Satan
Where Death Reigns, Grace Triumphs
by Linda Rex
February 26, 2023, 1st Sunday in Preparation for Easter | Lent—I’ve been pondering the way in which we as human beings so often trade in our relationships with God and others for things that ultimately don’t satisfy. I believe this began in the garden of Eden, in that conversation Eve had with the serpent who deceived her. He told her that when she ate the forbidden fruit, her eyes would be opened and she would be like God, knowing good from evil.
When reading over that part of the creation story, we often miss the subtle detail of what Adam and Eve turned their back on when they chose to disregard God’s instruction to leave alone the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What we fail to see and appreciate is the magnitude of what Adam and Eve had from the beginning—a personal relationship with the God who created them, a warm fellowship characterized by walking and talking together, sharing life in union and communion with Father, Son, and Spirit.
It is instructive that the serpent or Satan told Eve, and she believed it, that being “like God” meant that she would know good and evil. The knowing that she and Adam were created for was not this kind of knowing, but that which involved both the knowledge of who God was, but also knowing God in an intimate and personal way. Walking and talking with God, living in face-to-face relationship, is what humans were created for, and Adam and Eve traded this in for the knowledge of good and evil.
When their eyes were “opened,” what they saw wasn’t the truth any longer. Sin had entered their existence, and with it, death, and when they encountered God again in the garden, they couldn’t face him anymore. So, they hid. And human beings have been hiding from God ever since. Shame, guilt, and blindness kept them from seeing that God had not changed at all—they were the ones who were so alienated in their minds that they could no longer see the truth.
What the apostle Paul shares in the New Testament reading for this Sunday, Romans 5:12–19, is the lengths to which God went to make this whole situation right. Because of the one man, Adam, sin entered the world, and therefore death entered the world. Adam set the course of humanity on the path to death and destruction—returning back to the nothingness out of which God had made everything. But God, being God, was not content to allow this to happen without doing what was needed to restore and renew all things.
In the garden of Eden story, following their rebellion, God walks into the garden looking for Adam and Eve, but they are hiding. What does God do? He seeks them out and calls them back into relationship with himself. When he sees they are uncomfortable with their nakedness, he, through the shedding of animal blood, clothes them. He tells them the consequence of their choices—the result of sin, but then offers them hope in his promise of a redeemer.
In the fullness of time, God kept that promise, in the person of Jesus Christ. Here, a human being, who was the Son of God in human flesh, came to live a genuinely human life in face to face relationship with Father in the Spirit. Jesus did what Adam did not do. In the gospel reading for this Sunday, Matthew 4:1-11, we learn about the new Adam, Jesus Christ, and his encounter with “the serpent” Satan during his time of testing in the wilderness after forty days of fasting.
During this spiritual battle, Satan challenged Jesus in three ways, what the apostle John calls “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16 NIV). Looking back to Eden, we find these same temptations are a common occurrence in our human flesh. The consequence of our yielding to them in sin is and has been death. When we try to resolve these on our own, through law keeping or even ignoring them, we find ourselves even more enslaved by sin. It is only in Christ that we have any hope of redemption.
The wonder of what God has done to resolve what occurred in Adam, is seen in the one man Jesus Christ, in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and even in the sending of the Spirit by which all of us can individually participate in his intimate relationship with Father in the Spirit. We, by faith, can now experience the union and communion we were created for—coming to know not just about God, but to know him personally and relationally as his adopted children. We can live now and forever triumphant over evil, sin, and death because of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ’s obedience in the face of profound temptation from the evil one has undone Adam’s, and therefore humanity’s, disobedience and sin. Jesus’ righteousness, or right relationship with God, has become our own righteousness. Jesus’ justification has undone our injustice and rebellion, restoring us and making us one with God. Death itself has been defeated, such that we participate now and forever in the eternal life Jesus spoke of, that of knowing the Father, and him whom he sent (John 17:3). Every one of us is invited to live this out, as we trust in Jesus’ perfect work in our place and on our behalf, and receive his gift of the Spirit of life everlasting, embracing our place as beloved children of our Father.
Thank you, Father, for your great love and faithfulness. Thank you, Jesus, for coming for us, facing temptation, and triumphing over evil, sin, and death. As we live in face-to-face relationship with you, dear God, may your heavenly Spirit, manifest anew in and through us all the righteousness and goodness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:12–19 NASB
[Printable copy: https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/olitwhere-death-reigns-grace-triumphs-e.pdf ]
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Stop Living in the Tombs
By Linda Rex
June 19, 2022, PROPER 7—I remember years ago receiving a phone call from a nurse who had helped in the delivery of my child. She lived down the road, and had seen me out walking, along with my newborn child in a stroller. She had called to tell me that my doctor wanted to see me.
The reason she had called was a good one. She was concerned that my postpartum depression had turned into clinical depression, and she wanted me to get the help I needed. What I had not known back then was that my mother had struggled with this same difficulty, and this was a genetic predisposition that could be passed down from one generation to the next.
I am, in a way, thankful that the recent pandemic has brought to the attention of many the importance of good mental health. Within churches, there has been a tendency to shun any discussion of mental health issues, or to lump them all under the heading of Satan’s work or demonic affliction. In my birth family, we discovered the painful consequences of being ignorant with regards to mental health issues—it’s important to be honest and upfront about our human brokenness and frailty, and to get the appropriate help when we need it.
If we look at the scriptures, we can see that struggles with depression and mental health related issues are addressed in the same way as many other of the struggles we have as human beings. Take, for example, the story of Elijah the prophet. Just after he had experienced a major triumph against the pagan prophets championed by Queen Jezebel and King Ahab, Elijah was threatened with the loss of his life. He ran to hide, ending up in a lonely place in the wilderness. There, he simply asked God to take his life. He didn’t feel he had anything else to offer—he was all alone and broken in soul, and done with the battle he had been fighting.
What is interesting about that story is that God didn’t magically take his depression away. Rather, he met him in the midst of it. He didn’t meet him in the great wind, nor in the tremendous earthquake, nor did he meet him in the massive fire. The way God engaged Elijah was through his still, small voice—meeting him right where he was and asking, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Then, having been present with him in the midst of his despair and distress, God gave him a new purpose, and sent him out with a firm, “Go, return on your way… (1 Kings 19:1–15a).”
I was reading Psalm 42 and 43 which are readings for this Sunday, and was reminded of how helpful the psalms were when I was in my darkest days. The writers of the psalms (or songs) captured many powerful emotions and our common human response to crises, tragedies, and affliction. Pondering these poetic expressions of the inner soul, allowing them to resonate with what is going on within our own soul, and even using them as prayers, can awaken us to the reality that God understands our difficulties and is present with us in the midst of them.
