HOW TO HATE YOUR LIFE

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:24–25)

“Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” What does that mean?

It means, at least, that you don’t take much thought for your life in this world. In other words, it just doesn’t matter much what happens to your life in this world.

If men speak well of you, it doesn’t matter much. 
If they hate you, it doesn’t matter much. 
If you have a lot of things, I doesn’t matter much. 
If you have little, it doesn’t matter much. 
If you are persecuted or lied about, it doesn’t matter much. 
If you are famous or unheard of, it doesn’t matter much. 
If you are dead, these things just don’t matter much.

But it’s even more radical. There are some choices to be made here, not just passive experiences. Yeshua goes on to say, “If anyone serves me, let him follow me.” Where to? He is moving into Gethsemane and toward the cross.

Yeshua is not just saying: If things go bad, don’t fret, since you are dead anyway. He is saying: choose to die with me. Choose to hate your life in this world the way I have chosen the cross.

This is what Yeshua meant when he said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). He calls us to choose the cross. People only did one thing on a cross. They died on it. “Take up your cross,” means, “Like a grain of wheat, fall into the ground and die.” Choose it.

But why? For the sake of radical commitment to ministry: “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Yeshua, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). I think I hear Paul saying, “It doesn’t matter what happens to me — if I can just live to the glory of his grace.”

COMBO #1 PLEASE!

(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 

And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. 

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 

He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 

And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” 

And he answered, “No.”

—John 1:15-21

What John the Baptist wanted to make clear is (because remember, he is the guy who makes the way for Jesus): Just because I came before Him, I’m not saying I have seniority. 

I understand how things work. I know my calling and place, and I’m good with it.

How many people understand that? That’s just the way things are. John the Baptist is saying, Look, I got here first, but this is the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have no special standing.

 In John 1:15, John the Baptist demonstrates he knows the meaning of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” 

To which John the apostle adds his own testimony: 

“And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (v.16). 

That last phrase actually means continued waves of grace constantly crashing upon the shores of our lives. That’s grace!!

John 1:17, “For the law was given through Moses.” 

The law was Do this or else!  And it showed us failure—nothing more. 

Galatians 3:24 says, “The law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.” 

That’s the program we were on—until “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” 

Do you see those two—grace and truth? Just like in John 1:14. The power of grace and truth is in the *combination. Together, grace AND truth make it all possible.

For example, do you like steak? I hope you do. But do you understand that although a bite of steak is good, it’s not nearly as good as a bite of steak with some mashed potatoes on it? Right? And a bite of steak with potatoes and a little bit of that creamy horseradish—get out of here! Taste buds are having a party! 

The power is in the combo. You don’t understand anything about eating if you don’t get that the power is in the combo. 

It’s both flavors going together! 

Now that is a tasty way of saying the power in Jesus Christ is not just the grace; the power is not just the truth. The power is in the combination of the two. 

And how weak are we when we’re just grace? And how hard are we when we are just truth? 

God help us to get the power in the combination of grace and truth!

I love this! Thought I'd share it with you! 

Robbs

FIGHT SEXUAL ENTICEMENT!

Sex happens between the ears before it ever happens between the legs. 

When you are ENTICED SEXUALLY, do you FIGHT with your mind to say "No" to the image and then mightily labor to fill your mind with counter-images that kill off the seductive image? 

“If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).

Too many people think they have struggled with temptation when they have prayed for deliverance and hoped the desire would go away. That is too passive!  

Yes, God works in us to will and to do His good pleasure! But the effect is that we “work out [our] own salvation with *fear and *trembling” (Philippians 2:12–13). 

Gouging out your eye may be a metaphor, but it means something very violent. The brain is a “muscle” to be flexed for purity, and in the Christian it is supercharged with the Spirit of Christ.

What this means is that we must not give a sexual image or impulse more than five seconds before we mount a "violent counterattack" with the mind. 

I mean that! 

Five seconds!!

In the first two seconds we shout, 

“NO! Get out of my head!” 

In the next two seconds we cry out 

“O God, in the name of Yeshua, help me. Save me now. I am Yours.”

Good beginning. But then the real battle begins. This is a MIND war. The absolute necessity is to get the image and the impulse OUT of our mind. 

How? 

Get a Christ-exalting, 

soul-captivating counter-image into the mind. 

Fight. Push. Strike.  Don’t let up. 

It must be an image that is SO powerful that the other image cannot survive!  These are lust-destroying images and thoughts.

For example, have you ever in the first five seconds of temptation *}%demanded of your mind that it look steadfastly at the crucified form of Yeshua the Anointed One? 

Picture this. 

