We are Greater than the Greatest! We are One with Him!

Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, among those BORN OF WOMEN, there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist. But he who is least in the kingdom of the God of Heaven is greater than he.”

Those in the kingdom of God are BORN OF GOD. Jesus said John the Baptist was the greatest man that ever lived up to that point. But because of our spiritual rebirth the least of us are greater than he. "Your new self has been born in God's likeness, truly righteous and truly holy" (Ephesians 4:24).

John the Baptist was "filled with the Spirit from the womb" (Luke 1:15). But we are better than filled because He & we are ONE. "We who have joined ourselves to the Lord are one spirit with Him" (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Christ is a body, Jesus is the head of that body, those who trust Him are the rest of that body. Just as my hand is me and a part of me so too are we parts of the body of Christ and we are Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12). We are "one body and one Spirit" with God (Ephesians 4:4).

We are Greater than the Greatest! We are One with Him!

Are You Satisfied with Your Righteousness?

Jesus said, "Blessed are those of you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you will be satisfied."

How many of you are satisfied with your righteousness?

If you think your righteousness comes by keeping commands you are never satisfied.
If you have a partial understanding of your identity because of Christ but you still hold to the power of sin (the law) you are rarely satisfied but can sometimes be satisfied by simply hungering or thirsting.
But those walk only under grace "never thirst again" (John 4:14). They are truly satisfied. Jesus said, "Whoever comes to Me will not hunger, and whoever trusts in Me will not thirst at any time" (John 6:35).

But it is even grater than that. Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, “If anyone thirsts, let Him come to Me and drink. The one trusting in Me, as the scripture said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37-39). So not only will we never thirst but we ourselves will flow out RIVERS of living water!

"Jesus himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 2:2). Atoning means satisfying. "Jesus himself is the satisfying sacrifice for our sins." That means we can be satisfied with nothing else but His sacrifice concerning our sins & righteousness. His sacrifice satisfies us to where we can need nothing else; not even our performance, behavior, emotions; to make us confident that we know God without barriers & are fully cleansed of all unrighteousness.

God recreated us with the righteousness of Jesus! "Your new self has been created in God's likeness, truly righteous and truly holy" (Ephesians 4:24). In addition to that, in a mind boggling move, He made us "the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). He made us inseparable from His righteousness by making us into His very own righteousness!

Are you satisfied?


Related Posts:
Let's Share in the Satisfaction of His Sacrifice

Love is the Fuel of Our Father's Family

Many preachers attempt to save or motivate people by telling them "God has a purpose for your life, God has a plan for your life, God has a mission for you." Some people are motivated by having a sense of purpose or a mission to accomplish. But do you know what type of people aren't?  The broken, the distraught, the abused, the overwhelmed..

Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who are tired & burdened, & I will give you rest."

Running your life by having a sense of purpose or seeking a sense of accomplishment by carrying out a mission doesn't take you down the best road & it will eventually leave you empty, without fuel, without rest.

Jesus didn't come to put you to work for His glory. He came so we could know & trust in His Father's love for us.

Jesus said, "I made The Father's name known so that you can experience the love He has for you which is the same love He has for me. The Father loves you just as much as He loves me & I love you just as much as my Father loves me."

Jesus' mission wasn't to suck up all glory & feed on praise but to share it with us, the Father's family. Jesus used family language more than God language.

He once prayed, “Father, the glory You have given Me I give to them, that they may be one, just as We are one."

Glory can mean, good opinion, high value, excellence, magnificence, honor, praise.. Until we are willing to be honored & praised & flattered by our Father (Dad, Daddy, Dada, Papa, Parent) we cannot be "one" with one another. We must first feel our Father's adoring eyes on us before we can gaze at the true beauty of each other.

When you love the mission & the message more than you love the people there is a huge problem because the mission is to love the people & the message is that God loves the people. The message is not that "God so loved Himself that He sent His only Son to accomplish His self-centered mission of gathering up servants/missionaries to do His bidding & give Him all praise."

Jesus said, "I have come so that people may have life & have it abundantly!" What is abundant life but abundant love? What is God but love? Without His love for His family God is nothing. God doesn't deserve to receive glory simply because He is God. He deserves it because of His love. God is love & love is not self-seeking.

What kind of father refuses to praise His children while claiming to love them? What kind of father demands his family be centered around Him & His selfish will? What kind of father or older brother says, "It's all about ME! Praise me & serve me!" A good father is all about loving his family & God is the best Father there is!

