Blog

  • Sanctification, separation and being

    Bradford Mullen writes that…

    The generic meaning of sanctification is “the state of proper functioning.” To sanctify someone or something is to set that person or thing apart for the use intended by its designer. A pen is “sanctified” when used to write. Eyeglasses are “sanctified” when used to improve sight. In the theological sense, things are sanctified when they are used for the purpose God intends. A human being is sanctified, therefore, when he or she lives according to God’s design and purpose…1

    A tree is sanctified by being a tree. It does not try to be a tree, but just IS. I’ve noticed as I grow in the Lord, according to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, 2 Thess. 2:13, 1 Pet. 1:2, by grace, that I AM in Him by truth and grace. As stated in the quote above, if I am created to be a pen then I am not “being” if I am in the drawer. I am just an object in the drawer without use and not being used according to my purpose. I believe there are many pens in church drawers today. If I am put into the hand of the artist or writer then I am BEING. I am existing. In my opinion, “existing” and “being” seem to have to have purpose. Otherwise, why be or exist? I am not very real if I don’t have purpose. If I am spiritually dead then what is the purpose of my existence?

    exist-2

    • to have being or reality; to be (He is the Truth.)
    • to be living; live (He is the Life.)
    • to be actual rather than merely possible (He is the Truth and the Way.)

    The disciple whom Jesus loved said Jesus came from the Father FULL of grace and truth. Jehovah means, “the existing One“. The “Existing One” Who was and Is and Is to come became flesh. I believe now by grace and revelation, according to hearing the word of the truth of the gospel, Col. 1:5, we can grow into BEING in Him according to the good pleasure of the Father, Phil. 2:13. In this being, a separation occurs unto the calling and function preordained before the foundations of the earth for each individual believer.

  • Perhaps one day I will go back to India

    This Hill Song video blesses me…

    Send me Lord 🙂

  • Change of plans

    Yesterday, 08/06/10, my younger son and I were going to eat at Chick-fil-a. He said, “Dad, let’s go somewhere else.” I said, “Sounds good. Where?” He said, “How about Which Which?”

    So, we end up going there. It was the lunch hour and crowded. I got our orders and he got his chocolate milk and went to get our table. I thought he’d go to the back, but instead went right in the middle of the restaurant. So, that is where we sat.

    Then this lady walks up. Forgot her name, but I notice the back of her shirt has a scripture.

    Jer. 29:11 (NIV), “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

    I told her thank you for wearing that shirt today. It really blesses me. She smiled and invited me and my sons to a kid’s musical she had been involved with that past week called “The Game Plan”. It was located in Georgetown at First Baptist Church.

    We got there and the boys said the church looked like a castle. Very big place. We had fun. They liked it. I thought it was cool that my six year old spontaneously chose another place for lunch and it so happens we had an opportunity to see something really cool. The day before was my older son’s musical at the Austin Lyric Opera. He had been in a three week summer camp there. He did so awesome. I am a very proud father.

  • Humility

    When I read,

    Phil. 2:8, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

    I was reminded of a parable in Luke 18:9-14.

    Thinking of humility the following comes to mind:

    • It is rooted in Christ in me, Gal. 1:16, Col. 2:7.
    • Humility is not self-willed.
    • It is not a strenuous effort to be humble, Gal. 5:6. Strenuous effort is false humility and only looks like godliness externally, Col. 2:18, 2 Tim. 3:5. Real humility is godliness even in the conscience.
    • It is the ability to receive from the Father.
      • Eph. 1:19, “And what [is] the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power..”

    This is why the Lord said things like, “I am the True Vine.” Also, why Paul could say, “My gospel.”

