Non-negotiable Faith

Galatians 2:20

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. (KJV)

20 Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Msg.)

So often in the past, we were taught formulas instead of faith. Do this, don't do that. You must, you mustn't. To be a Christian, you have to talk this way, act this way, think this way, even dress this way! All of these outward behaviors only serve to cast us into the image of man's concept of Christianity.

There is a kind of security in authority figures setting the rules, and us being in control of our Christian lives by following the rules. With this kind of life, faith is barely necessary. You know that if you do this, then God will do that, because that is what you were taught. And not only that, you will fit into the church culture, and be favored for your good performance.

 Paint by numbers spirituality removes the fear of the unknown. As such, it removes uncertainty, and it gives you opportunities to move up in the ‘religious’ church world!  But, it also removes trust in God, and trust forms the tender fabric of our relationship with him. It is how we were born into the Kingdom, and the only way to live in it. There is no other way!

Our trust is meant to be in a Person, not formulas, and not leaders. So there must be uncertainty so that trust can be exercised. In this “new and living way” we have faith in the Person and not the outcome. We also learn that we love him and trust him whether our prayers get answered the way we want or not. Following is a glimpse into the heart of Jesus concerning our faith journey. This picture of Jesus’ compassion for Peter at the moment his faith failed instills great hope for us!

Jesus lovingly prayed for Peter’s faith (Luke 22:32) even though he knew he was about to enter into the greatest failure of his tender faith journey-denying his Savior three times at the most critical moment of his life. 

“But I have prayed for you, Simon (Peter) that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." (NIV)

Simon (Peter), I've prayed for you in particular that you not give in or give out. When you have come through the time of testing, turn to your companions and give them a fresh start."(MSG)

Not one of us can cast stones at Peter’s denial of his faith in Jesus! We have done the same when faced with difficult times; fearing man instead of implicitly trusting Jesus. “The fear of man is a snare.” Our faith frees us from the fear of man. What Peter discovered is that Jesus was the “author and perfecter of his faith-the source and completion of it”. Jesus literally gives each of us a more than sufficing portion of his faith.

In his great gift of faith, we can love God for whom he is not what he gives us or does for us. It's a different concept. It's not just another in the list of World Religions! It’s not a ‘religion’ at all. It is the New Covenant way and message of Jesus.

Our only hope of finishing well is by faith. I am presently experiencing the greatest faith battles of my entire relationship with Jesus. Thank God there is only one option! “Fight the good fight of faith and you will hear, well done thou good and faithful servant!” (Parts of this devotion were inspired by a Facebook post of Gaye Stradwick of Auckland, New Zealand.)

In the grip of the faith of Jesus! Ron Ross

Limitless Vision, Limitless Faith

by Keith Gardner

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."  Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Romans 4:18-21 (NIV)

Faith is a funny thing. It is easy to believe in something when we already expect it. I can believe in the common things that I see all around me. When I look at a circumstance, based on the known physical laws of nature, I can with certainty determine the end results. Depending on where I live, I can pray for rain and truly trust it will; it is an easy thing to believe. Given enough time it is going to rain. However, it is difficult to have faith in a thing that is in opposition to the principles of the physical law.

Listen--Do You Hear?

Listen—What Do You Hear?

“To be at ease is to be unsafe.” Pope John XXIII When one is not listening; one is at ease and is not awakening. Awakening to what? “Sanctify them in the truth, Thy Word is truth.” John 17:17 Whatever Jesus has to say about any and every thing: our day to day life, our gifts and callings, our hopes and fears, our disappointments, our triumphs, our moment by  moment Overcoming victories, our expected end and our destiny in Jesus—that is what defines his word of truth spoken into and over our life.

We must be daily aroused by the hearing of Jesus. He shares the depths of His conversation with Papa! That is at times disturbing to our plans and illusions. Apart from this depth of listening, we are prone to call our judgments and opinions; vision, prophetic direction, or even his will. “Disturbance leads to conversion, and conversion leads to the Lord.” 

Is His disturbance of your ease causing; let’s say, discomfort? Only in His disturbance of daily truth are we open to his comfort of our daily reality. “Maybe he is gently asking you to let go of some attachment so that you may have more of Him. Be at peace. Whatever it is, you can’t will it, disavow it, or empty yourself of it. It is only the power of a Presence, the compelling attractiveness of a Person, the irresistible loveliness of Jesus Christ that can set you free.” Brennan Manning

Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, “Only he who has experienced it can believe what the love of Jesus is.” In your daily listening to Jesus, he comes to you where you live and loves you as you are. Has he said something like this before as you listened? He declared from the beginning that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Yet we; having not listened, declare something or someone (even ourselves) as not good.

This is a very present word to me. I imagine you to be able to understand by experience. “The Lord once brought me up short with the challenge: “Why do you persist in seeing ________in the hands of the devil, rather than in the hands of their faithful Shepherd?” Once disturbed by listening, I realized that in my mind I had been imagining all of the evils of our present age as being ultimately more powerful than the timeless love of God.” Robert Frost

“Pain, inconvenience, sin---these are the problems  of being, the alarming, embarrassing, even tragic things that God is apparently willing to put up with in order to have beings at all. But whatever the problems are, they are not the root of being. That root is joy and now!

