DRINK! DRANK! DRUNK!

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians5:18, ESV). On your own, you cannot be like Jesus. You can’t will yourself to change your sinful patterns or to choose right. So how do you live a powerful life in Christ? How do you live out the exchanged life—Christ in you? The Holy Spirit. You can talk till you’re blue in the face, you can serve till you drop, you can try your absolute best. But until you let Jesus reign in you through His Spirit, you are going to be lost and exhausted. Ephesians 5:18 commands, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” The Greek word for filled means controlled, intoxicated, permeated, thoroughly influenced, overcome by a power greater than your own. We know what it is to be filled with pain, with joy, or with sadness. Being filled with excruciating pain, for example, eclipses everything else in our consciousness. We feel only the pain and fixate exclusively on it. The filling of the Holy Spirit is a similar experience—the Christian is overcome and under the influence of a power greater than himself. It's likened to being under the influence of alcohol (Luke 1:15; Acts 2:4, 13–17), in that when people are drunk, they don’t act like themselves. They have little control of their minds, emotions, words, or actions. In the same way, we are to yield control of ourselves to the Holy Spirit. But unlike alcohol, we can’t get too much of the Spirit. We can never be too filled. This one little verse contains four essential truths about the filling of the Spirit: The filling is commanded. Notice God’s tone. He is not giving us a mild, optional suggestion. If you have some extra time, you might want to consider being filled with the Spirit. It’s a command: “Be filled.” And because God commands it, we know it’s possible. Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to be indwelt, baptized, or sealed with the Spirit because those are God’s work in us at conversion—but we are commanded to be filled.   The filling is passive.  Think back to English class. We are not the subject of the sentence, the one doing the action. We do not perform the filling, but are the object being acted upon. God is implied as the source. When we ask Him, He will fill us; we cannot do it ourselves.   The filling is for everyone.  In the original Greek, the understood you is plural, as if to say, “All of you  followers of Jesus, be filled with the Spirit.” This filling is a widespread, universal offer for every believer, not one exclusive to the “spiritual elite.” (Because there aren't any spiritual elite!) It is for all who God has justified—it’s for you.   The filling is not permanent.  Rather than “be filled,” some translations use the wording “be being filled”—it's an ongoing (moment by moment) process. We are to be continuously filled, day by day. Check out Acts 2:4, 4:8, 9:17, 13:9. There is only one baptism at conversion, but there are many fillings of the Spirit. Because Ephesians 5:18 is a clear command, we don’t have to wonder how to apply this teaching.  Simply “be filled”!  Yes, crazy, knuckle-chip, messed up imperfect you with your overwhelming day and feelings of inadequacy and exhaustion.  Get right with the Lord and be filled.—“Confess [your] sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Pray God, I know You want to fill me but will not until I remove the barriers. Please bring to my mind my unconfessed sins and help me repent of them, by Your grace. Transform me. Change Me.  Then will You fill me with Your Holy Spirit? Live Your life through me today. Make me the person You want me to be for the fame and glory of Your great name. I believe You will fill me with Your Spirit, and pray this now, as I spend time alone with you in the precious name of The Saviour of Sinners, Jesus, amen.

"ROBBIE! ROBBIE! DON'T MAKE ME CALL YOU AGAIN!"

In the Holy Bible, when God called a person or a city’s name twice, each occasion immediately was elevated to one of great biblical importance to that person and that city involved. 

For example, in the Old Testament, when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac, God called out to him, “Abraham! Abraham!” (cf. Genesis 22:11), when Israel was in old age and moving to Egypt, at the invitation of his lost son, God called Israel’s birth name twice, “Jacob, Jacob” (cf.Genesis 46:2; see also Genesis 35:9-15, ESV); when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, He called out, “Moses! Moses!” (cf.Exodus 3:4, ESV); and when God called Samuel’s name twice (cf. 1 Samuel 3:10, ESV), it happened after He had called out to him two other times, but Samuel had mistaken God’s voice for that of Eli’s. 

