Everyday Freedom

How the Gospel Sets Us Free in Everyday Life by Jared Wilson



How the Gospel Sets Us Free in Everyday Life from Crossway on Vimeo.

More Energy and More Power

The message that the gospel has in terms of freedom for a man’s everyday life is really a counter-intuitive message. You would think that knowing that the work is done, that the bar has been crossed, that the standard has been met by Jesus, and that we now totally measure up would lead us to go on autopilot.

However, what really happens is that, when a man understands that he measures up and the victory is sure, he actually finds more energy and more power. One great illustration is when you’re way ahead in a basketball game and you’re winning, the energy seems to come from nowhere. You just seem to have this boundless energy because the victory is sure.

On the flip side, the further behind you are—if you are losing the game—the harder it becomes. You see the mountain you have to climb to catch up and you just feel dejected and defeated.

I think the gospel works a bit like that. Somehow to know that we are totally justified—that the victory is won—actually empowers our hard work. There’s a joy and a freedom there. The man who has been set free by the gospel is really free and really empowered to work with a sense of worship.

(Jared C. Wilson is the director of content strategy at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, and a contributor to the ESV Men’s Devotional Bible.)

Eyes To See

HT: Holy Fathers

Visitation

HT: Tim Challies

Identity

Finding Your Identity in Christ by David Powlinson


Finding Your Identity in Christ from Crossway on Vimeo.

Who Do You Think You Are? 

When it comes to your identity, you must always start with this understanding: your identity is a gift of grace in Christ. It’s a gift that—in our new birth—God creates a new identity for you as a child of the living God, as a man who has been forgiven, as a man who has awakened to the fear of the Lord and knows that God is great and that he is small. God is the one who evaluates us; we are not the ones who get the last say with regard to who we are.

There is a progressive working throughout our entire lives in which the Holy Spirit instills, deepens, and impresses that new identity and its implications into our lives. To echo the identity statements that thread through Psalm 119, God is our master and we are his servants. It takes a lifetime to work out the implications of what it means that we are the servants of another’s will—that we belong to another and are bought with the blood of another.

On the last day—the day when we see Christ face-to-face—we will not only know God as he is, but we'll also know ourselves as we actually are. All of those partial senses of our true identity will come into their fullness. We will know that we are the beloved children of a loving Father. We will know that we are servants. We will know that the hopes that we have placed in him have come true. Our identity and self-understanding will come to fruition.

As in everything else about the Christian life, there’s always this from-to dynamic. The from—all of our old, misplaced identities—needs to be recognized and understood. In what ways are you prone to incorrectly define who you are? Is it your career? Is it being liked? Is it pleasure? The first battle is correctly defining how you currently see yourself; the second part is taking hold of the appropriate counterweights to those false identities.

Let’s say I place my identity in always needing to be in control. That’s a great example of a false identity because it assumes that I am the Lord. If there is another person who is the Lord and he is in control, then I must learn what it means to trust him and to repent of the anger, anxiety, bullying, aggression, and withdrawal that comes from trying to assert my own control. I must learn to live in a world in which I am not in control—a world in which I’m fragile, dependent, vulnerable, and mortal, recognizing that there is a God who is in control who is a God of life.

The from-to dynamic is central and threads throughout the whole of the Christian life.

Lost Years

God Can Restore Your Lost Years by Colin Smith (via TGC)

Money can be restored. Property can be restored—broken-down cars, stripped painting, old houses. Relationships can be restored. But one thing that can never be restored is time. Time flies and it does not return. Years pass and we never get them back.

Yet God promises the impossible: “I will restore the years that the locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25). The immediate meaning of this promise is clear. God’s people had suffered the complete destruction of their entire harvest through swarms of locusts that marched like an insect army through the fields, destroying the crops, multiplying their number as they went.

For four consecutive years, the harvest was completely wiped out. God’s people were brought to their knees in more ways than one. But “the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people.” God said, “Behold I am sending to you grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied (Joel 2:18-19).

In the coming years, God said, their fields would yield an abundance that would make up for what had been lost: “The threshing floor shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. . . . You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied” (Joel 2:24, 26).

This wonderful promise for those people meant that years of abundant harvests would follow the years of desolation brought about by the locusts.

But God has also put this promise in the Bible for us today.

Lost Years of Our Lives

What do “lost years” look like for us? Lost years (or locust years) are years that you can’t get back, and they come in many varieties.

Lost years are fruitless years. A lot of hard work was done in the years the locusts had eaten. After everything was destroyed, the people must have thought, All this work and what do I have to show for it?Some of you know this pain in the world of business—a failed venture, a bad investment, a misguided policy, and all the effort that you put in day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year led only to massive disappointment. You think, What has come of all my time and all my effort?

