Tag: sin

Our Newness in Christ Extends to Every Aspect of Our Lives

2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

By accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we are able to do away with all that separates us from our eternal inheritance. The importance of Jesus taking on all sin is that we can become worthy to stand before the Father in a righteous state. But before we reach our eternal resting place in heaven, we begin to prepare ourselves for heaven by living in a new manner on earth. As new creatures in Christ, we live each day by new principles, by new rules, with new brothers and sisters and with new ends in mind. We become the workmanship of Almighty God, changed forever in character and conduct.

Through the marvelous gift of salvation, all of our sins are gone – nonexistent. They have been taken away by the One who knew no sin. The have been washed away by His shed blood. Each one of us new creatures stand before the Father without blemish. Each one of us in Christ stands before the Father is in the image of His own Son. Each one of us is now the essence of everything good and the absence of anything evil. We are worthy to dwell with the Father for all eternity.

Let us prepare ourselves for our eternal inheritance. Let us strive to live here on earth in the fullness of the indwelling Spirit of Jesus Christ. Let us seek to be worthy of all that has been set aside for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating us in Your image, heirs to Your kingdom. We ask forgiveness for all those things in our lives that make us unacceptable to stand before You and unable to accept our eternal blessings. We praise the name of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who took on all of our sin so that we may become righteous in Your eyes. We pray, Father, that You will provide the grace for us to live in accordance with the renewed hearts given to us by Jesus. May we live by new principles, new rules, new ends and in new company. May our outward reformation be living testimony to Your kingdom. We pray that those around us will seek the One who knew no sin. We ask all these things in the name of the Lamb without blemish, Jesus Christ.

The Sweetness of the Presence of Christ

2 Corinthians 2:14
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, all of our triumphs are in Him. All of our success, especially our success in leading others to the Lord, are reasons for each of us to rejoice. In our joy, we must go forward in life, not covered in pride, but covered in the sweet aroma of His presence.

While it is a wonderful thing for us to proclaim to the world how Our Savior atoned for our sins and made us worthy to be heirs of the kingdom of Almighty God, our living testimony should be much more. The world should be able to see the presence of Jesus in every single action we take and in every single word that we speak. The world should be able to savor the experience of being near Jesus Christ just by being near us. This should be especially true when we gain victory during times of trial and tumult.

Let us surrender to the power and the presence of the Lord in every battle we face. Let us give Him the glory in every victory and share the sweetness of His presence with the world around us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for making us conquerors over all things in this world. We rejoice in the victories that we claim through Your Son, Jesus. We ask that we be given the grace to overcome the arrogance and the pride that naturally come with victory. We pray that in every victory that all praise, honor and glory will go to You Father, to Your Son and to the Holy Spirit. May the aroma of the One who brought the victory be spread around the world as we become living testimonies to His presence in our lives. We ask these things in the name of the Rose of Sharon, Jesus Christ.

We Are to Withhold Love and Forgiveness from No Man

1 John 2:2
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for the sins of all of mankind. In this one act, we see the perfect love and the perfect forgiveness of both the Father and the Son. The advocacy of the Son is limited to believers, but the propitiation for sin extends as far and as wide and as deep as the evidence of sin in all people.

When we receive the Son, Jesus Christ, as Our Savior, we are receiving the fullness of His perfect love and forgiveness. We also receive the indwelling Holy Spirit who instills in us this perfect love and forgiveness to share with the world around us. As it is with the Father and the Son, we are to withhold love and forgiveness from no man.

With all the anger and bitterness that is spewed every day in our society, we should not withhold even the smallest portion of love and forgiveness from any man anywhere. Our ability to love and forgive under all circumstances is what marks us as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Let us set aside the anger that the world stirs in us. Let us refuse to partner with the bitterness that our flesh demands. Let us live in the fullness of joy and peace that is only found through perfect love and forgiveness.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the unlimited flow of love and forgiveness that comes from Your Throne. We bless the name of Jesus for becoming sin for every man so that we all could receive the eternal gift of salvation. We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will guide us as we learn to become free flowing vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness. We ask for the grace to overcome all bitterness, anger and unforgiveness in our lives so that we may in no way hinder the provision of Your love to the world around us. We ask all these things in the name of the Lord Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Balancing the Call of God on Our Lives with Our Daily Responsibilities

John 19:26-27
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”

The compassion that Jesus Christ has for us is beyond our understanding. His compassion goes beyond human capability. His compassion extends to a level that only He, as the Son of Man and the Son of God, can personify.

