In this episode, Chris and I unpack Jesus's humility and desire for it to be reproduced in God’s people.
Could there be any worse conundrum? Any more grievous a contemplation? How horrific: to claim the name of Christ without Christ. To profess Jesus without the nature of Jesus. Is this not the height of hypocrisy; to claim to be what you neither evidence nor live? We must lament the Christian profession void of Christ-expression.
Jesus is Salvation: to know Him is to be rescued (Isa. 12:2). Jesus is the Prince of Peace: To know Him is to be governed by His pleasant ways (Pr. 3:17). Jesus is Wonderful Counselor: to know Him is to be heard, seen, and instructed (Ps. 32:8). Jesus is Almighty God: to know Him is to tremble at His greatness; secure in His fortress (Ps. 2:11) (Pr. 14:26). Jesus is Eternal Father, and are we obedient children at rest in His house? (Isa. 9:6)
In this episode, John Richards and I talk about the importance of embracing the whole of who Jesus is, in His kindness and severity. Jesus is beautiful in all His parts, making up the sum of His perfections.
The boast of life is to be a boast in God. This highlights God’s glory and abases us in an attitude of humility. We’ve come to this conclusion: God is all, and we are not. Too often, we put confidence in our strength, smarts, and status, and we are content to go on without the help of God. However, this is godless. What do I mean by that?- To be godless is to live unaware of your need for God, and to proceed in life without seeking His help; as if He has not offered Himself to be the God of our existence. In short, to be godless is to live life without God. This results in a life ruled by sin, worry, and fear. Without God, we are given over to the troubled nature of this life, and misplace our boast, seeking help from men. Here, we seek man’s wisdom rather than the wisdom of God. We seek therapy because we don’t know God’s healing. If this is the pattern of our lives, can we boast that we’ve come to know God? God’s name is Counselor, are we counseled? God’s name is Savior, are we saved? God is a rescuer, are we rescued? If God is the life-giver then why are we dead? If God is a river of riches then why are we as dry as a desert? There must be more, and oh there is! Place your trust, life, and boast in God, and He will be the help of your presence.
The majority of humanity is mismeasuring success. Humanity’s boast has been misplaced. The common view of success is often measured by the accumulation of possessions, the boast of accomplishment, and the lifting of oneself above another. Men and women are overcome with the desire to be envied and adored. They are absorbed in their interests, unconcerned for the person next to them. Sadly, this is not only the reality of heathens, meaning those void of all reality of God, but also of people who take on the name “Christian.” This is wrong. This is sin. This is what it means to love the world. This is not the love of God (1 Jn. 2:15-16).
Are you sick, suffering the dreadful disease of sin? Does sin-sickness corrupt your heart and torment your life? Is death at work in your body because sin rules uncontrolled in your life? Reality is: Knowing Jesus is joyful liberty. Indulging sin suffers the death of tyranny. Choose this day whom you will serve. Flee to the Savior for help and wholeness.
In this episode we talk about experiencing God as a treasure to be enjoyed.
In this episode we talk about what it means to burn with the passion of Jesus.
Does your life as a Christian consist of a heartfelt desire to help others? Do you want them to walk in the freedom of Christ that you have come to know and enjoy? Paul instructs us how to help rather than hurt. How to build up instead of tearing down. Now don’t get me wrong, sin must be exposed, dealt with, and healed from. At times we must tear down lies to implant truth. Sin must be exposed so that Christ’s righteousness is highlighted. However, sin is not driven out of hearts and lives by abusing others. Nor can the heart be cleansed of sinful desire by hurting them with the harshness of our fleshly tone. Instead, in the gentleness of humility we approach the sin-ridden, in preparation to sacrificially care for them. We must pursue others desiring sincerely their good and growth in God, expecting nothing from them, but wholeheartedly investing in serving them with the gifts of God at work in us for their welfare. Paul writes, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted” (Galatians 6:1).
“Happy is the one who is always reverent, but one who hardens his heart falls into trouble” (Proverbs 28:14).
The mind of men, without the enlightening influence of Jesus, cannot comprehend spiritual truth. The phrase “Happy is the one who is always reverent,” is a blatant contradiction to the experience of the majority of professing Christian’s in modern day. We are taught that happiness, more perfectly, true blessedness is found in the avoidance of seriousness. We reason that the consuming fire of God cannot rest in harmony with the nature of God’s love. However, God’s love burns: His love burns for us, revealing the longing of His heart, and when received, His love burns in us, consuming the desire of the flesh. On the other hand, if the beauty of God is rejected, the salvation-rescue of God spurned, this fire burns against us. When God’s love is received, God’s nature refines, and this melting of the love of God strips us bare, resulting in the singularity of love toward Jesus. God’s love satisfies us out of sin. We are perfectly known there.
