Here are 3 random teachings from different classes that I did in December. We will be having a lot of changes taking place in 2012 and I will be updating everyone about what is on the horizon soon.
This one is from our communion service on Dec 18 and is titled “Union in Communion” focusing on John 17
http://www.mp3.promisedgrace.com/Union%20in%20communion%20John%2015.mp3
This next one is from a weekly class I teach on Wednesday afternoons. It is relatively short and is focused on the first part of Rom 5:9
http://www.mp3.promisedgrace.com/2011%2012%2014%20Rom%205_9.mp3
This one is from Dec 6 at Wildmen and is titled “Looking at the gospel again”, it is a short gospel presentation to this wonderful group
http://www.mp3.promisedgrace.com/2011%2012%2006%20Looking%20at%20the%20gospel%20again%20Wildmen.mp3
You may have heard it said that the reason that you are not living the victorious life in Christ and are still struggling with issues of sin is because of your commitment. The remedy is almost always the same…we need to commit to doing more…here are a few thoughts on commitment verses surrender.
Tags: accept christ, commit to christ, more bible, more prayer, surrender to christ, surrender to him, Video Devo, video devotional
There are many scriptures that we tend to funnel through our own societal norms. This is dangerous and defies all the rules of hermeneutics. It leads us into an idolatrous religious experience, just as the people in Jeremiahs day. When scripture says something it is a fact and should be weighed as just that: Truth.
Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
As we go about our lives Jesus is either at the center or He isn’t. He is either the “filter” that every thought, every word and every action is brought through (as He lives in us Col 1:27) or He isn’t. He is either the closest friend, confidant and lover that we have or He isn’t. He is either the One we live for or he is at arms length.
One of the things we have been able today to do is to separate out belief and the act of trusting. For many an intellectual belief in Christ as the man who lived or even as the Savior of the world is not the same as receiving Him nor trusting Him. For instance if I said you won the lottery and you believed me…would you just believe me and go on with your day or would you trust me and act on it appropriating the winnings into your life? With Christ we have much more than any lottery could ever give us…we have God Himself.
These two statements of Jesus are fact: where your treasure is there your heart will be. The heart is the deepest part of a person and what we tend to hold most preciously. And it can be many things: cars, houses, the way you look, the way people think about you, your husband or wife, your kids, whatever it may be it cannot share the space with Jesus. To many people Jesus is just a part of their life instead of the one that gives life and if this is the case you cannot (not a matter of desire but a matter of ability) share that space between Jesus Christ and things.
A.W. Tozer puts it very succinctly in his book “The Pursuit of God”
Before the Lord God made man upon the earth He first prepared for him by creating a world of useful and pleasant things for his sustenance and delight. In the Genesis account of the creation these are called simply “things.” They were made for man’s uses, but they were meant always to be external to the man and subservient to him. In the deep heart of the man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. Within him was God; without, a thousand gifts which God had showered upon him.
But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul. Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and “things” were allowed to enter. Within the human heart “things” have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.
This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble.
I pray that all that read this will come to the bread of life and be satisfied…to the living water that they will never thirst again. It is not about doctrine or religious ritual but about Christ Jesus and a living vibrant relationship with Him. Jesus summed up eternal life in those specific terms.
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Tags: divided heart, hermeneutics, idolatry, Luke 16:13, master, Mat 6:21, Tozer, where your treasure is
There was a show on TV not that long ago that showed the “behind the scenes” magic…I think it was called magic revealed. What they would do is perform a magic trick, which was usually pretty amazing…then they would show you how the trick was performed…it was usually something very simple yet very tricky that made the illusion look real to the audience. Now satan is a master deceiver…much better then any of those illusionist and he makes things seem real, even feel real by deception and desires to steal, kill and destroy the abundant life that God has placed in His children.
One of the first things we have to realize is that our flesh (our soul and body living independent of God) has gotten use to living off of lies…it is like it’s default setting. For years it has believed lies and lived according to those beliefs, it has gotten comfortable living in that which is a lie. We are like that proverbial frog sitting in the water that is about to start to boil taking little note of the heat. Let me give you an example…
For years I lived with the mentality of performance based acceptance…and the deceiver knew it. So when I became a Christian I brought that same mindset (fleshly pattern) into my relationship with God. I believed that I had to perform in order for Him to be pleased with me. I am sure it started back when I was a child and brought home a good report card and was praised for my “good work” but when I did something bad I was shunned. This created a sort of flesh pattern that must be broken by the truth. This played into other relationships also from high school to the job market to marriage these deep-seated patterns are just part of our “normal” life. Today, I realize that I am God’s beloved despite my behavior. And I am fully accepted in the beloved because of who God is and His great love for me.That there is no condemnation even when I fall and fail, and that He is right there with me in spite of me. Now when I go back to that “perverted default setting” God reminds me that it is a lie and that He has overcome that in my life and by faith to submit to the Truth. The truth is so much better then the lie even though our flesh fights against it because it has gotten use to sitting in the heated water.
