He fueled his spirit with this
adoration of his good works. It produced the stoning of Stephen.
Religion is always one step away from murder. Think about that. The
first murder in the Bible was a religious murder. (Cain & Abel) Filled
with hatred he persecuted the church thinking he was serving God.
Then Christ comes to Him on the Damascus road. The glory of the living
Jesus dawns upon him and the love of God is “shed
abroad” in his heart
as he describes in Romans 5:5. Like a great Niagara falls ... like a
great cataract, God’s love was shed abroad in his heart.
Paul now realizes that he is accepted not by good works that he has
done, but by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. He is
loved, not because he deserves love, but because GOD IS LOVE. He is
swept up - pardoned and declared righteous and carried into God family.
He is overwhelmed by this.
Now he turns back and looks at all he did as a Pharisee, all those
works, all those struggles to be right, all those years in religion - 30
some years behind him struggling to please God. He realized it wasn’t a
neutral - it was a NEGATIVE.
Have you ever thought about that? When you see a drug addict or someone lying in the gutter and you think of all those years as “wasted” before
they came to Christ. You think that it was a negative and surely they stand
there wringing their hands over what they were and say, “IF ONLY I had been
different.” Conversely, many who “grew up in church” think that they were so “good” that when they finally came to Christ, it was
sort of a crowning thing in their life.
Oh, no! You have it wrong. That RELIGIOSITY was just as negative a
working against God as being a murderer, a prostitute, a thief, or
whatever. Do you understand what I am saying? This is important. My
life before I came to Christ, even if it was as religious as Saul of
Tarsus is actually working against God’s salvation. Why? Because I was
trusting in my good works. They were my crutch and I was saying,
“Surely someone who works as good as this does not need salvation, at
least not as much as the bad sinners.”
So by seeking to be good I was turning my eyes away from what God was offering me. Paul says, “The things I counted gain” - now I look back
and realize they were trash ... in fact, in the Greek the word is much
stronger ... it is “DUNG” - animal manure in the street or as the Old
Testament puts it, “All our righteousnesses were as
menstrual rags.”
Those “good” things I was doing were working against my ever coming to
God’s righteousness. That was antagonistic to God’s salvation. I have
come to see God’s salvation now. It is rest - not in what I do, but in
what Jesus Christ has done for me. All those wasted years. They might
have been filled with Christ. Instead they were filled with animal
manure or my own good works before God. Years of trash.
ONE THING I DO
Then he says those mighty words, “This one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind ....” Tremendous words. He says I sum up all
those years as wasted as they were - he says, “I forget them.” The word
is a strong word. It means to forget, to put completely out of my mind, it means to act as if I never had done it at all.
How could he do that? It is the very nature of salvation. It begins
with JUSTIFICATION. Justification is the declaration that:
1. YOU ARE PARDONED
2. YOU ARE DECLARED RIGHTEOUS - or as if you never sinned.
Justification means that you are accepted by the Father as if you were
Jesus Himself.
Paul says because of the nature of God’s salvation, I forget the things
that are past. “Good” - “Bad” - Everything. He dared to live in the
fullness of God’s pardon, therefore, he could put out of his mind all
that belonged to the past. He lives in the now, without any guilt,
without any regret - with a smile of God’s glory upon his face.
THE LAW
Considering where Paul came from - the citadel of law itself (the 10
commandments) - for him to say this is an amazing monument to God’s
grace - a celebration of God’s grace that is unparalleled. From “you
must” and “you ought” and “you should” - the commandments glaring down
at me from their awful white height and I stand before them cringing. I am condemned before the law.
I look up at the law and I say, “You are beautiful.” I have no quarrel
with the law. There’s nothing wrong with it at all. Who can quarrel
with “love God with all your heart, mind, soul and
strength?” Of
course, it is beautiful. It is holy. It is just. No one can argue
with that. Would to God that everyone lived that way.
But LAW, I made a mistake. I don’t know what came over me. I broke one
of your commandments. I just messed up. Now, LAW, would you forgive me? Would you give me a second chance? And the LAW looks down at me
and it says, “YOU HAVE SINNED. YOU HAVE BROKEN THE LAW. YOU HAVE FAILED. YOU ARE GUILTY AND I DON’T KNOW THE MEANING OF SECOND CHANCE.
THE SOUL THAT SINS SHALL DIE.”
