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If we fail to understand the truth of what Jesus has done for us, we will continue living as though we are still slaves to sin and self. The blood of Jesus has not only forgiven us all of our individual sins, but has also legally separated us from our servitude to sin itself. The chains to our previous enslavement are broken.

The farmer or viticulturalist prunes sucker shoots to purge them away out of the life of the plant, which serves only to strengthen that plant so what when fruit appears, the plant is better able to bear it. Doing so cleanses the plant allowing for better fruit production.

God will do whatever He needs to do in the life of the believer to unhitch us from the world so that we learn to focus on Him and Him alone. He will "lift" or "take us up" from lying on the dirt so that we do not become thoroughly ensconced in the world's ways so that we gain motivation from the world around us. God wants us to focus completely on Him, so He will remove us from those things that want to become our gods.

John says we are literally called the children of God (1 John 3:1). Peter tells us we are a holy nation, a special possession, a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). There is so much to being a child of God through salvation, that it requires us to contemplate it a good deal of the time. We need to study His Word to allow the Spirit to illuminate our thinking, which will transform the way we think and free us to live lives that please God without the struggles we often face when doing things in our own strength.

Do we ever stop to consider what our approach to Jesus will be when we come face to face with Him in eternity?? It's difficult for us to shape that thinking because He is invisible to us. We are separated by this physical life, though He is clearly here within us via the Holy Spirit. When I finally see Him, I hope I will prostrate myself before Him. I hope I will caress His nail scarred feet and hands. I hope I will give Him all the love I possess for Him. I hope out of all the wonderful things in eternity, Jesus will be my main focus.

et's start with Ecclesiastes 12. Readers will recall that King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived - according to and aside from Jesus - pointed out flaws in human thinking and the way people pursue things. I will admit that originally, I tended to look at Ecclesiastes as being "off." In other words, here was the wisest man who ever lived, who had everything a person could possibly want and yet, he saw all human endeavors as vanity. In other words, he was saying that all the things people try to accomplish are borne in the vain imaginations from within our selfish natures.

As a young woman goes through the Jewish wedding process, she is focused on the day her groom will come back to take her to the newly finished room in his father's house. After his father tells him it's time, the groom will walk through the streets with his groomsmen behind him approaching the bride's home. He will call out to her as he gets closer. She will come running out to meet and greet him and will be swept up in his arms. They will then turn and go to the room that has been set up for their ceremony and dinner. She will forever remain with her husband as his wife in his father's house.

Some argue that we are able to be saved because God grants us something called "prevenient grace." This is the belief that God grants us the ability to believe Him prior to our coming to Him for salvation and without this prevenient grace, no one could be saved at all. The truth of the matter for me, is that all people have the ability to believe what they read or hear from any source. Those who come to God in faith believing that He exists and has made salvation available to us do so because of their decision to believe Him. This is exactly what the thief on the cross experienced, while his counterpart a few feet away did not. It was solely a difference in belief regarding Jesus.

It seems to me the very plain teaching of Scripture includes a physical return of Jesus, where every eye will see Him of those living at the time (Daniel 7:13; Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62; Revelation 1:7; Revelation 14:14). Seeing Jesus is not in the mind's eye or somehow spiritually. It is a literal event when He physically returns so that the entirety of the world will finally understand that God is in control. That much is clear and obvious. To attempt to turn this obvious meaning into a spiritual return is repugnant to me.

We have two choices in life. One, we can continue to try to do things our way, mistakenly believing that we control our own destiny and the things that happen in life. Two, we can come to the true realization that we are not in control at all and that everything that happens to us happens because of God's plan. If we try to live the first option, we can quickly grow conceited in the belief that we have it going on; that our decisions are what matters and above all things, we walk in a path that we have developed for ourselves. If we live with option number two, we will more quickly come to the end of ourselves, realizing that the very breath we breathe is on loan from God Himself.

In the book, The Gospel for Disordered Lives, the authors expose the way Satan works to defeat the believer. In chapter 8 titled, Battling Satan and His Demons, they discuss biblical counseling and how it involves spiritual warfare against evil forces that hate us and who are stronger than the folks counselors counsel. This actually applies to all Christians, whether it is recognized by them or not.

In Ed Welch's book, Side By Side, in his last chapter, he writes about keeping the story in view. By that he means that we should try to continually focus on the big picture regarding our salvation. Welch compares our past, which is filled with sin and failure to our ultimate future in Christ. But he also points out our present situation and how much God pursues us daily.

The king seemed interested and wanted to see the scroll so he sent for it. The contents of the scroll was read before the king and all the princes gathered. After 3-4 columns of the scroll were read, the king took a knife and cut off what had been read and tossed the words in the fire near him. Eventually, the entire scroll was burned up after it had been read. This act was one that showed King Jehoiakim's view of God and His Word. He didn't care. He resisted God. V24 tells us that neither the king or princes were afraid at all. They were defiant in their rebellion of God!

I've been doing a good deal of thinking lately about why God seems to delay in meting out justice at times, yet at other times, He seems to move fairly quickly to resolve something. There are many examples in Scripture where God's patience seems to have no end in sight, then He finally moves. In other examples, it only takes a person one misstep and God reaches out to deal with it. Why is that?

We are responsible to "put off" and "put on" with the help of the Spirit within us. We must make the active decision here. Tim notes that when we angrily react to something, we are not using faith at all. We are simply being pushed by our feelings. If we consider the state of much of society, we see large portions of the population devoid of self-control. They simply react to whatever circumstance they encounter, usually in anger. Reacting like this is not loving.