Listen to what the “sons of Korah” wrote in this excerpt:
“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, ‘Where is this God of yours?’ My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: … But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life. … Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me. Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live. There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy. I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God! Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!” (Psalm 42:1-3, 8; 43:3-5 NLT)
If you read the entirety of these two psalms together, you will see that the psalmist is wrestling with deep, passionate feelings of isolation and discouragement. He rightly interprets this longing of his soul as a need for God’s presence in his circumstances. He needs to know he is not going through this all by himself. He needs to have some glimmer of hope in the midst of the darkness.
In verse 3 of Psalm 43, the cry of the psalmist is, “Send out your light and your truth.” There, right there, is where we see a glimmer of the answer to our struggles with depression, despair and discouragement. God did send out his light and his truth. We find in the person of Jesus Christ himself, the One who is the Light and the Truth, what we are longing for. We find that God himself has taken on our human flesh, to live our life and die our death, to experience the worst that humans could inflict upon him, even to the point of suffering and death. He knows the pain of losing people dear to him. He knows the grief of being rejected, insulted, and falsely accused. And he knows what it is like to be betrayed and abandoned by his friends.
What God did was to enter into the midst of our human experience and bear it all upon himself. He went all the way into death itself, to bring our human flesh up into the presence of God, to be there in Christ forever. He sent the Spirit from the Father so that our human flesh becomes the temple of God’s presence, the place where we are able to worship him in Spirit and in truth. That means, in the midst of our darkest inner gloom, God’s Light is present and available. When it seems we have no hope, our heavenly Hope is present and able to lift us once more into a new place. We can seek the Lord, and when it feels as though our prayers never penetrate the ceiling, we may suddenly discover he has been right with us the whole time.
Jesus knows what it feels like when it seems we are all alone in the dark night of our soul, wandering about the tombs of our dreams. He knows what it feels like to barely be able to take another step. He knows the agony of one more moment of painful life. On the cross, he drove out the Satanic spirits of despair, desolation, and despondency—let them go. He clothed us with his righteousness—put it on. And he offers to you and to me his endurance, his forbearance, his hope, and his peace. He holds us and is faithful to us even when we are ready to give up.
Yes, there are times when we need to ask others for help. If we need to take medication to balance out our body chemistry, then we need to take it faithfully and consistently. If we need to talk with a therapist, then we need to have those conversations. But in every case, we always have Christ present in us and with us by the Spirit, giving us hope and strength. He will not abandon us, no matter how much in the moment it may feel like he has. Choose to ignore the lies that tell us God doesn’t love us or that he has abandoned us. Choose, by God’s grace, to believe Christ is still there, beneath all that mess, holding us steadfastly by the Spirit in the Father’s embrace. Let Jesus be who he is—the Light and the Truth at the bottom of the deep well of our darkness.
Thank you, Father, for never abandoning us or leaving us alone in our dark places, but coming to be with us and in us by your Spirit. Thank you, Jesus, for being the Light and the Truth who holds us safely in the Father’s embrace, filling us with the hope to go on. Grant us the grace to take one more step, to find the strength for one more day, even if that is all we can manage right now, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from him; but when he cried to Him for help, He heard.” Psalm 22:24 NASB
“So they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes, across the lake from Galilee. As Jesus was climbing out of the boat, a man who was possessed by demons came out to meet him. For a long time he had been homeless and naked, living in the tombs outside the town. … A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been freed from the demons. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid. … The man who had been freed from the demons begged to go with him. But Jesus sent him home, saying, ‘No, go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you.’ So he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him.” Luke 8:26–27, 35b, 37–39 NLT
[Printable copy: https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/stop-living-in-the-tombs.pdf ]
An Opportune Time
By Linda Rex
March 6, 2022, 1st Sunday in PREPARATION FOR EASTER OR LENT—This morning I was reading about the conflict currently going on between the nations of Russia and Ukraine. There seems to be a variety of opinions on why this conflict is happening and what the motives are behind it. But I have yet to see anyone say that the conflict is a result of our natural human tendency to desire what is not ours and to raise ourselves above others, while subjugating them to our will—a biblical worldview regarding conflict (James 4:1–4).
While it’s easy to play the blame game when talking about conflict and war, the reality is that we often point out human failings while ignoring the underlying spirit of conflict which has its roots in the evil one. Satan is constantly at work creating suspicion and mistrust between people and groups, causing division and conflict. He is masterful at destroying fellowship and community. Often, we see him at work, not realizing we ourselves may be participating in his work of destruction and death by our own human tendency toward envy, greed, selfishness, pride, and unforgiveness.
This Sunday’s reading in the gospels tells how Jesus came away from his baptism experience filled with the Spirit, but then was thrown out by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the evil one. In Luke’s account, Jesus was tempted in a variety of ways—a summary of the temptations we experience as human beings—and yet he did not sin. Drawing upon the word of God as written in the book of Deuteronomy, he countered every temptation, until Satan finally left him. But then, Luke adds—“until an opportune time”.
What Luke is pointing out is that even though Jesus emerged triumphant from this great spiritual battle, Satan was not yet done. He continued to seek out opportunities to trick Jesus into sinning—to tempt him to turn away from his purposeful journey towards the crucifixion and resurrection. The evil one knew what was at stake, and did his best to trip our Savior up as he made the challenging journey to the cross.
One example of this is the conversation Jesus had with Peter regarding his identity as the Messiah. Peter understood Jesus was the Messiah, but when Jesus started describing what he as the Messiah would have to go through—rejection, arrest, abuse and death—Peter’s concern as a friend and disciple got in the way. He told Jesus that he was wrong—these things wouldn’t happen. And Jesus rebuked him strongly by saying, “Get behind me, Satan.” Jesus understood the true source of this conflict. Peter was merely a participant who had his mind on human things instead on what mattered most to God (Mark 8:29–33).
This is a good example of how Satan watches for opportune moments to bring about his agenda of discord, division, destruction and death. It’s not always obvious at first glance. Many times, it is hidden underneath the guise of what seems to be good, comfortable or pleasant. This is why we are so often reminded in the scriptures to be on the alert. Peter knew firsthand how important this is and wrote in 1 Peter 5:8–9: “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world” (NASB).
Some of the opportune moments we give the evil one are moments of unresolved anger. The apostle Paul reminds us not to allow angry disagreements to go on and on without working them out. He wrote, “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity” (Ephesians 4:26–27 NASB). It’s not wrong to be angry. Anger shows that a violation of some kind has occurred and needs to be addressed in a healthy way. There needs to be reconciliation, forgiveness, repentance—whatever needs addressed in order to restore the relationship. But it needs to be addressed, and not allowed to fester. Allowing anger, resentment, and then bitterness to fester is what creates an opportunity for Satan to enter in and begin to create a whole mess of issues and broken relationships and destructive situations. He loves it when we participate with him in creating division and disruption in this way.
The apostle Paul reminded us that our conflicts are not so much against humans as they are against spiritual strongholds and authorities. He wrote that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” For that reason, he encouraged us to put on Christ—the armor God has given us to protect us against the wiles of the devil.