His remarkable compassion was fully revealed to us on the Cross. In His moments of agony and pain, as He was fulfilling all that He was called to do, as he was placed between thieves with soldiers gambling for His clothing, He called out to the Father, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” In His compassion, He recognized the frailty of all men and extended His perfect love and forgiveness.

Then in the final moments before His death. He made sure that His mother was cared for. He took the time to model that even in our highest calling that we have day-to-day challenges in our lives that must be dealt with. Who but Jesus, could exhibit such personal compassion at the same time that He was taking on the sins of the world?

Let us be acutely aware of our obligations to our family as we undertake our callings as disciples of Jesus Christ. Let us seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit to help us properly prioritize our works as we deal with our spiritual calling from God and our responsibilities in our carnal world.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your compassionate understanding of our frailty in the flesh. We bless the name of Jesus who came and lived in the flesh so that we could see how to live both in our highest calling and in our day-to-day responsibilities of caring for our families, our loved ones and those placed around us. We pray that we will be forever mindful of Our Compassionate Savior as we go through the trials of our lives. May we extend the fullness of His compassion for us to the world. We ask all these things in the name of the fount of all compassion and mercy, Jesus Christ.

Forgiveness is Certain and Complete Through the Redemptive Work of Jesus Christ

Romans 6:13
Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.

When we were born, we inherited a sin nature through the bloodlines of Adam and Eve. Through the grace of Almighty God, we were given the choice to keep the sin that separates us from Him for all eternity or receive the atonement for our sin provided by the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is a choice that must be made. There is no place for indecision in selecting where we want to spend eternity.

When we accept Jesus as Our Savior, we are washed clean of all of the sin in our lives. Nonetheless, the sin nature remains. It then becomes the work of the Holy Spirit to lead us away from the iniquity in our lives and toward the eternal, holy resting place that we will one day find in the presence of Almighty God. Yet again with the grace of God, we are provided all that we need to overcome the sin in our lives. To receive the fullness of our eternal reward, we must measure every experience in our lives by the standards of Jesus Christ and not by our own standards. We must do right for the glory of God.

Let us seek the all-sufficient grace that we need to overcome the things of darkness that will perplex and distress us throughout our lifetime on earth. Let us walk in the strength of the Holy Spirit so that we may join Jesus in His good work for the Father. Let us rejoice and be encouraged, for in the blink of an eye on one glorious day, we will stand before the Father in the image of His Son and we will hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we ask Your forgiveness for our sins. We rejoice in knowing that Your forgiveness is certain and complete through the redemptive work of Your Son, Jesus. We thank You for allowing us to atone for the sin in our lives through Our Savior. We thank You for the Holy Spirit who stands by us as we continue to struggle with our sin natures. We pray for the grace and the strength to repent and turn away from all the sin that the Holy Spirit reveals to us. May we become instruments of Your good works. May our bodies be used to do only those things that are pleasing to You, bring glory to You and bear fruit for Your kingdom. We ask all these things in the name of Our Holy Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

We Cannot Labor or Suffer Enough to Secure Our Place in Heaven

2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

When we hear the word sin, we usually think of a single transgression or specific transgressions which go against God’s law. Sin defined in this manner only captures an aspect of sin. In reality, sin is much more. Sin is a complete, damning condition that separates us from God. It is a chasm that we cannot cross on our own. The chasm was created when Adam and Eve sinned. At the moment of their sin, we inherited a condition that separated us from God for all eternity.

