Manna Mercies

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; Great is Your Faithfulness" Lamentations 3:22,23
I woke early this morning (as usual) grabbed my Bible and notebook and planted myself in the backyard to enjoy a beautiful, Indiana sunrise. I was not disappointed. If we would all just slow down enough to enjoy the simple gifts He gives we might live longer and happier lives.
My time was spent in Lamentations 3, meditating on the wonderful mercies of God to undeserving, and often, ungrateful people. You simply cannot hurry devotion, it takes time for God to get through our defenses and bless us with the gift of Himself.
Well He succeeded this morning in getting His message across to me. He is full of steadfast love, mercy, compassion and faithfulness. One Hebrew word seems to jump out here; "chesed" or "hesed"; God's covenant faithfulness to His people. The word, from what I gather, is difficult to translate into English; we find words like; lovingkindness, steadfast love, and faithfulness in our English Bibles, and they bring out the heart of it I suppose. Yet, as with all things God, there is more than we see on the surface. No matter, the heart of this passage speaks of God's steadfast, unwavering, never-ending, covenant faithfulness to His people, which is something I need each and every day. Even though one tiny drop of His chesed is more than any of us deserve and is more than enough for a lifetime, this passage says it is "new every morning"! Amazing! Like the Manna of Exodus, we wake to find enough chesed scattered about to collect for this very day we are walking into.
Occassionally I will wake in the morning with a sense of dread or fear or maybe better said, anxiety. The unknown element and even the known element of the day seizes me like a bear trap and leaves me incapacitated before I even leave the house. But if I could just meditate on and believe by faith that His faithfulness and mercy toward me are new today, how different things could be. The battle for most of us is often one of belief...true faith.. does God really mean what He says and will He be to me what His Word says he will be? We fight to believe don't we? Yet God has blessed me today with a victory over fear, doubt, dread and pessimism. He broke through the thick layer of skull that protects my tiny little brain and grabbed hold of my mind and my heart with the manna of His mercy. I walk today as a beloved child of the King, filled and empowered with His Spirit,surrounded by His mercy and protected by His faithfulness.
How could life be any better?

Christ died for God

I love to mow..Yes I admit it. I am a yard nerd. Preparation for the task includes getting the ipod in position and coveering the earbuds with big red earphones. Man I must look like a dork. But I love to take that time to lose myself in good sermons or good music.So I listened to a sermon by John MacArthur while mowing my yard today. The message was titled "Christ died for God" with his main text being Romans 3:21-26. It made me think how we tend to make the Gospel so man-centered. "Jesus died for you"
"Jesus died for man" Jesus died for sinners"...all true, but all missing something. Though I can't sufficiently put it in words yet (I need to listen at least 3 more times to digest the message) I can say it affected my thinking today. Actually it kinda rocked my world. The fact that God has ALWAYS forgiven men based on grace/faith and not by works has left Him open to accusation. Somehow this gift to man calls God's justice and righteousness into question. If a judge lets someone off the hook for no good reason we consider him an unjust judge. Yet God has always operated this way, even long before Christ died as the substitute. Romans says it was God's patience that allowed Him to overlook sins committed in the past. But we know that any sin forgiven at any time in history was based solely on the finished work of Christ on the Cross. Yes He died for me and for you...but He also died to vindicate God the Father and satisfy His holy justice.....you can listen to the sermon at www.gty.org and search through sermon archives...they are FREE
peace

Abundant Life in a small house

I was visited by an old friend this past weekend. Actually, he was a friend years ago, a kind of roomate if you will. At one time he took up residence in my innermost being, as the Apostle Paul would say, along with a myriad others. But when Jesus Christ moved in the neighborhood, He evicted all those old boys; envy, greed, lust, anger etc. etc.. They no longer have claim on this territory but so often show up, trying to decieve their way in. Sometimes I throw the door wide open and give them free reign of the place. At other times, God graciously allows me to see the situation for what it is and slam the door shut in their sorry faces. Some would say these visitors are simply the old man (old nature) showing up again. I disagree, and I do so, convicted that the Bible teaches emphatically that the Old man was crucified...dead and gone baby.
Paul says in regard to our struggle with sin (Romans 7:17)that it is "no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me". Those of us who are "In Christ Jesus" now have a new nature. We are new creatures in Christ, the old has passed away and all is made new (2 Cor 5:17). When I sin, when you sin, we are not acting according to our true identity and it is not me, nor is it you, doing the deed. It is a foreign entity. SIN. Think of it like this; I have a splinter in my index finger. It's beginning to throb and swell. In fact, the pain can be so intense that it really feels like part of my finger. What is the remedy? Tweezers! Get a set and pull that foul invader out. It wasn't me. It was the splinter (sin) in me.
Now if you're like me (poor soul if you are) you've had a difficult time following all this simply because you are too nosey and couldn't keep your mind from running wild with the question; Who or what was the visitor that started all this? OK you've been patient enough.
I went to a good friend's house and found myself suffering from an acute case of House Envy. The place was amazing. so much room, and in a great neighborhood. Everything was simply perfect. And very spacious. Probably twice the size of my little house. But The Spirit was gracious enough to catch me before it slid into mild depression. Actually, He slapped me upside the head, so to speak, and opened my eyes to see all that God has freely given me. Our house may be smaller than some but it is a place of wonder and of peace, a place of joy and love, a place where God is welcome. I have an amazing wife and two incredible children. And our house is filled with books!!!! And music, oh there is music ringing through this place day and night. It is a place of rest and refreshment. A perfect oasis. We don't have everything the world has to offer, but we have access to all the riches of Heaven. And we have "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfaiding" 1 Peter 1:4. Jesus promised abundant life to His followers and I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good!

