This was written by a friend of mine, Bill Dennigton from Georgia. this is Excellent!
I taught a series not that long ago on the Love of God. The focus of the
study was not on how we are to love God, or how we are to love one
another; but, how immeasurable God’s love actually is for us. In
meditating on the verses that speak of God’s love for us I came to a
deeper understanding of just how futile it is to attempt to love God
when you have no real revelation of how much God loves you.
One
example I saw from the book of Exodus was how Israel responded to God’s
great love for them. They just could not comprehend the depth to which
God actually did love His Chosen Nation. Egypt had so instilled a slave
mentality into that generation that came out of bondage that they saw
everything through the eyes of fear. They were programmed with fear in
their subconscious mind that no matter how good God was to them they
could not see the love and grace He was bestowing upon them.
Everything God did was because He loved Israel and honored the covenant
He entered in to with Abraham. That covenant was possible due to
Abraham’s love of God. That was what was being displayed when Abraham
tithed the spoils of his victory over the armies that took Lot and his
family captive. Abraham was not commanded to do that, he did it out of
love and devotion for God, even before the covenant had been cut. That
love became the catalyst for the covenant. You can see God taking
Abraham deeper into the relationship after that event. This was a
relationship based purely on love, faith, and grace, on both sides.
(Most outstanding when you consider Abraham was spiritually dead at the
time!)
Israel, on the on the other hand, was several generations
removed from all of that. 400 years of life in Egypt had affected them
greatly. That long season of living in a completely heathen society and
becoming the object of suspicion and hatred on the part of the Egyptians
had brought them to the place where they were now thinking only as a
subjugated slave class of beings. They, as a result, had lost all
concept of covenant love. Anyone and everyone who came in to order them
around was looked upon with suspicion and hatred. Just another oppressor
who was interested in only taking from them, not giving them anything.
This mentality was so deeply ingrained into their thinking that God
eventually had to let that generation die off in the wilderness. They
just could not accept or receive God’s love on any level, and, they were
incapable of loving God as He had commanded them to do for they saw Him
as an oppressor, not a deliverer.
There is so much more to share
along this line, but let me close with this… when you are only loving
God because you are commanded or expected to do so, you are still
approaching God with a performance based mentality. Any effort on your
part to express a love extracted by commandment will fall woefully short
of what God really desires. It is love that is pulled out instead of
love that is poured out.
Right along with that is that the love that
is performance based actually had a fear-based motivation that keeps
you from being able to make any kind of real heart-level commitment to
God. “Can’t do that, you never know when God might do something to hurt
me!” That is the thinking that is going on under the surface.
The
Apostle John demonstrates something very powerful that every believer
needs to grab hold to and develop in their lives. He recognized and saw
just how much God loved him. He saw this to the degree that he titled
himself in his gospel as “the one Jesus loved.” He became developed in
this, even before the new birth took place, to the degree that he was
completely unafraid to stand at the foot of the cross while Jesus hung
and died there. Jesus saw that fearless love and turned over the watch
care of His mother to John.
We find no mention of John ever
expressing his love of Jesus in any of the gospels. However, we do find
multiple occasions where Peter boldly expressed his love of the Lord. He
even declared that he would die with Jesus. But, Jesus saw that Peter’s
love was performance based. He told Peter that he would end up
betraying Him three times and that is exactly what happened. Peter was
nowhere to be found on the day Jesus hung on the cross for fear had
driven him into hiding.
John, in his first letter, reveals that perfect love casts out fear.
That love of which he speaks is not our love of God, but God’s love of
us. The greater the revelation of how much God loves us we develop in
our lives is the degree that we will find all the different degrees of
fear that have been planted in our hearts being flushed out. This in
turn enables us to begin to express our love of God, not from any
performance based motivation, but from a pure heart of true love pouring
out of deep appreciation with no strings attached.
Move from just
keeping commandments to living a life of freedom from fear and
performance. Open your eyes to the awesomeness of God’s great love for
us that was shown and demonstrated through Jesus Christ. Love because
you want to, not because you have to, and watch how God responds to a
fear-free love. It will amaze you and free you!
May you, the reader, be blessed by these words :)
Terry
Comments Welcomed
12 December 2014
08 December 2014
Quitting Smoking
Quitting smoking is not fun at all, BUT when I consider the Nonsense I'm going
through because of it now, I know it will be worth it. I just pray I'm
not too late to stop or slow down the damage from smoking. All of you
young [and old] people out there, take note, it WILL catch up to you
specially with these so called fire safe cigs. What ever they're using
to make the self exstinguishing is making them even more fatal!