"Because of our Father's great love for us He made us alive together with Jesus, so that He can FOREVER show us the overflowing riches of His love & kindness toward us." (From Ephesians 2:4-8)

A Father who is also God

People look for answers. Something you can read off of a piece of paper & pass around. Jesus didn't come as God's answer man, writing book after book of pro-God arguments. He came as the Son of God wanting to help people meet His incredible Father.

Jesus invited us to embrace His Father. He didn't come to satisfy our intellectual checklists to make His way make the most sense as the best bet of all world views.

So many wrestle with the questions of "God why do these bad things happen?" or "Where were you during these tragedies?"

Answers cannot replace a Father's love & comfort. Truth is made to speak to the heart first. We need to look for our Father here & now. People don't find God when looking for answers or certainty or even when they say, "God where are you?" God is found, right here, when His children cry for their Daddy.

Sadly Christianity has been made out to be primarily an academic pursuit centered around a book that teaches us how to ACT right rather than a family centered around its loving Father who teaches us how to LOVE one another by experiencing our Father's love for us.

Our Father is not a God who is also a Father but a Father who is also God. Jesus came not to show us a God to serve but to show us our Father as a friend.

The problem with most evangelism is that we seek to tell people ABOUT GOD instead of inviting people, as Jesus did, to KNOW OUR FATHER.

111% GRACE

In SEVEN places God promises, “Whoever who trusts in the Lord will NEVER be put to shame.” (Isaiah 28:16, 45:17, 54:4, Romans 9:33, 10:11, 1 Peter 2:6, Joel 2:26-27, )

Shame is LITERALLY the opposite of grace. It is disgrace.

A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS 111% GRACE!!!

..but what is grace? Grace is God's favor for you, His unending kind love & adoration of you.

"The Lord your God rejoices over you with singing and shouts of joy! He is so glad about knowing you that He twirls around dancing!" (Zephaniah 3:17)

Why the Knowledge of Evil is Dysfunctional

Satan says, "You need to do something to get what you need."
Jesus says, "You only need me. I will provide everything for you."

In the Hebrew language good is that which is functional & evil is that which is dysfunctional. The original lie to get us to taste evil was "If you know good & evil it will benefit you." Truth is good because truth works, truth is reality. Falsehood is evil because it does not work because it is not real thus it is harmful. You only need to live in reality.

Evil shatters our world when it says, "No no, this does work. You are the problem. If you do this or if you try harder at doing what you are already doing you can make it work. You can make this functional." Thus we spin our wheels trying to operate in that which was never meant to work,  trying to make evil good.

We also do this in how we handle the knowledge of good & evil. We believe the lie that says, "I should always be judging between good & evil. It is best for me to apply my knowledge of good & evil in everything with everyone. Doing so will make me more like God. Knowing evil won't kill me, it will make me stronger."

You see Satan's lie to Eve was the very same lie religion uses, "knowledge of evil is good for you." What does knowledge of evil create? Sin consciousness & self-judgment. Adam & Eve were ashamed & hid from God when they knew evil. They began to evaluate themselves & with that came fear & shame & insecurity. BUT we were designed to live off of God's evaluation of us, TO LIVE BY THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR US.

But the ultimate damage of the knowledge of evil was not that it entices us into dysfunctional behaviors & beliefs that put the blame of their deficiency upon us. The ultimate damage of the knowledge of evil was that it can blind us to God's abundance, His abundant love for us.

The lie of Satan is, "You are deficient, you are evil but you can make yourself better by doing certain things."
The truth of Jesus is, "I love you but you are dying. Trust me & I will give you my life & we can live forever, together."


Related Posts:
Children, The Sin Nature, & The Nature of Good & Evil

Not How but Who

The book of Acts was never meant to be a model, especially not a legalistic model, of how the church should look. Jesus did not leave us a model for meetings or even a model for maturity. Jesus left us Himself, a life giving Spirit that connects all of us to our Father so that we can live as His children & one another's brothers & sisters.

Jesus didn't want us to get caught up on what to do & how to do it but WHO we are WITH. As we fellowship with our Father we will fellowship with one another & whatever needs to get done will get done.