No or Know? Are we dead?

The key to victory in the Christian life is always surrender. Surrender to the revealed will of God. Surrender to His Word, Surrender to His plans for us. What Frederick Buechner called "The Magnificent Defeat". This is one war where you want to suffer defeat, for the Conquering King is benevolent, full of grace and mercy. Paul makes it abundantly clear in Romans 6 that we will be slaves to someone or something. We are slaves to sin or slaves of God (oh but I'm getting way ahead of myself).

Question for you; Do you experience victory over sin very often? Or are you defeated at every turn? One thing is for certain, God's desire and plan for us is to walk in victory not defeat.

One crucial key to victory is to know the Word. Not only know it but appropriate its power. The first several verses in Romans 6 explain our immersion into Christ (btw, this is a dry passage...no water here). We are DEAD TO SIN. Now there is a world of power in this truth. If you are dead to sin then what power does it have over you? How would a corpse respond when confronted with (insert your big temptation here)?

So when confronted with Sin we can do the usual...Shout no, no, no! Or, like Paul, we can KNOW, KNOW, KNOW our amazing position in Christ and, by faith, claim it.

Another way to look at Romans 6 is KNOW, RECKON, YIELD. We know our old self was crucified / We reckon (or consider) this to be true / We yield ourselves to God.

I'll make you a deal...today you pray for me, that I will experience victory over sin and I will pray for you. I really will...promise...I will pray for everyone that reads this and I know that God will answer. Wanna know how I know God will answer that prayer?

1 John 5:14,15

Peace

Barry

For love of the Beast

We call him CJ. He's more man than beast for sure. All my life I had this one desire..I wanted a Jet Black Lab. Who doesn't want a loyal, best friend? CJ has the run of the house; sleeping in Jon's bed, lounging around on the furniture of his choosing, and watching tv with his bud Jon.He is absolutely the coolest dog on the planet. Funny how an animal can steal your heart. Check out this picture if you don't believe me. He is da man!

Romans and the positional truths

OK, I realize I JUST posted about an hour ago, but I'm just starting and I can't hardly help myself...One of my absolute favorite past times is Studying the Word and one of my favorite places to park is Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. If you only had one book of the Bible available to you, this would be the one to have. Early in my Walk I was challenged to memorize large portions of Scripture and learn to meditate on those passages. My first step was to memorize Romans chapters 6 and 8 in their entirety. Yeah, I was younger then and memorization came easier than today. If you care to follow me for awhile we can take a great adventure into these 2 magnificant passages. Let's start in Chapter 6:1-4
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him, by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life"
You see Paul has been explaining in previous passages that we are saved by GRACE, not by works. And now he must keep this great truth from becoming a license to sin. AND here is the point; You (the old you) is DEAD and you have a NEW life through Christ, which makes it possible for you to live in victory over sin. There are not 2 people in you, not 2 dogs inside (black and white). The old Barry is NO MORE! He is dead. Now sin still dwells in my inmost being, but it dwells there as a foreign object, much like a splinter in my finger. What a glorious truth this is! I have been baptized into Christ and raised to new life.
Today I WILL WALK IN VICTORY BECAUSE OF WHO I AM AND WHO'S I AM.

stumbling toward perfection

Welcome to my first blog. Or maybe it should be, in the words of Mr. Cooper "Welcome to my nightmare". Why did I decide to do this? Maybe to help with my insomnia. Who knows? It only seemed fitting, given the fact that I love to read other's blogs. I decided to call it "Walking with Christ" for the simplicity of it. For that is what I do. Day in and day out., and I thought it best to start with the stumbling aspect since that seems to be what I do best...stumble. Yet His right hand upholds me.
Now for a fair warning to all you brave souls who take the time to read these. I am the kind of person that likes to process by throwing ideas against the wall to see which will stick and that can be difficult to deal with (just ask my dear wife). So, you may find me saying one thing today (ie; in regards to Calvanism, politics, gifts of the Spirit etc) and a distinctly different thing tomorrow. I am working through the complexity of faith in real life on a daily basis and will often change my mind. As a friend of mine told me concerning listening to various teachers etc."Chew on the meat and spit out the bones". So, dear friends....chew away.