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Identity

By / 3 minutes of reading / , ,

Our Identity is Found in Jesus

As Christians, we exchanged our lives for life in Jesus. If you are a believer, then your identity has been changed. The new ‘you’ is found in Jesus “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God1.“

I’m Not Me

In a genuine sense, we die (and are dying) to our desires, worldly beliefs, and ungodly imaginations, exchanging them for the desires of Jesus. If you ask me, “What am I?” My answer is that I am a citizen of the kingdom of God. If you try again and ask me, “To what do I identify?” My answer is that my identity is in Jesus. Daily, through the continuing process of sanctification, I strive to die to myself and live for Jesus.

This dying (taking up my cross2) cannot be accomplished by obedience to the Law of Moses; it comes only by faith. Our new life only comes through faith, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise3.”

What I Will Be

Now you may think I am implying that no one will have their personality in heaven. I am not. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we find, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands4.”

God doesn’t want robots; He wants people that are fit for the inexpressible blessing He has in store for them. I am confident that the process of becoming more Christ-like will be complete when we receive our glorified bodies. Our ethnicity, education, and earnings will carry no value in heaven. Our social standing or political persuasion is worthless in the kingdom of God. We will not have a higher standing nor be subjected to a lower ‘class’ based on any natural condition. The only thing that will affect our opportunities and standing in heaven will be what we do right now with the lives God gave us5.

Good News

If we have enough life to fog a mirror, we have enough life to gain a reward in heaven. God, our Father, wants us always to allow the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus by being Christ-like. God never forgets our prayers6, tears7, and words8 that we do by faith in the work of Jesus. Live for Jesus; that’s what matters.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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[1]: Colossians 3:3 ESV
[2]: Matthew 16:24 ESV
[3]: Galatians 3:27–29 ESV
[4]: Revelation 7:9 ESV
[5]: Romans 14:12 NLT
[6]: Acts 10:31 NIV 
[7]: Psalm 56:8 NLT
[8]: Malachi 3:16 NIV

A wood planer.

The Planer of God

By / 2 minutes of reading / , ,

I have always been intrigued by wood planers. You can take a plank of wood that is ugly as sin. That plank can have parasite infection bulges, knots, and even its bark, but those defects begin to be cut off as the plank repeatedly passes through the planer. The wood’s beauty becomes revealed. And, when finished, the wooden board is perfect, ready to be included in the construction materials of the carpenter.

In the hands of the Carpenter1, the Wood Planer carefully cuts away our defects, for the Holy Spirit is the Planer of God. He works in us so that we will eventually be perfect. Though we are already forgiven, our blemishes and weaknesses that lead us to sin, commit transgressions, and even iniquities are being removed through the progressive sanctification God performs in the lives of those in Christ Jesus.

God Changes You

Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross was a one-time event, yet His sacrifice continues to make the dead alive and the alive progressively perfect.

“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

Hebrews 10:14

We are told, “And this word continues to work in you who believe.2” That word is “God’s Good News.3” And just as God chooses gnarly planks, He sees the beauty hidden in them that is from the world. Then the height of the planer blade is adjusted, and the process begins.

This process is happening in everyone that has been made alive in Jesus. Some of His are still ugly with sins, some are beginning to show their purpose for God, and some are nearing what God has always seen in them.

Good News

Don’t fret. God chooses the wooden planks, Jesus is the Carpenter, and the Holy Spirit is the Planer. We may see nothing of value in us. That’s okay. If we are alive in Jesus, then God’s process of sanctification is at work in our lives.

Be of good cheer. God never starts a job that He doesn’t finish.

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Photo by Anna Shvets

[1]: John 16:13
[2]: 1 Thessalonians 2:13
[3]: 1 Thessalonians 2:9

Pizza Restaurant Meal Italian Yummy Food

The Same is The Same Until It Isn’t

By / 3 minutes of reading / , , , , ,

The Same Thing May Not Have the Same Results

I know Einstien defined insanity as repeatedly doing the same thing but expecting different results. Still, the same is the same until it’s different. This is a lesson that young people rarely learn, but adults know as true.

