116. THE “ABCDE” OF BECOMING MORE OPEN TO GOD FOR HIS BLESSING. “E” for Enthroning.

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Jim Holbeck

In the previous article we looked at the need to dethrone any idols we may have in our lives so that we may give the Lord His rightful place as our ruler. The idols need to be dethroned so that the Lord may be enthroned in our hearts. This concept is seen in Psalm 22:3, Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. This gives us a wonderful picture of the nature of worship. God’s people exalt Him as the Holy One in their praises. He sits enthroned on those praises. It reminds us of another passage in the Psalms where God’s people are encouraged to focus on Him in praise and thanksgiving, Psalm 100:4) Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! As the next verse says, such praise is based upon His character, 5) For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

As Christian believers we need to enthrone Jesus as the Lord and Master of our lives.  Why? Because the Father has highly exalted Him. Paul wrote about that in Philippians 2 verses 8-9,  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. What should be our response? It should be to worship Him and to declare Him to be Lord of the universe, and our Lord, Phil 2:10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 Paul not only taught those truths but He also prayed that his readers might know and experience those truths personally. Look at how he prayed in his letter to the Ephesian believers. He prays that they might know and experience the greatness of God’s power that He used in raising Jesus from the dead.   But he went on to remind them of the place that Jesus occupies in the sight of God, Eph 1:19 (I want you to know) what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20  that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. One might think that would be sufficient for his readers to want to exalt Jesus in their own lives. But he adds to that in his prayer. He describes Jesus now being,  21  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. Jesus is Lord of all, for ever! He rules! In the present and throughout the ages to come!

Paul adds yet another series of concepts in the prayer, 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church. He rules over all. All are subject to Him. God gave the One who is head over all things to be the head of the church.  The church he describes as “the body of Christ”, 23 which is his body. It cannot exist independently of Him.  He indwells and guides and empowers it. The final concept in the prayer stresses that all fulness dwells in Jesus and that He fills all things, the fullness of him who fills all in all. No wonder He is worthy of praise and adoration. Jesus IS Lord but we  need to enthrone Him as Lord in our own lives. He tolerates no rivals.

Summing up, how did you go on the ABCDE we have looked at in these 5 articles?

  • Are you willing to Abide in Jesus and in His word?
  • Are you willing to Believe, to believe the promises of God and to act on them?
  • Are you willing to Consecrate yourself and your body to do the will of God no matter what.
  • Are you willing to Dethrone all the idols in your life, no matter how attractive they might be to you?
  • Are you willing to Enthrone Jesus as Lord of your life?

If you are willing to do all those things then you are becoming more open to receive what God has for you in His plan and purpose for this world.   Theodore Monod put in a hymn what our response might be. He begins the hymn with the words, Oh, the bitter pain and sorrow, That a time could ever be, When I proudly said to Jesus, “All of self, and none of Thee.” The next verse shows some growth. It has the words, “Some of self, and some of Thee.” Then comes the more mature saying “Less of self, and more of Thee.” The final verse has words that show total commitment, “Higher than the highest heaven, Deeper than the deepest sea, Lord, Thy love at last has conquered: ‘None of self, and all of Thee’.”

My prayer. Lord, may it be so in the lives of all Your people. AMEN.

Blog No.116. Jim Holbeck.  Posted on Thursday 14th March 2013

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115. THE “ABCDE” OF BECOMING MORE OPEN TO GOD FOR HIS BLESSING. “D” for Dethroning

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Jim Holbeck

 In the previous articles we looked at three of the factors involved in becoming more open to God for His blessing and healing. We saw the need to Abide in the Living word, Jesus and in the written word, the Bible. Then we looked at true Believing as an essential element. Following that we saw how we need to Consecrate ourselves to God. As we come to “D” we see the need to Dethrone the idols we may have in our lives to replace them with Jesus.  

 In the well-known hymn by William Cowper, “O for a closer walk with God”,  he has these challenging words, The dearest idol I have known, Whate’er that idol be, Help me to tear it from Thy throne, And worship only Thee. What is an idol? A short definition would be, An idol is anyone or anything that takes the central place of God in our lives. What is idolatry? Idolatry in the Old Testament stood for the worship of idols which were symbols of false gods. It also stood for the worship of symbols representing Yahweh the God of Israel. We see this in Exodus 20:4-5 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them.

Paul adds to this by showing that human desire (covetousness) for the forbidden is idolatrous because it is giving false value to those things or people as necessary for personal fulfilment, Col 3:5  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. It echoes the words in the Decalogue in Exodus 20:17  “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s.” To covet these is forbidden because they belong to other people. Ultimately only God can bring fulfilment to His creatures, not things or other people.

 William Cowper recognised that it was all too easy for believers to allow other things or other people to take the central place that the Lord is meant to have in human lives. As someone once put it, “Whatever takes first place in our affections has become for us our god.” Cowper wanted God’s help in removing all the idols in his life to enable him to worship only God Himself.

It is very worthwhile doing a little inventory in our lives to see whether we have allowed other idols to take the Lord’s place in our affections. What are the gods that have pushed Jesus from the centre of our lives? Let’s do a test of our priorities. Jesus taught that we are to love God with all we are and have, Mar 12:30  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Even love for another person such as one’s neighbour is a lesser priority than loving God, Mar 12:31  ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

Here is the first test. Regarding people. Do we spend more time thinking about a particular person than we do thinking about God? Why should a fellow creature occupy a greater proportion of our thinking than the Creator Himself.