Problems come when we interject imperatives found or supposedly found in scripture into our relationships with God & one another. Jesus never told us to "follow scripture" or to "follow my apostles" or to "find & follow the methods & models laid out by the church recorded in the new testament scriptures." Jesus said, "Follow Me." The old covenant has ended ,the apostles are out of this world, & the 1st century church long gone. BUT JESUS IS STILL LIVING & ACTIVE. Jesus is still HERE. Trust Him today!

We don't need to repeatedly reach into history to find God's will. Jesus said God's will is for us to trust Him. That trust happens right now. He didn't say, "Trust what I once said" or "Trust what I've told others." Jesus said, "Trust in my Father & trust in Me."

Him saying that wasn't an obligation being laid down but an invitation to a relationship with Him, an invitation to be loved by Him thus gradually finding all the love you'll ever need to give or receive.
 

Finding your life

Jesus said, "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."

The word "save" can also be translated as "heal" or "make whole."

The harder we try to make our lives whole, to fill in what we perceive to be its blank spots or our weaknesses the more we will lose our life, the more it will be eaten up & wasted, the more we will miss out on real life around us.

To lose your life is to stop trying to control it, stop worrying about it, It is to lose it, lose track, forget about trying to grow it & heal it & find things to add to it. It is realizing that your health, wholeness, & security is God's responsibility. But not in the sense that "He is God & He controls everything." It is His responsibility in the sense that He is your Father. So unlike how we often see God, His goal is not to "do things TO you" but to "go through things WITH you," like a Father taking care of His child.

So to "find your life" is to "find YOUR LIFE WITH HIM!"
 

"Jesus doesn't love me"

If you've ever lived under twisted scripture & a false image of God you may have felt like this.

Jesus loves me for Himself for His army & His wealth
We to Him as slaves belong always unworthy of His sandal's throng

Does Jesus love me?
He is so above me
Does Jesus love me?
The Bible tells me "no"

It says my sin is always on His mind
It says He'll punish me if I'm one step behind
Guilt & shame are what I need to grow up & to believe

Does Jesus love me?
He bullies me & shoves me
Does Jesus love me?
The Bible tells me "no"

It says His glory is what it's all about
That we are only worthy of being thrown out
He is nothing like a father or a vine
He does not free He only binds
More & more upon our backs while judging every angle & every crack

Jesus doesn't love me
He only loves Himself

A Dozen Clairifications on 1 John 1:9

Most you make an assumption about 1 John 1 right off the bat. They assume it is written for Christians. When you assume the wrong audience for a scripture the "plain truth" becomes dangerously misapplied.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
Most teach this to mean, "Christians have to recount (list) all of their recent sins every time they pray in order to be forgiven by God and to have fellowship with God." So what is the problem with that? The problem comes if you assume something for yourself that was not intended for you & taking that assumption causes you to put conditions on your relationship with God that aren't actually there.

