Category: personal comments

Replacement Therapy

Jesus died instead of you

“The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of grace. It’s God doing for you what you could not do for yourself. You owe a debt you cannot pay. He paid a debt He didn’t owe. Look at it this way: God treated Jesus Christ as though He had lived your life so that He could treat you as though you had lived Jesus Christ’s life.”

James McDonald

Long ago, something happened.  It was the most pivotal and critical event in the history of the universe.  It was cosmic and earth-shaking– changing everything.  In a real way history has become “His-story” and rightfully so. The complete overhaul and transformation of the human race is to bring Him glory and honor, for ever and ever.

At the heart of this momentous work, is the staggering principle of subsitution.  Replacing my life of sin and rebellion, the wonderful life of Jesus is mine.  You could say, we have switched places.  He became my sin, so I could be righteous.  On the cross, God treated Jesus as if He had committed every sin ever committed by every person who would ever believe.

  1. He was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (II Corinthians 5:21) (I Corinthians 15:34)
  2. He was rejected that we might be fully accepted in the beloved. (Isaiah 53:3) (Ephesians 1:6)
  3. He was bruised that we might be free from emotional bruises and gain a new identity in him. (Isaiah 53:3) (II Corinthians 5:17) (Galatians 2:20)
  4. He bore our griefs and sorrows that we might be comforted. (Isaiah 53:4). (John 14:18)
  5. He carried our diseases that we might be healed by his stripes. (Matthew 8:16-17) (I Peter 2:24)
  6. He was forsaken of the Father that we might be adopted as children of God never to be forsaken. (Matthew 27:46) (Hebrews 13:5)

 

Take the Next Turn for Truth

 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

John 8:32, King James Version (KJV)

 

This is one of those verses that seems like a cliché.  It has been sanded down and polished to the point where its beginning to lose its outrageousness and distinctiveness.  It still sounds noble though, and we do respect it.  Typically it is one of the first verses we commit to memory.

But what is it saying?  We  look around and see so much ignorance and fear, even among the ‘educated.’  There is the fear of cancer, the fear of misguided children, the fear of sudden poverty, the fear of growing old, and much more.  It seems human beings are attracted to fear like a moth is to a candle.

Ignorance is just as prevalent.  Many see, but few understand.  We make His message very simple, so all can know.  But the backlash is many are miffed by our simple message.  In Mexico, in one of those pathetic camps, I heard the most anointed gospel presentation I have ever heard in all my years in ministry.  A very young American girl stood up in front 80 kids.  She shared using a glove with five colors of the gospel.  I sat and I wept.  The nearness of the Lord was so strong, and the message was so real.

We are often a confused people. The Bible’s favorite metaphor is that we are misguided and misdirected sheep.  Sheep, mind you!  Much of the time our ignorance doesn’t come out of simplicity.  It comes out of complicating ideas and circuitous understanding.  We think we will be able to latch on to meaning and understanding if only we read difficult books, or take that course in philosophy. We are buffeted by the complexities. (But surely then we will grasp the truth!?)

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  One of the ways we come to recognize truth will be seen in a subsequent freedom.  Only people of the truth have real liberty.  And perhaps that is the best way there is to be a free person.  Bondage to sin is way overrated; ignorance and confusion puts you in terrible servitude to the whims of your sinful desires, and Satan and his kingdom.  But when we comprehend what is truth, it gives us an appetite for even more of His rule in our lives.

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Putting it Under a Microscope

Within our walks, as we attempt to follow Jesus, we need to be seriously evaluating our hearts–and the issues that affect them. If we make a short list, but the make-up would probably be justification, sanctification, glorification and deliverance.

Of this list, perhaps ‘justification’ takes the biggest hit.  Being declared ‘right with God‘ is targeted especially as the most significant .  But justification is quite potent, it will stand when all the other issues will stumble.  Justification is the starting point, and then it carries us quite a bit further. It stands when everything else crumbles.

We come to this place, it almost seems bizarre and garish as it comes to us.  But our simple faith in Jesus Christ has made us righteous.  But it seems, if we start to extrapolate it out, we start  thinking of realities and probabilities. These often confuse and darken our way, when they not really meant to.

“What if?” “But what might happen?” “Isn’t this a bit bizarre?” “Can’t I really make this ‘Christianity’ work?”  And yet at times, we won’t take a solid position, but we operate out of a miasma of thoughts that flit through our hearts.

In the courtroom of heaven, where God sits as a judge, we are given fair hearing. But simply put we aren’t so much as made righteous, but we are declared righteous.  The Greek word in the original is centered on this exclusive sense of “declaration.”

You have been declared righteous!  It is definitely not a feeling, or a sense of being just or righteous– because this changes 24x a day.  It seems I feel that I can never truly accumulate enough to save me.  And since I am always moving, I can never really figure it out.  And this makes me afraid. I become very disturbed. 

We are meant to walk out a sincere justification.  The enemy scrambles it before we can grasp it.  Satan‘s presence must be nullified in this.  There is something radical and decisive here.  And it is here he puts his crack troops.  This is a definite attempt to destroy your witness.

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Three Paintings You May Like, (Maybe)

Copy of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night“, done in Acrylics (but should’ve been done in Oils.)  This hangs in a non-profit org. here in Homer, Alaska.
 
 My favorite, out of everything I have done. “Jesus, with His crown of thorns” This sets on the landing of my steps, coming down from my loft.
 
California Poppies, Acrylic–

This hangs in my home, since I refuse to peddle it to whoever thinks they might have it in their interests to put it up on their wall.

 
These three paintings are recovered into circulation because a dear friend asked me, (quite directly, mind you) to bring them out into the sunlight again.  For whatever they are worth, it you can soak out anything of truth and understanding, I will leave it up to you. For the most part, I regard these as a definite foolishness. If you happen to disagree, I have no real problem in that.