Possessions. Do we possess our possessions or do they possess us? Are they our security or is God our security. I once came across a family who would not go away for holidays together because the father had a precious plant he could not trust anyone else to care for. The plant took precedence over his God-given responsibility of caring for the needs of his wife and children.

Much of the attraction towards gambling is due to the thought process that the thing being won will bring more personal satisfaction and fulfilment in life. But things don’t satisfy. Only God does.

Position and status. Do we long for honour in the eyes of people or do we long for God’s blessing perhaps even in a position with little status? I remember a Lady Mayoress in an Australian city saying over 50 years ago that many of the women who helped her in charity work were motivated more by the desire to gain recognition by being seen with her, than by a motivation to help those in need. Good work. Wrong motivation!

Time. This is a real test of our priorities. How much time is given to our pursuit of God and how much is given for our own selfish pursuits? How much more time do we spend reading fiction than we do reading the Bible as the inspired word of God which can inspire us to become what we were meant to become?  How much time do we spend talking to others about our problems than we do in talking to God who wants to help us with our problems? And who incidentally can do a whole lot more for us than any human can.

As we do this personal inventory it may be that we begin to see more clearly that we have made idols of things that once were peripheral in our lives. Or we may see that we are becoming infatuated with someone and losing sight of our need to be focussed on the Lord and then on people through His eyes.  Perhaps it may be time for us to do as William Cowper did and to pray, The dearest idol I have known, Whate’er that idol be, Help me to tear it from Thy throne, And worship only Thee.

Dethroning every idol so that we might Enthrone Jesus as Lord of our lives.

Blog No.115.  Jim Holbeck. Posted Tuesday 13th March 2013

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114. THE “ABCDE” OF BECOMING MORE OPEN TO GOD FOR HIS BLESSING. “C” for Consecrating

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Jim Holbeck

There is a twofold aspect to Christian living. One is that God is at work in us to make us what He wants us to be. The other aspect is our willing response to His work in us so that we are cooperating with what He wants to do in us and through us. Paul expressed it so succinctly in Philippians 2:12-13, … work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. The verbs in these verses show the commitment or the consecration needed on our part to enable that to happen. In verse 12 the word for “work out” is  katergázomai which denotes the concentrated effort required to fulfil a task. Eagle eyed folk will spot the “erg” in the middle of the word and recognise immediately that “erg” is the unit of work or energy in physics. The prefix “kata” in the word adds intensity, so what Paul envisages is a “concentrated effort to work out” the implications of the salvation we have received by faith.  

The verbs for “work” and “works” in verse 13 is energeō from which we get our English word “energy”. God is at work in us as believers. Our response is to work out in practice what He is inwardly working within us. We are to energetically work out through our lives what He is inwardly motivating and energising us to be and to do.

Let us look at a couple of ways in which that commitment might work out practically, or how we might be personally consecrated to do the will of God. But first of all a few comments on what is meant by consecration. We see the theme of personal consecration or commitment to God in the words of the well-known hymn by Frances Havergal, Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. In the hymn the worshippers offer themselves completely to God in these words as they ask God to take the following aspects of their lives, my moments and my days… my hands… my feet … my voice…  my lips…  my silver and my gold … my intellect… my will… my heart … my love … myself. The hymn concludes with the declaration coming from a total commitment, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

The word “consecration” is not used in the New Testament as such in most translations, but the concept is certainly there. There are many words in the Greek New Testament that come from the common root (hag). No, this is not a demeaning word for older females! It has the meaning to be “separate” or to “separate from”.  Such words are hagios meaning “holy”, and hoi hagioi meaning “the saints”.  Others are hagnos = “pure”; hagiosunē = holiness; hagiasmos = sanctification; hagiazō = sanctify. When you look at the context where these words are used, you find a common theme. It is separation FROM the world and its values etc, and separation TO God for His purposes. So a “holy” person is not just someone who tries to refrain from doing evil. Rather a holy person is someone who seeks God’s help to do that, but who also commits themselves completely to do the will of God, again with God’s help. Such consecration marked the life of Jesus and it must mark the lives of all His followers.

 1).        Consecrating Ourselves To Live Totally For God.  Some theologians in earlier times have talked about a Divine Exchange. In simple terms it could be expressed in words such as these, “He died for us so that we might live for Him.” That is the theme of Paul’s teaching in 2Corinthians 5:15  and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. The believer has a new focus in life, doing God’s will and not his or her own. If Jesus sacrificed His life for us in His death, then it means we should live for Him for the rest of our lives. He gave Himself, drawing His last breath for us. We must give ourselves for Him, drawing our last breath for Him. And all the other breaths till then.

2).        Consecrating (Or Presenting) Our Bodies Into His Hands In Serving Him. As part of this total consecration to God it is necessary for the believer to give all they are and have to Him. Paul puts it like this in Rom 12:1-2,  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  He had already used a similar expression in Romans 6:13 of presenting or handing oneself over to God,  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Of course this makes sense when we realise that our bodies are God’s gift to us. They really belong to Him. We realise they are doubly His because He redeemed us through His blood. His death brought us life. We belong to Him, lock, stock and barrel. Our bodies are His so that He can do in and through us (as we willingly respond to Him) what He wants to do.

