Living Alive In Christ

Have you ever looked at a verse from the Bible and thought to yourself, there’s no way I could do that! Colossians 2 is one such verse. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 2:3)

At first glance, this one verse seems completely out of touch with those of us who have to pay attention to everyday things on earth. Things like taking care of kids, cleaning house, working a full time job, or even driving. How are we supposed to set our mi;do on things that are above when the things on earth are so urgent and necessary?

So often it’s too easy to take one Bible verse at a time and give it a cursory glance. When we read Scripture with that approach, we seldom arrive at any conclusions the author intended. To best understand the meaning of a passage, it important to understand the context.

The context for Colossians 3 is the rest of the argument, the rest of the letter, the rest of the New Testament and the rest of the Bible. There’s a grand story behind Paul’s exhortation in Colossians and we need to interpret the passage properly.

When Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians, he often reminded his readers of the big picture. The first few sentences in Colossians 3 are a brilliant example of this big picture reminder. When Paul reminds us of what Christ has done in the past, is doing today and will do tomorrow, it makes exhortation like “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” resound with joy filled simplicity. Remembering that we have died and risen with Christ, that our live are hidden with Him, and that He’s coming back for us, will make it so much easier to fill our minds with thoughts of Him and the life He wants for us.

Even in the midst of our urgent earth-bound tasks, our minds can be preoccupied with Jesus, the beauty of His character,the astonishing mercy of what He’s done for us. His patient work in the world today and the mind-boggling reality of what He promised to do in the future.

God Is A Just God

God is just – What does it mean?

The Bible tells us that God is just. This means that He is fair and impartial. It also means that He hate the ill-treatment and oppression of people and of nature, which He has created. He hates lying, cheating, and other forms of mistreatment of others. The fact that God is just means that He can and will judge in accordance with His standards.

Many times in the Bible God is pictured as a judge. The Bible says that He will one day judge the world. Many of us shy away from the thought of Hod as a judge because the examples of justice that we see on earth are flawed: some judges are corrupt and, even when their intentions are good, they can make mistakes. However, the fact that God is just assures us that when He acts as a judge, He will administer justice perfectly. His ability to do this involves other aspects/attributes of His character. Including His ability to discern the truth in every situation and see into our hearts and minds. His wisdom, His strength, His authority, and His moral character in establishing what it right and wrong.

A God who did not care about the difference between right and wrong and did not judge humans for acting one way or the other would not be admirable of being worthy of our love or trust. The fact that God is just and will judge between right and wrong gives ultimate moral significance to our lives and makes us accountable to our lives and makes us accountable for our actions.

If there is an all-powerful, all knowing Supreme Being who is inherently just and who will act as our judge, what does this mean for humans like you and me? It means that our actions on earth and our attitudes toward God will be ultimately judged. This is a very serious concern since we have fallen short of God’s perfect standards and we must pay the penalty for those shortcomings. (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23) Fortunately, we also know that God is a God of mercy. In His mercy, He has provided a way for us to be reconciled with Him and to meet His standards. He has provided a substitute who was willing to pay our penalty if we are willing to accept that arrangement. He did this through the death of His son, the penalty we would have to pay for our wrongdoing. (Romans 3:24) All we have to do is accept this substantial. Then the God who is both just and merciful will forgive and forget our shortcomings. The Bible tells us He will even accept us and treat us as Hid children and His heirs. When God presented His Son Jesus as a substitute to pay the penalty for our wrong doing, the Bible says He did it to demonstrate His justice.. so as to be just and the one who justice those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)

God is Just- What does this mean after I have accepted His sons Sacrifice?

Once you have been reconciled to God and He sees you as one of His children, the fact that God is just means that He wants you to be just and act justly. The prophet Micah summed this up by saying ‘What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before your God? (Micah 6:8) Repeatedly throughout the Bible God warns His people to treat others fairly, particularly those who may be in less fortunate situations such as widows, orphans, the poor, and or strangers. Jesus’s teachings go even further, telling us to love one another and to do good to those who mistreat us. (John 13:34, Luke 6:28-28)

The.fact that God is just can also provide you with peace when your dealing with difficulties in your life or witnessing painful injustice. You can be confident that God’s justice will ultimately prevail. The fact that the all-powerful and all knowing God is also just means that evil will ultimately be dealt with authorItatively and decisively.

God is Just – If God is just, why do we see so much unfairness in the world?