In each of these instances, especially the last one, most people say that God uses the double salutation because He wants to get that person’s attention.

Perhaps getting someone’s attention is a true reason for these aforesaid double calls, because there is no doubt that after each time God used the double hailing of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Samuel’s name, He had something vitally important to say to them. 

In the case of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Samuel, the significance of each double call respectively pertains to Abraham becoming the father of Jacob (Israel) and the father of Faith; to Jacob becoming Israel, which is God’s chosen name for His chosen people; to Moses becoming the deliverer of Israel and the giver of the Law; and to Samuel becoming the first in a line of prophets who faithfully would bring God’s Word to His people. 

For sure, all four of these Old Testament individuals were key people in Israel’s history, and this truth no doubt is why God’s redoubling of their names happened at the key turning points in their lives.

Getting people’s attention because the Lord had something momentous to tell them is also why, in the New Testament, Yeshuas redoubling of names has biblical significance. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Olivet Discourse, and two other times, when Yeshua was making a crucial point to His disciples and the multitudes, He repeated, “Lord, Lord” (cf. Matthew 7:21-22, 25:11,ESV Luke 6:46; 13:25, ESV; when Martha was upset with Mary for not helping her prepare the big dinner for Yeshua, who was visiting with them, the Lord called out to her, “Martha, Martha” (cf. Luke 10:41, ESV); when, after the Lord’s Last Supper, the Lord predicted Peter’s denial, He called out to him, “Simon, Simon” (cf. Luke 22:31, ESV); when Yeshua was on the Cross and it was the ninth hour, just moments before the Lord said “it is finished,” He cried out to God, “Eloi, Eloi” (cf.Mark 15:34); when Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest and put in chains any followers of the Way so that he could bring them back to Jerusalem to stand trial, the Lord called out to him, “Saul, Saul” (cf. Acts 9:4); and when the Lord expressed His intense emotions for Jerusalem, which had become a wicked city, even though God intended for it to be His holy city, Yeshua called out, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem” (cf. Matthew 23:37and Luke 13:34). 

In each of these instances, the Lord uses the double salutation in a time and in a situation when it was urgent for Him to say (or teach) something that was critically important.

For sure, through the Lord’s redoubling of names believers learn that the significance of each double call respectively pertains to His followers becoming those who would be so sold out for Yeshua that they no longer would give Him lip service with their ‘Lord, Lord’ but would call Him ‘Lord’ because they would be doing the will of the Father, which began with loving God with all of their heart. 

Here are some examples: to Martha becoming like Mary, who experienced Yeshuas ultramodern radicalness (His teaching/discipling of a woman who sat at His feet, for in the Lord’s day a Jewish Rabbi only would teach/disciple males); 

Or to Simon Peter becoming the firm and solid little “rock” built on the massive ROCK foundation of Yeshua.  The redoubling of Simon’s name was primarily to accentuate the weaker part of his nature—Simon's  wishy-washy nature—rather than to draw attention to the strong, emotional, and bold part of Simon Peter’s nature. 

Or to Saul becoming the greatest Christian missionary of the Gospel, in spite of the fact that he started out as the greatest Jewish persecutor of the Way; and lastly, to Jerusalem becoming a city that not only would reject God’s messengers but also would slay them, including Yeshua the Christ.

All six of the abovementioned key incidents are included in Israel’s history. More important, the three individuals to whom the Lord directly speaks the double calls each play major roles in the history of the Body of Christ, which is why Yeshuas redoubling of Martha, Simon, and Saul’s names happens at the key turning points in their lives!

As mentioned earlier, when God called a person or a city’s name twice, each occasion immediately was elevated to one of great biblical importance to that person and that city involved. 

Furthermore, this biblical importance also affects those of us who have come to Christ by Grace through Faith!! 

That’s why we need to be able to answer these questions: 

Do we truly understand the significance of the double call? 

Are we listening (paying close attention) to God’s voice, so as to hear Him when He speaks to us? (Reading & Studying the Bible) 

Has He called out to us with a redoubling of our individual names, and if so what does His double call say about our roles as Body of Christ members?