Here are SOME of the reasons why that interpretation of 1 John 1 is wrong.
1. 1 John 1 wasn't written for Christians. It was an explanation of how to be saved using inclusive language. John starts off this section of scripture saying "Now this is the message we have heard from Jesus and announce to you." The message is about God and how to be saved in verses 5b-10.
2. The word "confess" in 1 John 1:9 does not mean recount or list (recall & recite in prayer) but it actually means "to agree." It is to agree with God about your sins, that you had them and Christ took care of them. If you agree with God that Christ took your sins away, which He did, then you have no reason to recount them. Doing so would actually be the opposite of what John intended when writing this scripture. 1 John 1:9 simply means, "You receive His forgiveness at salvation by believing His forgiveness." It is not a rule for daily relationship. It is praising God that Christ finished the work on the cross and saying, "I want in on this!" Even if this were written for Christians it would simply mean, "Continue to agree with God that your sins are taken away and rejoice over Christ's finished work on your behalf!"
3. People think they have to ask God for forgiveness/confess to be forgiven because they assume He gets offended at them. If God has to reforgive you that means God continues to get reoffended at you. In Isiah 54:9, speaking of the new covenant in which we are now a part of, God promises to never be offended at us again. Thinking that we have to get God to forgive us over & over by sin confession goes against the very promise of God. Additionally 2 Corinthians 5:19 says, "God counts sins against no one." If He isn't counting sins or getting angry at us for them why would we need to "be forgiven?"
4. Our concept of biblical forgiveness is wrong. The word forgive in the old and new testaments does not mean "Stop feeling angry or offended toward someone for an offense, flaw, or mistake." or "accept an apology & stop holding a grudge." The word forgive in the bible means to "take away" or to "carry off." To be forgiven means God removes your sin & guilt, He takes it away. It does not mean God decides "Ok I'm not mad at you anymore." He wasn't mad in the first place. He gave His life for us because He loves us.
5. Conditional forgiveness for Christians pictures God as someone who only forgives when asked & as someone who holds a grudge if you don't ask. In other words He demands an apology despite the fact that He already shed His blood for all sin for all time.
6. Because of what Jesus did God promises to no longer remember our sins (Hebrews 8:12,10:17). The false teaching of Christian confession of sins requires people to remind Him of them. Notice Hebrews does not say, "I will remember their sins no more but only if you confess them to me." You have to add the conditional phrase "only if they confess their sins to me" to tons of scriptures to justify that view.
7. "Love keeps no record of wrongs" but those who feel they must confess their sins keep the best record of their own wrongs they possibly can. If God wanted you to confess your sins to Him that would mean He doesn't want you to love yourself, because you must keep a constant record of sins for or between your prayers. It would also mean that God doesn't love you because He keeps a record of your wrongs in between your confessions. This doctrine of Christian confession slanders the name and nature of our God & makes His love purely conditional.
8. Jesus' sacrifice purified us from sin one time, for all time so our consciousness of sin can disappear (Hebrews 10:1-2). Confession demands constant consciousness of sin.
9. Jesus took our sins away (Romans 11:27), confession brings our sins back out.
10. Sin confession has people dwelling on evil in daily prayer instead of dwelling on good. No one who believes that "Christians need to confess their sins to God" would admit this but as someone who once believed it & practiced it I'll say it, recounting what you think to be your recent sins tempts your mind and body into repeating those deeds. This is one of those things Christians ignore because they think they are weak and they just aren't living up to what they think "God's way" is. Philippians 4:8 says, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Is what we would typically call sin any of these things? Certainly not!
11. “Everyone who trusts in Jesus will never be put to shame” (Romans 10:11, Romans 9:33, 1 Peter 2:6, Isaiah 28:16). Confession of sins shames you. If someone you knew forced you to tell him all of your failures everyday that would dishonor you, disgrace you, and that person wouldn't seem to have much favor for you. What type of father wants you to focus on your faults, on every conceivable shortcoming that you have? Please don't make excuses for God to behave worse and love worse than human beings, He doesn't. God's ways are higher than our ways but remember Jesus is The Way, He perfectly exemplified God's ways. He never asked His disciples to list their sins to Him or to the Father.
12. Nowhere in scripture do we see a command for Christians to confess sins. Paul never told the people he was rebuking for a myriad of bad things to confess their sins to God to get right with Him or to restore fellowship with Him. So many claim this is an essential practice for daily Christian life with God, bigger than general prayer because they say you have to start your prayer with confession for God to hear you. Yet it only seems to appear in 1 John 1. That clues us to the fact that people have misinterpreted who 1 John 1:9 is addressing.


A Note on Repent
The word "repent" by itself has nothing to do with sin. It does not mean "turn from sin" in the New Testament. It is a mistranslation that really means "to change your mind about something." (Check any lexicon). We find no commands for Christians to frequently repent. No one was ever even asked to do it twice! Contextually repent almost always means "to change your mind from mistrust/unbelief to trust/faith in Jesus," in other words "get saved." The false concept of repentance has us promising God we'll do better or that we'll stop doing particular things. But Jesus specifically said to not make promises to God (Matthew 5:33-37). Jesus recommends we respond to God in time with an honest ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ We aren't to live by the promises we make to God but the promises He has made to us.


If those dozen reasons aren't enough this page links to a dozen+ posts which go into great detail as to why the typical view of 1 John 1:9 is wrong.
Why Christians Don't Need to Confess Sins

New Testament Commands & why you shouldn't be bothered by them

Commands found in the New Testament are not laws. A law is something that you are bound to keep where failure to keep it results in a penalty/punishment. There is no condemnation or punishment for those in Christ. Jesus fulfilled the law & ended it by nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:14 & Ephesians 2:15).

Jesus officially gave ONE new command. Old Testament commands were clearly outlined as to who they were given to.

Deuteronomy 6:1-2, "These are the commands, decrees, and regulations that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them.. you and your children and grandchildren.. as long as you live."

There was no formal giving of new universal commands in the New Testament. So many have legalized the New Testament espousing that the mere presence of commands in scripture equates to those commands universally applying to all mankind. I used to do it myself & to myself.