In Jesus, we see the armor Paul talks about in Ephesians 6:10–18 being forged as Jesus resisted Satan’s temptations. Jesus walked the path to the cross—the way of the gospel of peace—and would not be deterred even though he knew the pain and suffering involved. Jesus, as the living Word of God, drew upon the power of the Spirit and the written word of God to counter Satan’s arguments. As the Son of God, Jesus knew the Father intimately and trusted completely in his love and faithfulness, even as he experienced Satan’s attacks. And as God in human flesh, Jesus lived in right relationship with his Father, keeping his heart in faithful devotion to his Abba.
In the garden of Gethsemane, one last “opportune time” occurred when Satan sought to turn Jesus away from his commitment in the Spirit to his Father and to all of us as humanity. Jesus wrestled in agony against the strong pull to do what his human flesh and Satan desired. Today, as we walk through these wilderness days of the Lenten season with Jesus, we are reminded how masterfully Jesus struggled in our place and on our behalf in this battle over evil, sin, and death. Soon we will rehearse again the events of Holy Week, walking with Jesus down the road toward his final moments in Jerusalem, weeping with Mary and the disciples as he hung in agony on the cross and lay silently in the tomb, and rejoicing on that glorious resurrection morn, when Jesus rose triumphantly from the grave.
The joyous good news is, that even though the evil one does his best to create conflict, division, death and destruction, Jesus is still triumphant. He is Lord. There is nothing that will stand in the way of what Jesus determines he will do in a given situation. Yes, as long as we human beings still try to be in charge and run things our way, we will have conflict and war and human suffering. But when we turn to Christ and do things his way, then healing, restoration, and renewal can begin to be experienced in this life, and most certainly will be experienced forever in the new heavens and new earth.
As long as Satan is around, he will be looking for “an opportune time”. But we have a triumphant Lord. We put on his armor. We trust in the Father’s love and care. And we live and walk filled with the Spirit. This is where we take our stand: in Christ.
Thank you, heavenly Father, for your faithful love and your grace. Thank you, holy Jesus, for the battle you waged in our place and on our behalf against the evil one. And thank you, precious Spirit, for filling us and guarding our hearts and minds, in Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone.”’ And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”’ And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, “He will command His angels concerning you to guard you,” and, “on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘It is said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.” Luke 4:1–13 NASB
[A printable copy of this blog: https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/an-opportune-time.pdf%5D
Preparing for a Royal Visit
By Linda Rex
December 5, 2021, ADVENT | Peace—As a college student, we took a class trip our senior year to Palm Springs, California. This city is located in the Sonoran Desert, so it hot in the summer and very dry. Since growing anything of significance in southern California requires the use of water, which was often in limited supply, it was common to see rock gardens blended with cacti, succulents and palm trees in the front yards of homes and businesses.
There are a variety of stones used to create rock gardens. Today, one can purchase large bags of pea gravel or attractive polished rocks at a do-it-yourself home supply store or even have a truckload of these products delivered to one’s front door. Here in Tennessee, we have contractors blasting rock, digging it out and removing it in order to build a home and create an attractive front yard. There they were filling their yards with rocks!
But this whole discussion about rocks came about because I was thinking about what Luke said John the Baptizer was doing when he came into Judea before the coming of Christ. He said that he was preparing the way before the Messiah. Back in those days, when a ruler was planning to visit a particular place, an announcement was sent ahead, telling the people to prepare the road. They would go out and clear all the rocks off the road so that the visiting dignitary wouldn’t be jostled about, nor end up with a broken axle or wheel on his conveyance.
Having lived some time on a farm in southeast Iowa, I know what it is like to try to travel on a gravel road or, even worse, a dirt road. And this is while driving a car. All it takes is one large rock in the wrong place and you are in serious trouble. Or if the road isn’t level—many times they had a large mound in the middle or a deep, muddy hole a tire could get stuck in—you would end up stuck or broken down, and not being able to get safely where you needed to go.
Since most of us today here in America travel on asphalt, and apart from the occasional pothole, do not face these types of issues, we may find it difficult to understand fully the importance of John’s message. For many of us, the hard work of removing the rocks and leveling the road has already been done. We take for granted that we can safely travel from one city to another at a high rate of speed on interstate highways which extend for miles in every direction. We also assume that we can, apart from road construction or accidents, easily travel back and forth from work, school, or the store.
What we need to realize is that what Jesus did for us was to create this amazing paved road to life in the kingdom of God in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension—and then he gave us the ability to travel it by sending his Spirit from the Father to dwell in human hearts as we place our trust in him and his finished work. We celebrate an important step in this amazing work of redemption during Advent as we prepare, in a sense, for the coming of the Messiah in the incarnation. John’s message is important because it reminds us that, apart from the coming of Christ, our road is unlevel and full of rocks and obstructions.
John’s call to prepare the way involves the call to repentance and baptism for the remission of sins. By necessity, we need to discern the difference between just feeling bad because we messed up or sorry because we got caught and are experiencing consequences, and truly being repentant. Biblical repentance involves a change in both one’s mind and heart. It involves a turning away from one’s self and one’s own will, and a turning toward Christ and his will. To repent in this way means a total change in one’s direction and way of living. It’s the beginning of a lifelong journey on the kingdom path of God’s righteousness being worked out in us by the Spirit, as we grow up into Christlikeness.
But this awareness of need and turning away from sin, Satan, and self is a lifelong process. We never want to take this level road Christ has given us for granted. It is good to ponder the message of John and ask ourselves again: What rocks of sin, Satan, and self are lying about in my soul today? What do I keep tripping over or crashing into, forcing my life to come to a complete stop? How deep a rut am I caught in right now that is tearing up my heart and destroying my relationships and my health? Perhaps it would be good to reflect a moment on the message of John—prepare the way of the Lord.
We, as the body of Christ, have often taken this message—prepare the way of the Lord—to mean that we need to preach the gospel in order to hasten the second coming of Christ. It is a good thought, and I would not want to resist what positive affect it may have on our spiritual renewal and preparation for Christ’s return. But I humbly submit that perhaps there is another preparation for the way of the Lord we need to consider—the preparing of our hearts and minds anew to receive the gift of the Christ child—of Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Are we open to the coming and presence of God by the Holy Spirit within our souls right now, in each and every moment? Is there someway in which perhaps we need to take seriously the call to repentance that we have previously ignored? What have we put in the place that only Jesus Christ should have in our minds and hearts? Are we living in the realization that all of our life is in Christ, and that every moment is meant to be filled with his presence and power by the Spirit?
It is hard to move forward in life when we are constantly dealing with the rocks of sin, self, and Satan. Jesus’ criticism of the religious leaders of his day was not about their devotion to God and his ways, but for their arrogance in believing they did not need to repent of their sins and be baptized in his baptism in the Spirit. Could it be that our struggle even as followers of Christ today is that we are so sure we are traveling the right path and are rightly related to God that we are missing the simple reminder, prepare the way of the Lord?