Acting on this truth we can offer ourselves to Him in this way, “Lord I offer myself completely to You. I invite You to do in my body and through my body whatever You wish.”  It also means that we can ask the Lord for healing whether it be in body, mind or spirit. We can pray an unselfish prayer for healing, “Lord heal me for Your sake so that I can do your will to your glory, for the rest of my life.” I continue to be amazed at what God does in the lives of those who pray such an unselfish prayer. They become more open to God as they pray. He heals them to enable them to fulfil His eternal plan and purpose for their lives, and not just to remove the pain.

Blog No.114. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Monday 11th March 2013

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113. THE “ABCDE” OF BECOMING MORE OPEN TO GOD FOR HIS BLESSING. “B” for Believing.

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Jim Holbeck

There is all the difference in the world between believing about and trusting in. James brings that out in his discussion about the true nature of faith in James 2. He states that true faith has an outward expression, Jas 2:17  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. He added that even demons believe that God is one and shudder in fear. However true faith is shown in those who personally trust in God, not just believe in His existence.  Trusting involves believing and acting on the words of the one trusted. In this article we will look at a couple of promises that came from the lips of Jesus to see what might happen if we believed Him and acted on them.

 Promise No 1. God will supply our needs (if we get our focus right in life). Mat 6:24-33. Jesus lived in this world and He knows about all the temptations that humans face. Very often they are temptations to fulfil legitimate needs. But they have to be fulfilled in godly ways and not in ways contrary to the will of God. In Matthew 6 He taught that the people of God need to get their focus right in life. They can focus on mammon, meaning money or possessions which ultimately don’t bring fulfilment. Or they can focus on God, living in the way He wants them to live and allowing Him to give them what they need to live for Him. As He put it in verse 24, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

He proposed that His people should live a life focussed on God. (Mat 6:25)  “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Anxiety arises when one’s focus is wrong, when it is focussed on the material side of life and not on God Himself. The word “anxious” probably comes from the word merizo meaning to divide. Anxiety comes from a distracted or divided mind. Focussing on the material things of life does lead to distraction. Focussing on the Lord brings peace knowing that He has promised to provide the necessities of life when we do so.  Jesus promised, (Mat 6:31)  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32)  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33)  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

 Sometimes people ask me “What does the kingdom of God mean?” I tell them that it refers to God’s rule over His world and over His creatures. We can submit to Him or we can refuse to make Him Lord of our lives. Other people have asked, “What is His righteousness” in the same verse 33.  I tell them that the shortest definition I can give is this, “Righteousness is ‘what God wants’.” So “seeking first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness” is making it a priority in life to do what God wants in every situation in life. Indeed for every moment in life. It means living one’s own life to the glory of God and not for oneself. It means seeking to build up God’s kingdom and not one’s own kingdom, or anyone else’s kingdom.  When we are actively seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness we become more open to receive His blessings.

Promise No.2.  God will answer our prayers which are prayed in faith. Mk 11:24, Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.  The first thing to note about the verse is its context. Jesus had cursed a fig tree and Peter had expressed his surprise that it had withered so quickly. Jesus had answered, Mar 11:22  And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23  Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Then comes our verse 24, Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Are there any conditions to this promise? One of the prerequisites we saw in the previous article was “abiding” in the Living word, Jesus, and in the Written word, the Bible so that we are praying according to the will of God.  Now here in this verse there is the emphasis on “believing”.  Believing in a promise involves two  things. It involves trusting that the promise can be fulfilled. It also means trusting in the character of the person giving the promise. If I step out to claim the promise can I trust the promise-giver to be able to fulfil the promise! There is after all a big difference between believing in someone’s promise and really trusting that person to fulfil it. That comes out in the stories told of the famous Frenchman Blondin who could walk across the Niagara Falls on a tightrope. He performed one day and then said to a English nobleman who had been watching him, “Do you believe I could carry you across the Falls in this wheelbarrow?”  “Oh yes”, said the Englishman. To which Blondin reputedly replied, “Well hop in!” The Englishman quickly said that he thought someone else should have the privilege! He believed outwardly that Blondin could perform the feat, but got cold feet himself about getting into the barrow.

God wants us to trust Him. To believe His promises and to act on them.  What does it mean when Jesus said, “believe that you have received it and it will be yours?” Some manuscripts have the present tense “you have” and others have the aorist (past) tense “have received”.   At the very least it means that it was ours from the moment of asking. Or it could have become ours when Jesus cried out “It is finished!” as He hung on the cross, bringing His work of redemption to an end.  Or it could have been ours from all eternity in the foreknowledge of God who knows the end from the beginning. It probably means all these things. So what we can do in praying for blessing and healing is to believe Jesus, believe His promise of answers to prayer and pray something like this, “Lord I ask You to provide this need which I present to You.  I claim Your promise from Your word that it is now mine. Help me to pray with watchfulness and thanksgiving to see just how and when You bring the answer. In the meantime I will thank You by faith for the answer I have until I can thank You by sight.” AMEN.”  I know of hundreds of people who prayed in words like these at our healing services, who received instant healing or experienced the beginning of ongoing progressive healing. God’s promises are true because He is truth.