Just recently, a local Pizza Hut® closed. For as long as I can remember, it was our area’s preeminent Pizza Hut® restaurant. Its core business was seated customers. We’d go there, and the jukebox would be playing and people talking and everyone spying on the type of pizza the many waitstaff drew from the kitchen. It was a fun place, a destination for Friday night family outings and Saturday night high school dates.

That Pizza Hut® buzzed with customers for 50+ years, and then it didn’t. That thing called COVID–19 killed the owner’s business model. Now it’s being converted into a seafood and chicken restaurant. That Pizza Hut® restaurant was the same until it was different.

God Changes Things

This life lesson is found in the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit told Paul to warn the captain that they should stop their voyage and spend the winter in the closest port. But the captain and the owner of the ship disregarded Paul’s warning. And why not?

The captain and the owner of the ship had made this journey to Italy many times. Each of their voyages had been successful. So, they reasoned that concern from a Roman prisoner was an insufficient reason for them to change their journey. Every trip had been fine, but this time it wouldn’t be.

10 “Men,” he said, “I believe there is trouble ahead if we go on—shipwreck, loss of cargo, and danger to our lives as well.” 11 But the officer in charge of the prisoners listened more to the ship’s captain and the owner than to Paul. – Acts 27:10–11

Whether discussing pizzas, nautical journeys, or conversations with loved ones, we need to keep an eye on the Holy Spirit’s newsfeed. We need to ask ourselves, has God changed times or circumstances? Might this be the last time we talk with our child before Jesus returns? Is this the last time we may have the privilege of talking with our dads before God calls them home?

God Desires Us To Live in His Will

We are not to live in fear or worry, or sadness. None of those is God’s will. We find in Psalms how God would have us live.

“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.”

Psalm 143:10 (New Living Translation)

Our prayer must be, “Oh my God, lead me forward on a firm footing.” God is patient, but when He acts, He typically does so suddenly. Let’s remember the characteristic that Jesus said we, as Christians, have.

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

The Creek Don’t Rise

We are not our own; we have given our lives to God. So, let’s walk on God’s firm footing. Let’s make all of our plans be subject to His will. Let’s apply that Appalachian saying, “The good Lord willing, and the creek don’t rise.” This places our plans under God’s will.

Image by Thomas Grau from Pixabay

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a pic full of rocks with a question mark painted on one of them

Between My Ears

By / 2 minutes of reading / , ,

Sometimes, I come across a passage in God’s Word that compels me to stop reading and meditate on those words. I’m sure you experience the same thing. Well, today, I was reading in the Psalms when I came upon this verse:

“Precious in the sight of the Lord     
is the death of his saints.“

Psalms 116:15

I know Jesus delights in His own when we exercise faith. And I know that I will be with Jesus when I pass; however, I hadn’t given a lot of thought about our Lord’s frame of mind when we die. How liberating God is. He has all of the bases covered for our lives. So, when our appointed time comes, the time He established before creation, He sees our death, not from this world’s view, but from His view from the throne of heaven.

He sees us as athletes that have crossed the finish line and now enter our rest. So it makes perfect sense that God sees our death, our crossing of that finish line, as something precious in His sight. We teach our kids this song:

Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

How marvelous it is that this song is true for His own when we pass.

Photo by Ana Municio on Unsplash

a pic full of rocks with a question mark painted on one of them

Between My Ears

By / 1 minute of reading / , ,

If you have ever listened to a classic rock playlist or radio station, you have probably heard the song “We Are Family,” sung by Sly & the Family Stone. It’s a catchy toon. For believers, we are family. The old saying, you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family is true about the Church. “The church is a family, the “household of God” (1 Timothy 3:15)

Now you may have had bad experiences with your natural family and some in the Church. Here’s the difference. You only have your natural family for a short while. Don’t love them to get love; love them to be love to them. As for your spiritual brothers and sisters, you have them for eternity, so do as God’s Word declares: “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Romans 12:10)

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Have a great day!

