Author: kezha1

Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus battled with self…asking His Heavenly Father if there was any other way Salvation could happen other than what He would soon be going through. Here’s something Charles Spurgeon once wrote that even the most holiest of Christians would have to heartly agree with…”Self is the worst enemy a Christian has.” Sure, we won’t admit it, but our concern for self is paramount…desiring that all things be easy, comfortable, and pleasant for self. And to achieve this we coddle, pamper, & spoil self. We will enable & protect self over others and occasionally even flaunt self like a proud peacock. But what happens when we love self more than God? Paul warned Timothy in II Timothy 3:2 that in the last days people would be lovers of themselves…more concerned about their welfare than the good of others or even God. The opposite of selfish is selfless…so the best way to combat self is to serve others out of love.

A phrase I heard this morning had me thinking. It was, “You become what you behold.” Now for me, the simple answer to this was, “I want to become more like Jesus…so to do this I need to behold Him more.” If I want to change my attitude, I need to observe how Jesus treated people. If I want to grow spiritually, I need to be in the Bible daily, seeing how Jesus ministered to the unlovely, the orphan,& the widow. And if I want to be transformed, I need to regard Jesus as my Lord & Savior. Finally, if I truly want to turn my life around, I need to pray as Jesus prayed for Believers who would be born & come to faith in future ages. In John 17: 20-26, Jesus prays for whose who’ll believe in Him through the sharing of the Good News of the Gospel Message. Which means, if I’m not already sharing the Gospel with others, I need to be. Jesus prayed that the world would come to believe that God sent Him to earth to save mankind…again, I need to be telling people about Jesus. He also prayed that we may be one with Him, as He is one with the Father, and by this brought to complete unity as Believers in order to show the world His love…in other words, I need to show a unity & love in me that’s so visible to the world that it’s automatically drawn to Jesus.

Jesus is our model when it comes to prayer. He displayed the importance in Luke 6:12-16 when He spent the entire night praying to God before choosing the Twelve disciples…showing that prolonged prayer should precede any important decision. In Matthew 6:5-13 we read His discourse on the topic of prayer do’s & don’ts including the demonstration of the most perfect prayer…The Lord’s Prayer. It being a model of brevity, simplicity, and child-like dependence and confidence in our Heavenly Father. Finally, in John 11:41-42 we see Jesus praying out loud for the benefit of the people, carefully linking the impending miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead to His Mission as Messiah. Charles Spurgeon once called prayer the grandest power in the entire universe – with more force than electricity or gravity or any other power known to man. Praying should be as natural as breathing, as open & honest as the conversations we have with ourselves, and as candid as speaking the words out loud for what the Holy Spirit has already prompted us to do.

These qualities that Peter is talking about here are the fruits of the Spirit – goodness, self control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, & love for each other. And these qualities are gained by holy habits such as praying and reading our Bible daily. For as we practice these holy habits, we grow spiritually. But if we’re not careful, we can find ourselves soon worshipping the habit rather than what the habit symbolizes. We’ll see God intentionally upset our well laid schedule with something He has more important for us to do, and then wait to see our response. If we exclaim, “I can’t do that right now – this is my quiet time with the Lord!” We’re worshipping our habit & not Him. If we make excuses & try to justify it, our habit has become more important to us than being obedient.

It’s so easy to take for granted the light of Jesus in our lives…to the point we become very lazy. Jesus called us “People of Light” in Luke 16:8…people that stand out brightly against the darkness of this present world. But many of us aren’t any good in the everyday world when we’re not first experiencing some “mountain top” moment in the Lord. We put stipulations, conditions, & emotions ahead of immediately just acting when the Holy Spirit prompts us. The great danger of this being…anytime we reject the light of God, our spiritual life gets a little bit dimmer.

Jesus is greatly troubled…His soul overwhelmed with sorrow by the prospect of bearing the wrath of His Holy Father in our place. Nevertheless, He accepts His role and the purpose of Him coming to earth in the first place…reasserting His commitment to the Father’s perfect Will. Jesus knew the time had come…a time of trial, sorrow, and suffering on His part…but He also knew that if He desired, God could rescue Him. We see this in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus declared again, “Don’t you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26: 53-54)

Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “He that perverts truth shall soon be incapable of knowing the true from the false…” You see that in people who are habitual liars, telling one lie to cover the lie they told earlier, (because they couldn’t remember the first lie they told you)…and pretty soon they’re believing their own lies. We also see this perversion of the truth in the early Church as false teachers infiltrated the congregations. Paul warned the Church in Galatia about the false teachers trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ in Galatians 1:7 Jude likewise warned about false teachers perverting the grace of God and denying the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in Jude 4 Which goes to say, unless you are solidly grounded in the Word of God… continually walking in His truth…and asking daily for God to send forth His light & truth to guide you.. you too may be swayed & taken captive by false teaching… and in the end become unable to discern what’s true from what’s false.

Here Jesus is using the very familiar agricultural growth cycle of wheat…from seed sown, to plant ready to be harvested, as an explanation of His sole objective here on earth. Christ’s death on the Cross was necessary…opening the door of salvation to all people by making atonement for our sins. But in a way this verse also illustrates our fruitfulness as Believers, who are prepared to die to self and our old sin nature & live anew for Christ. It’s simple, Jesus came to earth to die in our place, for His death had unique purpose…for in no other way could the world be redeemed.

Paul tells us here that we have been set free from the yoke of religious ceremonies & forms through the blood of Jesus Christ. And by this liberty we can bring others into the same relationship with Jesus. But when man gets in the way with his own thoughts, opinions, or unique Church doctrine…we’re no longer claiming freedom but rather slavery to Legalism. We’re not asked to believe in the Bible or other texts, but to believe in the One whom the Bible reveals…that being Jesus Christ. And when Jesus said, “Go and make disciples.” He didn’t mean to make converts to your own personal thoughts or opinions.

It is much better to fulfill the plan & purpose of God in your life by discerning His Will rather than performing what you think are great works of sacrifice. For we tend to go back to things that are comfortable and we know well. But it tells us here that God wants change not status quo. We need to allow our character to undergo a metamorphosis…a sanctifying spiritual transformation as we learn, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to ascertain God’s Will. This means we can’t focus on the past or the temporal as we seek out God’s good pleasure to carry out His divine plan & purpose in our life. In other words, never go back to doing what you once did, when God wants you to be doing something completely new.