“God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:11).
Jesus is life present and life eternal. To have Him is to have Him forever. God has given us a gift: life in His Son. The words, “God has given us,” signify that we did not earn this, merit, or deserve it. Man needs Jesus, the gift of life, because man does not possess life of His own. God, is the gift of God given to man. God is so kind that He has chosen to give Himself to us. The fact that God has, in His Son, given us life, is to realize that apart from Him we were, and are lifeless. To need life is to be dead. However, we don’t merely need eternal life as an escape from hell. We need eternal life, the life of Jesus, to live this life now. To know Jesus presently is to know Jesus eternally. You need not fear if you will have entry to heaven, when you know the person who is the Way-Jesus. As John writes, “this life is in his Son.” If you need life and desire to live forever, then you need Jesus. You don’t need to work harder, and fear more. You need to know, by experience and genuineness of relationship, the Son of God. Join yourself in Jesus, and you will have a present experience of God’s supply of life. The life that never fades and will welcome you into heaven on judgment day.
God has a gift for you. Do you know it? God offers Himself as drink for you, do you enjoy it? Jesus is speaking to you, and do you hear it? “Come,” He says, “Come to the waters and drink” (Isa 55:1). And what are these waters but the waters of life, and what is this refreshing but the present experience of eternal life? One writer states, “What is this communion with Christ but heaven beforehand.” Might I state a simple reality; your soul is so heavy because it is so muddy-let Christ’s watering become your remedy.
Do you experience the gift of God?- the bubbling up of the life of the Holy Spirit within? What is this gift of God but a “river of pleasures” (Ps. 36:8), a “fountain of life” (Jer. 2:13), our enabling godliness (Ez. 36:26-27), and our soul’s great delight? (Isa 55:2) God, His word, and His Spirit; the finest food to eat; the tastiest beverage to drink, and our spirit’s never-ending retreat. To all I cry out with Isaiah and Jesus, clearly declaring, “Come and feast!”
In this episode we talk about Pastor Lucas Jon Bessey's book, "Faith + Grace = Joy." We unpack the function of the law, namely, to lead us to Christ.
How should we approach God?- loftily?- no, but in humility. Who are we in light of Him?- and do we think we have any value apart from Him? We must say with the Psalmist, “¶When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have established; What is man that You remember him, And the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4) This is who God is-Creator and this is who we are creation, and we must approach Him appropriately.
In this podcast episode, Emmanuel Filip and I unpack what it means to love God with the whole of who we are.
What does it mean to loathe sin? The word “loathe” in the original language, and in the context of the verse at hand, is to “hate, disgust; to experience a feeling of intense sickening” at the sin one has committed. Not only that, but as God states, we will “loathe ourselves,” for committing the sin. What bitterness of soul do we experience, who profess faithfulness to Christ, when carried away by evil desire (James 1:14). We grieve over our sin, and we look to Christ for the refreshing of life. This is directly in line with the teaching of Jesus, who states, “You must hate your life, or you cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). If we sin, we must loathe ourselves for committing it, look to Christ’s victory, and experience God’s pardoning.
You cannot separate the heart and the life. What the heart craves, the life will follow after. The heart flooded with the light of Jesus, walks after Jesus. The heart void of Christ walks after the cravings of the flesh. God, confronting His children, the people of Israel states, “Their heart continually walked after their idols” (Ezekiel 20:16). The inner man of the people of God, namely, the affections of their heart; the constitution of who they are, “continually” craved and “walked after” their heart-desire for forbidden things; sinful delicacies. Their heart was corrupt and they walked crooked paths.
In this episode Jacob Dilger and I discuss what it means to follow Jesus as defined in scripture. Come with us on this journey!
In this episode of the Fueling the Fires of First Love Podcast, I interview my Pastor, Doc Murphy, on what it means to spiritually mature for the glory of God! Purchase his new book "Mature: Come into Your Own" available on Amazon.
In this conversation my brother Seth and I talk about the goodness of our God, who has changed us, by saving us; washing us from the inside out by the blood of Jesus. God saves! May your heart be encouraged and stirred to seek the Jesus who saves us from our sins.