"Robbie! Robbie! Once have I called you, twice have you heard me!"

"Speak Lord, for Your servant IS listening!" 

Sssssssshhhhhh! 

Drink this cup of theoffee while its HOT!  

Robbs. 

ALL THE SINGLE LADIES...

If sex is the highest good in life, the greatest pleasure we can experience, we're in trouble.

As a single woman (since 27, now 49) who is committed, by God's grace, to saving sex for marriage, I've often felt, very much, like a caged lion. Sometimes my physical drives were so strong, I despaired—the long, intense fight for purity in a sexually saturated culture seems impossible. And while there is constant dialogue about men's sexual struggles and temptations, and "Men in White" Conferences, there is this eerie silence in the church when it comes to women.  

However, the more I opened up and shared my struggles with other women, the more I realized I was indeed normal and in very good company. So why isn't anyone talking about it?

Or maybe the greater question is, Why do we even want to fight for sexual purity when our desires seem so natural and good—and often feel too powerful to control?

Christ Is a Better Treasure

If I can testify to anything, it's that I found Christ to be a far greater treasure than my sexual desires.

I'll never forget a conversation I had with  my nurse practioner, who was, once again, giving me grief about not "getting laid."  She simply could not get with my lifestyle.  I hadn't kissed a man in 20 years, or even held hands, for that matter.  It ended by me saying, "Carla, Jesus is better than sex." And by the way she looked back at me, I could tell she desperately wanted to know if that was true.

I think we all want to know that is true. 

If sex is the highest good in life, the greatest pleasure we can experience, we're in trouble. Yes, sex can be amazing, in marriage, I can testify that God created a really good and pleasurable thing. (I was married for 3 years from age 24-27) But it doesn't begin to compare to the infinite pleasures we have in God.

God created sex, then told us to enjoy it only within the context of marriage between a man and a woman; so if He has us wait an excruciatingly long time for it, He is (mercifully) teaching us to meet our very deepest desires in Him alone. That's easy to say; it's incredibly hard to live.

In fact, it's impossible to live. 

Oftentimes,  my fight against temptation brought me to the end of myself and reminded me that "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You" (Ps. 16:2). I could not boast in my own strength; I was so keenly aware that God Himself was sustaining me, and apart from Him I would quickly lose the battle.

Listening to His Promises

During these long years of singleness, this is where the rubber hits the road:

Will I listen to my passions, or will I listen to His promises?

I remember pounding my pillow, crying out in anguish, even yelling when the flesh seemed too strong to fight for one more day. But it was in those desperate moments that I found God to be exactly who He claims to be. It was in the trenches of the fleshly fight that I learned to take my Commander at His word.

And His Word says that He "makes known to me the path of life; in His presence there is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Ps. 16:11).

So how can a single woman walk in His fullness of life and joy in the midst of sexual frustration? Here are a few of the ways that helped me:

1. Memorize and meditate on Scripture. 
   I can't overstate this enough. God's Word has strengthened, sustained, convicted, encouraged, and changed me. Unless we're constantly in the Truth, we'll easily fall for lies.
2. Be accountable. 
   Keep talking! Be open and honest with godly, safe, and wise women in your life. When sin is brought into the light, it loses its power and stops condemning you.
3. Exercise and eat well. 
   Run or cycle or take a dance class. Feed your body good stuff. Sitting in front of chick flicks and eating chocolate cake is not going to help the cause.
4. Serve others. 
   Channel your frustrated energies into caring for the people around you. Send an encouraging text to someone who's hurting today. Have frieds over for dinner at your place. Deliver Starbucks coffee to a mom who's at home with four kids. Something. Anything   
5. Don't compare. 
   Don't keep looking at what your married friends have. Their challenges and sufferings are different. God knows how to make all of us need Him desperately in very different ways.
6. If you're creative, make sure you have a creative outlet. 
   At the end of one particularly rough bout with my former church, I realized I'd given up theater and writing and all of the colorful, creative expressions that make me tick. As soon as I began creating again, I revived!
7. Don't borrow tomorrow's troubles. 
   God has given plenty of grace for TODAY. "I'm going to be single for the rest of my life!" Don't go there . . .
8. Take stock of your cultural diet. 
   Evaluate and re-evaluate your movie-watching, music-listening, clothes-wearing habits. Are you feeding or starving the lust of your flesh?
9. Set hard-and-fast boundaries with men—for your sake and theirs. 
   Hanging out alone with a man never helped me; it usually stirred up desires unnecessarily.
10. Keep a thankful heart. 
    I can't tell you what a powerful tool this is. Thank God for everything you can think of, big and small—it's like instant heart surgery!