    I recall an older blog, Substance into words. Humility seems to be a manifestation of the impartation of the will of God into our being and essence by grace. This is even a spectacle to men and angels. Men who do not know,  Eph. 4:18, and angels who do not have fleshly bodies able to partake of the grace of our High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

    The Father imparts Himself through the Holy Spirit. Now, “We serve in a new way of the Spirit. Not the old way of the written code.” This impartation of Him is by His unveiled Word. The revealed word is not revealed according to flesh and blood, but by the Father through His Son, Heb. 1:2. This word consumes us and metabolizes us. Metabolized

    This Word is Spirit and Spirit is Word. Our flesh becomes word now, Romans 12:1-3.

    The Greek definition of the word humility means “low to the earth”. In Philippians 2, God sent His only Son to earth. He became flesh in the likeness of man and came low to the earth. He humbled himself not by self-will, but by grace because He is full of grace and truth, John 1:14. He said, “Not my will, but Your will (the Father’s) be done.” Paul says, “An apostle by the will (Father’s) of God.” He imparts His will and grace to us by His Son who partook of flesh and blood like us and tasted death for us all. If I believe this happened then I believe I am a co-inheritor with Christ, Rom. 8:17. In other words, what is His is mine as well. If I am not a co-inheritor then what am I believing or why am I believing? He saves me from me. I can’t save myself. My motive can’t help or truly change me. Perhaps on the outside, but it is unable to circumcise my heart. That is only possibly by Spirit of the Living God. My old motive apart from Christ is unable to transform my being into who I really am, Col. 3:3.

    Prior to salvation: Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

    We partake of His death and resurrection. Who I was is dead. I am a new creation in Christ, 2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 2:20. Christ’s work is a complete work. The just shall live by His faith in them daily. We exist, “be” and do by the will of God towards us according to the knowledge unto godliness, Titus 1:1.

  • Obedience unto death

    Been reading this for a while. I saw it a few weeks ago in Phil. 3:10 (YNG) , “being conformed to his death”

    I read Phil. 2:8 today, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

    Romans 6:5-6, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also [in the likeness] of [his] resurrection: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.”

    Romans 6:7 says, “For he that is dead is freed from sin.”

    Since we are freed from the power of sin we are also freed from sin by grace and truth through His blood, Rom. 3:25, 5:9. If I am conformed to His death and partake in His death then I am dead to the judgment and penalty of the law once and for all! In Christ, not even death has authority over me anymore, Rom. 5:12. He tasted death for all of us, Heb. 2:9.

    Young’s Literal Translation says for Phil. 2:8, “and in fashion having been found as a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death — death even of a cross,”

    We don’t work to be dead. In Him, I can’t ‘try’ to be more dead. We ARE in Him. We BE. We partake of this “obedience unto death” by faith and revelation of Him in us!, Rom. 1:5, 2 Pet. 3:18.

  • Life and immortality

    2 Tim. 1:10, “But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:”

    When I read “life and immortality” I think of a flower or tree. The tree is dying and then receives life energy and is no longer dying. The tree partakes of this life and resurrection power by the glory of the Father and is unable to corrupt or decay. It is immortal.

    I believe we partake of this as well in Christ. Paul says the Lord has brought this to light through the Gospel.

    Prior to the Fall, the man could not die in his flesh. He possessed life and immortality in the flesh. So, if Christ is the Last Adam then my question is what is the implication for us?

  • Serve with our spirit

    Paul says in Romans 1:9, “Whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son..

    Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is..

    John 4:23-24, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.

    Romans 7:6, “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

    Ephesians 2:15, “For to make in himself of twain one new man..

    1 Corinthians 15:45, “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit.

    Paul says, “Whom I serve (because I want to) with my spirit.” As I grow in the Lord, I understand by faith that my spirit is quickened and made alive in Him by the power of His resurrection according to the glory of the Father. In turn, this effects my soul person radically. It effects my thinking, motive, habits and every infinitesimal detail I could or couldn’t think of. His grace and essence consumes me daily.

    Jesus is the last Adam. He [was made] a quickening spirit. Spirit is word and word is spirit. He is the word made flesh. The “one new man” He created is a quickening spirit. This Holy Spirit dwells and makes His home in my heart through faith by grace. His presence resides in me! No more goat and other animal sacrifices to experience His presence.