Blog No.113.  Jim Holbeck.  Posted on Sunday 10th March 2013

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112. The “ABCDE” Of Becoming More Open to God for His Blessing. “A” for Abiding

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Jim Holbeck

Recently I was teaching at a seminar on Healing. I was thinking about concluding the seminar by looking at how we might become more open to receive God’s blessing and healing. I thought a simple A,B,C might be a good way of covering some of the basic truths involved. However it soon appeared that I should look at the A,B,C,D and E to give a better coverage. We will look here at the first of those topics, the “A” for Abiding.

The Healing Ministry is not simply about techniques for praying nor about special kinds of faith that have to be developed.  Nor is it about special people who can heal while others can’t.  Healing is what God does. That’s why we need to have a close relationship with Him so that we can receive what He has to offer us, or what He has to offer through us as we pray for healing and blessing for others. Like everything else in the Christian faith, healing is about relationships. Pre-eminently our relationship with God.

If God is a loving powerful God of grace, how can we receive the blessings that flow from His grace, especially for healing?  The answer is by building up our relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It is amazing what God can do in people’s lives as they open themselves to His mercy, grace, love and power. I saw that happen on many occasions. However there was one occasion when what He did really amazed me. It was during one of our Cancer Weekends in Sydney when we invited those with cancer and their carers to come to our Healing Centre for teaching, fellowship and to receive individual prayer from our team. As I walked in to begin the first session, I was shocked to see a young woman lying on the floor. I discovered later that her body was riddled with cancer. She had only weeks to live at the most.

As we taught on forgiveness she appeared to devour the teaching. She learned how to forgive. She acted on the teaching and began to forgive many of those who had deeply hurt her over the years. Instead of dying soon after that weekend, she returned to the next Seminar some weeks later. Again she acted on the teaching and as a result knew more release and healing. Some months later she was pronounced as being completely free of cancer. She had heard the Bible being taught as the word of God, and she had accepted it as the word of God. She acted on it as though it was the word of God. The result was quite miraculous. She had learned something about the ABCDE of becoming more open to God.

The Bible does says, “Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” It sounds too good to be true. However not everyone receives the answers to prayer they had hoped for. There must be some other factors. What then are the conditions for that statement to become real in people’s experiences? The first of those factors is learning to “abide”.

 

A).       ABIDING. 

Jesus said, John 15:7  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  It’s the people who learn to abide who see answers to prayer. Jesus here speaks about abiding in two different ways.  People must abide in Him. Then they must abide in His word.

a).        Abiding in Jesus, the Living Word.  If you abide in me. This means remaining in close fellowship with Jesus as a person. Abiding means communicating with Him as a living Person. He is alive. Part of that communication should be thanking Him for what He has done for humans on the cross. He bore the penalty for human sin and rebellion and we can be forgiven through receiving Him as our own personal Saviour and Lord. As Paul wrote, Rom 5:10  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.  But Paul in this verse adds another dimension to the saving grace of Jesus, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. So we can ask for His help in living as we should because He lives in us and we are being saved from the power of sin by the power and presence of His life within us.

Jesus is a friend to those who love Him. He said so. Joh_15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. He can reveal the Father and the Father’s will to us, Joh_15:15  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. We can communicate with Him as a trusted Friend, with whom we can share everything. He knows all about our human situation. He can help us to live in a difficult world. He can help us overcome temptation, Heb_2:18  For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. He understands our temptations, Heb_4:15  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

 So the first aspect of abiding is learning to abide in Jesus as a living friend, as well as our Lord. The second aspect should be a natural consequence of the first. It is to take seriously the words Jesus spoke and to act on them.

 b).        Abiding in the words of Jesus. Abiding in the Bible, the written word.  Jesus said, If you abide in me, and my words abide in you. It means reading the Bible which contains Jesus’ words and absorbing their truth. It means meditating on His words, coming to understand them, and then living them out in daily living. James wrote about the written word of God and said it had to be put into practice. Jas 1:22-25, (22)  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.(23)  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.(24)  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.(25)  But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. The word (parakuptō ) used here for “looks into the perfect law” is only used 5 times in the New Testament. Twice it refers to Peter stooping to look into the tomb of Jesus. It is also used of Mary Magdalene stooping to do the same thing. The other occurrence is in 1 Peter 1:12 where Peter writes about the desire of angels longing to look into the truth of the good news of  Jesus. It can be seen that the word implies time and commitment. Believers must make every effort to understand the word of God and to put it into practice.

It’s marvellous how you can remember things which became very precious to you in former times. As a brand new believer I was introduced to Scripture Union Bible Reading Notes over 50 years ago. They had a wonderful method of making sure you really read the Bible and applied the truths you learned.  I made up a mnemonic to remember the method. It was PRARP. Firstly you Prayed a prayer before reading the Bible such as the words of Psalm 119:18  Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Then you Read the Bible portion for the day. Following that you Answered the questions they suggested such as What does this passage teach me about God―the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit? What does this passage teach me about the Christian life? Is there a command to obey, a promise to claim, a warning to heed? Is there an example to follow or an error to avoid? What is the main lesson of the passage? Having answered the questions you then Read the Notes commenting on the passage.  The final step was Praying it in. It was a great method for learning to abide in the word, as you had to think deeply about the words and their application for everyday living.

The more we learn to abide in Him and in His word, the more deeply we come to know Him. The more we come to know him, the more we come to know and understand His will. The more we understand His will the more we can pray in accordance with His will. These are the prayers that are answered. As the apostle John wrote, 1Jn 5:13  I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. 14  And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

What a different world it would be if we all learned to abide in Jesus and to abide in His word. More believing prayers would be prayed. More wonderful answers would result. More healing would take place. And God would be glorified in the lives of many more people. We owe it to the world to learn to abide in the living word (Jesus) and in the written word (the Bible).