Some of these fleshly patterns, if not most, are so deep-seated in us that we don’t even realize that we are doing something abnormal. In fact society perpetuates many abnormal things depending our cultural background and what is the norm of society at any given time. The good news is that we have a Counselor that wants and wills that we will walk in the victory that Christ has already purchased on Calvary. He has already overcome them in us and now, as we walk in the light (1John 1:7) He works with us and shows us these perverted fleshly patterns. He does so with love, which is patient, kind, is not irritable or resentful, and all that 1Cor 13:4-8 tells us about the nature of love thus the nature of God. He implores us to put on the new man and to renew our mind of the truth of who we are in Him and who He is in us. This is a process that each person is going through with the Lord and as their relationship with Him in it deepens they get to know Him more and more intimately (John 17:3).
As I pray I ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to me where I am living a lie. What part of me is living independent of God and believing the lie that I am not in union with Him. This may take some time and wrestling with God over such matters because the flesh doesn’t give up easily. Many times you may want to have victory in a certain area of your life but you are not willing to have the Holy Spirit shed light on it because you “like” the certain aspects of the fleshly pattern. I have found that it gets to a point that I actually hate the fleshly pattern before I am willing to let it go and walk in His victory. It never ceases to amaze me how deep these patterns run in our lives and what strongholds they have on us. After the lie is exposed and I stop believing it I then ask God to teach me the truth and start believing the truth. When I fail to believe it I simply repent and run back into the arms of God or as John says I abide in Him. The process is on going but I can honestly say that there is victory over that inward sin and that God desires for us to walk in it.
1Co 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Tags: deceived, deception, false christianity, roaring lion, satan, smoke and mirrors, spiritual warfare
Sin by definition is to miss the mark. So an honest question that would arise would be “What is the mark?”. In some circles you might hear that it is perfect obedience to the Mosaic Law or the Ten Commandments yet the Bible says sin was in the world before the law and that ALL have missed the mark and fallen short of the glory of God.
So let’s rewind to the beginning to see perfect man Adam living in the paradise that God made for him. Now sin had not entered into the human race and Adam and Eve simply trusted and relied upon God and His provision, His power and His presence to give them all that they needed. What it must have been like to walk in the cool of the garden with God, enjoying one another in love and laughter. All the while the fruit of the tree of life was available to them as they came to it to eat and be filled.
Then the deceiver enters, coming to steal, kill and destroy yet masked as a friendly face and seemingly making a whole lot of sense. Wow, I can be like God, yes, sign me up, what must I do to be like Him? I might have forgotten in the rush of the moment that I was already created in His likeness and that He warned me about the harm that would come if I ate from that other tree in the midst of the garden. Nevertheless we see Adam and Eve giving the words of the deceiver power and priority over the words of God.
Now what happens, Adam and Eve missed the mark, they sinned. So what was the mark? Trust and reliance upon God, His will, His word and His character. So what was lost was a real fellowship with the living God, real homogeneity and the fruit of that is hiding and shame. We exchanged the glorious life of God for a self-life that is truly no life at all. The mark was missed, sinned entered and all of natural mankind now chooses independence over union and dependence.
Now in God’s great love He wasn’t about to let that be the end of the story. A rescue mission that was planned before the foundation of the world was underway; the God that we spurned would come to rescue us and to share in His glory with humanity once again. No longer would we be hiding, shame filled children of wrath but adopted sons of the living God, given a new nature, a new heart and a new spirit and temples of God Himself via the Holy Spirit.
Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good but to give dead people life, His life, His eternal life united with our spirits that there would now be no separation between His Father and us. The next time you see the word sin don’t go back to that contract Judge waiting to hold the gavel over your head to beat you into submission…that is not the God of the Bible at all. When you miss the mark of trusting and relying upon Christ as Life run back to the Father, just as the prodigal son did, and find His mercy and grace ready to receive you. You have been invited into His very Life and the truth is apart from Him we can do nothing but as we learn to rest in Him. He will produce the fruit upon us, the branches, and we will get to partake in this divine nature. From there we will not only know about the goodness of God but begin to experience the Life of Christ in us. Let’s stop missing the mark of this wonderful salvation and immense and abundant life.
Dave Geisler
August 2011
Tags: adamic nature, all have sinned, bible, eternal life, Grace, jesus, Law, life in christ, miss the mark, mosaic covenant, old covenant, paul, rom 3:23, romans, romans 3:23, sin, sin nature, ten commandments
Got this question from a brother and thought that it might be on some of our minds:
Hi Dave,
I’m studying a little this morning. Something confuses me about the triune man. Where does the heart fit in? The old testament talks a lot about heart and soul. In Mark 12:30, Jesus talks about our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Any thoughts?