Lost years are painful years. I’m thinking of those who have lost a loved one. You had plans for the future, but now you fear the coming years may be empty. I’m thinking also of those who live with illness in the body or the mind. You assumed that you would always be able to do what you used to do. You have to find a way to live with the disappointment that you cannot.

Lost years are selfish years. Here’s a story that’s been repeated thousands of times. There’s a person (let’s call him Jim) who made a commitment to Christ, but it didn’t run deep. Faith in Jesus was a slice of the big pie of his busy life, filled with all the things that Jim wanted to pursue. Then one day, God gets hold of Jim. He is spiritually awakened. He says to himself, What in the world have I been doing? There’s no substance in my life. I really want it to count for Christ. I want to live in the power of the Spirit. I want to make a difference in the world, but the locusts have eaten half my life! I’ve wasted my years on myself.

Lost years are loveless years. A division comes to a family, alienating loved ones. Children grow up, and those years cannot be recovered. A marriage quietly endures in which love has been burning low for many years. You see a couple who are really in love, and you say, “I wish I could be loved like that.” Or you have not yet met the person you would like to meet. It feels like the years are moving on. You can never get them back. The locusts have eaten them.

Lost years are rebellious years. Perhaps you grew up with many blessings, but in your heart you wanted to rebel. You didn’t fully understand this urge, but you gave yourself to it. Instead of bringing you pleasure, rebellion brought you pain. Now you look back on those years with regret, the years that the locusts have eaten.

Lost years are misdirected years. The path you chose in your career or at college was a dead end. You just didn’t fit. Often in your mind, and sometimes in your conversation, you say, “How did I end up here? If only. . . . If only I had made that move. . . . If only I had taken that opportunity. . . . If only I had chosen a different path.” But the moment has passed. It’s gone. You can’t go back to it. You’re left with locust years.

Lost years are Christ-less years. All Christ-less years are locust years. This point is worth thinking about if you have not yet made a commitment to Christ. Ask anyone who came to faith in Christ later in life, and they will tell you that they wish they’d come to Christ sooner than they did: “How much foolishness I would have avoided. How much more good might have been done through my life.”

How God Restores Lost Years 

Take heart! There is hope, because God can restore your lost, locust years. He does so in three ways......

Read the rest at the link 

Occupy

HT Lance Wallnau

What You Already Are

HT: Christine Caine

Marriage Defined

I do not know who originally created this, so i con't give them credit. Whoever you are, well done!

Pray The Process

This is an excerpt from How To Pray In A Dark Difficult Time by Kim Butts (via Charisma)

...prayer isn't always about the end result but also about the journey. It is, as the apostle Paul says, being able to be content in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in (Phil. 4:11). My friend, Jon Graf, who is on our staff, calls this "praying the process."

If we focus on the end result—the ultimate goal of our prayer, we often miss the blessings, lessons and growth that come from the process of walking through the situation. It is often the process of going through trouble or adversity that strengthens us for kingdom work. As Paul said in Romans 5:3-5: "Not only so, but we also boast in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces patience, patience produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

God loves us enough to allow trials in our lives for His purposes. As we "pray the process" we can ask God to work in and through us rather than bemoaning our circumstances. God is a redeemer and will not let anything we walk through be wasted. And, in the midst of our situations, we are always to be thankful: "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus" (1 Thess. 5:18). This is harder than it sounds!

How can we be thankful for illness, tragedy and so on? Go back to Romans 5—when we run into the tough things of life, God has a purpose to use it for His glory, even if we can't comprehend, imagine or see it. This is where the true prayer of faith takes place. When we begin to pray through the journey (process) of our situations, God is there, walking with us. He hurts alongside of us, sees and feels our pain and knows our frustrations. None of it is a surprise to Him.

Sometimes we have no idea what or how to pray in the midst of a difficult circumstance. But Paul gives us this amazing encouragement in Romans 8:26: "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."

So in a nutshell, here are some guidelines about how to pray through the dark, uncertain times in life:

• Pray the process. Don't just ask God for the end result you want. Trust God's heart even when you don't see Him at work in, through or around you. Know that He is able to overcome and redeem whatever you go through.

• Focus on praying for or with others who are going through trials as you are. God will use your circumstances to uniquely encourage or strengthen someone else.

• Ask God to give you the spiritual eyes to see His kingdom through your situation.

• Rejoice and give thanks in the midst of trials, knowing that He has a purpose for them that will be for His ultimate glory.

• Pray for greater faith to know that God's hand is at work to develop endurance, strong character and the hope of salvation within you.

• Ask God to help you to be content in the midst of whatever situation or circumstance you find yourself.

• Ultimately, when you don't know what else to do or pray, ask the Holy Spirit to share your heart with the Father.

May God bring your prayer life sharply into focus in the midst of trials so that God is glorified as His will for His kingdom is fulfilled in and through you.

Greater Intimacy

HT: Tim Challies