The Seed of Life

It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:44-45

Have you ever thought about what Adam looked like? Envision him.

Now think about the last baby you met. Did he or she look like the parents?

Probably so, at least in a broad sense. Boil it down and we all look the same - nose in the center of the face, two eyes above, a mouth below, legs at our waist and arms at our shoulders. We all act alike too. We eat, we sleep, we sin, we hate, we love.

The reality is universally observable: Produced life is remarkably similar to the producer(s). Fish produce fish, birds produce birds, and humans produce humans. There’s no mistaking one for the other.

So we understand how we are born in a natural sense, but how are people born in a spiritual sense?

Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” (John 3:5-6) 

This Spirit that gives birth to our spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Therefore, just as we are like our parents (and by derivation Adam) in a physical sense, we are like Jesus Christ in a spiritual sense. Our spiritual lives reflect his character as defined in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And more than that, just as our natural bodies are mortal like Adam’s, our spiritual bodies are immortal like Christ’s!

“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

You are alive in a natural sense, but are you born again of the Spirit of Jesus Christ? And has this second birth into immortality changed the way you live your mortal life?

Christ-Centered Suffering

READ: Colossians 1:24-29

Everyone suffers. We fail ourselves and suffer internally. Then come the attacks of the world. We work hard, but our bosses don’t appreciate us. Friends and family return our affection with negligence, betrayal, and animosity. Even God torments us with disease or the premature deaths of people we dearly love.

Yet, bound up by all this suffering, we’re expected to proclaim Christ to the world by embodying the fruits of his Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). How is this even possible?

If we are focused on ourselves, it’s not, but if we, like the apostle Paul, are focused on Christ it’s actually quite easy.

Paul writes his letter to the Colossians from a prison cell where he is awaiting execution. For him, this is a natural consequence of the purpose God gave him: to proclaim the Gospel. His life’s suffering is probably far greater than what you and I have endured, yet he rejoices because he’s focused not on himself, but on Christ, whose mission is being fulfilled in him.

I can be incredibly self-centered at times, which causes me to wallow in sufferings when they come and lose sight of the purpose God gave me, namely to proclaim his love and grace to the world through my words and actions. I pray that soon the words Paul spoke in Acts 20:24 will echo in my heart as well: “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

The Top Twenty-five

College football is upon us! We’re approaching the fifth week of the season and, as far as I know, no coaches have been fired yet. Every week the AP Poll and Amway Coaches Poll comes out ranking the top twenty-five teams. For a coach whose team is ranked, they can feel secure in their job. For a coach whose team isn’t ranked, they might want to step it up.


In the world of athletics, success is based on victory. Iconic coach, Vince Lombardi, is quoted as saying, “Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.” But winning all the time is a struggle because, not only is your opponent trying to beat you, but also you have to overcome adversity during the course of the game; and your own self-doubts and weaknesses.

Our life is like that too. Sometimes the circumstances of life can be very difficult; or you might face a struggle within yourselves. Sometimes we even face a competitor that wants to bring us down. There’s a constant battle going on. Paul wrote about this struggle to the Galatians.

 

¹⁷ The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.       NLT

As a believer, what we have going for us is that our sinful nature has been crucified on the cross, and although we still struggle, and may not win every battle, the war has already been won. So we have been called to live by the Spirit.

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.   NLT

A college football coach can easily measure his success by wins and losses and by where his team ranks in the weekly polls. What about you? How do you measure your success as a believer?

Even though you struggle; even though you aren’t always victorious; your name will appear in the top 25 as undefeated. You are undefeated because the victory has already been won by Christ.

 Galatians 5:13-26

Building Blocks

2 Peter 1:3-8

At my house, there’s an area in the living room that is dedicated to our grandchildren with various toys for them to play when they visit. One of the toys that they enjoy is a set of large Legos. Normally, what happens is one of them builds a tower that the other knocks down. No sibling rivalry there.

 Each time a block is placed on top of another it becomes a building block. The foundation of course, is most important because if the foundation isn’t constructed correctly, the whole thing will fall down; even without the help of a grandchild.

The definition of a building block is “a unit of construction or composition; especially something essential on which a larger entity is based”. If you think about it, that’s what Peter is describing in these verses.

⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. NIV

Peter knows all about building blocks and growing in his faith. He was very impetuous and immature during Jesus’ three years of ministry on earth. It wasn’t until after the resurrection and Pentecost that Peter began to bear fruit. The truth is that all of us who have been called have received what we need to bear fruit.

 ³ By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. NLT

⁸ The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. NLT

As I thought about these verses, some questions came to mind. What am I doing to grow? What do I need to change to grow? And, in the spirit of my grandchildren’s Legos, What are the building blocks of my spiritual growth?

Whatever your answers are to these questions, the goal is to share in God’s nature; to become more like Jesus.

I’m Made Holy! – How Can This Be?

Scripture Reading:  2 Thes 2:13-16

 

A group of us women have been studying The Fruit of the Spirit from Gal 5:22-23 for many weeks. We began noticing that, while each of the facets of the fruit (eg Love, Joy, Peace, etc) was something produced by the Holy Spirit in a Christ-follower, there were also commands or directives from other verses to the Christian to be loving, joyful, peaceable, etc.  For instance, take the facet of Love.  In 1 John 4:9, we see God’s love is manifested in us; and in Matt 22:37, 39, we read, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”  One verse shows it is God’s love in us, while the other is a command to love.