[MEN] You have just seen a peek-a-boo blouse inviting further fantasy. 

[WOMEN] A hunk of burning love has showered you with romantic sexual innuendo and personal compliments. 

You have five seconds. 

Now, immediately, demand of your mind—you can do this by the Spirit (Romans 8:13)—demand of your mind that it fix its gaze on Christ on the cross. Use all your fantasizing power to see His lacerated back. Thirty-nine lashes left little flesh intact. He heaves with His breath up and down against the rough vertical beam of the cross.   Each breath puts splinters into the lacerations. The Lord gasps. From time to time He screams out with intolerable pain. He tries to pull away from the wood and the massive spokes through His wrists rip into the nerve endings and He screams again with agony and pushes up with His feet to give some relief to His wrists. But the bones and nerves in His pierced feet crush against each other with anguish and He screams again. There is no relief. His throat is raw from screaming and thirst. He loses His breath and thinks He is suffocating, and suddenly His body involuntarily gasps for air and all the injuries unite in pain. In torment, He forgets about the crown of two-inch thorns and throws His head back in desperation, only to hit one of the thorns perpendicular against the cross beam and drive it half an inch into His skull. His voice reaches a soprano pitch of pain and sobs break over His pain-wracked body as every cry brings more and more pain.

Now, You're not thinking about the blouse [MEN] or hunk [WOMEN] anymore. 

You are at Calvary!! 

These two images are not compatible. If you will use the muscle of your brain to pursue—violently pursue with the muscle of your mind—images of Christ crucified with the same creative energy that you use to pursue sexual fantasies, you will kill them. But it must start in the first five seconds—and not given up.

So my question is: Do you fight, rather than only praying and waiting and trying to avoid? 

It is image against image. 

It is ruthless, vicious mental warfare, not just prayer and waiting. Join me in this bloody war to keep my mind and body pure for my Lord and my soul and my church. Jesus suffered beyond imagination to “purify for himself a people for his own possession” (Titus 2:14). 

Every scream and spasm was to kill MY lust—“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that *we might die to sin* and live to righteousness” 

(1 Peter 2:24).

Father, have mercy on us in our continual battle with lust. Oh, how we love the victories You give. Let us live there more and more.  Grant us the will to say NO to EVERY temptation. Yes, Lord, grant us far more than to say NO.  Help us fight!!

Give us the will to make war on our impurities.  Show us the infinite and all-satisfying glory of the crucified Christ.

May Your name be so precious to us

that we absolutely will not defile it.

Hallow Your name in our lives, by Your great grace. 

In Yeshuas pure and mighty name we pray. Amen.

ULTIMATE CHOICE

ULTIMATE CHOICE

The ultimate choice we have to make is between following God and following self. Following God leads to eternal life and following self leads to death. To be in unity with God, we have to turn from our self-will (true repentance) and follow God’s will. In following God we seek to do only His will, just as Jesus did. John 5:30 But we don’t know God’s will unless we seek to know – thus why God tells us to seek and live. Amos 5:4 

When following self we do what we think is good and right – whatever it is.

To learn about God through the Bible a similar approach must be taken in order to draw near to God in truth and spirit – we have to deny self.

God tells us to believe in Him. The Bible with the instruction of the Holy Spirit is the gateway to deeply knowing God so we can believe in Him as He is. Reading the Bible isn’t about learning “techniques of good living” to then fulfill our own purposes and desires. We have to let go of all our self-will in coming to God in order to really know God and for Him to be our Lord.

There are three areas of denying our self-will when abiding in the Bible in order to learn about God, thus draw near in truth and Spirit.

The first area is in regards to making time to seek God through the Bible. It’s putting abiding in the Bible to be taught by the Holy Spirit as the priority. Consider all the times you’ve put something above spending time with God, when God has told you to seek Him first. Matthew 6:33

What i have learned: 

Times you choose to sleep in, attend to another person, do a task, or get consumed in work. At those times, YOU are deciding what is more important versus doing what GOD has told you to do – love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, to put Him first, and to diligently seek Him. This choice to do what you want is following your self-will. [Guilty, and too often.] When you continue this pattern, deep down you think you know better, otherwise you would do what God says. 

So who’s will is dominating in you?

The second area is who you focus on when you do abide in the Bible. To get to know God through the Bible, you have to set your needs, wants, and expectations aside and focus on God. If you read the Bible with the mindset and motive that is focused on you, then you aren’t denying self, you are putting self first. You are putting your self-will and what you think the time in the Bible should be about above seeking to know God. Instead of saying, God, what do you want to teach me? What do you want me to know about you? It’s always about fixing you, searching for a certain answer, or preparing for a Bible study. 