If you have a command that every person is bound to keep every moment of their life, regardless of how long or how well they know God that is a burdensome law. The idea that Christians are bound to keep any of the commands spoken/written in the New Testament by Jesus, the apostles, & its authors is false.

If you are reading the New Testament it is wise to consult the Father & to examine the context of what is being said. But the discussion of what we are "supposed to do" & "supposed to avoid" according to scripture is a wasted one. It is legalistically treating the bible as a law book in which we only seek to gain "knowledge of good & evil." By default this causes us to miss the message of abundant life & our loving Father that the New Testament contains. It is replacing the Spirit with the letter. It focuses our minds to improving our flesh rather than even so much as glancing at Jesus.

So the, ultimately judgemental & condemning, discussions of "who should do what" were never meant to be had. Jesus wants us to know His wonderful loving Father. A father who is always by his child's side doesn't need a list of dos & don'ts. He only needs his love & his child's trust.


Related Posts:
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments † I Will Love You So You Will Trust Me
"This is love for God: to keep His commands" Uh oh! ...there goes grace!
Trust and Love, Everything We Need
If WHO loves Him? They will keep WHAT commandments?

If WHO loves Him? They will keep WHAT commandments?

Many have heard people quote Jesus as saying, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" But what did Jesus say next? He said "and.." That means the oft quoted "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" isn't even a quote of the full sentence Jesus spoke! Here it is with the "and" in tact:

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments AND I will ask the Father, and He will give to you another Comforter, that He might be with you forever the Spirit of truth. He will be in you." (John 14:15-17)

Seeing this together causes us to beg the question of who the "you" Jesus is speaking to is. It cannot refer to us today because:
1. The Spirit of Truth has already been sent/given.
2. The Spirit of Truth is already in us who know God.
3. We are not saved by keeping commandments (works) we are saved by trusting in God.
4. Salvation occurs not because we loved God but because He first loved us.

If this were to us today it would mean Jesus only sends to Holy Spirit into us after we first love Him & work to keep His commands. That is the total opposite of the gospel! By now it should be obvious that we now have no business throwing this broken sentence around trying to get people to keep commands.

But this still makes no sense because Jesus did say this to someone yet it seems to be against the gospel itself. Now let us consider the greater context. Jesus said this to His disciples shortly before He was arrested & sent to the cross. This was a short & unique time in history were Jesus could be known before He finished redemption.

Jesus was saying "Do you love me Peter? Do you love me John? Do you love me Matthew?... If you love me you will keep my commandments.." Jesus had even just specified the commandments. In John 14:1 Jesus says, "Trust in God. Trust also in Me." This was Jesus' appeal to the human relational love they had for Him which was built in the time they were with Him so they would trust Him through the devastating time where He goes to the cross and even to the grave. Jesus foretold them of His death and resurrection numerous times. John 13:1 says that everything Jesus did this night was to love His disciples because He knew He was going to be arrested and die soon. Jesus wanted His disciples to trust Him so they would see Him risen & receive the Holy Spirit of Truth.

He did still love them first. They just lived in the unique time where they could love Him before they were redeemed. They were still saved by trust (faith/belief) & not works because Jesus' commands were to "Trust in (have faith in/believe in) God. Trust also in Me."

So be free my friends. God does not require us to prove our love for Him by our works. Continue to trust in Him & His love for you. When you know His love for you then you'll never doubt your love for Him.

Related Posts:
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments † I Will Love You So You Will Trust Me
"This is love for God: to keep His commands" Uh oh! ...there goes grace!
Trust and Love, Everything We Need

We've Been Holy for a While Now..

It is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." So be holy also in all your behavior (1 Peter 1:15-16).
Peter was quoting a prophecy, "you SHALL BE holy," that is fulfilled by our new birth. He is essentially saying "since you are already holy, live like it." God's children are all called "saints" which literally means "holy people." It is a lot easier to make a million when you are already a millionaire. Likewise it is a lot easier to "be holy in all your behavior" when you know you are already a holy person. You live from abundance rather than scratch for sustenance & acceptance.

We are "holy and dearly loved" (Colossians 3:12).
"Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God. God's temple is holy, and you are that temple" (1 Corinthians 3:17, 6:19-20). You are holy!

Live holy but don't live to become holy. Live holy because He has made you holy, because you are grateful for the gift of His Life, because that is who you are..