Friends, there is so much at stake in our battle for purity. And if you have blown it, join the club. Every last one of us has fallen short of God's purity in one way or another, and we all are in desperate need of His grace. Keep returning to the Lover of your soul. Keep fighting and trusting by the power of the Spirit that is at work within you. God is good, and what He does is good (Ps. 119:68). As I reflect on my 20+years of being happy in Jesus, I am stunned at God's goodness to me, even when—no, especially when—it took me to the end of myself.

I continue to fight the good fight of faith, with each and every one of you! 

God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him. 

Grace be with you,

Robbs

NO KNOCK-OFFS

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21, ESV). Authentic: it’s the real thing, not a knock-off or cheap replica. And authentic is one way we describe a life worth living. A person living out who they are meant to be is the best sense of the idea. Genuine people are often hard to find. The ultimate standard for authenticity is Yeshua Christ. He’s the real original. This is true because He is not only our Maker and therefore qualified to tell us how to live authentically, He is also our example. Humanly speaking, He was in every way our perfect model. In fact, the Christian life could be described as learning to live faithfully as an authentic imitation of Yeshua. That’s why the apostle Peter, no stranger to hard lessons and humiliating failures, was told in no uncertain terms by Yeshua, “You follow me” (John 21:22). It’s also why Peter passed on that same wisdom to us: “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). We can’t duplicate what Yeshua did, but we can imitate Him. Authentic Christians don’t drift in His steps, or wander in roughly the same direction—we follow Him. We love like He did, serve like He did, and live sacrificial lives like He did. The world sits up and takes notice when people who call themselves Christians actually behave like Yeshua. There are some things you’ll need to learn and other things you will have to leave behind if you’re really going to “follow in his steps.” To know what these things are, you literally have to walk in the Word. Your daily decisions need to be directed by what God says, not your own whims. The One who left you an example can help you follow it. Philippians 2:13 includes a great promise: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Your very desire to follow in Christ’s steps is evidence of His work in you. To more closely identify with Yeshua, make it your goal to read through the four Gospels—there are eighty-nine chapters in all. If you read just a chapter each day, you will have finished the four biographies of Christ’s life in three months. As you read, ask God to help you see the example Yeshua left behind and give you the courage and strength to follow in His steps. The pursuit of authenticity is about the steps you take as God works in you, conforming you to His Son—“For to this you have been called.” Pray with me: Lord, The Holy One and The True One, thank you for revealing that following Yeshuas steps in an authentic way is the best way to be myself. You designed me and intended that the real me would be capable of authentically representing Your Son in the world. How I long for that to be more true and less obscured by my sin and selfishness. Thank You for the reminder that You are working in me both to will and to work for Your good pleasure. Your grace be with me in the Life-Giving name of Yeshua, amen.