Jesus has come, he has offered us the free pardon of grace. He has paved the way. But do we recognize the reality that we are traveling on an unlevel road filled with rocks and holes and ruts? Repent—turn around—go the other way, he calls to us. Trade in your path for my easy path. Make a way—clear a path—these are all the Spirit’s work in our hearts and lives. But God calls us to participate by doing our part—repent and believe. Be washed in baptism, if you haven’t taken that step. Then feed on Christ—on his life, poured into you through his Word and by his Spirit, and in joining together with other believers as we share communion. This is the easy path forged for us in Christ. We receive it daily by faith, in gratitude for all God has done, as we travel daily down this road called life.
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for creating in Christ and by the Spirit a path to travel in life that is free from the rocks and obstructions of Satan, sin, and self. As we travel day by day, grant us the grace and humility to remain repentant and to ever make way for your royal coming and presence through Jesus and by your Spirit. Amen.
“And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh will see the salvation of God.” ’ ” Luke 3:3–6 (1–6) NASB
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on ‘before the Lord to prepare his ways’; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, ‘to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death’, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:76–79 (68–79) NASB
All Sins Forgiven
By Linda Rex
June 6, 2021, PROPER 5—There are times when we wrestle with the reality that we have fallen short of what it means to be image-bearers of the God who is Father, Son and Spirit. If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that the way we act, the things we say and do, and especially our thoughts, are a far cry from what God intends. None of us love God or love others in the way we were originally designed to, though there are moments when we may experience a little bit of the bliss of us being in sync with the heavenly realities.
Even so, we discover in the person of Jesus Christ that God is still present. In Christ we see that God is immeasurably patient and gracious, though he does at times hold our feet to the fire so we will repent and turn back to him. The ultimate spiritual reality is that all our sins are forgiven in Jesus, and we have an incredible hope because of what he has done in our place and on our behalf. The One who is our Judge is also the One who is the perfect Lamb offered on our behalf for our sin and the High Priest or Mediator who intercedes for us with the Father.
As we move from the season where we walked with Jesus through the crucifixion into the tomb, and from there rose with Jesus in the resurrection and ascension to the Father’s side, receiving from God the promised Holy Spirit, we find ourselves in a whole new place. As those who trust in Christ, we live in God’s presence even now as we by faith are empowered by his Spirit to follow Jesus and participate in his mission in this world. In Christ, God has defeated Satan and is making all things new.
But when we look around us and within ourselves, we often see only brokenness, evil, and sin. We experience the consequences of ourselves and others living in ways which God never intended—pain, sickness, broken relationships, and death fill our world and touch our lives. Where is God in all this? It’s hard to see that Jesus is present by his Spirit and at work in this world when our tangible experience tells us otherwise. The evil one is quick to point out to us all the ways in which he is still in control and we are left abandoned, orphans in this broken world.
We need to own up to the reality that what we experience in this way is a result of human choice and the work of God’s adversary. One of the passages for this Sunday, (1 Samuel 8:4–20; 11:14–15) tells the story of the elders of ancient Israel coming to Samuel the judge and asking him to install a king in his place. Up to that point, God had been their king and he had worked through judges to provide shepherding for his people. But the people didn’t like how Samuel’s sons were leading and Samuel was getting old, so they felt it was time for a change in leadership. Samuel was very upset about this, but the Lord told him that whoever rejected him was rejecting the Lord. The reality was that even in this rejection of God and his kingship, the people of Israel would still be God’s people, and the Lord would be faithful to his covenant with them. On God’s side, the relationship was secure in spite of, on the nation’s side, their rejection of their Redeemer, and God would still accomplish through them, the coming of the Messiah.
This echoes the story of beginnings in another passage for this Sunday, Genesis 3:8–15. Here Adam and Eve hear the Lord walking in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day. This was a time when God would walk and talk with his creatures, sharing the pleasant and joyful fellowship of God with man we were created for. But on this day, because of their sin in eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve heard God coming, became afraid and hid. Instead of rejecting them because of their sin (for God already knew what they had done), God sought them out, calling them out of hiding back into relationship. Yes, they had to answer for what they had done, but God did what was needed to bring them back, covering them with skins through the shedding of blood, prophetically pointing the day when Christ would shed his blood on the behalf of all humanity to restore our relationship with our Maker.
As the Lord spoke to Adam and Eve, it became evident who the real culprit was—the serpent. In the Bible, we see a progression of understanding regarding this being—this is God’s adversary, the one who is ever at work in this world in opposition to God’s will and purposes. Jesus himself called Satan the father of lies, the one who was a murderer from the beginning, who constantly works to deceive humanity and turn them away from God (John 8:44). His favorite deception of all is convincing us that God doesn’t really love us or want what is best for us—that God is holding out on us, keeping us from having everything we deserve or desire.
What we believe matters! If we believe God doesn’t exist, or that if he does, he doesn’t care, we will live in ways that demonstrate this. If we believe God doesn’t want what is best for us, then we will decide for ourselves what is best for us, and reap heavy and painful consequences which come from such choices. Since the beginning, humans have not trusted God to know what is best for them or to genuinely love them and care for them. What Israel did in rejecting God as king is not an unusual incident. This is just a manifestation of the nature of humanity throughout the ages—we turn away from God—we do things our own way. In Christ, God is calling every human being back to himself, asking, “Why are you hiding?” We have all been covered by the blood of Christ and clothed with his righteousness—why reject this gift and the Giver who went to such lengths to provide it?
As the psalmist said, “Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness… (Psalm 138:3).” We have God’s assurance that he will do and has done all that is needed to make us right with himself. The evil one is defeated by Christ, who entered the strong man’s (Satan’s) house and plundered his goods, releasing humanity from the clutches of the devil as well as evil, death, and sin (Mark 3:27). On God’s side, Satan is a defeated foe. Those of us who trust in Christ can rest in his finished work, knowing that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the Church, the body of Christ. When all is said and done, God’s kingdom will stand and Satan and his minions will be removed, unable any longer to affect or harm God’s new heavens and earth.
In the meantime, we live in the already-not yet of the kingdom of God. That means that we still experience trouble in this life. We don’t lose heart when the externals of our existence and our human flesh wear down or fall apart, because what is at work within us is eternal and will last forever (2 Corinthians 4:13–5:1). The truth is that followers of Christ will experience difficulties in this world. Added to the normal experience of the consequences of the fall, of humanity’s turning from God, we as believers also experience rejection and criticism from those who reject Christ. There will be people near and dear to us who may ridicule our faith in Christ or our efforts to live in obedience to God’s will. They may even accuse us of being out of our minds. But we can be assured that as we do the will of the Father, Christ will count us as his very own, his true family—the ones who share in the life and love of the Father and Son in the Spirit.
