Yearly Archives: 2016

Lifestyle Glory – VOTD.08.09.16

Be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:17-21

Last time we were looking at what being filled with the Spirit looks like: First of all, it looks like worship, Public Worship, Private Worship, Experiential (thankful) Worship and Lifestyle Worship.

We saw that lifestyle worship is treating our brothers and sisters in Christ as if they were Jesus. If we are involved with sins against our brothers and sisters in Christ and we have not made things right with them the Holy Spirit’s filling is still available but we won’t experience it.

How do I know that? In introducing the passage in Eph 5 that we are looking at, Paul says “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (Eph. 4:30,31) (more…)

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Resulting Glory – VOTD.08.08.16

Understand what the Lord’s will is: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:17-21

The result of the continual presence of God in our lives (what we’ve been calling Remaining Glory) is that it makes us different people. It is not the other way around. I want to look at a few areas in which the growing presence of God in our lives changes us as believers: Here are 3 areas we will look at; as the presence of God fills us day by day:
1) God is worshipped
2) The Word of God is revered
3) The characteristics of God are manifested in our lives (more…)

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Remaining Glory – VOTD.08.02.16

To the faithful you (God) show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure
but to the unfaithful you show yourself a wrestler. 2 Sam 22:26,27

In some ways today’s verse divides us as Christians into two categories: those who bask in God’s presence and those who wrestle in it.

Last time we saw how tempting it is to think that people who seem to have a greater degree of the presence of God in their lives are just particularly pure, but that’s not the case. Not one of us is particularly pure, but some are more aware of God’s presence than others.

God shows Himself to those who fix their eyes on Him. His glory (presence) is on them. The picture they see of Him is of a faithful, righteous and pure God. This God of ours comforts us with words like “I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will never drop you.” God is Loyalty itself. (more…)

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Remaining Glory – VOTD.08.01.16

For if what is fading was came with Glory, what remains is even more glorious!
2 Corinthians 3:11

Last week we talked about the temporary experience of God’s presence that happens to Christians from time to time. Although this temporary experience of the overwhelming presence of Jesus is wonderful, Paul declares that even greater than this is the glorious presence of God that can be with us always.

Part of the New Covenant that Jesus provides for us is the indwelling Holy Spirit. All Christians have the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit has greater affect in some of us than in others of us. The reason might have less to do with how “spiritual” we are as much as how much we know and understand we are useless without God’s presence. Only those who know they can do nothing seek the Spirit of God earnestly. (more…)

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Fading Glory Examples – VOTD.07.26.16

The sweet, satisfying companionship of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its [deep, inner] meaning. Psalm 25:14

Last time we saw some common circumstances when God draws us near and His presence becomes overwhelming. Today we’ll look at some common results of this type of experiencing God?

1) The first result of the presence of God is that He increases and we decrease. When you and I come into contact with God our focus is on Him not on ourselves. The more clearly we see Him the more we are so overcome with the glory of Christ we don’t think we’re big, we know we’re small. When someone testifies to an experience with God, listen for who is getting the glory. That’s how you can know how real this experience is. When you and I experience God for real, we don’t walk away with a bloated idea of our own importance. We are seriously humbled. (more…)

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Fading Glory – VOTD.07.25.16

For if what is fading was came with Glory, what remains is even more glorious! 2 Corinthians 3:11

How precious is Your loving kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light. Psalm 36:7-9

The Glory, or presence of God, comes from Him to us. There are two kinds of glory mentioned that Paul talks about: Fading Glory and Remaining Glory. Simply put, Fading Glory is temporarily and passes away. It it can refer to being temporarily overwhelmed with a sense of God’s nearness. Remaining Glory is more permanent, day in, day out, walking through life in the very presence of God.

Today we’ll look at the first of these two types of experiencing God’s presence. So many times when the glory of Jesus is described it is radiant – a “high” that comes forcefully into our lives and may last hours, or even weeks. Usually, but not always, these experiences of God’s presence take place during certain earthly circumstances: (more…)

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The Holiness Measure: Maturity (pt 2) – VOTD.07.19.16

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:1-3)

Last time we concluded that in Jesus we can walk in freedom, not because we can’t sin anymore, but because we now CAN walk in holiness. Freedom is another way of saying we have been separated from (hate) our sin.

In the same way, “hating sin” (being separated from sin) is not a matter of will. When we encounter the cross of Jesus and we find that we are are crucified with Him we find we are now living at this moment by the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead. This cannot be accomplished through human effort. Hating sin (being separated from sin) is a natural consequence of knowing and loving God.

When I talk about this with other Christians, some know exactly what I’m saying and others have this look of incredulity or “whatever works for you…”. They don’t seem to be able to relate to it in their personal experience. (more…)

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The Holiness Measure: Maturity (pt 1) – VOTD.07.18.16

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!… But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Romans 6:15-18

There’s an internet meme that says: I’m not a human being having a spiritual experience. I’m a spiritual being having a human experience. I’m not sure the origin of that was entirely Christian but it speaks to a truth that less mature Christians often miss.

In fact, less mature Christians nearly always get the matter of holiness wrong because (as I mentioned earlier in this series) we usually see maturity as something we do, rather than something that we are. So we can fake a lot of Christian behavior and often Christian teachers encourage this “behavior modification” approach to “Christian” living on young believers rather than the transformation from the inside that God wants for each of us. (more…)

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The Love Measure: Maturity (pt 2) – VOTD.07.12.16

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian… Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.  Galatians 3:23-25

We’re talking about loving God and its relationship to Christian maturity. A child is little more than a slave until he or she comes of age. A guardian directs their lives (Gal 4: 1-7). The rules Paul scatters through his writings are like that. They take care of us and show us the way when we are immature. But with maturity comes the freedom of loving God more exclusively and passionately, so that “Love God and do as you please” becomes no longer a phrase, flippantly thrown around to get what we want, but a truth that is manifested in our lives.

For example, when we love our children, we take care of their needs, protect them, even do things to bring them pleasure… Now, at the same time there are some government laws to protect children, but they are totally unnecessary if we love our children. We don’t need those laws. (more…)

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The Love Measure: Maturity (pt 1) – VOTD.07.13.16

“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

Summarizing Jesus words in today’s verses, Augustine said, “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”

Great words. True words. Something inside me resonates with these often-quoted words…and saddens me a little, too. And I think, if only we could pull it off better. We seem to do a lot better at the “do as you please” part of Augustine’s famous quote, than the “love God” part. And this is compounded because the pandemicly shallow grasp of loving God among His people.

It seems like the phrase is more often used to justify what we want to do than to describe the life of a passionate lover of God. (more…)

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