    I believe that He is Spirit, Heb. 11:6, by faith. He made the two into One New Quickening Spirit Man in Himself. This Man is in me again and in those who believe that He is, Heb. 11:6. So now, I serve in the newness, power and grace of the One New Quickening Spirit Man in me. It impossible to please Him or the Father without faith and in the flesh. In the Spirit, there is a Way.

    Gal. 2:20, ” I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

  • Worth

    2 Thess. 1:11, “Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power,”

    The root meaning of “worthy” is:

    Weighing as much as, of like value, worth as much. It means having the weight of another thing and so being of like value or worth as much. In other words axios has the root meaning of balancing the scales—what is on one side of the scale should be equal in weight to what is on the other side. By extension, axios came to be applied to anything that was expected to correspond to something else. A person worthy of his pay was one whose day’s work corresponded to his day’s wages.1

    So, God ‘worthies’ me in His Son by grace. I am worth it. All can forsake and abandon me, but my worth is His death and death on a cross for me. I partake of this grace and it worthies me. I am predestined by grace in Christ Jesus through the Spirit of adoption to be a child of the Father according to His good will and pleasure. Christ’s sacrificial blood and body worthies me to be a son just as much as Christ whereby I cry, “Abba, Father” as an adult son and not an infant child. I am a co-heir with Christ of the inheritance He has for me. By revelation and grace, I am, am growing into and partaking of His righteousness according to the hearing of the word of truth and faith. Since I partake of His essence by grace, this worthies me into the kingdom of the Father’s beloved Son, Col. 1:13. There is nothing that can be reckoned to my account to to unworthy me in Christ before the Father. Now, I have boldness to approach the throne of grace. His presence can dwell in me now by grace and faith.

  • Created peace (shalam) by His blood

    Col. 1:2o, “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, [I say], whether [they be] things in earth, or things in heaven.”

    He created peace in this fallen creation by His blood and His cross. In doing doing, He brings redemption and reconciles all things unto Him. All things.

    https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/27_peace.html

    When we hear the word peace we usually associate this to mean an absence of war or strife but, the Hebrew meaning of the word shalom has a very different meaning. The verb form of the root word is shalam and is usually used in the context of making restitution. When a person has caused another to become deficient in some way, such as a loss of livestock, it is the responsibility of the person who created the deficiency to restore what has been taken, lost or stolen. The verb shalam literally means to make whole or complete. The noun shalom has the more literal meaning of being in a state of wholeness or with no deficiency. The common phrase shalu shalom yerushalayim (pray for the peace of Jerusalem) is not speaking about an abcense of war (though that is part of it) but that Jerusalem (and by extension all of Israel) is complete and whole and goes far beyond the idea of “peace”.

    John 19:30, “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”

    In the Aramaic New Testament, Jesus says, “Shelem” instead of “It is finished.”Shelem is a variant of shalam.


  • Obsolete motive

    In Christ, my motive is pure regardless of what I do or think. My motive in Him is not based on me. It is His will within me,

    Gal. 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

    Phil. 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:”

    Eph. 1:4, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we be and exist should (Greek “should” is “to exist”) be holy and without blame before him in love:

    Who I am in Christ is who I really am. His motive and will is His in me according to the knowledge after godliness, Titus 1:1.

    Is my motive based on me? No, thank God through His Son Jesus Christ. The old man’s motive is obsolete. John says God is greater than our heart (motive included I’d say), 1 John 3:20. Who can say He is not greater than that?

    My motive now is by grace. That is why Christians are miserable when they use their liberty as an occasion to the flesh. The motive is not pure. The motive is not God’ s love. Their old motive could be empowered by diluted or law-mixed doctrine they are adhering to. Where does this doctrine come from?  I wonder if such doctrine has the potential to create a yoke of bondage according to the spirit of fear? Gal. 5:1, Rom. 8:15. Galatians say God is not mocked and to use our liberty to serve one another in love.