Life in the Spirit is what we have been given in Christ, and this is ours both now and forever. The Spirit who lives in us is forming Christ in us as we respond to Jesus in faith and obedience. The purpose of our struggles is to grow us up in Christlikeness, not to destroy or harm us, as Satan is prone to do. Now and forever, we have moment-by-moment fellowship with God in the Spirit, because God has restored the fellowship of God with man once experienced when Adam and Eve first walked with God in the garden. In Christ, all sins are forgiven and the Spirit has been given so we can participate in that new life which is ours in him right now and on into eternity.
.Dear Abba, thank you for making us your very own through the gift of your Son and your Spirit. Thank you for delivering us from Satan and his demons, for giving us new life, and enabling us to share in your life and love now and forever. Finish what you have begun, even as you have promised, through Jesus our Lord and by your Spirit. Amen.
“And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, ‘He has lost His senses.’ The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul,’ and ‘He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.’ And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. … Answering them, He said, ‘Who are My mother and My brothers?’ Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, ‘Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.’” Mark 3:20–35 NASB
Guarded by Faith
By Linda Rex
August 11th, PROPER 14—A while back, my son was telling me about a group of people who believe the world is flat. They have their own website where they seek to convince others that this is the reality of the earth we live on. Because they believe what they do, they have come up with many arguments to explain away what someone like myself would consider sound, logical proof the world is round.
Because of how I was raised, I find it difficult to even entertain the possibility that the earth is flat. My beliefs have been formed around the scientific information I’ve studied and things I was taught in school. I have learned new things about my world and my physical body as I have grown older, but in all these years I have never had any reason to change my belief about the world being round. I am still convinced that I live on a lovely orb set as a jewel in the heavens, held in the loving hands of our Abba.
Indeed, what we believe directly affects how we see our world and ourselves. We often believe things about ourselves which are inaccurate, but which guide how we interact with our environment and with one another. For example, if we are convinced that we know what is the best thing to do in a situation, we will act in accordance with that belief, doing our best to convince others that our ideas and preferences are the ones which should be heeded and that any other person’s opinion or preference is to be disregarded or ignored.
The sad thing is that we often do not make the effort to get to know who we really are. Many of us do not realize how we impact the people around us. For some of us, our behavior, words, and attitudes are an affliction on those around us because we work out of an inner paradigm of conceit, arrogance and pride. Or we may believe we are only worthy of rejection and abandonment, and are so filled with self-loathing that we believe we have nothing to offer this world or the people in our lives. Our inner belief may create discomfort and frustration in the people around us, causing them to avoid or reject us.
These beliefs about ourselves impact how we interact at home, at work, and in the marketplace. If we are in Christian ministry, these beliefs affect how we care for the people God places in our lives—we influence others by the way we view ourselves, the world we live in, and God himself. Our false beliefs about God, ourselves and everything else provide the evil one with plenty of ammunition in his efforts to kill, destroy, and to create division. As the father of lies, he’s really good at convincing us of lies about God, ourselves and others.
Have you ever considered the possibility that what you believe about someone might be wrong? That you might be seeing God through the wrong lense? Have you ever thought that maybe the inner voice you listen to all the time may be lying to you? We need to be willing to step out of the box and try new ways of looking at ourselves, God, and the world around us. We may discover what we have believed all these years was wrong.
In the book of Genesis, God came to Abram in a vision and told him that he would have an heir. Since he and his wife were beyond childbearing years, this was a jaw-dropping proposition. Then God also promised Abram that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. In spite of how astonishing this news was, Abram believed.
How that belief was worked out during his life took many turns, some of which seemed unfathomable to Abram. Years passed and he had no child of his own—it seemed as though God had forgotten his promise. Abram agreed to have a child by a custom of the day, through Sarai’s handmaid. The complications which arose then, and have arisen ever since because of the issue of unbelief, are innumerable. What if Abram had believed God so completely that he had told Sarai no? How would his life have been different? How would it have affected the nation of Israel centuries later?
However limited Abram’s faith was, God still counted it as righteousness. It is a comfort to you and to me that what we believe about God, limited though it may be, is still valuable. God comes to us, reveals himself to us in Christ by the Spirit, and we believe—and our lives are never the same again. However fragile our faith may be, God still honors it.
The reason God embraces our limited faith is because the Word of God came into our human flesh, trusted his Abba completely even to the point of death on a cross and placed himself into his Father’s hands as he prepared to die. Jesus’ faith was perfect, complete, and unbreakable, even in death. We find now, that you and I participate in his faith—our fragile, imperfect faith is completed and upheld in his perfect faith.
The apostle Paul called for us to put on the shield of faith. He told us to take “up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” We need to have Jesus reform our view of God and ourselves—understanding the depths of Abba’s love for us and how we are beloved, chosen, and accepted by God. Satan will use any means necessary to get us to believe lies about God, ourselves, and others, but Jesus stands in our stead, on our behalf, as the truth of our existence and the truth of our heavenly Abba. He gives us his faith by the Spirit in our inner being, enabling us to believe when everything around and in us is telling us not to.
We don’t need to drum up a deeper faith. All we need is Jesus’ faith. And by the Spirit we have it, as we receive what Jesus has done in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, trusting that he stands in our stead and on our behalf. Jesus’ faith becomes our shield, freeing us from Satan’s lies about God, ourselves, and others. We participate in Jesus’ faith as we put on more and more of Christ, growing in our relationship with him, worshiping and praising him, and learning more about him and his ways. As we come to know him more deeply, we stop believing the lies we have embraced and begin to live and walk in truth, shielded by the faith of Christ, our living Lord.
Dear Abba, thank you for including us in your perfect relationship with your Son Jesus in the Spirit. Renew our faith. Free us from false beliefs about ourselves, you, and others. Enable us to live and walk in truth, through Jesus the living Truth and by your Spirit. Amen.
“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great….Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:1, 6 NASB
It’s Just Not Who We Are
By Linda Rex
In the past few years it has been brought to my mind over and over how our relationship with God is very much like that of an expectant mother, and our relationships with one another are very much like the cells in a human body. These are only analogies and they have their shortcomings and flaws, but they provide windows into the human soul and our human existence.
This morning I was reminded again how wonderful our bodies are. When something foreign enters our skin or enters our bodies, if we have a healthy immune system, the object or alien cell is immediately surrounded and attacked. The self-defense system within our human bodies is really amazing, but it has been known to even attack an unborn child if the antibodies are triggered by any antigens within the fetus. Obviously, this is not what antibodies were meant to do, but it can and does happen.