Blog No.112. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Sunday 3rd March 2013

 

 

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111. “Healthy Christian Living.” James 1:19-27

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Jim Holbeck

It isn’t easy living in today’s world with all its pressures and tensions. However the people to whom James wrote lived in a much more difficult world than the one we live in. In this letter James writes to tell his readers how they could live healthy Christian lives in the midst of adversity and even persecution. He spelt out for them how they could win victory in spite of all the pressures around them. In chapter 1 he reminded his readers that they had to take control of their lives and submit their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ.

 1. GOD REQUIRES THAT WE BE IN CONTROL OF OUR LIVES. Jas 1:19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires.

a). In Listening And Speaking.   When James writes about being quick to hear, he means being eager to hear, ready to receive helpful input. He uses the terms to be “slow to speak”and “slow to anger”. To be “slow to speak” doesn’t mean that one has to speak with a slow pronounced drawl. Rather it means that we are to think about what we are about to say before saying it. The passage here is similar to Ephesians 4:20-32 which we will look at in a later article.

What damage has been done to you by people who didn’t watch what they said to you or about you? Older folk might remember the warning notice in the time of World War 2 about passing on confidential information by gossiping. The slogan “Loose lips sink ships” was prominently displayed in public places. The imparting of secret information can cause disasters to happen. Any sort of inappropriate speech can bring hurt, pain, division and destruction. Human enemies can be guilty of this. Certainly Satan will use available humans to use hurtful speech as a means of damaging God’s people.

b). In Controlling Anger. James 1:20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires. We don’t help the cause of Christ by giving way to angry speech. It can be a way of intimidating someone or bringing them under our control. But the Christian way is the way of love. It involves bringing release into people’s lives not binding them or destroying them.  We need God’s wisdom and His righteousness to have victory over our tongues otherwise they cause much evil, Jas 3:8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Do you need to repent before God of the things that you said in anger that have damaged the person to whom you said it, and damaged you as well? If you have been guilty, then you need to confess it before God and ask for His forgiveness in Jesus. Then you need to pray that the person may be healed of the damage you caused them.  If appropriate, you might need to ask for their forgiveness as well.

On the other hand you might have been the recipient of evil, angry, poisonous, hateful words and you feel contaminated, hurt, angry, bitter and terribly sad. If so, you need to do some forgiving of those who behaved towards you in these ways.  You also need to ask God to forgive you of any bitterness and to heal you of the damage those words brought to you. Words have power. As the writer of Proverbs 18:21 put it, Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Human words can build people up and encourage them. Human words can damage and help to destroy them.

2. THE ATTITUDES REQUIRED TO RECEIVE THE WORD OF GOD. 1:21

a).  Ceasing from evil. 1:21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  To be removed are filthiness and rampant wickedness. These are the things that God sees as deliberate and ongoing evil. He sees them as repugnant and contrary to what He wants. If our minds are filled with evil or bitter thoughts we are not receptive to the word of God. If our hearts are not right with God and with one another we cannot receive what God would say to us through His word.If we deliberately speak evil or do evil, we are not open to God’s correction or blessing. All that is evil must be “put away”.

b).  Receiving it in humility. 21. receive with meekness the implanted word…..  “Meekness” is a strong word. It was used of the breaking in of wild animals. It is strength under control. It is submissive strength. Strong people are those who are humble, who learn to receive the word of God in their hearts and let it bear fruit in their lives. We need to get rid of all the rubbish in our lives so that God’s word can take root and bring changes to our lives. We need to be good soil as seen in the parable of the Sower as Jesus said, Mark 4:20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” Hear, accept, bear fruit. The word that is received and acted on will bear fruit.

3. OBEYING THE RECEIVED WORD OF GOD

a). Hearing AND doing. (22-25). (The word as a mirror into which we look.)  The word of God is described as a mirror. There are two ways of looking into a mirror.

i). A quick glance which brings no change. (Glancing /hearing). 1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.  It is like when we are going out and have a last look in a mirror. We quickly check to see if we put on all the clothing we meant to put on; whether our hair (if we have any) looks respectable. Just a brief glance but no more. Such a cursory glance at the word of God brings no spiritual growth.

ii). A deep search to see what is there and how to act on it in obedience. (Searching/ obeying). 1:25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.  The word to “look” here can mean to stoop to have a good look at something. Eg., Peter and John and Mary Magdalene stooped to look into the tomb. Luke 24:12, John 20:5, 11. We are meant to be those who delve deeply into God’s word. Wee are to learn to understand what it is saying. We are to put it into practice in our every-day living.

b). Pure religion means self-control. (26-27)

i). In speech. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless). We saw before that the mark of a mature believer is that he can control his tongue. The tongue of the person out of step with God is an unbridled tongue, a restless evil, spreading poison.

ii). In concerned action towards others.  True religion is not just focussed on oneself but in humility is focussed on the needs of others.

  •  27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. 
  • The supreme example of humility was seen in Jesus in Philippians 2 and verses 5 to 8. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. It is living for others, not simply living for our own interests.

iii). In separating from evil. James 1:27, Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. We have to be squeaky clean! No stains, no spots, no mixed or hidden motives, but open before God as we seek to love and obey Him. 

