The thing with Christianity is that it does not eliminate troubling times, it helps you process through them. Passing the test simply means that you do not give up your hope or your faith when in the midst of uncomfortable situations and circumstances in this life.
The old phrase, “hang in there” means just that, do not give up, do not give in, no matter what life looks in the face of the prevailing circumstances.
HOPE - FAITH VICTORY
A year and a half ago a friend of mine was faced with a life-threatening disease and passed away a few weeks ago. Watching him in his final days was a grand testimony of faith. His hope and faith was not about his life in the here-and-now, it was nestled in the Lord. His love for the Lord did not falter. His hope and faith focused on the promise of everlasting life.
It is my hope that we can all demonstrate such faith, not just during our trials but everyday.
There is a lower case ‘h’ – holy. We who have been reborn, Christians, learn to live in holiness.
~ Lisa Blair
When people hear the word holy, whether it be with a capital or lower case h, we think of something unattainable, something that dilutes the concept of fun and living a fun life, something beyond our reach. But holy, lower case, simply means the established relationship between our Holy God and his children. (Holy, Holiness. Biblestudytools.com)
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV. biblegateway.com
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“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” Galatians 5:16-17 (https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.16-17.NLT)
As Paul writes in Galatians, these two forces are in contrast battle. They are the forces of good and evil. Our former carnal life is a life of sins, self indulgence and satisfaction. Our new self is that of love and looking for the good we can share with others. Once we are renewed, we acquire the characteristics of Christ. We begin to envelope them into our being, we become holy. We no longer absentmindedly hang out, drink until we are drunk, do drugs, curse, or other things of the flesh, Galatians 5:19-21); you begin to walk the line between sin and holiness leaning towards holiness. You begin to evolve. Once you receive Christ as your Lord and Savior you begin your walk with Him. You acknowledge the Holy Spirit nestled in you, and you receive His guidance, you are led by the Holy Spirit. You put down the old and pick up the new. You become a new being. It is the Holy Spirit who nudges you, who whispers in your psyche, who causes you to feel uneasy or guilty for little things such as telling a lie to a friend or loved one, taking advantage of people, taking office supplies, to making an illegal u-turn, or more noteworthy sinful actions. You begin and develop a new life embedded in the fruit of the spirit.
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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control; against such there is no law. Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-26. https://bible.com/bible/1171/gal.5.23-26.MEV)
As born again Christians, we already have been washed clean, but that is not the end. Once washed clean we must absorb the characteristics of Christ and become holy, set apart from our past, our carnal life.
Scriptures – being washed clean.
“Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.”
“Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.”
If we are new people in Christ how can we degrade those who are not yet new creatures, and may never be because you slipped back into your old human nature.
~ Lisa Blair
Bible.com
“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21 NLT. https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.16-20.NLT)
We are God’s ambassadors. We were given this role when we became reconciled to Christ. We became new people, and our old human nature was washed away. So you say, how can my old man be relinquished and replaced. The moment you received Christ as your Lord and Savior you were washed clean and freed from sin, and you received freedom in Christ. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians he wrote, ”so Christ has truly set us free. (Galatians 5:1)
To explain to the title, we have an old nature and a new nature. We possess both because we are human. The beauty is, when we became new people in Christ, we could push down the old creature. Paul wrote in Galatians 5:13-14,
“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”” (Galatians 5:13-14 NLT. https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.13-14.NLT)
We no longer find it necessary to satisfy what our old nature craves. Again, Paul warns that our sinful nature wants to do evil. This part of us finds it easy to criticize others, to evaluate others, to belittle others. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are no longer obliged to succumb to the whims of your sin nature. We possess new qualities, replacement qualities.
Galatians 5:22-26 first tells us what new qualities we possess. Paul informs us that our evil, sinful nature was nailed to the cross and crucified with Christ. He further wrote to the Galatians and us, stating that
“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.” (Galatians 5:22, 24-26 NLT. https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.22-26.NLT)
We are in a cultural melee that has pitted people against each other. Communities neighborhoods, states, regions, and nations are in a state of upheaval. People are acting out of their human, carnal, sin nature. We are evaluating and judging people rather that loving and respecting people. We focus on the human point of view that cares little about compassion, joy, love patience, peace, kindness, self-control, goodness, gentleness, or faithfulness. We are at a crossroads. Do we break away from our sin nature and follow Christ, or do we drown in the muck and mire of this earth? It is time that we open our eyes, recognize that we are not acting as if we were reconcile to Christ and chose a different path. It is time to stop evaluating people from a human point of view and begin loving our neighbor whoever they may be.
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice in it. We experience the day living one of two ways. READ THE POST.
