Tag: Jesus Christ

Flight Control

” But the people who trust the Lord will become strong again.
    They will rise up as an eagle in the sky; 
       they will run and not need rest; 
       they will walk and not become tired.”

Isaiah 40:31

To ‘renew’ your strength carries the idea of change– just as if you would change your clothes to go somewhere special.  The NCV translates this to “become strong again.”  I trade the clothes of weak patheticness, and wear intended strength that He gives.  God fully intends that we put on His greatness when we come before Him.

He does not want us to merely have a ‘changed life,’ but He really wants us to have an ‘exchanged life.’  He doesn’t intend to better us.  But He insists on exchanging His life for ours.  A trade if you will– the ugly for the pure, and the black for the white.    He absorbs our sin, and He gives us His righteousness.  We give Him desperate weakness, and He gives us an awesome strength.

But there is a time thing.  We will need to wait.  The transaction has already taken place.  It all has been transferred to your account.  Our waiting will never be too long.  The ultimate end will happen.  Until then, we must trust and obey, in anticipation of a wonderful thing.  We will not, or never be– ashamed.

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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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Making It All Real

 

“[The LORD Is My Fortress] I live under the protection of God Most High and stay in the shadow of God All-Powerful.”

 Psalm 91:1 CEV

We must grasp this down deep.  He shelters us in a place that no one can reach.  He is a rock of a fortress, and evil will never penetrate him.  Our position is wonderful, and we rejoice in it, and yet a shield has been put into place that will never waver.  We are the “apple of his eye” and we stand very much protected.

The entirety of Psalm 91 is a confidence builder.  But it does so without us grasping truths that are vague or confusing.  It is a Psalm that states reality, without any anesthesia.  When we truly read it, the natural tendency is to be overwhelmed or confused by it.  But that isn’t its real purpose. It is there to communicate “security” in every perspective of life.  I am “safe” and nothing will ever change that.

As we shelter ourselves into his presence, we will end up drawing his “life” directly into our life.  Our blood now flows with his.  Our life, has been transfused or mixed with his.  He has gone the extra mile to make us one with him.  We are “blood brothers.”

Try as you may, you will not ever shake yourself free of this.  If you truly believe in Him, he goes ahead and puts his mark or seal on you.  At this point, you might as well surrender.  You have become his, and he will most definitely take control.

Psalm 91 points out so many issues.  Reading it, we find it takes us to a place where we trust him far beyond anything else.  He begins to comfort us, He soothes us into the very place, that we start bringing a grace that is quite exceptional.