I pray God will help each of us to see ourselves as human beings held in the life and love of God, who upholds all things by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3). And to see ourselves as sharers in Jesus Christ who has in his life, death, resurrection and ascension has made us participants in his very being, in his perfected humanity. For then we might begin to grasp—and I myself struggle to fully grasp this—sin and evil are alien to our true being. Any way of being which brings death instead of true life—the life Jesus brought us into—the life and love which exists in the Father, Son, Spirit relations—is foreign to our true humanity.
Maybe it’s time we begin to see our human proclivity to do what is evil and unhealthy from the point of view in which it is foreign to who we are. As the apostle Paul said, “if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.” (Romans 7:20). That which is not you or me is what we find ourselves doing, even when we do not wish to do it. The desire to do what is life-giving and loving comes from God the Spirit, not our natural human flesh. When we are awakened to Christ in us, we find we want to do what creates harmony, joy, peace and communion, not division, destruction and death.
As humans, we have been joined with Christ in the hypostatic union of God and man which he took on as the Word of God in human flesh. Jesus Christ took our broken humanity with him through the process of forging out a sinless life, he hauled us with him onto the cross, and with him we died the death we deserve to die. In Christ, as he rose from the grave, our humanity has taken on a new form. We do not live anymore in our human brokenness because God in Christ by his Spirit is awakening us to a new way of being which he has created—Christ in us, the hope of glory.
This new way of being is who we really are—this is our true humanity. Persons living in union and communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit, and with one another, are who we were created to be. To live in opposition to the perfected humanity which is found in Christ is to live in opposition to who we really are. We are the beloved children of Abba, sharers in the perfect relationship which exists between the Father and the Son in the Spirit. We are created to reflect and to live in this way of being—where our personhood is bound up in these inner relations in God, and in loving relationship with one another.
So saying that, the elephant in the room is our proclivity to not live in the truth of who we are in Christ. In other words, there are a lot of things we think, say, and do which do not agree with who God has created us to be. We live with others and with God in ways which are self-centered, greedy, lustful and broken, and which bring death rather than life. We are created for life, not death. But we find so many ways to live in death and sometimes we even imagine these wrong ways of living bring about life.
We walk in darkness, not realizing the Light of God shines in us and through us. We even think following a bunch of rules, manmade or God-breathed, will give us life, forgetting that our real Life is found in a Person, Jesus Christ, and in our relationship with Abba through Jesus in the Spirit.
Our sinfulness is not our bad self, and our obedience to God and his ways is not our good self. We are not divided in two. We talk about bad people and good people, and I wonder whether we have ever considered exactly what it means to be a bad person or a good person. Exactly how much badness makes someone a bad person? And just how much goodness is needed to make someone good instead of bad?
What a revelation it can be when we realize we are all just a messy mixture of dark and light, of bad and good—we are all just very human. And as humans, made in the image of God, warts and all, we are, in Christ, God’s beloved and forgiven children. That’s who we are!
Evil and the evil one are constantly seeking to destroy this new body of Christ, as members in particular and as the corporate body. But the sins and sinful passions of our broken human flesh do not define us. Christ defines us. We are citizens of a new kingdom. And even though we don’t always live like we belong to the kingdom of light, we do indeed belong there.
We’ve been given the glorious clothing of the kingdom of light to wear, and we have the privilege of living moment by moment in a close, personal relationship with the King of the kingdom right now. We have a new humanity we are able to fully participate in because the old is rapidly passing away—in fact, in Christ it is already gone.
Maybe it’s time to quit listening to the lies and sitting in the dark, and awaken to the reality we are already a part of a kingdom of light which has been in the works since before the beginning of time—an absolutely amazing kingdom in which righteousness dwells. Maybe it’s time to embrace our true humanity.
Lord Jesus, thank you for including us in your life with the Father by the Spirit. Thank you, Father, for drawing us up into the life and love between you and your Son in the Spirit. Enable us to turn a deaf ear to evil and the evil one, and to never again fear death, knowing we are hidden with Christ in you, God. Amen.
“On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.” 1 John 2:8 NASB
“For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;…” 1 John 3:11 NASB
A Simply Divine Outfit!
by Linda Rex
Last week I did my best to come up with a blog to post, but due to my involvement with vacation bible school (VBS), and other family and work responsibilities, I found myself drawing on empty when it came time to write. But I would like to share what stood out in my mind from our work with the young people in the Old Hickory community.
The topic of our VBS last week was the armor of God. At first, when we were reviewing the curriculum at one of our planning meetings, I and others were struck by the emphasis it had on our human efforts to put away sin and defend ourselves against Satan’s attacks. Our challenge was to revise the curriculum in such a way as to put Jesus Christ as the foundation and center of it rather than our own human efforts.
It is my personal belief what is lost in most discussions and devotions about the armor of God is the reality that each part of the armor is in essence Jesus Christ himself. Even the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, points us to the living Word, Jesus Christ. To separate each part out individually as if it stands on its own is to miss the point of this whole passage.
Paul starts out this section of scripture by saying, “…be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” God’s might is our might, his strength our strength. In Jesus by the Spirit we have the capacity to resist evil and the evil one. It’s not something we have to figure out or do on our own.
We need to beware of any way of looking at scripture which casts us back upon ourselves, as if we are capable of resisting or overcoming evil on our own, or are responsible to do so. Trying to overcome or resist evil on our own by keeping the law or doing lots of good deeds is basically human religion. And such a religion does not save us—rather it can enslave us and bind us to unhealthy and unfruitful ways of living and being.
What Paul seems to be saying here in Ephesians 6 is we have an adversary who is always scheming against us, and there are forces of evil at work which impact our lives on a daily basis. But we have a simply divine outfit laid out on the bed for us—we just need to put it on and stand firm in Christ, while resisting the devil’s efforts to deceive or distract us.
Salvation isn’t something we have to make sure we run to the boutique and buy, but rather something Christ has already done in his life, death, resurrection and ascension. We have been delivered from sin and death by the Son of God, who was victorious over them. But there is an action we do—we pick up the helmet of salvation, and we put it on. We experience a change in our mind and heart—we repent and turn away from our self-centered ways of thinking and being, and we turn to Christ. We stop trusting in our human efforts to save ourselves and start trusting in Christ instead. We put on Christ.
The thing is, the helmet of salvation isn’t something you take off and put back on. Salvation just is, because Christ has done it and won’t go back on his action of taking our humanity on and redeeming it. So we just receive this gift and live in the truth of it from now on. Our decision to live in the reality of our salvation in Christ does not alter whether or not Jesus saved us. It merely enables us to enjoy all the benefits of what he has done for us and in our place, and what he is doing today by his Holy Spirit. It is life-transforming.
This theme of putting on Christ can be found throughout this whole discussion about the armor of God. When we put on Jesus Christ, we are wrapping around ourselves the truth of who God is and who we are in him. Jesus is our belt of truth. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life—we draw our being and life from him as the One through whom and by whom all things were created. As made in the image of God, through the Spirit we reflect Jesus Christ, the One who is both God and man—he is our perfected humanity. The truth about our existence is found in him. Whatever lies may be said to us or we may believe need to be held up against this plumbline, recognized for what they are, and discarded. The truth of our being, which is found in Jesus Christ, orients us toward our true north, our heavenly Father, in every area of our lives as we live and work in community with others.