~ Lisa Blair
We experience Life one two ways, and both ways are optional. You can either live life being pounded like the cement by the trappings of this world, or you can choose to live this life with Christ and rejoice in the day knowing we are not bound by the trappings of this world, we are simply passing through. With this context the world cannot destroy you. You will not fall into a depressive mood when hearing the news, you will not fall prey to culture canceling, you will not become a victim of others hatred toward you, why? Because this is the day the Lord has made. He created it for you. Because man has free will and the world is a sinful nature we will experience the things of this world. However, also as Christians, when we received Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, we were no longer bound by eternal sin. If we do something that is outside of the Christlike nature, we can repent and ask for forgiveness, and then move on. God will separate from that which you are asking forgiveness as far as the east is from the west. This does not mean that you may not suffer the consequences of your acts and thoughts however it does mean as in the case of Paul, you can overcome them, you can withstand them, you can walk through them because the Lord is at your side.
Repeat to yourself as you go through your day, ”this is the day the Lord has made and I am rejoicing in it”. It will change your continence and the atmosphere around you.
Scriptures
He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:12 NLT)
“So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” (https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.1.NLT)
““Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin…” (https://bible.com/bible/111/act.13.38-40.NIV)
All too often we understand the term mercy and assume that we apply it in our lives. But having mercy and being merciful are two different things, one is a descriptor or a noun, the other an adjective, the way in which we apply mercy.
~ Lisa Blair
Mercy and Merciful Defined
Mercy according to Easton’s Bible Dictionary (free app) defines mercy as: compassion for the miserable. It’s object is misery. By the atoning sacrifice of Christ a way is open for the exercise of mercy towards the son of men, in harmony with the demands of truth and righteousness. In Christ mercy and truth met together. Mercy is also a Christian grace.
Merciful is the act of expressing mercy, according to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary. This is accomplished through the act of compassion, and tenderness. When you are merciful you become predisposed to forgive offenses, and are unwilling to allow the human, get-back nature to thrive. In short, you become unwilling to retaliate and instead forgive. When we are merciful and forgive as Christ forgave, it frees you from the restrictions of hate, anger, and fear.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7
How often do we read the first part of a scripture that is further explained in the second part of the thought? So often we rest our knowledge on the thought that as long as we fear God, we will have knowledge? We do not bother to read or ponder why the command is conditional. This scripture informs us, it is instructional. Let us focus on Provers 1:7. The first part instructs us to fear the Lord and gain knowledge “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” And, yes, fearing the Lord is the beginning, but let us not overlook the condition requiring us to accept wisdom and activate instruction. Choosing to overlook the second part of the scripture informs us that while we desire knowledge, we only possess an unactuated thought, the thought is not functional, it is folly. The second part of the scripture informs us that, when we despise wisdom and instruction,” we do not fear – meaning, we have not ‘taken to heart’ the Lord’s instructions, we are not obedient, nor do we surrender our thoughts in exchange for His thoughts. We lack wisdom and instruction.
True wisdom can only occur after we understand that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, God is Holy. When we understand this at a heart level, we begin to experience wisdom through the knowledge that He is Holy, just, and righteous.
Acquiring knowledge yields wisdom, and wisdom is acquired through faith, which is acquired through the unyielding instruction of the Word of God. His instruction states that we are to walk in His ways, to love as He loves, and to serve the Lord our God with all of our heart and with all of our soul. The beginning of knowledge begins with submission, surrender, and obedience. When we accomplish these three things, we can accept His knowledge without hesitancy or the need to understand His inspired Words in the Bible.
In Hebrew there are two types of fear: Pachad and Yirah. Pachad is the fear projected or of imagined things, it is over-reactive, irrational and stems from the worry of things to come, those things we imagine. Yirah is “the fear that overcomes us when we suddenly find ourselves in possession of considerably more energy than we are used to, inhabiting a larger space than we are used to inhabiting. It is also the feeling we get when we are in a sacred space, on sacred ground. (Makingdapennycooke,com. Ways Ways To Think About Fear)
As believer’s, we experience and understand the fear of God as reverence of God. This type of fear is the motivating factor in surrendering to the Almighty. Fear equals reverence. Yirah is the fear, the goose bumps we experience when we are in prayer or are praising the Lord and are in His presence. It is so much bigger that anything in our human sphere of understanding. We enter Holy (sacred) ground, the beginning of something new each time we experience it. It all contributes to our spiritual knowledge base and enables us to adhere to His wisdom and instruction and not our own.
Full circle – It is important to read an entire verse or scripture to gain the wisdom God intends in sharing His Word with us. Failing to do so does not result in wisdom, it results in folly, we become or remain fools, Proverbs 4:7 reads – Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Equip yourself, study the Word, do not simply read it and rely on your own understanding. Seek what He is conveying to your heart. Our life with Christ is a heart process. Step into Yirah, terrain that is beyond human understanding, feel His love and walk in His Word.
Lisa’s Daily Inspirations 