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I indeed baptize you with water . . . but He . . . will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire —Matthew 3:11 The beginning of Jesus is at the end of us.  I will never know what the baptism of the Holy Spirit means until  I indeed am at the end, and I cannot do anything more— but He begins right there— He does the things that no one else can ever do.  Repentance doesn’t start at the point when I recognize myself as a sinner; for all have sinned and fallen short. It begins when  I realize that I am absolutely unworthy and helpless, and I know that through and through I am not worthy even to carry His sandals. Have I repented like that, or do I have a lingering thought of possibly trying to defend my actions? The reason God cannot come into my life is that I am not at the point of complete repentance that is, a recognition of my complete unworthiness.  Get to the end of yourself where you can do nothing, but where He does everything. The His baptism will sweep over us, in spirit and in truth and […]

Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . —Matthew 5:3 In the year after Law School I clerked for a Federal Judge in Atlanta. I would arrive in downtown Atlanta early in the morning. I would have to literally step over folks who had slept in the streets in front of the courthouse the night before. It was very disturbing at first, but like most things in life, after a while I didn’t even notice them. It was like they weren’t there. The New Testament notices things that do not seem worthy of notice by our standards. “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . .” This literally means, “Blessed are the paupers.” Paupers are remarkably commonplace! The preaching of today tends to point out a person’s strength of will or the beauty of his character— things that are easily noticed. The statement we so often hear, “Make a decision for Jesus Christ,” places the emphasis on something our Lord never trusted. He never asks us to decide for Him, but to yield to Him— something very different. At the foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is the genuine loveliness of those who are commonplace. I am truly […]

. . . and I will give you rest —Matthew 11:28 We are in constant struggle between self-awareness and Christ-Awareness. When we move too far in the self awareness direction, we begin to “Me. Me. Me. It’s all about Me.” We need to more than intellectualize that it’s all about Jesus. Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, acknowledge Him, turn to Him at once, asking Him to re-establish your rest.  If we look around and analyze our lives we will note certain things that push us to self and away from Christ. Never allow anything to remain in your life that is causing the unrest.  If we try to overcome our self-awareness through any of our own commonsense methods, we will only serve to strengthen our self-awareness tremendously. Jesus says, “Come to Me . . . and I will give you rest,” that is, Christ-awareness will take the place of self-awareness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest.

Come to Me . . . —Matthew 11:28   We are often counselled that we need to get in touch with ourselves, self-awareness. As a movement, self-awareness is a bunch of bunk. See if you can decipher this: Self-awareness is the awareness of the self as separate from the thoughts that are occurring at any point in time. Without self-awareness the self perceives and believes the thoughts that are occurring to be who the self is. Self-awareness gives one the option or choice to choose thoughts being thought rather than simply thinking the thoughts that are stimulated from the accumulative events leading up to the circumstances of the moment.   In fact, a lack of self awareness is not our problem. Once we become children of God our problem is a lack of Christ awareness.   It is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we […]

When he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich —Luke 18:23 We should not leave the rich young ruler  and his decision to move away from Jesus without comprehending that he did so   speechless with sorrow, having nothing to say in response to Jesus’ words. He had no doubt about what Jesus had said or what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow with no words with which to respond. Have you ever been there? Has God’s Word ever come to you, pointing out an area of your life, requiring you to yield it to Him? Maybe He has pointed out certain personal qualities, desires, and interests, or possibly relationships of your heart and mind. If so, then you have often been speechless with sorrow.  “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, / The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’”  Whittier’s Maud Muller: What Might Have Been http://american-poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/whittiers_maud_muller#ixzz0wx598DsY These words express the essence of the reason for such profound sadness. It is the recognition of great opportunity missed. It is not enough to make it into the kingdom by the “skin of our teeth.” We were created for a life […]

. . . Jesus . . . said to him, ’You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have . . . and come, follow Me.’ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich —Luke 18:22-23 Every real relationship has a “fish or cut bait” moment” a time for making a commitment. For the rich young ruler, this was the time. Jesus knew he wasn’t ready, but the rich man pressed and when Jesus asked for his riches, the young man wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready to be devoted; he was discouraged. Marriage used to be a an example of this for us. It had a point where the parties faced the commitment decision: do I go all the way with this person? Is this for real? Is this forever? Do I forsake all others and go with this one for better or for worse? Am I ready to give all I have to get all they have? In exchange for that commitment we got real love, security, and life long faithfulness. Not so much any more. The generation that gave us one night stands, hooking up and living together has also […]

He calls his own . . . by name . . . —John 10:3   We had a great Sunday at Amana today, a day filled with hope as Dr. Dave Regan discussed, “What happens when you die.” But that great hope is based on our relationship with Jesus. Do we know Him? Does He know me? There are occasions which challenge a relationship: Disinformation, Doubt and Denial. Any of these will cause us to question our relationship with Him. When I have sadly misunderstood Him? (see John 20:11-18 ). There are times when the Jesus of scripture just doesn’t seem to be the Jesus we believe that we know.  When Mary  went to the tomb on Easter morning it was empty. When Jesus appeared to her, she didn’t recognize Him. A Risen Lord is not what she expected. There are times when the Jesus we experience is not the Jesus we expect. We misunderstand who He is. Mary’s doctrine was challenged. She had to trust in her experience.  Doctrine meant no more to her than the grass under her feet. In fact, any Pharisee could have made a fool of Mary doctrinally, but one thing they could never ridicule was […]

You must be born again —John 3:7   New birth is miraculous; and radical. The answer to Nicodemus’ question, “How can a man be born when he is old?” is: Only when he is willing to die to everything in his life, including his rights, his virtues, and his religion, and becomes willing to receive into himself a new life that he has never before experienced ( John 3:4  ). This new life exhibits itself in our conscious repentance and through our unconscious holiness. “But as many as received Him. . .” ( John 1:12  ). Is my knowledge of Jesus the result of my own internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have learned through listening to others? Is there something in my life that unites me with the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior? My spiritual history must have as its underlying foundation a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. To be born again means that I see Jesus. “. . . unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ” (John 3:3). Am I seeking only for the evidence of God’s kingdom, or am I actually recognizing His absolute sovereign control? The new […]