Thankfully, our merciful Father in heaven provided a way for us to bridge the chasm created by sin. He provided His Son to take on the burden of all of our sin. He allowed His Son’s blood to be shed so that we may be cleansed of all of the unrighteousness that separates us from the presence of Almighty God. God made His own Son take on our sin so that we might become saints in heaven.

Jesus was not a sinner. He never sinned, yet He was made sin by the Father. He became a sin offering, a sacrifice for the sins of all men. The supernatural plan for all of this was that we might be made righteous in the eyes of God. Let us praise Our Lord for without Him we cannot surrender enough, we cannot labor enough nor can we suffer enough to secure our places in heaven for all eternity.

Let us be forever mindful that there is not a single thing that we can do on our own to pay off the sin debt that we inherited. Let us run to the foot of the Cross to receive the righteousness that is only available to us through Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us insure that our living testimonies reflect the eternal gift that we have been given at an enormous price to Our Savior.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, our thanks are inadequate to cover the redemptive work that cleanses us of our unrighteousness and allows us to stand in Your Holy Presence. There is no manner of word or worship that we could bring before You that would be sufficient to cover the debt that has been paid for us. We bless the name of Jesus who left His throne in heaven to come to earth to redeem us from the debt we could not pay on our own. We humble ourselves before You, Lord. We kneel at the foot of Your Cross and submit ourselves to a life in Your service here on earth and in heaven. We rejoice in knowing that we will serve You forever. We pray that our lives in Christ here on earth will lead others to the foot of Your Cross to receive their salvation. We ask all these things in the name of the Lord of Our Righteousness, Jesus Christ.

It is the Work of the Holy Spirit to Guide Us on the Path of Sanctification

Galatians 1:1
This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.

When Paul was writing and speaking to the Galatians, he made it clear that he was on a completely different path in life when He was touched by the hand of God. Paul emphasized that it was God that changed him and not him who changed himself.

Because of our sin nature, we all begin our lives on an ill conceived path covered by darkness. Until Our Heavenly Father opens our eyes, we can not see the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus Christ. Only when our new path has been made visible to us by the light of the Holy Spirit, can we receive the precious gift of salvation. All who are converted to be new men and women in Christ are called by the grace of God.

Upon accepting our salvation, we begin yet another journey – the journey to become holy. Just as salvation is not a work of our own hand, neither is the working out of our sanctification. The Holy Spirit within us molds our hearts so that we can submit to Jesus as Our Lord, Our Master and Our King. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to guide us to full submission to Our Savior so that God can do the work in us that is pleasing to Him. All the saved in Christ who are working on their sanctification are under the power and grace of the Holy Spirit working in them.

Let us recognize that there is nothing in this world that can bring us to victory over the darkness that the world offers. Let us be certain that we are totally incapable of overcoming the darkness of the world without the light of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let us surrender to the urgings of the the Holy Spirit as He carries out the work of sanctification in our lives. Let us rejoice in knowing that our path to holiness was guaranteed on the Cross.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your loving kindness, Your mercy and Your grace that is expressed to us through the gift of our salvation. We praise You for taking us from the darkness of our lives in the flesh into the light of Your Holy Spirit. We rejoice in being guided into full submission to Our Lord, Our Master and Our King, Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, that You will strengthen us and regenerate us as we strive to overcome the world in order to live our new lives in Christ. We ask all these things in the name of Our Most Gracious Savior, Jesus Christ.

An Eternal Inheritance That We Cannot Earn on Our Own

Romans 5:19
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

As a result of the disobedience of Adam, we were born with a sin nature. Because of Adam’s disobedience, we naturally put ourselves first in all things. This behavior alone puts us in direct violation of what Jesus taught were God’s greatest commands. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:38-39

The violation of either one of these two commands is enough to condemn us to eternal death. We cannot remove the condemning stain of this sin on our own. There is no escape or recovery from this sin except through the redemption provided through Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As a result of the obedience of Jesus to the calling of His Father in heaven, we are made righteous in the eyes of the Father. God removed our sin through the sacrifice of His own Son. He removed our sin in the only way that was acceptable to Him – through the shed blood of His Son which cleanses us. We accept His mercy and eternal atonement through our surrender to His Son, Jesus Christ.