The LAW always leaves us in absolute despair. You say I tried my best.
Ridiculous! The LAW doesn’t ask for you to try your best. IT DEMANDS
ABSOLUTE PERFECTION. YOU HAVE BLOWN IT. If you go one notch below perfection, you have blown it. You have failed. The law says, “There
is no second chance. I do not know what forgiveness is.”
THE TRAGEDY
The tragedy is that thousands of Christians have never understood that
we have moved out of law into grace. They live in the “ought” - what
they ought to be - what they ought to do - a life full of “shoulds” and
“oughts.”
Have you been in those situations. A major mistake, a major failure, an
actual sin; you know you were wrong. All you can hear and all you know
is that you have blown it. You will never be what you might of been.
You are forgiven, but you will have to accept “PLAN B.” You will never
really know the superb “PLAN A” of God’s perfect will.
There are certain sins and we say it's over! Little things can be allowed
but those certain sins - no you have done it now. You missed God’s
plan. You are doomed to some sort of second best. There is no way
back. The LAW says, “You blew it. You can never go back. You can
never make it right.”
If that is what you have been taught, you stand before the unrelenting
law and you say, “IF ONLY I HADN’T DONE IT. IF ONLY I HAD BEEN MORE DISCIPLINED. THEN I WOULDN’T HAVE FOLLOWED THAT PATH.” “If only at
that time- just before I failed - IF ONLY I had tried harder and been stronger. If only I had realized where it was going to lead me. IF ONLY
.... IF ONLY ... IF ONLY ... IF ONLY.
KNOWLEDGE IS THE KEY
When I know what Christ has done, when I know God’s purpose focused in Him, when I know who He is right now - it tells me I have been delivered
from the LAW - from its condemnation of guilt - delivered from its shackles --- I AM DELIVERED!
You see, all that God intended of the LAW was to bring us to
helplessness - it does an excellent job. I would never have known sin
specifically until the Lord showed me what it was. It is the LAW that
comes. My understanding is in darkness. Then the LAW comes and turns the lights on. Now I see - I AM GUILTY. I AM WRONG. I try to figure
out ways I can atone but I can’t. I am helpless before God to atone for
my guilt. THE LAW HAS DONE ITS WORK! I AM HELPLESS! The law not only gives me knowledge of sin and helplessness to atone for it, I find that
I am helpless to change myself and be better. That is good. That is despair. Not only a lost sinner, but a helpless sinner. The law has
done its work. It brings me to Christ as my only Hope. Having done its
work, it pushes me to Jesus - I come to Him.
The LAW showed me sin - JESUS wipes it out. The LAW showed me I’m
helpless to be good - JESUS comes to live His life inside me.
AND FOR ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST!!!!
The LAW can only do so much ... POINT US TO JESUS because we are
helpless. If I keep with the LAW, all I have is despair.... all I have
is despair ... ALL I HAVE IS DESPAIR.
Try and be better = DESPAIR
Try to change = DESPAIR
Ask for a second chance = DESPAIR
THE COMPOST HEAP
But when I come to the GRACE of God, then I discover what God has done on my behalf. Then I find it is GOOD NEWS!! Joy - Peace - The amazing
thing is that God not only pardons my sin to the degree that I can forget it forever, but also God takes my worst mistakes and works them
into His plan.
ILLUSTRATION: The compost heap ... organic gardening - fertilize soil
with all that rots - put it in a heap with grass clippings - junk -
smelly stuff - generates a heat - a burning takes place - turn it
occasionally - let it rot - by Springtime it is black and rich and will
make the best soil to grow things. It will produce the best fruits.
God has His compost heap of redemption. He takes all the junk of our
lives, all the smelly and disgusting stuff. All the things that we
stand and wring our hands over and say, “IF ONLY ...”
If we take His pardon - if we receive His cleansing, He takes those very
things and puts them in His compost heap and makes them the best soil of our lives. Have you noticed that some of the worst periods of our lives
when all you could do is say, “If only ...” you can give them to Him
and say, “This is for your compost heap.”
ILLUSTRATION: David says, “You put my tears in your
bottle.” Ps.56:8 Means a “wine making bottle.”
God not only pardons, He takes our tears and puts them in His wine
making bottle. God not only pardons, He takes our mistakes and turns
them around. He turns our mistakes into a sweet wine of the Holy
Spirit. When we retreat into self-pity, when we say, “If only,” when we
look at ourselves as spiritually demoted to an inferior plan because we
have failed, WE ARE SLANDERING GOD’S CHARACTER. He is not that kind of
God. Look at God. God is not the God of “If only I had not done it.”