The gospel of peace—how the Word of God took on our humanity to bring us peace with God and peace with one another—is the story of our lives. This good news, who is our Savior Jesus Christ, has transformed our lives, and we spend our existence sharing this good news with others. We don’t hold grudges or refuse to forgive people’s slights against us because we are living in the reality of and sharing with others the immense gift of grace given to us from God through our Lord Jesus Christ. All the human barriers we place between ourselves are removed in Christ, because he has made us one in himself, taking on our humanity and redeeming it. Because Christ is our life, we walk in him in the Spirit, in this path of grace and peace he has walked before us, in our place and on our behalf.
As we put on Christ as our footwear, we also put him on as our righteousness. Jesus is our right relationship with God and one another. God has reconciled to himself all things in Jesus Christ. In Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension we are brought up into the very life and being of God himself, at one with the Father, Son, and Spirit, and in Christ, made at one with every other human being. We put on Christ by living in the truth of our reconciliation and our right relationship, by being truly reconciled with God and one another, because of Jesus’ finished work.
Even when it comes to faith, we are reminded to turn to Christ for the faith we need when we are being assaulted by the lies of the evil one. The one weapon the devil uses against us over and over again is the lie which says God is not good and is not trustworthy, and he does not really love and care about us. When these lies begin to overwhelm us, we need to draw upon Christ’s perfect faith. Jesus trusted his Father implicitly, even when he hung dying on the cross and it seemed to his human mind his Father had forsaken him. Jesus’ perfect faith caused him to trust his Father even at the very end of his suffering—this faith is ours. All we need to do is ask—to pick up the shield—to put on Christ.
So we have put on Christ, and it seems it is not enough for us just to have our armor on. God also gives us an offensive weapon—the sword of the Spirit. The capacity of the word of God to penetrate down to the core of our being is made possible through the living Word, Jesus Christ, by his gift of the Spirit from the Father. It is Christ at work in us by his Spirit which transforms us and enables us to effectively live out and share the gospel of peace. It is the Spirit of truth at work within which enlightens us and enables us to see and walk in the truth who is Jesus. Any faith or righteousness which may well up within us is the work of the Spirit, who writes God’s ways on our minds and hearts, gives us the heart to obey, and enables us to live in accordance with the truth of who we are in Jesus Christ.
The centrality of Christ to this entire discussion on the armor of God can be clearly seen when we start and begin with Jesus as the One who is the Word of God come into our human flesh. This can be a comforting and encouraging study when we do it this way. It’s not up to us to do this battle with the enemy all by ourselves. Rather, it is a battle Jesus already fought and won, and he shares his decisive victory with us as we respond to the Spirit’s work, and put on and use the divine outfit he created for us in his life, death, resurrection and ascension. Jesus Christ is our mighty warrior, and we get to participate by the Spirit in his perfect deliverance against sin, evil, and death. What a blessing!
Dear Abba, thank you for giving us, in Jesus and by your Spirit, total victory over evil, sin, and death. Thank you for giving us this perfect armor to wear, and the sword of the Spirit to wield. Grant us the grace to daily put on Christ and to respond fully to the Spirit’s work in our hearts and lives, and in the world around us. May we trust in you fully, resting in Christ, and drawing upon the Spirit each day. Amen.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6:10–17 NASB
When Life is Too Much
by Linda Rex
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find God brings us right back to a place we have been with him before so we can see the same thing over again in a new way. Let me explain.
Many years ago, when God was rearranging my head and heart with regards to what I believed about him, I went on a search to learn all I could about living in relationship with the Holy Spirit. You see, I had been taught most of my life to that point that the Holy Spirit was merely the power of God or what God was made out of. The Holy Spirit was an essence, a thing, but most certainly not a Person, for that would mean I would have to believe in the Trinity, which I (misinformed as I was) believed was a pagan belief.
But coming to know the Holy Spirit as the Person he/she/it really was blew my mind, and rearranged everything I knew about God and myself. And all of a sudden, I began to see I was missing one of the most important things a person could know about life and how to live it—that I am beloved, I am never alone, and God is living within me in the Person and Presence of the Holy Spirit, transforming me from the inside out. And this Person is Someone I can (and should) interact with, follow, obey and worship.
To go through life struggling, powerless over sin, self and Satan, is not the desire of our heavenly Father. This is not what he created us for. Jesus didn’t come just to leave us as orphans. No, he sent the Paraclete, the other Helper like himself, so we could and would participate in the divine relations between the Father, Son and Spirit, and come to see and believe the truth about who God is and who we are in him.
Sometimes God allows life to get difficult and complicated. Sometimes he calls us into places of ministry and renewal which are beyond our ability to handle. And our human tendency is to either throw up our hands in defeat, or just knuckle under and do the best we can in the situation. But neither of these things are what God wants us to do in these situations, because we would be missing out on God’s best.
Our solution to life’s problems, challenges and opportunities too often is a new, well laid out plan or program, which we implement to the best of our ability in the situation we are facing. Now, I am not knocking well laid out plans or effective scaffolds we can work within. What I am pointing out, though, is this human tendency to be self-reliant rather than dependent upon God. I think being faced with more than we can handle is an opportunity to humble ourselves and acknowledge the reality we need Someone beyond ourselves to save us and help us.
Relationally, it is really difficult to live in relationship with someone who speaks and acts as though we are unimportant and unnecessary to their existence. It is really hard to parent a child or care for another person who believes they can do everything on their own when they don’t have a clue as to what they are doing—it’s so painful to watch them suffer the consequences of their stubborn willfulness and independence, and to not be allowed to guide and help them. But we put God through this all the time.
Indeed, in the wisdom of God, Abba has brought me again to the place he brought me many years ago—a place he brings me to a lot. This is the place where he brings all of us over and over again—the place where we must come to see, believe and admit, we are powerless over sin, self, Satan, and all those things in life we think we are capable of controlling or feel we are responsible for. We need to see, believe, and confess the truth—we need Someone beyond ourselves to intervene, and to empower us, to heal us, and to deliver us.
And this, I believe, is what the apostle Paul was talking about when he said it is in our weakness we are strongest. It is the place of emptiness and weakness where God pours in—not so we become a stagnant pool, but so we might again pour out into others and back into God, emptying ourselves so he might fill us again. This is the perichoretic life we were created for and redeemed to participate in. This is what some call the divine dance—the life which ever existed and exists and will exist in the inner relations of Father, Son and Spirit.
To always have everything under our control, or to always feel as though we need to save the day or to chronically attempt to do so, is to live dishonestly. This is not the truth of who we are, nor what we were created for. This is living in a dream world—where we are masters of our universe and we are in control of everything which happens in it. This is just not the way things really are.