As we listen, we recapture the element of delight in creation. Imagine the ecstasy, the veritable party of joy, wonder, and delight when God makes a person in His own image—when God made you. The Father gives you and I as a gift to Himself. You and I are a response to the vast delight of God. And so are those who may be a part of your disturbance. Regardless of the mess you (or others in your life) have made out of the original clay, wouldn’t you agree with Aquinas that “it is better to be than not to be”?

Have we fully appreciated the wonderful gift we are? Could the Father’s gift to Himself be anything but beautiful? He looks past the present problems, failures, issues and even sins and sees the gift we are in Christ! He has forgotten all that marred our mirror image! He only beholds the beautiful Sons and Daughters that Christ is bringing to glory! In this true present and future mirror image we can look forward to a “new and better way” of loving Jesus Christ and those around us, and I would let them know before life’s evening.

Listening to Papa’s Opinion in Jesus, Ron Ross

Hospitable Love

Hospitable Love

1.     Treating visitors well: friendly, welcoming, and generous to guests or strangers

2.  Agreeable: pleasant, agreeable, and providing what somebody needs to feel/sense/live comfortably

Jesus has moved into the neighborhood! He personifies hospitality. And as such, he lives in and through his followers with the love of hospitality. In the scriptures following Jesus defines critical aspects of his hospitality. They are; generosity, revelatory love, practicing kindness, sharing without bad attitudes or grumbling, creating a safe place and home for one another and visitors/strangers. In a hospitable atmosphere a sense/place of belonging is created. 

 “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” (John 1:13 Msg)

"Because a loveless world," said Jesus, "is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him - we'll move right into the neighborhood!” (John 14:23 Msg)

 

“I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God.” (Rev. 21:3 Msg)

“Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” (Rom. 16:23)

“Some sisters are well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.” (1 Tim. 5: 10)

“Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” (1 Peter 4:9 NIV)

“We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.” (3 John 1:8 NIV)

Hospitality is a process of welcoming me and others to be at home in order to rest and be your true self. In hospitality, you are offered space in time, a safe harbor, a sanctuary, a secure place and ultimately a home where you can find peace and at-homeness. Hospitality creates a relaxed presence that enables you to live in reality. In this safe place, you are natural, at ease, content, spontaneous, simple, and familiar.

God’s hospitality is an integral function of his love for his children and his love for the world. The following quote gives a glimpse of how deep this hospitality must be. “Unless and until, the future of the world becomes more important than the future of the church, the church has no future.” The church was never meant to be a social or religious club. Nor was the church to be cloistered and focused on herself.

The Father’s hospitality is embodied in John 3:16; “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” “Whoever believes on Him shall have eternal life.”

My entrance into Christ’s life and Kingdom was the direct result of His loving hospitality through a couple who took me into their home directly off the streets. I lived in Papa’s hospitality through Robert and Sarah for two plus years. I am convinced I wouldn’t have made the journey from street drug addict to child of God without their hospitable love! Take an inventory of the impact of hospitality on your Christian journey. You will be amazed!

Warmly welcome yourself and others today with hospitable love. Ron Ross

Pressed by Love

How do we process the many pressures of our times? Unprocessed; they will become stressors that slowly choke the life out of us. Cloaked in the guise of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood glucose, high anxiety…we are robbed of the peace and joy that are our birthright! 

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” His peace transcends all pressures and literally becomes our “spiritual umpire”. As such, he makes the call as to what gets into the sanctuary of our soul. But; our awareness, co-operation and moment by moment sensitivity to Holy Spirit’s promptings are vital. Spiritual silence and solitude are foundational to walking in the transcendent peace and joy of Holy Spirit.  

In solitude we often discover that we are extinguishing the peace and joy ourselves by an overly functional life, by “doing” in preference to “being,” by interior noise rather than quiet. A simple childlike approach to our faith tends to lessen the tendency to giving an inordinate voice to life’s pressures. It is at this intersection between “noise” and “quiet”…”doing” and “being” that we hear God’s persistent invitation to be loved. 

"For the love which Christ has [for me] presses on me from all sides, holding me to one end and prohibiting me from considering any other, wrapping itself around me in tenderness, giving me an impelling motive, having brought me to this conclusion, namely, that One died on behalf of all, therefore all died." -2 Corinthians 5:14 (Wuest Translation)

This pressing love wraps us in security and empowers us to let go of the pressures of this world. Here we grasp our “death” to “human doing” and our resurrection to Christ’s life of peace and joy! A daily celebration of “being loved” as “I” am, not as “I” should be enraptures me. He tenderly imparts his impelling motive to live in the world, without being of the world! Wow, what freedom ensues?

Pressed by love! Ron Ross