Rather, He is the God of “I have pardoned you. WHAT NOW?”
NOT “IF 0NLY” BUT “WHAT NOW?”
GOD IS LOVE !!! God does not have love, He IS love. We are loved not
because of what we do but because of Who He is. God IS love. I am not
loved because of my good behavior, but because of Who He is. His love
does not depend upon my perfect life, but upon His perfect Character.
This is fundamental to our understanding of God. This is the beginning
of grace - to be able to rest in God’s love. God’s infinite, eternal
love is towards me.
GOD’S LOVE IS OMNISCIENT!!! This means that before I ever was - before
worlds were - God knew me altogether - knew everything about me - knew everything I have ever done - everything I am doing now - everything I
will do. He ALSO knows:
EVERYTHING I MIGHT HAVE DONE BUT DIDN’T DO -
EVERYTHING I COULD BE DOING NOW BUT AM NOT -
EVERYTHING I COULD BE DOING IN THE FUTURE BUT WON’T BE DOING.
I can’t take that in about myself. How could I take it in that He knows
all of this about every individual who ever was or ever will be. I can
say it, but I can’t really take into myself all of what that really
means.
When God loved you before there was a world, He knew everything you
would ever do. He was present at your worst and loved you. When we
turned a deaf ear or blind eye to His love, He never turned His love
away from us. We say He couldn’t love us after this or that, but God
knew about it before it was. We can’t shock Him, surprise Him or
DISAPPOINT HIM.
ILLUSTRATION: Simon Peter - He was called Simon before Jesus. Jesus
named him Peter. Simon = shifting sand - Peter = solid rock. Jesus knew what he was, but spoke of him in terms of what he would make him.
He was the type that could fit into any situation, much like a
chameleon. Jesus told him, “You will be called
Peter.” So He is
saying, “From sinking sand I am going to change you to solid rock.”
But
even as Jesus was saying that He knew what Peter was going to do. He knew one day he was going to deny Him. He knew Peter was going to curse
and blaspheme. (Look at Matt. 26:34 “assuredly” - in other words it was
unavoidable that he would deny Jesus - this had a part in God’s purpose for Peter and Peter’s ministry) Remember that night when Jesus told
him that he would deny Him. Peter almost became enraged at such a
thought and Jesus said, “Simon, Simon ...” That was the first time
since Jesus changed his name that Jesus called him by that name. But
see Jesus’ love for Peter that never changed. After the resurrection,
Jesus told the women, “Go tell my disciples, and
Peter.” So when
Peter was his lowest, Jesus was right there loving him ... not with the
old name, Simon; but with his new name Peter. That’s Jesus. That’s
God. Knowing the worst about us, He loves us.
GOD’S LOVE IS ALL-WISE!!! Another attribute of God is perfect wisdom.
So when He loves us - His love is all-wise. Think about this: His love for us has a plan, an ultimate purpose. He is taking us somewhere.
And His wisdom - His love wisdom - His wise love has an infinite variety
of ways to bring us to His ultimate plan. If you can see this - a new
area of rest will come into your life. He Who is love - He Who knows
the worst about us and loves us still, in His wisdom He has an infinite
variety of ways to achieve His end and purpose for us.
THE CONTRAST
We are little finite people. We are locked into one way. We come up
with one good plan in life and we have to stick to it and if that is
broken, well, that’s it. But God’s wisdom is infinite. He has infinite
ways to achieve His end. Ways beyond my understanding. How God can
weave it all together is beyond me. How God can take my mistakes - how
He can take my sin when He has pardoned it - how He can bring it all
together for His glory - I COULDN’T EVEN BEGIN TO WORK THAT OUT.
SEE EPH. 3:10 - It tells of the manifold wisdom of God that is made
known in our lives so that angels and demons are educated in the
character of God. Read it in the AMPLIFIED VERSION. WOW!!!
That is why when you’ve made a mistake, legalism says, well, that’s it.
You have blown it. That’s the end of the rope. BUT GOD says, “Oh, no.
You should see my plan. I know you blew it right there, but see how I
am going to take it up and lead off from here.” God has a MANIFOLD
wisdom.