 Healthy Christian living is not just an unrealistic ideal towards which we unsuccessfully strive. Rather it is playing our part in being open to the grace of God in every area of our lives so that He can be glorified in and through our lives as believers.

Blog No 111.  Jim Holbeck. Posted Friday 8th February 2013  

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110. Forgiveness. How God Gets Rid Of Human Sin. Micah 7:18-19.

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Jim Holbeck

We don’t need to carry a whole lot of guilt as believers, yet many people do. The truth is that God has removed our sins from us so that we don’t have to carry guilt any longer. We see that even in the Old Testament and especially in these verses from Micah 7:18, 19 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

There are tremendous truths in just these two verses. They speak of God’s steadfast love and compassion. They speak too of how His love is able to bestow forgiveness. He pardons (Hebrew = nasa) iniquity and passes over transgression.  (“Nasa” is used for “forgive” in several of the 600 plus occurrences of that word in the Old Testament. It refers to the lifting up or removal of sin leading to forgiveness.) [see my articles on “nasa” in articles 008 and 009.]

 In God’s compassion He deals with the sin of those who turn to Him for pardon. Micah used figurative language to describe what God does with sin. He will tread our iniquities under foot. Kabash is the word for “tread under foot” and means to “subdue, to remove, to crush” iniquity. God destroy its power in His people. He takes it away. Pardon is available as a result.

The other expression in 7:19 “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” powerfully describes the magnitude of the grace of God in forgiveness. There are a couple of ways of looking at this verse. One is that God takes sins from penitent people and buries them in the depths of the sea, totally out of sight. He takes them away to a place where they can no longer be seen.  In the expressive words of Matthew Henry, He casts them into the sea, not near the shore-side, where they may appear again next low water, but into the depth of the sea, never to rise again. All their sins shall be cast there without exception, for when God forgives sin he forgives all.

Another way of looking at this verse comes from seeing how the phrase depths of the sea is used elsewhere. There is an interesting passage in Psalm 68 that has similarities with Micah 7:18.19. Psalm 68:22 The Lord said, “I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, 23 that you may strike your feet in their blood”.  The Egyptians had once pursued Moses and Israel into the Red Sea but the pursuers were buried in the depths of the sea and God saved His people. Now in Micah 7,  the enemies of Israel who sought to hide from the judgment of God could not escape from Him. He would bring them out from the depths of the sea (where they were trying to hide from God) to face His judgment. His people would have victory over their enemies as their feet “struck” or “waded” in the blood of their enemies. This would be an expression of His pardon in forgiving His people and enabling them to have victory over their enemies. The theme of freedom from enemies could also be seen in the only other reference to the depths of the sea, in Isa 51:10, with its allusions to the crossing of Red Sea.  Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?

What wonderful truths we see in these 2 verses in Micah 7. Notice how 3 words for sin are used in the passage, iniquity, transgression and sin. These signify the breadth and depth of His forgiveness. God pardons iniquity. He passes over transgression. In His compassionate love He gets rid of sin by crushing it underfoot and by casting into the depths of the sea. Someone once said that when God cast our sins into the depths of the sea He also erected a sign saying, “No fishing!” We are not to focus on our sins by dragging them up from the depths of the sea where God has buried them in order to focus on them again (a self-imposed guilt trip). Rather we are to focus on Him, recognising that He has done something about human sin in His forgiving love. As forgiven people freed from guilt we should look to Him for the grace to have ongoing victory over temptations to sin as we seek to live for Him day by day.

Blog No.110.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Saturday 26th  January 2013. 

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109. Forgiveness And Life For Those Who Turn From Sin To God. Ezekiel 18:21-23.

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Jim Holbeck

The young fellow smiled as he said, “What I would like to believe is this. You can do whatever you want to do in life and then just before your last breath, you can say, ‘Please forgive me God’, and He will forgive you. If I do that I can go to heaven. Am I right in believing that?” Sadly he was mistaken. It is true that there such a thing as “a death-bed repentance” where someone just before he or she dies repents of their sins and asks God to forgive them. But such incidents are rarer than people think. Very often the attitude to God that people have throughout life remains the same as they draw closer to death. Indeed no one can ever be sure they will be in a position to be able to make any decisions in the moments before they die. What light can this passage from Ezekiel cast on the situation, “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22 None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. 23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

Notice what Ezekiel wrote. The people are here called “wicked” in verse 21. The Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, uses the word (anomos) which means “lawless one”. It indicates that such a person does not seek to live by God’s laws. He has committed “sins”, verse 21. He is guilty of “transgressions”, verse 22. He has run his life, “his way” and not God’s way, verse 23. A similar outlook on life is encapsulated in the words of the famous Frank Sinatra song, And now, the end is near, And so I face the final curtain. My friend, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain ….. I did it my way. The problem with such an outlook on life is that the person who lives by that philosophy (doing one’s own thing in life) is ultimately a creature who is rejecting the Creator’s plan for him or her. In other words, they are in rebellion against their Creator.

What is involved for humans to know God’s grace in forgiveness? The previous verses provide an answer. They have to turn away from all their sins. This means a total re-orientation in life. Again the Greek version helps us. The word for “turn” is (epistrephō). It is used in the Bible for turning around, for moral change among other things. They are turning their backs on the sins they once committed in turning back to God and His laws. Not only that but they need to be committed to keeping God’s statutes. They need to keep on doing habitually what is right and just in God’s eyes.