And to live in this way is to be like the person in the square dance who decides to do a do-sa-do when everyone else is doing an allamande left—it creates havoc and pain for everyone involved. It’s like we become a tepid, salty lake rather than remaining a flowing stream. Something of God’s life flowing into us and out from us becomes quenched or stifled. And those around us no longer benefit from the overflowing spring of God’s Spirit and life, for it’s as if a quenching of the Spirit occurs in our relationships with them. When we feel we must always be in control of everything which is happening or what others are doing, or always be the strong one who has it all together—this grieves the Spirit, and strains our relationships. And it’s just not living or walking in the truth.
Can you or I, or anyone else for that matter, keep ourselves safe in every situation? Do we have to make sure everything is done perfectly, so nothing bad will happen? How many things like this do we take on, thinking somehow we are capable of controlling the outcome? How often do we play God? I’m learning I do this more often than probably I would ever want to admit.
So once again, I am moved to the place where I am grateful for God’s grace, in the gift of his Son, and the gift of his Spirit. God’s mystery at work in me and in my life reminds me the best place I can possibly be is the place where I recognize my weakness, my powerlessness, and my inability to control the outcome.
It is when I acknowledge this and turn to Christ, and open myself to the Spirit’s presence and power, God goes to work and begins to do new things in me and in my life and ministry. It’s on his terms, in his timing, and in his way—it’s a walk of faith. But this is the only place I want to be, because I’m moving in step with the Father, Son, and Spirit in the midst of the divine dance, and it’s such an adventure!
Thank you, Abba, for including each of us in your divine dance, for sweeping us up into your life and love. We are utterly dependent upon you for all things, and confess our weakness and need, our inability to be what we ought to be and so to do what we ought apart from you. We pour ourselves out so you may fill us anew, Holy Spirit, and finish what you have begun in us, through Jesus and in his name. Amen.
“And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9–10
An Anxious Heart
by Linda Rex
I’ve notice in the past few weeks as I have been making a transition in my life there is sometimes a sense of underlying anxiety in my heart. This creeps in here and there as I am facing the changes and decisions which come with the closing of one church and the need to move closer to the other.
It is easy to get caught up in the decision-making and the concerns about what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. And to get caught up in it to the place where I become anxious or worried about what to do next, or whether everything is going to be all right. When I feed this anxiety, it can get to the place where I’m afraid it is all going to fall apart and I’m going to be left destitute and on the streets. This isn’t healthy.
This anxiety never presumes God isn’t there in the midst of my problems. But I do believe there is a subtle unbelief which drives it, which says, “I know God is love and all that, but he doesn’t really care about these little details in my life.” It questions God’s heart—does he really love me? Does he really care that I am struggling or that things are getting hard for me? Does he know and understand my heart and my feelings?
We are instructed in the Word of God to take all our anxieties to God and to rest in him. Peter, who wrote this passage, instructs us at the same time to be on our guard, for the evil one seeks out the weak and the stragglers, hoping to find someone to prey upon. This is why it is so dangerous to feed our anxieties rather than casting them upon God.
Focusing on our anxieties rather than turning them over to God keeps us in that place of unbelief where Satan would like us to stay. Staying in unbelief, in not trusting God to care for us and to love us, in believing God’s heart is evil and not good toward us, opens the door for Satan to go to work in our hearts and lives, twisting us into tighter and tighter knots of anxiety, despair and unbelief. We can even get to the place where we stop trusting in God at all because we no longer see God for who he really is, the God who loves us and wants what’s best for us.
The thing is, we sometimes expect God to be a person who only does fun, happy things in our lives. We figure if he’s a good God, then he never allows bad things to happen. Our God-concepts are a little immature, I believe. At least, I find mine often are. I want a god who does everything I want him to do when and how I want it done. And that’s not Who the Triune God is. He is not my flunky who waits on me hand and foot and gives me everything I want when I want it. And my carnal humanity doesn’t like that.
The writers of the New Testament over and over remind us there will be suffering in this life, especially for those who choose to follow Christ. Bad things will and do happen. Life can be quite difficult and painful at times. But none of these things alter Who God is. And none of these things alter God’s love and care for us in the midst of what we are going through in our lives.
What these struggles and difficulties in our life provide are opportunities to trust God. These are opportunities to once again believe the truth about Who God is and how much he loves and cares for us. These are opportunities as we trust and walk with Christ by the Spirit through them for God to form Christ in us, to transform our hearts by faith. These struggles and difficulties become opportunities for God to be glorified by healing, restoring, renewing, or just sustaining us in the midst of them. God loves us through our struggles and pain.
I think this is why Satan looks for people to prey upon when they are at their lowest. He knows when we trust God in the midst of difficulty, struggles, and pain our relationship with God deepens. We end up closer to God than when we began. And we grow in our Christ-likeness. And those are the things the evil one seeks to destroy—relationship, community, love, and the restoration of humanity in the image of God in which he was made.
So as anxiety is creeping around the corners of my mind and heart, I keep turning to Christ. He is the one who holds in my place, and in yours, the perfected peace and trust we need in the midst of all these things which are happening in our lives. We can cast all our anxiety upon God, because God in Christ came and shared in our humanity, and knows and understands all we are going through. God knows our hearts and cares for us. His heart toward us is good.
As we turn to Christ in the midst of all we are going through, God works to perfect us, to restore our true humanity, to strengthen us and plant us with a firm foundation in Jesus Christ. God draws us closer and closer to himself into deeper relationship with him.
And God also works in community to strengthen and help us. God places us within a spiritual community, the body of Christ, so there are others to come alongside and help us through our difficulties, whether through prayer, support, encouragement, or physical help.
One of the greatest blessings for me has been the gift of a new family here in middle Tennessee through the churches I have been blessed to pastor. I am comforted by those who pray for me and my family. And I am encouraged by all those who have offered physical help and support. This reflects the Triune life and love in our humanity, and demonstrates God’s unconditional love in tangible ways in my life. And this also helps to ease the anxiety which is a natural part of our human response to change.
It is good we are learning how to show love to one another in healthier and more tangible ways as the body of Christ. It is through this loving one another in the midst of difficult times we demonstrate the love of God, and enable others to experience a taste of the Triune life and love. May we continue to grow in Christ by the Spirit so others can experience God’s love and grace more and more as time g
oes on.
Abba, thank you for your gracious love and grace. Thank you we can turn to you in all our anxiety and distress, and you care for us and lift us up. Grant us the grace to turn to you and to trust you in the midst of every difficulty, struggle and joy, and to provide support and love to one another as well. We give you praise and thanksgiving for your faithful and abundant love, through Jesus and by your Spirit. Amen.
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” 1 Peter 5:6–10 NASB
Our Life in the Trinity 