You say, “IF ONLY ...” God says, “WHAT NOW?” God takes my worst and
incorporates it into His best.
ILLUSTRATION: You are at the airport and you miss your flight. Oh,
no. You will have to live the rest of your life in a strange city.
No. There are many flights to your destination. Don’t you think God is
at least as big as American Airlines. Don’t sit there and cry and
lament over your mistake. God is saying, “OK. What now?”
SCRIPTURAL EXAMPLES:
ABRAHAM - terrible lies about Sarah being his sister. Look what God
did.
DAVID - look at that awful sin with Bathsheba - look what he did to
Uriah. Look what God did even though there is no sacrifice for adultery
or murder. See who Jedidiah is. See genealogy in Matthew l. WHY DOES GOD HAVE SUCH PEOPLE LIKE THIS IN SCRIPTURES? TO SHOW THAT THIS IS WHO
GOD USES.
WHAT ABOUT MISTAKES OF OTHERS IN OUR LIVES
What about those other mistakes - things that are done by others against
us. Like what your father did to you. We can get a ready answer from
the Scriptures.
JOSEPH - brothers did it against him - Potiphar’s wife did it against
him - the butler forgot him - but God meant it that way to bring about
His perfect plan for the good of His people.
PAUL AND MARK - IF ONLY PAUL HAD NOT BE SO HARD, SO SEVERE ON JOHN
MARK.
But because he forbade Mark to go with him ... he ultimately went
with Peter and we have the Gospel of Mark ( which might be according to
Peter). He became a great minister in Egypt, founded a significant
church in Alexandria. If Paul had accepted the boy back, we might not
have the Gospel of Mark and there might not have been the church in
Alexandria.
“IF ONLY ???” GOD’S WISDOM IS SO COMPLICATED THAT I HAVE LEARNED TO
DROP THE TERM FROM MY VOCABULARY. THERE ARE NO “IF ONLY’S” WITH GOD.
JOHN WESLEY - he was married to a hellish woman - in his private diary
he said that he did his missionary work to keep from going home to her. There is every reason to believe that there would not have been the
great revival that turned Europe inside out and upside down if John
Wesley’s wife had been a kind and loving, gentle soul.
I HAVE LEARNED NOT TO SAY, “IF ONLY JOHN WESLEY HAD NOT HAD SUCH A BAD
WIFE.”
All that can stop us from receiving of this love wisdom in our lives is
our refusal to take it. Jesus looking over Jerusalem said, “How often I
would have ... but you would not.” I would have said that Jerusalem was
long past hope, but not Jesus.
Do as Paul who said, “I do not frustrate the grace of
God.”Gal.2:21-
Accept His grace and do not forsake it.
CONCLUSION
We dare to say with Paul ... “Forgetting - putting out of our mind -
that which is past, we press on to God’s high calling - God’s purpose.”
So face your mistake - whether it be a silly mistake or a sinful mistake
- face it head on...eyeball to eyeball. Look right through it to the
blood of Jesus that cleanses from all sin - to the wisdom of God that
picks it up and weaves it into His plan. A celebration of wisdom.
Don’t sit in the departure lounge and say I am stuck in a strange city.
If your ticket says THE NEW JERUSALEM God will have you there, it will
just be another plane. One mistake is over and a new life begins.
IT IS NOT “IF ONLY” - IT IS “WHAT NOW?” !!!!!
You
said that the pain was so terrible. I am sure that it is. But
remember, nothing happens to you that is just for you. According to
II Corinthians 3:2-3 the God of all compassion and comfort has comforted
us in our trials so that we may comfort others in their trials with the
same comfort that God has comforted us. In other words BECAUSE OF
YOUR PRESENT PAIN you should be more equipped to serve Him than ever
before.
Question for
the Counselor:
I have besetting sins.
I
go to church and fellowship with believers; I read my Bible and pray every
day, but there are still these addictive tendencies in my life. How do I overcome
them?
Answer
from the Scriptures:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God
will not take away your addictions as you wish. I know what you mean when
you say you wish He would just “zap” you and they would be gone, but
He has reasons for letting you struggle with this until you find out what
is at the root of these habits.
Dear brother,
our flesh will never improve. Romans 7:14-25 and
Romans 8:1-9 tells us the truth about ourselves. Read this for
a full understanding of what I am about to tell you. In these verses we
discover that it is NOT you who is using pornography or cigarettes or
alcohol. Oh, I know it is you and you are responsible, but not the way you
are saying it. The Scripture I’ve asked you to read declares, "So
now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me."