Whose will is in control at this point?

If your interactions with your spouse were always about you, you would learn very little about her/him. There would be no true intimacy or bond. You would do what you thought that person wanted, but you *really wouldn’t have a clue. You haven’t sought to know him/her intimately because every interaction has been about you. Therefore you wouldn’t have a real relationship, certainly not a healthy one. With God it’s the same. We have to realize we don’t know God unless we individually seek to know Him. Until we do we have a false image of Him, which means we have a false relationship. It’s necessary to seek Him while putting ourselves aside to know Him as He is. Then we’ll start to develop a real relationship.

The third area has to do with conforming the Bible to your beliefs versus the Bible molding your beliefs. It’s realizing that you have filters and ways of viewing God and the Bible that are wrong. That you hold ideas that you think are “truth” but aren’t. When you come to learn of God, you have come with a humble heart which is willing to receive and hear anything God may teach you instead of trying to fit the Bible to your paradigms. If you think you already know, you don’t really seek. You conform what you read and hear to what you already believe. If you think you already know then who are you following when you abide in the Bible?

In order to know God through the Bible, there is a choice to make, God or self. It’s a prelude to the ultimate choice of choosing Him in everyway over our self-will.

The way to life is choosing God. The only way for the Bible to be unsealed to you so you can draw near to God in truth and spirit is to choose God in these areas. If you don’t deny self when coming to the Bible to be taught by the Holy Spirit, then you are reading for your own purposes and goals based on what you think is good. Your will is in control. This is how the Pharisees could know the scriptures, but be totally off. They used them to fulfill what they determined was right and good.

God has to be first. He is Lord. He can’t be second.

One side note, letting go of self-will isn’t about losing your identity. It’s coming to the understanding that God’s will is good and leads to true life and therefore that is what you want to do. If you were walking through a dense forest and you had a guide with you who knew the best and safest way to get through it, what would you do? You would follow him. Same with God. God knows the path to life. We walk with Him when our will is submitted to Him because then we are walking in His footsteps. The journey leads us to what we’ve always truly and deeply desired, because God is that good.

Tomorrow when you sit down to learn about God through the Bible consider these three areas. Ask the Spirit to examine your heart; are you really making this about God and seeking Him or about you. 

I hope sharing my spiritual experiences helps somebody today! 

Coffee and a Jelly Donut! 

The ONLY Goal That MATTERS

Mark 12:30 ‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment

What do you do when you love someone? Think about the love of your life or the one you hope for. You can’t wait to see them. You make music playlist to express your love. You write love letters. You make them a priority. You reorganize your days because of them. You are devoted. They consume your thoughts. You can’t get enough of their presence. You are impossibly in love. You talk and listen, you hang on every word. You replay what they said in your head trying to figure out what they really meant. You share your inner most thoughts. You aren’t always hanging out with just their family and friends. You want to be *alone and *intimate. [Selah]


This passionate engagement is how we should be with God. Drawing close to Him means abiding in His words and letting them permeate our lives in faith, stirring the deep. Just as we long to hear the thoughts, desires, will, and concerns of those we love, if we love God or want to grow in love with Him we will spend time with Him in His Word, listening, talking, sharing, and growing. And being with the family, other believers is wonderful, but it doesn’t and can’t replace alone time with Him.

Here is a little test for you. Who do you say God is to you? Do your actions match your words? Many say they love God, but their choices and how they spend their time tells a different story. Let yours tell the same story. Be authentic. Be real.

If God is YOUR God, don’t you want to know (deep personal knowing) Him, especially because He tells you to know Him? Wouldn’t you want to know the One you are trusting with your life? Isn’t it true that we actually can’t truly trust without knowing?

Over 10 years ago, I started seeking God and spending time with Him each day. It was the most impactful life-changing decision I’ve ever made. The ripple affect of spending time with God each day has been astounding touching every area of my life and every aspect of my soul. It’s the best discipline I’ve ever kept. It changed everything. I read Matthew 6:33 and did it. I didn’t worry about anything else; I just focused on seeking God. His Word is true – all else did follow as it should.

God made it simple – seek Him and live. Amos 5:4 He is the way to abundant life as He has planned for you. Don’t make it more complicated than it is. Seek Him. Put Him first. He’ll handle the rest.

If you are already spending time with God … perhaps try to take more time to being still and listening for His still small voice. With practice you can learn to tune into His voice more clearly to hear His perfect counsel and wisdom for you life. Also, try staying connected throughout the day. Pray before major tasks. Make additional time to be still and listen. Try to be more consciously connected to Him throughout the day so that you can pray without ceasing.