It is important to understand that God does not hold us responsible for inheriting sin. He will not condemn anyone because of the sin that was inherited. He will condemn those that refuse to accept Jesus as the only measure of deliverance from their inherited sin and their ongoing iniquities. He will condemn those who choose to live in submission to the darkness of the flesh rather than under surrender to the light of the world, Jesus Christ.

Let us strive to have those around us see that we love God above all things and that we love them as we love ourselves. Let us show the world what is only possible through Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we ask forgiveness for the sin in our lives. We pray that You will reveal to us all the places in our lives where we are living in darkness, instead of in the Light. We ask You, Lord, for the grace to be able to repent of all the sin that remains in our lives. We thank You, Father, that through Your mercy You have made a way for us to be delivered from the condemnation that we deserve. We praise Your name, Father God, because through Your perfect love we have been given an eternal inheritance that we did not and cannot earn on our own. We bless the name of Jesus who now dwells within us. We pray that we may become Light to the darkness in world around us through His presence. We ask all these things in the name of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

May Our Obedience Glorify the Names of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit

John 17:4
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

Jesus Himself declared that His principal work was to be obedient to the will of His Father in heaven. He did not seek His own glory. He sought only His Father’s glory. In the process, He did away with Satan, sin and death and He provided for the redemption and the salvation of all men.

Just as Jesus was faithful in completing His work on earth to glorify His Father, He will also be faithful in completing His work in us so that we may glorify Our Father. We will not experience the complete fullness of His work in us until we meet Our Savior in His eternal kingdom. But as we surrender to the will of the Father, we can expect to accomplish more here on earth than we can imagine that we are capable of. And we can be certain that our work will bring glory to Our Father in heaven.

Be mindful that Satan and our own flesh will come against us as we seek to glorify the Father on earth. But fear not for the Spirit of the Lord will insure that we overcome the work of the enemy. We do not need to be concerned about our circumstances, Our Savior will be sufficient. And it will all be for the glory of The Father.

Let us surrender everything to Our Father in heaven. Let our obedience to His call on our lives glorify His name. May those around us glorify the Father when they see our faithfulness.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that You have given us through Your Son to overcome the world. We bless the name of Jesus for His faithfulness in completing the good work that You gave Him to do. We pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us and strengthen us so that we may fully surrender to Your will just as Your Son surrendered His all to You. May it all be for Your glory, for the glory of Your Son and the glory of the Holy Spirit. We ask all these things in the name of the obedient Son of the Most High God, Jesus Christ.

When We Give Ourselves Up to Christ, We Will Receive His Light in Our Lives

Revelation 1:17
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.

When John saw the glorified Christ, he fell at the feet of Our Lord. Joshua, Daniel and Paul were all similarly affected. The reason for such a reaction is the impact of sinfulness coming into the presence of sinlessness. As we draw in close to the Lord, His light reveals every iniquity in us and His fire begins to burn away that which offends Him. As we draw even closer, the purification process becomes even more intense.

The Lord will test us to see how difficult a journey we are willing to take to be close to Him. He will send people into our lives who will be challenges for us. He will ask us to serve them through the most menial and commonplace order. He will ask us to wash their feet.

Through it all, His divine presence will be with us. As we give up ourselves wholly to Him, we will receive His light in our lives. Our light should then shine forth among all men and women as we engage them in our lives. In the process, God will receive the glory.

Let us listen to His voice and receive His perfect love. Let us submit fully to His rule and reign in our lives. Let us prepare ourselves to be in His presence.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of Your presence in our lives. We praise the name of Jesus who has made it possible for us to stand before You. We ask forgiveness for all the things in our lives that have offended you. We pray that the Light of Your Son will reveal the darkness in our lives. We ask for the grace to be able to surrender to the good work that You are doing in us to prepare us to carry Your light to the world around us. We ask all these things in the name of the spotless Lamb, Jesus Christ.