Paul says this twice. Understand that this is a Christian who is saying he
does what he doesn't want to do and he doesn't do what he wants to do. In
his frustration he cries, "Wretched man that
I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?"
Do you see how helpless he is to do anything about improving his flesh?
You do see that
Paul was a Christian in Romans 7? (I
do know a lot of people don't see that, but close consideration of all
that he says elsewhere will bring you to the conclusion that he is not
talking about his pre-regenerate self, he is talking about the struggle
against the flesh. He wouldn't have been struggling with it if he hadn't
been regenerate.) So, in Romans 7 he
is describing the Christian struggle with the flesh. Paul had a lot of
trouble with pride, envy, and who knows what else until he learned to walk
in the Spirit (as he describes in chapter 8).
There are all
manner of ways for your flesh to manifests itself in unlove, contention,
intolerance, condemnation, alcohol abuse, physical abuse, tobacco
addiction, you name it…. I would recommend that you confess (agree with
Him) your wrong attitude and ask Him how to walk in the Spirit so you will
not "gratify the desires of the flesh."
Remember, "IN CHRIST" (which
is where you are supposed to be), "THERE IS
NO CONDEMNATION." Either that is the truth or it is a lie.
So if you are worthy of condemnation, it has to be OUTSIDE of Christ.
Next, we don't
"have" the fruit of the Spirit. We have the SPIRIT in us
and the SPIRIT has the fruit. This is a very, VERY important
distinction. When we walk in HIM, HE will manifest the
aspect of the fruit He wants, but we have to be walking in His Spirit for
Him to do this. The fruit is His.
Think about the
tree that puts out leaves, blossoms, little fruit, then ripe fruit. Does
the tree actually make it's own fruit? Does it strain and will it into
existence? Does it CHOOSE to bear fruit? Or not to? No, the tree draws
it's life from what is absorbed through it's roots. It is the life that is
transformed in the tree to manifest itself in the sort of fruit which the
tree is ordained to produce. Likewise, when we are rooted in Him, drawing
our life from Him, we will put forth the fruit in season which He has
ordained us to produce. It is of/from Him. Life is always from Him. Not
from us. We cannot make fruit ourselves. We, when we are tapped into Him
and living from Him, produce the fruit of His Spirit.
Everything we
do must be done unto the LORD. All of our work should be empowered by Him.
Jesus in you does not have a problem with any sort of
addiction.
If you are
drawing your strength, your purpose, and your identity from Him, you will
not have a problem with addiction either. If you asked what to replace
smoking with, that is for Him to reveal to you. Instead of turning your
back on Him when you go to smoke (trying to shut Him away because you are
ashamed of what you are doing), try smoking in His Presence. Speak to Him
as you are doing it. Discuss it with Him. Tell Him you are doing this
because ___________ (you fill in the blank).
Talk to Him
about what is bothering you about smoking. Talk to Him about advantages
you see in being smoke free. Discuss it each time you do it with Him and
give Him a chance to show you His perspective on it. What we really need
to do when we are sinning, (and as you said it isn't much fun doing it,
anyway), is admit to Him that we know He's right there with us. He isn't
out of hearing. He isn't out of sight. He knows exactly what we're doing
and why we're doing it and what to do about it. There's not really
anything we are capable of that He isn't easily able to deliver us from;
but, we have to turn it over and trust Him to supply us with what is from
Him: love, comforting, strengthening, steadying, guidance, cheering...
I have dealt
with people in great sin and have counseled them to bring Father
"into" their sinning as they are sinning. This is always a shock
to them, but it is sort of ridiculous to think that just because you
refuse to think of Father at the time of sinning, that it means He is not
around or aware of what is going on. He will NEVER LEAVE YOU.
You must be
present to Him. Don't think you have to "get right" first or
have some type of change before you can approach Him. No! I have had
sinning couples go to Him in prayer just before they went to bed with each
other. In every case, without exception, when they were determined to
bring Father "into" their relationship, He did what was
necessary for the problem to be solved. This is real. The REALITY is His
love for you. Reality is the correct Bible translation for the Greek word that we call "truth." "You shall KNOW the REALITY and
the REALITY shall set you FREE." He is the Reality and He is Love. He
doesn't have love, HE IS LOVE. Now, are you going to believe Him or just
try to handle everything yourself, thinking that you will get right with
Him when you get things in better shape. If you think you will get things
in better shape first, you will probably mess up everything TOTALLY. You
are helplessly dependent on Him. Until you get in that place of helpless,
dependent trust of His grace, you will continue to fail on your own.