TIRED CHRISTIANS

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good (Romans 7:15–16, ESV). Many Christians are tired; some are exhausted. Are you an exhausted Christian? Here's a measuring stick: You don’t have the passion for God you once had and feel a vague guilt about it. The sequence follows a predictable pattern: seasons of renewed expectation and energetic pursuit, followed by encroaching disappointment and, finally, utter exhaustion. You wonder, What’s wrong with me? Why don’t I learn? Why don’t I change? Will things ever be different? You have tried serving, spending yourself working "for Christ" as you search for a fuller Christian experience through "doing" ministry.  Exhausted, you pull back for awhile and pursue knowledge, digging into Bible studies, committing to new quiet-time schedules, and reading books about spiritual disciplines. That too lasts for a little while, and some good certainly comes of growth through serving and focused time in God’s Word. Yet, too often you feel like the joy you were promised at rebirth is still eluding you. Other seasons of worthy pursuits may come and go—getting more into worship services, hanging out with your small group, serving the poor, sharing your faith, praying more, etc. All of it fueled by a sincere intent to live as God desires, followed by failure, frustration, and exhaustion. Does any of this sound familiar? The apostle Paul faced the same dilemma: a desire to do good but an inability to get it done. What Paul described in Romans 7:15–18, and what many of us experience too often, is the exhausting Christian life. The joyous Christian life was eluding Paul, however, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he admitted it. Paul acknowledged that at a certain point in time his Christian life was not working. For him it was a "temporary" problem, but sadly, for many of Christians it’s all they ever experience. Having precepts without power, rules without resources, good deeds without grace, laws without life is exhausting and ineffective. It is the powerless-graceless Christian life. Forgiven? Yes, but slipping into a lukewarm mediocrity, you begin to view the dynamic, Spirit-filled, satisfying Christian life that God promised as if it was a carrot on the end of a stick. Though well-intentioned, your faith turns out to be, well, it's really nothing more than self-powered sanctification, and it always leads to exhaustion. This dilemma plays out week after week. You go to church already exhausted, having failed at living the Christian life in your own strength the week before. You hear the Word and feel guilty about your disobedience, or you feel nothing at all.  You promise God you will try harder, and some weeks, when you're really serious, your promises will last till Tuesday or Wednesday before you fail again. I just don’t have what it takes, you conclude, and settle into a numb, passionless, *pseudo-Christian experience. (pseudo - not genuine but having the appearance of...) This kind of living is a knife in the heart of Yeshua Christ, who not only died to remove the wrath of God from your life, but also rose again that He might live His life through you. Just imagine if He was to look at your exhausted Christian experience and think, This is it? This is what I rose for? This is the degree to which you are going to draw down upon My resurrection power? This is the extent to which you’ll let Me live My life through you? This is as good as it gets? Why are you trampling on God's grace?  It’s time to make a once-and-for-all decision to be done with the exhausting Christian life. Just as you cannot  experience a regenerate heart (to become Christian) until the grace of God enables your heart to SEE and SAVOR Christ,  you also can’t experience the true Christian life until you come to the end of your own efforts, and rely more on Gods grace -moment by moment with faith- to empower your sanctification and much needed holiness.  We need to recognize we are the problem—we are the reason Christ is not seen in us. And we must stop trying to live in our own strength. Until we let Christ live His life through us, by confessing our depravity and pleading for grace, we will always be exhausted.  If you woke up this morning still believing and trusting in God, it is His grace presently, right now, at work in you. For by grace, are you saved (being rescued) through faith (believing/trusting in Him to consistently rescue you from Rom 7:15-16). Paul understood that.  Now.... Grace be with you, to live Holy, to live like Him where you will find great satisfaction, peace and rest.  The best part of waking up, is the Spirit in your cup!  Robbs Pray with me:  My Father, God of All Grace and Goodness, forgive me for trying to live the Christian life in my own strength. No matter how hard I try, I come away feeling exhausted and defeated. Lord, forgive me for thinking I need Your grace to save me, but I don’t need Your grace to empower and change me. I can’t live in my own strength. I’m at the end of myself, and I need You. I admit the ugliness of sin rest on me daily, and I have a depraved mind. Will You please live Your life through me? Will You gently show me the ways I rely on my own resources and teach me to live for and by and through You? Thank You for raising Yeshua from the dead, not only to give me hope for the next life, but also to give me power for this life. In His powerful life giving name I pray, amen.