If they make that commitment then God declares what will happen. They will not die spiritually but will find life in God. Not only that, God declares they will be forgiven as they learn to be righteous in His sight. God forgives them as seen in the statement “none of the transgressions they have committed will be remembered.”  Again this is similar in thought to Isaiah 43:25 and Jeremiah 31:34 where God promises to remember the sins of the penitent no more.

In verse 23 God declares His heart through Ezekiel’s words, 23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? He wants people to turn from their sins back to Him so that He can forgive them. He desires that they turn from their way, doing their own thing in life, to instead walk in His way. He derives no pleasure from the death of those who fail to turn to Him. He longs for them to find life. This concept is taken up in the New Testament in 2 Peter 3 where Peter writes about the loving nature of God, The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2Pet 3:9. Every day brings us another opportunity to get right with God by turning from our sins back to Him. Every day also brings us the chance to turn from doing our own thing in life to turn to Him to know His grace to enable us to live in the way He wants us to live. But it also means that as each new day arrives, there remains one less day to make that commitment to Him before it is too late.
Blog No.109. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Wednesday 23rd January 2013

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108. Forgiveness. God Casts Our Sins Behind His Back. Isaiah 38:17

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Jim Holbeck

George was suffering from a deep sense of guilt. He had hurt a lot of people during his life. But he had repented of all he had done and had asked God for forgiveness. He had also contacted many of the people he had offended and asked for their forgiveness. He had known a real sense of release by doing so. Many had freely forgiven him. Others were not willing to do so. But he had done the right thing in apologising to them and asking their forgiveness. Yet there still remained an ongoing sense of guilt about some aspects of his past.

He was introduced to a verse from the Bible that brought him a deeper sense of release from guilt. It was this verse from Isaiah 38:17, Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.  This is another of those word pictures God gives us in His word to enable us to grasp the reality of His forgiveness.

The phrase “behind your back” is found only a few times in the Old Testament. It can refer to people rejecting God by taking their eyes off Him and as a result casting Him behind their backs. Such was God’s charge against Jeroboam’s idolatry in 1 Kings 14:9)  but you have done evil above all who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods and metal images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back.  A similar charge was levelled by God against the people of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 23. The people had turned away from God as verses 29 and 30 indicate, Your lewdness and your whoring 30  have brought this upon you, because you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.  God declared His punishment on them,  Ezek 23:35,  Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring.”  It is a foolish and dangerous thing to turn one’s back on God. He notices!

 What a contrast then is this truth in Isaiah38:17. Hezekiah the king had repented of his sin against God and had been forgiven by Him. Hezekiah wrote, Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.  When people turn to the Lord, He does deliver their lives from the pit of destruction. In addition He does something about their sins. He deliberately casts their sins behind His back. In this way God is conveying the truth that those sins are no longer before Him; He no longer looks at them; He no longer sees the penitent as being guilty of them. He will not bring those sins back against them again.

When George read those words he realised afresh that God’s forgiveness was based on His amazing grace. George knew he could never earn such a release from his sins. He acted on that objective truth in God’s word that God had cast his sins behind His back and began to affirm to himself that he was forgiven. That objective truth in God’s word became an inward reality as George continued to affirm that truth.

It reminds us that all the promises of God are eternally objectively true. But it is only as we come to know them AND act on them that they become true in our human experience as believers. There are so many of God’s promises that people have heard about. But it is only as people believe them and act on them that they became personally real in their subjective experience.

Do you have a niggling sense of guilt about anything in your life? Then confess whatever it is and ask God to forgive you. Then thank Him for doing so in Jesus, and begin to affirm the fact that you are forgiven and that God has indeed cast your sins “behind His back”.  George did and it transformed him. You can too because God’s grace extends to all who believe and act on His promises.  “He hides our sins behind His back”.  What a blessed thought! What a relief! What a gracious God!

Blog No.108.  Jim Holbeck.  Posted on Tuesday 22nd January 2013. (47th Wedding Anniversary. I remembered! Praise the Lord!)

 

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107. We Need To See Ourselves As God Sees Us. Seated With Christ! Ephesians 2:4-7

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Jim Holbeck

As Alice sat in the doctor’s waiting room her mind began to imagine the highly invasive medical treatment her body was about to endure. This was last resort treatment! Radical! Unknown in most countries! She faced treatment that might or might not work! She needed a deep assurance of God’s love and presence. As she thought about her God and her relationship with Him, a passage of the Bible came into her thoughts. As she meditated on the passage she was filled with an incredible sense of peace as she later described it. All fear and trepidation vanished and she was ready to face the coming medical assault by the grace of God. What was the passage that brought her such a sense of security and peace? Might it help us in the difficulties we face?

In fact the passage has brought great peace to millions who have begun to live by its truths. There are many sensitive people in the world who are very conscious of their own failures. Many of them wonder how God could put up with them when they feel that they keep on failing Him. They think, I have been a believer for so many years now, but I don’t seem to have matured a great deal. I still face the same difficulties and temptations and they are still hard to overcome. Or they may begin to think that they are being hypocritical in not living more victorious lives. The enemy, Satan the accuser, uses the opportunity to get them to doubt their commitment and their motives. The hymn writer Canon Henry Twells put it so well in his hymn, “At even ere the sun was set”. One verse describes those who are sensitive in nature about their short-comings and explains in his words, And they who fain would serve Thee best, Are conscious most of wrong within. It is those who want to draw closer to God and to have more victories in their lives who are the most conscious of their own short-comings and sin. On the other hand those who are far from God and have no desire to draw closer to Him are not really conscious of their sin. It just doesn’t matter to them. How then can the passage we have in mind help sensitive people who want to have more peace in their lives?