If you set any other goals make sure they are ones that allow you to spend time with God each day.

Start by writing TWO love letters to God; one reflecting where you are today and one reflecting where you want to be at the end of the year … that second letter is a reflection of where you are headed.

WHAT'S YOUR MOTIVE?

A Dangerous Motive

Who has given a gift to God that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. (Romans 11:35–36)

When it comes to obedience, GRATITUDE is a dangerous motive. It tends to get expressed in debtor’s terms. For example, “Look how much God has done for you. Shouldn’t you, out of gratitude, read your word and pray? Or: “You owe God everything that you are and have. You should thank Him with your life!"

I have at least three problems with this kind of motivation.

First, it is impossible to pay God back for all the grace he has given us. We can’t even begin to pay him back, because Romans 11:35–36 says, “Who has given a gift to God that he might be repaid? [Answer: Nobody!] For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.” We can’t pay him back because he already owns all we have to give him.

Secondly, even if we succeeded in paying him back for all his grace to us, we would only succeed in turning grace into a business transaction. If we can pay him back it was not grace. If someone tries to show you a special favor of love by having you over for dinner, and you end the evening by saying that you will pay them back by having them over next week, you nullify their grace and turn it into a trade. God does not like to have his grace nullified. He likes to have it glorified (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14).

Thirdly, focusing on gratitude as a motive for obedience tends to overlook the *crucial importance* of having faith in God’s (future) grace.

Gods grace ALWAYS precedes faith.
For by grace are you saved through faith.." [tea pot and tea cup illus.]
Grace is always pouring INTO faith.
Moment by moment because apart from Gods grace--You can do nothing.

Gratitude *looks back* to grace received in the past (the cross of Christ) and feels thankful. Faith *looks forward* to grace promised [and depends on it] in the future and feels hopeful. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1).

This faith in "preceding" "future" grace is the motive for obedience that *preserves the gracious quality of human obedience.*

Obedience does not consist in paying God back and thus turning grace into a trade. Obedience comes from trusting in God for MORE GRACE — future grace — and thus magnifying the infinite resources of God’s love and power!!!

Faith looks to the promise: “I will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9), and ventures, in obedience, to take the land.

I hope this cup o joe really sets many free!

WHEN SIFTING COMES

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
(Luke 22:31, 32 NIV)

You must understand that Satan seeks to sift only those who threaten his work. He goes after the tree with the most potential to bear fruit.

But why did the devil desire to sift Peter? Why was he so anxious to test him?

Well, for three years Peter had been casting out devils and healing the sick. Satan had heard Jesus promise the disciples another baptism, one of Holy Ghost power and fire—and he trembled! Now, the devil heard God’s ultimate plan for Peter. He realized that the past three years would be nothing compared to the greater works Peter and the other disciples would perform. Having already pulled down Judas, he would have to look for a measure of corruption in Peter to build on, to make Peter’s faith fail.

Perhaps, like Peter, you are in the sieve right now, being shaken and sifted. But, you ask, why me? And why now?

First of all, you ought to rejoice that you have such a reputation in hell! Satan never would have asked God’s permission to sift you unless you had crossed the line of obedience. Why else would he spend his efforts harassing and troubling you, scaring you and shaking all that you have?

He is sifting you because you play an important part in God’s church in these last days. God is doing a new thing once again in this last generation, and you have been set apart by him to be a powerful witness to many. He has set you free, and is preparing you for his eternal purposes. And the greater your gifts, the greater your potential, the greater your surrender to the will of God—the more severe your sifting will be.

When someone is going through the fire of sifting, what should those around him do? What did Jesus do about Peter’s imminent fall? He said to him, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:32).

I look at this wonderful example of Christ’s love and realize I know almost nothing about how to love those who fall. Surely Jesus is that “friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24). He saw both the good and the bad in Peter and concluded, “This man is worth saving. Satan desires him, but I desire him all the more.” Peter truly loved the Lord, and Jesus told him, “I have prayed for you.” Jesus had seen this coming for a long time. He had probably spent many hours before his Father talking about Peter—how he loved him, how needed Peter was in God’s kingdom, how he valued him as a friend.

Lord, give all of us that kind of love! When we see brothers and sisters compromising or heading for trouble or disaster, let us love them enough to warn them as firmly as Jesus warned Peter. Then we’ll be able to say, “I am praying for you.”

Today we have yet another “It is written” with which we can do battle against Satan. It is this: “I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail.” You can tell the devil, “You may have gotten permission to sift me, to try to tear down my faith. But you need to know this: My Jesus is praying for me!”