Thanks
MY RESPONSE
Great question on the heart. In Jewish thought the heart is in the “midst or middle” of the person (remember God said there were two tree’s in the midst of the garden to live from). It is the deepest part of the person comprising their thoughts, emotions, intellect. It is not only the functions of the mind, emotions and will but it is the seat of it. For the carnal Christian the heart is still found in getting their needs met from the world and the flesh and as such they live like the world yet name the name of Christ (1Cor 3:1-3).
Now for the one that is rooted in their identity in Christ and all that has been done for them in the New Covenant (a new heart Eze 36:28-28) they shift from living off the flesh to living from their spirit. This becomes the life that they live from, Paul calls this person a spiritual person (1Cor 2:15-16). In fact the only way to combat the flesh is to turn to the spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to minister His life in you and through you (Gal 5).
Here is Thayers definition of the heart:
1) denotes the centre of all physical and spiritual life
2a) the vigour and sense of physical life
2b) the centre and seat of spiritual life
2b1) the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavours
2b2) of the understanding, the faculty and seat of the intelligence
Tags: bible, body, heart, jewish thought, love, mind, soul, strength, trichotic, triune
It’s about 2 p.m. on Tuesday (Oct 13, 2009)…just a normal, nothing-special Tuesday afternoon. My wife has an appointment so she takes our two daughters with her and leaves our 4 year old little boy Zach. Now as I go into my bedroom to check on him he has his thumb in his mouth, which he knows is wrong and is trying to stop sucking. He sees me round the corner and like a deer in the headlights doesn’t know what to do…should I take it out and maybe Daddy didn’t see me or should I just fess up is what I gathered was going through his little mind. Now we’ve been working on this for a while and he knows that he is definitely not supposed to be doing this and he knows we punish for disobedience, dishonesty and disrespect, so he assumes that he is going to be punished. But I don’t punish him this time.
Instead of dolling out some punishment for doing wrong I simply bent down and told him how hard I know it is to stop sucking his thumb and that I will give him mercy this time. I then go and ask him if it is time for his nap. Now looking at our children we can tell if they have had a nap or not so I am utterly surprised when he says he has already taken one. Of course I yell to my wife as she is putting our youngest into the car and ask if he has already taken a nap…she says no.
Now we are at strike two…dishonesty. Zach has not been feeling well for the last few days but nevertheless I have every right, by the rules of our home, to come in and spank his little butt…and he knows it. Instead as I round the corner again and look into his little teary eyes I give him mercy and grace. I pick him up and put him in my bed on my pillows, put my blanket on him, kiss him on his forehead and even turn one of his favorite videos on. In doing so he starts crying but not your normal cry, this one is very different. He is crying because he is truly sorry, from the bottom of his beautiful little heart. He knows that he deserved punishment and judgment because of what he did but instead I gave him unmerited favor (grace) and tender loving kindness (mercy).
I just went into check on him again and he is found quickly asleep, without the fear of what will happen to him or what punishment will come his way. I am not saying this to say there isn’t the proper place for punishment in the home but to illustrate that giving our children grace and mercy can be a learning tool for how our Father treats us. Just like when that prodigal son came back to his father, the gentleness and mercy that the father showed him in light of all the wrong the son had done speaks to a deep place in everyone’s heart. Thank you Lord for these little illustrations that I will forever carry in my heart.
Tags: desperate acts, dishonesty, disobedience, Grace, mercy, parenting advice, parenting in grace, punishment, tender loving kindness
Much of what we see today in modern Christianity is a lot of different methods for dealing with the onslaught of your issues and life’s circumstances. Usually they are spotted by a number…like “7 ways to a happier marriage” or “15 things you can to do today to please God more” or “8 rules to riches and financial security”. Now what do all these things have in common? Here is a list of a few things…
- Trusting in an outward action to produce an inward result
- You doing to achieve a certain outcome
- They all have to do with the body and soul (mind, will and emotions) of the person, but a person is primarily a spiritual being that has a soul and a body to express their God given spirit
- If successful they breed pride “I did it”
- If unsuccessful they breed shame, guilt, self-loathing and condemnation “I failed again”
- They give glory to the successful person
- They give shame, ridicule and sends a person into hiding or bluffing if they are unsuccessful
- It is all about what you have to do NOT what has been done (wage vs. gift, law vs. grace)
Is this the way of Christ? Or has the worlds system, the western way of life and ultimately the lie of the evil (2Cor 4:4) one so corrupted our view of God and His ways that we can scarcely see the difference any longer. In the list above there is a common thread: they all put the emphasis on man instead of Christ. Sure they use methods or procedures that are based on the Bible but is the Bible a means to an end? By this I mean is the Bible itself a guidebook to lead us to happier times, richer bank accounts and fulfilled marriages or as some have coined it the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth? The answer may surprise you but it is NOT.