Terry
Terry
15 November 2014
Hi All:
This was written by a Facebook friend of mine, Bill Dennington. I think you will find it worth the read :)
Terry
This was written by a Facebook friend of mine, Bill Dennington. I think you will find it worth the read :)
Terry
Bill Dennington
I
have had people as me over the years, “Why did this or that happen to
me?” or “Why did this or that happen to Brother or Sister So and So?” We
all want to know the answers to these questions, and rightfully so. We
want to know the answer to the age-old question, “Why do bad things
happen to good people?”
While there is no way anyone can know the
details that play into events in every situation, especially in the
lives of other people, I do know and have studied the truth of how
spiritual laws govern our lives as revealed in the pages of the Word of
God. I have discovered that just in the same manner as physical laws
govern our lives, so to do these spiritual laws govern our lives to
contribute to how things play out on a day to day basis.
God, in His sovereignty, created both spiritual and physical laws. He has revealed the secrets of spiritual law throughout the Bible. (By spiritual law I am not talking about the Mosaic Law, but the laws of the spirit realm that are functioning 24/7 just like the laws of physics do in the natural realm).
Just as the laws of aerodynamics govern flight, so do these spiritual laws govern the realm of the spirit. If you violate any of the laws of aerodynamics you pay a price, sometimes a great price. So too with the laws of the spirit, violate any of those laws and you will pay a price. Live your life in a manner that is putting those laws to work in your favor and you will live a blessed life; live your life in a manner that puts those laws to work against you and it will be difficult for you.
It takes knowledge of the Word, wisdom from God, and the leading of the Holy Ghost to live accurately in this earth where spiritual law is concerned. No one is perfect, and we all can become complacent in being diligent to stay disciplined in our lives spiritually. Thus, things can happen, even to great Christian leaders that appear to not make any sense at all.
We cannot know all that led up to individual situations playing out, that is why we are not to judge. We can only judge ourselves and do our best to live our lives in a manner that puts spiritual law to work in our favor.
Sadly, the vast majority of churches today do little or no teaching along this line. It is too easy to just blame God or the devil as opposed to doing the necessary homework and get into the Word of God and dig out wisdom and gain understanding and then teach it in a manner that everyone realizes that they have a personal responsibility to live their lives yielded to the Holy Spirit and let Him lead you each and every moment of the day. He will not lead you in manner that causes you to violate God’s Word or spiritual law.
Violating the law of love is a big area that gums up the works in folk’s lives. In conjunction with violating the law of love is violating the law of forgiveness; refusing to forgive is deadly. Having an undisciplined tongue that speaks words that license death rather than life is another area that causes major issues in the lives of people. Too many Christians speak words of fear, sickness, disease, death, poverty, lack, strife, hatred, and other such words concerning themselves and others to the degree that it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for God to bring blessing into their lives.
Sowing and reaping governs this planet spiritually. Words are seeds and will produce a harvest. Decisions are seeds and set definite things into motion that produce a certain result. All of these things play into weaving a tapestry of life that becomes extremely difficult to unwind or undo without the help of the Holy Spirit and the power of the blood of Jesus.
This is why renewing the mind to the realities of who we are in Christ, what we possess in Christ, and what we can do through Christ is so important. Our union with Him is what gives us the ability to live in victory. Without Him, we can do nothing, but fail. He is not an escape hatch to use when things get too screwed up to handle it any longer. He must be the One to whom we inquire continually to have the wisdom and understanding to know what to do and say that leads us to victory and success. When we live that way we experience true success and He gets all the glory for we cannot claim any of the results as being due to our efforts. It is only our union with Him and living in total dependency on that union that will produce the desired results in life.
Jesus indicated that we can grow progressively in obtaining those results: some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred. So we can grow and develop in these things and increase in our sensitivity to His leading as well. This is what we should all strive for on a daily basis.
The greatest enemy of our day in that developmental process is two-fold: becoming too busy and growing too lazy. Laziness is pretty easily recognized, but being busy is much more sinister as it can be justified in our minds. When we are so busy that we are not taking the necessary time to pull aside and inquire of Him on a daily basis, even if that busyness is ministry or church related, we are in dangerous waters.