The passage which helped Alice and can help people today is from Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 to 7. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– 6  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Alice had been taught that she had to see herself as God saw her. What she came to understand from these verses was this. She understood that God saw her as sitting at His right hand “with Christ”. She initially didn’t feel that to be true.  However she also had come to understand that reality is how God sees things, not as we see them or feel about them. The objective truth was that Alice was sitting in the doctor’s reception room as she meditated on this passage. But she recognised another objective truth. At that very moment God saw her sitting at His right hand with Christ. So as she sat in the waiting room she “practised the presence of God”, and turning to her left she said, “Father, I thank You that I am in Your presence. I commit my whole future to You”.  She experienced a deep peace in His presence. The more she thought about the passage and affirmed its truths to herself, the more they became a part of her. The peace remained following the invasive medical procedures. As she continued to picture herself sitting with Christ at God’s right hand and handing all her concerns over to God she experienced what Paul described in Philippians 4:6-7 as the peace of God, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 What does it mean for the believer today that they are “seated with Christ” in the heavenlies through their faith-union with Christ?  It means three things in particular.

1).        It means they are seated in the place of honour.  Christ had perfectly fulfilled the will of His Father through His life and death. God had honoured Him by raising Him to life and seating Him at His right hand.  He was and is now in the place of honour. But so too is the believer who is seated with Christ.  God honours those who honour His Son by raising them with Him in His sight.   There are few on earth who honour Jesus as they should. That is why God honours all those who take the gift of His Son seriously. Jesus is precious to His Father. He sees those who trust in His beloved Son as precious because such commitment to Jesus is so rare. Believers bothered to take Jesus seriously. God takes them seriously and has honoured them by seating them in the place of honour with His Son.

2).        It means that they are seated in the place of acceptance with God. God accepted all Jesus had done on earth as sufficient for His plan of salvation. The law of God had been fulfilled by Jesus’ life and obedience. Human sin had been died for by Jesus. Believers who accepted Jesus as Saviour were in turn accepted by God. In other words God accepts all those who accept His Son.  There can be no greater acceptance than to be in the place of acceptance with God, at His right hand with Christ. Believers may do many things to become more available to God in His purposes, but they can never become more acceptable to Him than they already are through their faith-union with Christ.

When believers really understand this truth it means the end of trying to become more acceptable to God through trying to do more and more things to please Him. People are either accepted by God or they are not. All those who become believers will be accepted. All those who refuse to accept Christ as Saviour will be rejected.  It also means the end of mental self-flagellation. We can so easily mentally punish ourselves for not meeting our own expectations, let alone what we imagine God’s expectations to be for us. To understand that God has raised us up with Christ and has already seated us with Christ means He has accepted us as we are. Our striving to live only for Him will be motivated by our love for Him and not by a desire to become more acceptable. We never can be! We are accepted now!

3).        It means that they are seated in the place of authority. Jesus was exalted to the right hand of God to be the King of kings, the Lord of lords and the ruler of this universe. Believers have the privilege of praying in His name, calling on His authority. This authority was given to believers in the Great Commission in Matthew 28,  18  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  It means that believers can experience victory in their personal lives as well as in their work or ministry for God. They are not struggling for authority in life. They have it through their relationship with Jesus in whom all authority resides.

Every believer is going to have a difficult time living in a difficult world. There are times when we may feel that we are trudging through mud, so slow is our spiritual progress. At other times the enemy Satan (as the accuser) tries to get us to doubt God’s love for us. He may feed into our minds thoughts that suggest we don’t measure up. That we are hypocrites. That we will never have victory in some areas of life. That we are not very nice people. Or he may try to put fear into our minds that we are not yet ready to meet God.

But as Alice proved in the most extreme situations, it is possible to know God’s peace and power to cope when you know you are already seated with Christ in the heavenlies. She began to base her whole life on the assurance of her acceptance by God. She often visualised herself sitting with Christ in the heavenlies in the place of honour, acceptance and authority. It meant she could trust Him for every moment of her life. In the opinion of her close friends, she did! Continually!

But this truth was not just for Alice to reflect and act on. It is true for ever believer and has been from the moment they believed. There is no need to struggle for acceptance with God. Believers ARE accepted by Him. There is no need to keep on hoping that one day God will accept us. No, He tells us that we are accepted in Christ. From the firm basis of our acceptance we reach out to Him to give us the grace we need to live for Him. This is what St Paul had in mind in Philippians chapter 2. He said we were to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”, 2:12. He didn’t say that we had to work FOR our salvation. Rather from our sure security as believers seated with Christ in the heavenlies we are to work out in practice what God Himself is working in us in the power of His Holy Spirit.

So today as you read these words what might it mean personally to you if you believed and acted on the truth that you are, as a believer, already seated with Christ in the heavenlies?

Blog No.107.  Jim Holbeck.  Posted on Sunday 13th January 2013

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