Meet the Author

Archive for October, 2009

Is your mind boggled by the fact you belong to Jesus Christ? In spite of all the junk that comes your way, the daily trials and tribulations, does the love of God still rock your world? Of all your relationships, are any as satisfying as the relationship you have with God and the fellowship you experience with Him through His Spirit?

What would happen if we started asking ourselves these tough, penetrating questions on a regular basis? Paul’s hope in raising these issues in his letter to the Philippians was to help his readers live out what ultimately matters in life.

Here is their story; one you will see is much like ours today. They were affluent and worldly, but they had become complacent and discontent in their hearts. They complained, they argued, they exalted themselves above others, they took pride in their flesh, and they worried about the future. They held tightly to their worldly possessions. They were uneasy, restless, always striving for something more. The busyness and clutter of life bogged them down and robbed them of the joy of knowing Christ.

We’ve probably all been there and know exactly what that feels like, and it is not good. But is doesn’t have to be that way. We really can say that nothing compares to knowing Christ and experiencing the joy of our salvation. Sometimes we just have to be reminded what we truly have in Him, and that He is the source of our contentment and joy.

Ask your self these questions. Digest what it means to belong to Christ, to know and experience the love of God, and to walk in fellowship with His Spirit. These are the realities that matter, the realities that bring satisfaction and contentment to the soul.

If you want to know how to pray, just check out the prayers of Paul. One of his most significant prayers is recorded in Ephesians 3:16-19.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Here are his four main requests.
 That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith.
 That we would be rooted and established in love.
 That we would be strengthened with the power of God’s Spirit to grasp the love of God.
 That we would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

What if this became the prayer of your heart. Do you think it would be a prayer that works?

Something amazing happens to every person who responds in faith to the Gospel, and it happens the very moment of salvation. The Bible describes it as new birth, or being born again of the Spirit. This is the point in time, different of course for each individual, when God makes us alive together with Christ Jesus and then sends His Spirit to take up residence in our hearts. Paul wrote about this in his letter to the Galatians: “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father’” Galatians 4:6 (NIV).

God lives in us. Amazing don’t you think? But what does this mean to us in practical, everyday living?

God’s Spirit gives us a new set of desires called the desires of the Spirit. Now these desires are in conflict with the desires of the flesh. We know that conflict. When someone wrongs us, the desire of the flesh is to get even. The desire of the Spirit for us is to forgive just as God in Christ forgave us.

As children of God, even though the desires of the flesh are there, we do not have to give in to them. Before salvation, following after the desires of the flesh was the only option on the menu. As Paul wrote in Romans 6, sin was our master. That relationship was broken when we were made alive. God’s Spirit is now in control, and we are to be led by Him.

Our role is to keep in step with God’s Spirit, to carry out by faith what God is working in us. Certainly, the desire to forgive the person who wrongs us doesn’t originate with us. God’s Spirit places that desire in our hearts. And it just makes sense to live out those desires. Paul put it this way, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” Gal 5:25 (NIV). Who are you keeping in step with?

Meet the Author—Week 33
2 Corinthians 12 – Galatians 3

In this post, I’ve chosen my favorite verse from each of the five chapters and listed them below. After each one is a question to help stimulate discussion. Share your thoughts on one or all of the verses. I look forward to reading your insights.

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 (HCSB)

In what ways have you found God’s grace to be sufficient in your life?

Test yourselves [to see] if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test.
2 Corinthians 13:5 (HCSB)

Paul had an “assume nothing” policy when it came to ministry, especially to those in Corinth. At the end of his second letter, he leads them right back to square one; are you truly saved? How would this philosophy benefit us in ministry today?

For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.
Gal 1:10 (HCSB)

We often talk about the peer pressure teens face today. To me, it seems like peer pressure intensifies with age. In what ways have you experienced peer pressure specifically as it relates to your walk with Christ?

I have been crucified with Christ; and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Gal 2:19-20 (HCSB)

This is my favorite verse in the entire Bible. How has it changed your thinking on living the Christian life?

There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:28 (HCSB)

This is an amazing truth, that God sees us as one in Christ. Is this a truth you see being lived out in the church today? If so, in what ways?