Photo by Ana Municio on Unsplash

a pic full of rocks with a question mark painted on one of them

Between My Ears

By / 1 minute of reading / , ,

Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 NLT

Oh how often we want to know the mysteries of God. When we are crushed, we cry out to God, “Why?” When our lives seem to be unraveling, we cry out to God, “Why?” When doors of opportunities for good deeds are shut, we cry out to God, “Why?” But God seldom tells us why. In these times, what God desires is trust. In our darkest hour, we should remember Psalms 16:8 KJV, “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.“

When confronted with events that make no sense to you, don’t allow doubt to come into your life. Don’t be moved by circumstances. Trust in Jesus, the only one that can mediate your condition to our God whose activities cannot be understood.

Photo by Ana Municio on Unsplash

a pic full of rocks with a question mark painted on one of them

Between My Ears

By / 1 minute of reading / , ,

In the 1957 TV show, “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” there is a funny exchange of words between Lucy and the actress, Tallulah Bankhead:

Lucy Ricardo : Are you asking me to leave?
Tallulah Bankhead : ‘Throwing you out’ would be more appropriate.
Lucy Ricardo : Let me tell you something, Tallulah Bankhead, I’ve been thrown out of better places than this!
Tallulah Bankhead : You have never BEEN in better places than this!

The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour

When we experience an embarrassing or stressful circumstance, our nature tries first to justify our actions, but then our emotions kick in, which makes us relive that event over and over and over. We run scenarios in our heads to take the same set of circumstances and produce a better outcome. This state can become crippling, but that’s not God’s plan for you.

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Psalms 43:5 NIV

If you find yourself reliving an embarrassing or stressful event, give that circumstance to Jesus. Remember, it is because of God’s will that you are alive. “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

Photo by Ana Municio on Unsplash

a pic full of rocks with a question mark painted on one of them

Between My Ears

By / 2 minutes of reading / , ,

This morning I was reading in the book of Mark, chapter eleven. This chapter begins with the first-hand account of Jesus making His triumphant entry into Jerusalem. I had to stop and write this “note” when I came to these two verses.

As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it.

Mark 11:5-6 NLT

This verse may be surprising to us because we no longer have a society in which everyone participates. It is impossible to impose a civil society “from the top down” – this approach is called oppression. Only when a society has a unifying “good” can they experience peace and prosperity.

Notice that some bystanders challenged the disciples when it appeared that the disciples were stealing the colt. Israel had a unifying “good.” Their “good” was God and His Scriptures. These tenets were generally taught and accepted by the Israelites. This cohesiveness empowered average Israelites to be invested in the good of their country. America needs this.

We, as Americans, need to return to our “good.” Our “good” is God – “Only God is truly good.” (Mark 10:18) We find our good documented in our “Declaration of Independence.”

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

Declaration of Independence

Only when “these self-evident truths” are generally taught and accepted by Americans will we have sufficient cohesiveness to empower average Americans to be invested in the good of our nation.

Photo by Ana Municio on Unsplash

a pic full of rocks with a question mark painted on one of them

Between My Ears

By / 1 minute of reading / , ,

As I was praying this morning, I thought, “What should I do when I want more of God in my life?” As this rolled around inside me, I realized it was easier than I thought.

If I eat an apple, I bring it into me, and its substance feeds my body, contributing to my health. If I read the Bible, I am bringing Jesus, the Word of God (John 1:14), into me. God’s Word brings spiritual health to me, giving me more of Him in my life.

“Consuming” God’s Word renews my mind which then transforms me. Or, to quote God’s Word, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ” (Romans 12:2)

Photo by Ana Municio on Unsplash

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