 

This was the first in a series of times God brought this concept to me:  If I am to grow to maturity, I need to recognize that both the Holy Spirit and I have parts to play in the process.  My next experience with these ideas came when I was preparing a talk on “Hope.”  It provided a name for how I am to live out my sanctification toward maturity.  In his book The Transforming Power of the Gospel (NavPress, 2012), Jerry Bridges coined the term “Dependent Responsibility” to describe the joint nature of my becoming holy.

 

·         The responsibility part of this term: work out daily the life you have been given in Christ (see Phil 2:12).

·         The dependency part: depend on the Holy Spirit for success (see Phil 2:13). He is the primary agent of our sanctification, without Him, we cannot experience the life and power of Christ in us.

 

In our reading today (which is my latest encounter with this idea, we note that in verse 13, both God’s part and our part in the process of our sanctification are mentioned.  The Phillips Translation of the New Testament says it this way, “He has chosen you from the beginning to save you, to make you holy by the work of His Spirit and your own belief in the truth.”

 

It seems to me as if God has been using a microphone to get my attention about something specific regarding being holy.  What is it? I’m not exactly sure, but I do know it has lead me to focus on it more these days, and I continue to ask, “Lord, what do you want me to know?”

 

This is what I’ve learned so far by listening to His answer:

·         The Holy Spirit’s role in my sanctification (maturation process) is to provide power, means, and desire in me to be more like Jesus.

·         My role is to trust God to sanctify me, present my body to Him, and yield to the Spirit – in other words, depend on Him.

·         My role also is to choose to do what’s right (obedience) – in other words, take responsibility for what I think, do, and say.

 

Holy Spirit, as You continue to bring thoughts of sanctification, maturity, holiness, please give me Your wisdom in what further understanding I need in this area of my life. Amen.

The Story of Two Wolves

Galatians 5:16-26

A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery, and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear.

The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, "The one you feed”.

  

The source of this story has been attributed to the Cherokee Indians, as well as Billy Graham and George Bernard Shaw. Though no one knows for sure where it originated, an argument could be made that Paul inspired it.      

17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. NLT

 You don’t have to be an addict to have firsthand experience of this inner battle. Think about it the next time another driver cuts you off in traffic; or the contractor you hired doesn’t show up to do the work you paid for; or your insurance company seems more interested in saving money than paying for a claim. The list is endless.

 Speaking of lists, Paul made two of them in this passage. One is what our flesh desires, and the other what God’s Spirit desires. How do we go about winning the battle? What can we do to feed the good wolf?

24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. NLT

 This is not a onetime big decision, but a lifetime of small decisions that move us forward into the light of following the Spirit and not backwards into the darkness of our flesh.

 Which wolf will you feed? What fruit will you grow? Will you live by the Spirit?

Be Fruitful

Galatians 5:22 (MSG)
But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. 

What are these gifts?  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

When we consider the opposite of these gifts we are brought back to a time before we had a relationship with Jesus before we opened up our hearts and our lives to the goodness of God and His love. Those memories aren't so sweet. I never want to forget from where I came, but I never want to go back there either.

John 15:4 (MSG)
"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. 

Abiding in God, sticking close to His side every moment is where I discover true life. My heart is more at peace when I love someone than when I feel contempt for them.  I experience joy even when there is trouble in my life. There is peace in knowing God is in control and I am not.

I am not trying to fool anyone into thinking this is easy...it is anything but. Cultivating these fruits in my daily living takes work.  There is a lot of pruning that needs to take place; the soil has to be worked up and weeds must be pulled.  Anyone who has a garden can understand the work involved to bring forth sweet and nourishing fruit.

Colossians 3:14  (MSG)

"And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it."

Galatians 5:16-18, 22-25; 6:1-3 

This One's a Bit Fruity Galatians 5:16-26

Do you have a Christian friend who you look up to? I don’t mean idolize because that of course would be idolatry, but someone who you see as walking this road of faith with integrity. I can actually name several people in my life who I genuinely feel are taking their faith seriously, and who are trying to live by the Spirit.

When reading our scripture for today I am reminded what it is I see in them, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” If you think about the Christians in your life that you look up too, I would bet they exhibit some of these attributes.

When being led by the Spirit this is the fruit we will produce and others around us will see the fruit through our actions, just as we see the fruit in those we respect. What attribute of the fruit do you exhibit the most? Which do you exhibit the least? Which attribute would you like to exhibit but don’t? Pray about how you can allow the Spirit’s fruit grow in your life.

Read today's passage at Biblegateway Galatians 5:16-26

Freedom is a Gift From God -- Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Today we celebrate freedom across our country. Americans, like you and me, are celebrating Independence Day with parades, fireworks, and community activities. We honor and remember the sacrifices of many men and women who have served and continue to offer their lives to secure our nation’s freedom. We pray, with thanksgiving, for our country and our people.

Paul reminds me in today's reading that I should celebrate and stand firm concerning my freedom in Christ. Christ defeated my enemies. He set me free by His death and resurrection. I can walk free in the Spirit every day of my life because of Christ's sacrifice. The Spirit leads me to see those sinful thoughts, wants, and desires that bring pain and temptation into my life. Paul instructs me to walk free from my hurts, hang ups, and habits into living in step with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Paul’s words have restated the importance of allowing the Spirit to reign in my heart and life. True freedom is living a life according to what God wants for me.

Prayer: Lord God, I celebrate with a humble heart and deep gratitude the gift of freedom in Christ. Help me throw off my sinful wants and desires so I may walk free in the Spirit to love and serve others.

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Read today's text on Biblegateway, Galatians 5:1, 13-25