Psalm 23 and Psalm 91 speak to this matter. Those two Psalms are closely related, as they both give us insight to the kind of lifestyle that a believer needs to live to be successful in this dangerous world we live in. The secret place is a place that is quiet and still, peaceful and a place where we can listen and commune with Him. Jesus spent much time there, and so should we. It is the one place that we cannot abandon if we are going to live in victory in this dark and dangerous world.
God, in His sovereignty, created both spiritual and physical laws. He has revealed the secrets of spiritual law throughout the Bible. (By spiritual law I am not talking about the Mosaic Law, but the laws of the spirit realm that are functioning 24/7 just like the laws of physics do in the natural realm).
Just as the laws of aerodynamics govern flight, so do these spiritual laws govern the realm of the spirit. If you violate any of the laws of aerodynamics you pay a price, sometimes a great price. So too with the laws of the spirit, violate any of those laws and you will pay a price. Live your life in a manner that is putting those laws to work in your favor and you will live a blessed life; live your life in a manner that puts those laws to work against you and it will be difficult for you.
It takes knowledge of the Word, wisdom from God, and the leading of the Holy Ghost to live accurately in this earth where spiritual law is concerned. No one is perfect, and we all can become complacent in being diligent to stay disciplined in our lives spiritually. Thus, things can happen, even to great Christian leaders that appear to not make any sense at all.
We cannot know all that led up to individual situations playing out, that is why we are not to judge. We can only judge ourselves and do our best to live our lives in a manner that puts spiritual law to work in our favor.
Sadly, the vast majority of churches today do little or no teaching along this line. It is too easy to just blame God or the devil as opposed to doing the necessary homework and get into the Word of God and dig out wisdom and gain understanding and then teach it in a manner that everyone realizes that they have a personal responsibility to live their lives yielded to the Holy Spirit and let Him lead you each and every moment of the day. He will not lead you in manner that causes you to violate God’s Word or spiritual law.
Violating the law of love is a big area that gums up the works in folk’s lives. In conjunction with violating the law of love is violating the law of forgiveness; refusing to forgive is deadly. Having an undisciplined tongue that speaks words that license death rather than life is another area that causes major issues in the lives of people. Too many Christians speak words of fear, sickness, disease, death, poverty, lack, strife, hatred, and other such words concerning themselves and others to the degree that it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for God to bring blessing into their lives.
Sowing and reaping governs this planet spiritually. Words are seeds and will produce a harvest. Decisions are seeds and set definite things into motion that produce a certain result. All of these things play into weaving a tapestry of life that becomes extremely difficult to unwind or undo without the help of the Holy Spirit and the power of the blood of Jesus.
This is why renewing the mind to the realities of who we are in Christ, what we possess in Christ, and what we can do through Christ is so important. Our union with Him is what gives us the ability to live in victory. Without Him, we can do nothing, but fail. He is not an escape hatch to use when things get too screwed up to handle it any longer. He must be the One to whom we inquire continually to have the wisdom and understanding to know what to do and say that leads us to victory and success. When we live that way we experience true success and He gets all the glory for we cannot claim any of the results as being due to our efforts. It is only our union with Him and living in total dependency on that union that will produce the desired results in life.
Jesus indicated that we can grow progressively in obtaining those results: some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred. So we can grow and develop in these things and increase in our sensitivity to His leading as well. This is what we should all strive for on a daily basis.
The greatest enemy of our day in that developmental process is two-fold: becoming too busy and growing too lazy. Laziness is pretty easily recognized, but being busy is much more sinister as it can be justified in our minds. When we are so busy that we are not taking the necessary time to pull aside and inquire of Him on a daily basis, even if that busyness is ministry or church related, we are in dangerous waters.
Psalm 23 and Psalm 91 speak to this matter. Those two Psalms are closely related, as they both give us insight to the kind of lifestyle that a believer needs to live to be successful in this dangerous world we live in. The secret place is a place that is quiet and still, peaceful and a place where we can listen and commune with Him. Jesus spent much time there, and so should we. It is the one place that we cannot abandon if we are going to live in victory in this dark and dangerous world.
19 April 2014
Easter
A bit of a departure from normal posting. Two accountings of the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
or
May you, the reader, be blessed by these words :).
Terry
Comments welcomed
John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
or
Matthew 28:1-10
After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, `He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you." So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."May you, the reader, be blessed by these words :).
Terry
Comments welcomed
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