Where we see injustice on earth, it is that at the hands of men, not of God. God has given men free will, but most men do not exercise it responsibly or in a way that lines up with God’s character as a just God. The time will come when God will judge the world and the people in it. He will dispose evil and injustice and He will punish those who have turned away from Him and His standards. However, in His wisdom, He is not doing that yet. The apostle Peter tells us that God is waiting because He is patient and wants everyone to have an opportunity to accept His Son’s sacrifice rather than paying the penalty that justice requires for their sins. (2 Peter 3:9)

We’ve Already Won The Battle, But We Still Have To Fight

There’s a old story that was told of a mental hospital many years ago that devised an unusual test to determine when the patients were ready to go back into the world. They brought a client for release to a room where the water faucet was left on so that the sink overflowed and was pouring water all over the floor. Then they handed the patient a mop and told him to mop up the water. If the patient had enough sense to turn of the faucet before mopping up the water, they were ready to be released. But if, the patient started mopping while the water was still flowing, they kept the patient for more treatment. To many of us this test seems silly.

But as Believers, all of face the world in which we live and are confronted with the need to do battle with evil that dominates it. Like the patients in the mental hospital, until we realize where the source of that evil is, we will make no real contribution. To see less evil in the world means that we must conquer the evil pouring forth from our own heart. That is conversion. Then, to deal with the evil around us, we need a mop and bucket, the spiritual armor that God has provided for us.

We wrestle Not Against Flesh And Blood

We must understand who and what our real enemy is. It in not individual as much as it is the spirit of the individual. This is why you have to learn how to love the person and hate the spiritual influence that controls their actions.

Ephesians 6:12 says “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

We are fighting with everything that we have, to hold on to what we have.

  • But this is more than having the power to hold on to God, the strength of our salvation is that He is also holding on to us.
  • He holds us while the enemy if buffeting us about, trying to destroy us and gain victory over our witness.
  • We, therefore must recognize that many times there is more going on than we recognize with our senses.
  • And while we are getting angry and upset over the conditions of our lives, we can can’t forget if things are going to change we have got to change them through the power of God.
  • Satan has studied us and coordinated a plan of attack aimed at keeping us from enjoying our new life with Christ.
  • And his scheme is so widespread that if he cannot destroy you, he’ll aim his attacks towards the people closest to you and the interests that are near and dear to your heart.
  • Therefore, you have to fight not just for yourself, but spiritual warfare involves praying the devil off your kids, praying him away from your spouse, taking authority over the devil on your job, defeating the enemy that’s trying to take your mind.
  • I know that you’re probably already saved, but your salvation was not enough to change the Satan’s mind about destroying you so you had better get ready for the fight of your life.

But thanks be to God which gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 15:57.

The victory is already ours, but we still have to fight.

What weapons are at our disposal?

But God in all His wisdom never would have left us down here to fight an enemy that we were not equipped to overcome. So, He gave us weapons that are for to use against the wiles of the adversary. That is provided that we are not to lazy to use. Because there are those who willingly defeated by the enemy, not putting to use that God gave them.

First of all, we have the weapon of prayer.

  • This should’ve our first line of defense against the adversary m prayer.
  • It should be the first thing that we do when trouble comes because it is what we should have been doing all the time.
  • The reason why some people are so weak that they cannot handle a fight is because prayer is what strengthens us.
  • And if you wait until the enemy shows us to start praying, you are already at a disadvantage.
  • But if you know how to pray and pray right, He said that whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
  • And when the devil hears you call on the Name of Jesus, demons start trembling and strongholds have to loose.
  • Diseases dry up when you pray in the authority that Jesus gave us.

Next, there is the gift of fasting.

  • Jesus taught there are certain spiritual enemies that we fight that will only be defeated by the combination of prayer and fasting.
  • Fasting kills the flesh and brings a spiritual awareness of the power that God has given.
  • It makes us aware of spiritual things and aides us in our endeavors to be more like Jesus, as it makes us to understand what is going on in the spiritual world around us.

Then there are Angels

  • The Bible says in Psalms 34:7 that “The angel of the Lord encompasses round about them that fear Him, and delivers them.
  • I thank God for the angels.
  • There are times in our lives God’s angels are fighting for us and we don’t even know it.
  • But the enemy is releasing things in the heavenlies because the angels of the Lord have gone to war on your behalf
  • There’s a story that I’m reminded about where Daniel prayed to God for the space of three weeks. He didn’t stop praying just because things had not changed, this is spiritual warfare.
  • And while he was praying, the devil though to hold up his answer from the Lord.
  • But Michael, the warring angel, went and hand to hand with the adversary and loosed Daniel’s answer to the Lord.
  • Sometimes Hod has sent the answer and the enemy try’s to hold it up, but the angels are there to assist us in our victories.

Finally, there is the weapon that the Saints of old really understood, the Power Of The Blood.

  • This is one weapon that the enemy can’t stand.
  • The blood represents the ultimate defeat.
  • Whenever the enemy would attack people years ago, it was common for the Saints to do what they called “Plead the Blood.”
  • When they were rebuking the devil, they would say one of the most damaging things to the ears of the devil.
  • They would comfort him with words “Satan, the Blood is against you!”
  • If the devil don’t like what he hears, the only way he can cover his ears is to let go of what belongs to you.