The Bible is the Word of God and John tells us that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14)…so the Bible means to an end is God Incarnate, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Not a better way, not 6 steps to this or that, but the bible has been given to us so that we may find all we need in a Person and in that Person we find our very existence. The Jews of Jesus time made the same mistake (John 5:39) that many of us make in Christian circles today, we are trying to find a way instead of trusting the Way, we are trying to find answers for life instead of trusting in the Life, we are trying to find truth and purpose instead of simply trusting in the Truth (John 14:6).
Answers to ALL the problems, dilemmas, circumstances and trials are always found within God Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ. Many of us try to deal with our fleshly symptoms (Gal 5:19-21), like lust or anger, by trying to control it. Then we come to find out that it cannot be controlled and instead is controlling us, even when we try to suppress the outward actions the inward sin gives it away. At times it feels like we are trying to hold 20 tennis balls under the water only to find that when one gets away from us the other 19 pop up almost uncontrollably. Why is this? Because the flesh can never stop the flesh, these symptoms are meant to point us to the only One that can.
The beauty of the cross is the finished work of Christ. Right now Jesus sits at perfect rest at the right hand of the Father (Eph 1:19-21). Enjoying all that a pure and perfect relationship can bring…perfect peace, perfect joy, perfect love and more within the trinity family. So what does that have to do with me?
At the cross we have been reconciled to God Himself in Christ Jesus (2Cor 5:18-21). This is a fact. Just as Jesus cried out His last word “Tetelestai” which means “It Is Finished” (John 19:30). He promised to bring “Separation to victory” (Mat 12:20) and He did all that He set out to do. We are no longer separated from God, in fact, the first thing that happened is that the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies was torn in two (Mat 27:51)…from the top to the bottom (not by man but by God Himself).
At the cross Jesus took all of your old nature, all of your perverted personality and put it to death (2Cor 5:14, Gal 2:20, Rom 6:3-6). This is a fact. Not only did He do that He also made you brand new and has seated you with Him in the heavenly realm (Eph 2:4-7) at perfect peace with His father. Victory is a past tense event with a present tense reality. Your Adamic nature was so utterly out of control that it perverted all of your personality and the only thing that could stop it from acting the way it does is death itself.
But Christ wasn’t left in the grave (1Cor 15:17), He was resurrected to new life and so have we been. Now instead of being separated from God we have now been brought into union with Him (1Cor 6:17)…this is the victory. And now that we know this we are to trust this reality as our own, we must consider ourselves dead to sin (separation from God) and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:11). The old nature comes back to haunt you in the forms of patterns that it has created to cope with living independent of God, the Bible calls this “The Flesh”. Yet we are never told to do anything but consider that dead (Col 3:3) and instead place our focus on putting on our new nature (Eph 4:24) and being alive to God in Christ.
When you finally get to the end of all you can do (Gal 2:19, Col 2:23) to obtain victory in the Christian life you will find Victory Himself waiting for you to give you the rest that He promises (Mat 11:28-30). Until we come to the point of realization that there is nothing that we can do to combat the flesh and that it must be Him and Him alone that gives us the victory (1Cor 15:57) we will keep waging a losing battle. Why? Because we are living in unbelief (much of which is propagated within church walls) instead of the reality that we are new, even if we don’t think we are or feel that we are, that doesn’t change the fact that “it is finished” and we have been made new creations in Him (2Cor 5:17)
Now when we finally start receiving the victory over these long standing flesh patterns all glory goes to Jesus Himself (1Cor 1:31). For it is nothing special that you can do but simply receive what has been done to you and for you. Pride seeps in when the flesh believes that it can control itself, which then gives way to another fall. But humility comes by openly receiving all that our God is willing to give for it is Him who said “It is better to give then to receive” (Acts 20:35).
He is the perfect standard for goodness and out of His very character He gives to each of us all we will ever need and all we will ever need is found in One Person. So stop “trying” to buck up and do better and instead start trusting in what He says about you…that you are more then a conqueror through Him who dearly loves you (Rom 8:37).
Written By: Dave Geisler, April 26, 2011, www.promisedgrace.com, promisedgrace@gmail.com
Tags: 2Cor 5:17, 2corinthians, all have died, bible study, born again, exchanged life, forgiveness and mercy, freedom in christ, giving in love, God's Love, hearts and minds, nature of god, new creation, new creature, old passed away, performance based, promised grace, real peace, reconciled to god, religion, Saved, sin, spiritual implications, supplication, suppression, tipping point, vicious cycle, victorious life, victory over sin, walk with god, words of jesus