Am I making
sense? You have done nothing that Jesus Christ didn't die for. You have
done nothing that is a surprise to Him. Father loves you. I love you with
His love. We will not be able to help you if you do not believe, but
"to him that believes, all things are
possible."
It is our inner
fleshly yearnings that cause us to indulge in the wrong temporal pleasures
or self-medicate ourselves. It comes down to thinking God is not supplying
us adequately, we act as though He's leaving us deficient. We try to make
up the difference. And we tell ourselves we are going to "quit"
someday, but we just can't yet. Tell Him. See how well that sounds. Tell
the Sovereign God of the universe that He isn't coming across with
whatever you "need" and that's why you're making up for it. God
does want us to talk to Him honestly. He will quickly show us the nonsense
in what we are saying. He will use our excuses to amuse us. We can
rationalize to ourselves, to our spouse, to our friends, but try doing it
to Him.
Anyway,
cigarettes are not your problem. Walking in the Spirit is the real issue.
That is what He wants you to practice. That is why He lets you keep on in
certain sins because it gives you incentive to learn what is most
important, how to live in Him, from Him, unto Him. Remember that anything
that you produce which is not FROM Him is wood, hay and stubble. Fire
hazard for smokers!
Finally, back to the quote about our body being the
temple of the Holy Spirit; that means it is HIS. He indwells it. It is up
to Him to use it to glorify Himself. This is why we must offer our bodies
daily as a living sacrifice. Actually many times daily. Ask Him what HE
wants you to do with your body to serve Him. God doesn't cure us of all
our habits. But, we are to be expressing His love to others by considering
them in what we do. We don't want to do things which interfere in our
ability to minister to them.
Then couple
this with 8:7 "...because the mind set on
the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law
of God, FOR IT IS NOT EVEN ABLE TO DO SO; and those who are in the flesh
cannot please God." This means that you can never improve
the flesh. You can never teach your flesh to be good. Satan would love for
you to think you can and will give you some success for a short time to
make you think it is all up to you and thus, the failure is all yours when
you fail. Really the only failure is failing to recognize the truth. The
truth is that "Christ in You"
does not have a problem with any sort of besetting sin and if you set your
mind upon the things of the Spirit you will not have a problem with the
flesh.
What I am
saying in a nutshell is: BE WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST. That is the
answer to EVERYTHING in our Christian walk. As long as we cling to
problems that are NOT problems for Him, we are not walking in HIM (i.e.,
who we are in Him). In other words pornography is not a problem for
Christ, never has been, never will be. As I deal with you I never need to
deal with your fleshly issues. I only deal with you as a person walking in
the Spirit of Christ. "If we walk in the
Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." That
is a guarantee of Scripture in Galatians 5. Either the Scripture is true
and if we have a problem it is because we are not walking in the Spirit of
Christ or the Scripture is not true and we have no hope in the first
place.
To continue to
say we have a problem with something in the flesh is both true and
unnecessary. It is true in that the Scripture assures us "the
flesh is not subject to the law, neither indeed can be." I
say it is unnecessary because "you are not
in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of Christ dwells
in you. Now if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to
Christ." Romans 8:9
So, who are
you? "I am crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life that I
now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God Who loved me and gave
Himself for me." Gal.2:20 Remember, "crucified"
does not mean "dead." It means it is alive hanging on the
cross, but the flesh is deprived of its power, that is as long as I am in
the Spirit.
It is good to
hear that the LORD has been pointing out to you scriptural examples of His
grace unto others who sinned much. I notice you mentioned David and Peter,
but not Paul. Paul does say he was chief of sinners. I think David
probably might have argued with him about that title, but Paul really
believed it.
The lives of
His saints show over and over the principle of replacement. God does not
tell us to cease doing something unless He tells us what to replace it
with. He always shows us His way is better. His way is best. May He
continue to show you His goodness and give you joy in His Presence.
Do speak to Him
honestly.
Galatians 5:25 "If we are going to draw our
life from the Spirit, let us stay in step with the Spirit."
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