In modern society there are many believers that “say I plead the blood or I’m covered in the blood, so I don’t have to worry. Please don’t use this as a way out of an attack. There is power in the blood, but don’t relax and think your getting of easily. The devil uses this tactic to have you let down your defenses.

To Wrestle Means “Hand To Hand” Combat

And this is the reason why to change many things, you must be willing to struggle and go to war, even if it means that you’ve not to sweat and get dirty in the process. To wrestle denotes hand to hand combat.

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.

  • You’ve already won, but you still have to fight.
  • The devil would love to ruin you, but the power to succeed is in your hands. Fight!
  • Don’t allow the enemy to ruin you or anyone else that you know.
  • Your family is worth fighting for
  • Your health is worth fighting for.
  • Your peace of mind is worth fighting for.
  • Your families souls are worth fighting for.
  • If you have to roll up your sleeves and go hand to hand. Fight for it.
  • Tell that drug addicted son, “I’m fighting for you.
  • Tell your daughter the stripper, I’m fighting for you!
  • Tell them that you’ve prayed too,long to see them just die and go to hell.
  • Tell them that you’ve prayed too long to lose them to the streets
  • Fight for them until they see the need to fight for themselves.
  • And if one can put up a thousand to flight then two can put ten thousand prayers into flight, then sooner or later, everything around you will be cover by the power of God!
  • While your fighting remember that a thousand will fall by your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you..

Pulling Down Strongholds

Have you ever heard, “Everything was going fine until I hit a bump in the road?

In the 2 Corinthians we certainly can see Paul hit plenty of bumps in his years of ministry. One of the bumps we find him dealing with is a group of naysayers and negative critics. They questioned Paul’s ability to minister – calling him weak and ridiculing in his speaking skills.

Perhaps Paul’s mind was filled with self-doubt when their vicious whispers first reached him ears. Did he take criticism and retaliate with his own critical thoughts? Maybe he didn’t broadcast them out loud but even thinking about them can cause damage. When we hit painful and unexpected bumps in life it can be hard not to start thinking negative thoughts. Thoughts laced with doubt and tinged with discouragement .

If we are not careful, those kinds of thoughts can take us places we don’t want to go. They can bring us down and keep us from living the life God wants us to live. Paul reminds us that our enemy doesn’t fight the way the world does. But God has given us everything we need to have victory. Paul writes: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have Devine power to demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself us against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 4-5)

In other words, what we think matters. Little by little, the Lord by His Spirit teaches us to fight for our mind, to see ourselves only as He does. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen.

If we are Christ’s, this is no passive task. This is war. We destroy lies, take captive our hateful thoughts, look forward to a new plan, and remind ourselves of who we are.

So here it is: this is your call to fight to take action and stand up. Paul tells us we have to take our thoughts captive and make them obey Christ. What does it mean to make our thoughts obey Christ? It means that if Jesus wouldn’t say it about us, we can’t say it to about us, we can’t say it to ourselves either.

2 Corinthians 10: 1-6

How to Walk By Faith And Not By Feeling

What are you led by? What directs your decisions, actions, words, and thoughts?

As believers , were called to live by faith. And yet so many of us choose to live by something else-our feelings. Have you ever made a decision because it simply “felt right”? Have you ever said something because it “felt like the perfect moment “? I know I have. Before I became a believer, I lived fully by feeling. My feelings informed my reactions to life and directed my every step. If a pathway wasn’t accomplished by a nice feeling, it wasn’t the one I took.

Shortly after I became a believer, I still lived by my feelings rather than my faith. I doubted my salvation because it didn’t feel real. I struggled to believe that God still loved me when sinned because I couldn’t feel His love. I often gave into temptation to sin because it felt better that obedience. My worship time was completely regulated by my feelings as well-if I felt near to God, then I had worshipped effectively and right.

Do you live by your feelings? Do you live in a similar way I did? If so, consider what God’s Word has to say about our feelings and what living by faith actually looks like.

Your Feelings Can’t Be Trusted

The Bible is quick to tell us that our feelings (or hearts, more accurately) can’t be trusted.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

“Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26)

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it.” ( Jeremiah: 17-9)

Why are our hearts deemed so untrustworthy? Why. They are constantly changing and affected by sin.

Our feelings are about as certain as the sand on the beach . The sand is always being moved, pushed forward and backward by both wind and water. It’s kicked and thrown by people running across it, children building with it, and dogs digging in it. It may appear to be a solid foundation for your sandcastle, but add just a little to much water and the entire building will collapse.

Our feelings are no different than that sand. They’re easily changed by people and circumstances. One moment you could be happily reading a book in your favorite chair, and a few minutes later be angered by the trail of mud someone brought in. You may have felt down when you first woke up this morning, but after exercising with your favorite play list, your day is looking a lot brighter. Our feelings are fickle.