Spiritual Amphibians Part 3

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;  who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”  Philippians 3:20-21

In order for us to be living like spiritual amphibians, we need to focus on 3 realities.

In our last 2 blogs, we saw that we are citizens of heaven (vs. 20a), and we are to get excited about the Rapture (vs.20b).

This week we will focus on Paul’s exhortation to look forward to our New Bodies.

vs. 21-“who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

Our physical bodies are subject to sickness, decay, weakness, and the power of sin which indwells them.

Our bodies have been humiliated by the fall and the curse of sin.

These bodies will be transformed into a body that will be refashioned with the glory of our Savior’s body.

They will be glorious replicas of Christ’s body that He had after the resurrection and that He has now in His present glorified state in heaven.

Our new bodies will be adapted to the eternal state and our spiritual life will dominate them.

They will not die, get weak or sick; they will have flesh and bones.

We will eat, talk, walk, fly through space, and be recognized by others. They will be patterned after our physical bodies but be without their limitations.

Christ has subjected the entire universe to His sovereign control, so He certainly will have enough power to raise our bodies and make them like His.

How often do we wrongly complain about life here on earth because we don’t have all we want or don’t like how people treat us?

This is not home; our citizenship is in heaven.

Let me illustrate.

Bob was staying at an expensive hotel in New York City, and he woke up in the middle of the night with an upset stomach.

So, he called room service and ordered some soda crackers.

Later, when he looked at the charge slip, he was furious.

Bob called room service and raged, “I know I’m in a luxury hotel, but $11.50 for six crackers is ridiculous!”

“The crackers are complimentary,” the voice at the other end coolly explained. “I believe you are complaining about your room number.”

As spiritual amphibians may we live out these verses by the power of the Holy Spirit:

“Since you were raised from the dead with Christ, focus on what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.  Fix your thoughts on the things in heaven, not the things on earth. For your old sinful self has died, and your new life is kept hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:1-3

Blessings!

Rev. Ken Keeler, Director of Church Ministries

Just Do It

Have you ever sought the godly counsel of another believer only to receive a Bible verse, a pat on the head, and the challenge to just do it?

I call this the Nike approach to Christian counseling.

Having trouble loving your spouse?  Well, just love them.

Having trouble with anxiety or fear?  Don’t worry; be happy; trust God!

Having lustful thoughts?  Don’t think about sex.

Is this bad advice?  No, but it’s powerless and guaranteed to leave the recipient frustrated and discouraged.

If they could do what they wanted to do….walk in victory… they would!  But they can’t.

Why?  They’ve never been taught to plug into the power source of the life of Jesus within them.

Why?  Many churches are content to teach the Nike approach to the Christian life.

So, churches are full of two kinds of Christians:

• Those who think they are doing well because they have most of the Christian check list checked off.
• And those who are really frustrated with not measuring up but are too afraid to ask for help because they know they are only going to hear a Bible verse along with, “Just do it.”

So, instead they hide their struggles or walk away from church and give up altogether.

Remember that Pride says, “You can do it; just try harder.”

Beloved, there is only one Person who ever successfully lived the Christian life:  Jesus.

Here’s more good news: He knows you can’t live the Christian life, and He’s okay with that!

In fact, He’s taken up residence in your skin, so that He can express His life in you and through you.

So, if you’re struggling in an area, consciously engage Jesus in the battle.

Let Him fight it on your behalf.  He wins every battle that we yield to Him.

If someone comes asking for help, do not give them a Bible verse and tell them to just do it.

Give them a Bible verse and share how Jesus can do it through them for His glory.

He is far more powerful than the Greek goddess Nike could ever be.

Our victory has already been won for us by Jesus, and we live out His victory as we walk in total dependence on His life expressed in us and through us for His glory.

Blessings!

Robyn

In Sync with Jesus

Have you been watching the Olympics from Rio?

I have, and I was excited to hear the testimony of two US athletes who won the silver medal for men’s synchronized diving.

Both David Boudia and Steele Johnson indicated that it was because they understood their identity in Christ that they were able to be at peace and enjoy their performance.

You see, they knew that their performance does not define them, Jesus does.

This understanding helped them to relax and trust Jesus to dive through them without worrying about the result.

They both knew that in God’s eyes they already had been victorious because they were resting in His love and acceptance no matter the result of their performance.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have peace and joy in every task we face?

It’s possible for every believer, but the key is to rest in our new identity in Christ instead of falling into the worldly trap of defining and valuing ourselves based on the outcome of our performance.

Beloved, because we are in Christ, we are all winners.  Why?  Because Jesus has already gained the ultimate victory.

He lives in us; and we live in Him.  His victory is our victory.

So, relax and enjoy His life flowing in you and through you.

By faith, receive His love and acceptance every day.

Set your mind, just like these men did, on this reality, and you will experience Jesus’ peace as you let Him do all things through you for His glory.

If you want to see NBC’s interview with David and Steele, I have it posted on ELM’s facebook page.

Blessings!

Robyn

Going for the Gold!

The 2016 Summer Olympics kicked off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Friday.

What was the goal of the summer Olympians? It is to win the gold.

How about us? Just like the summer Olympians, our goal is to win!

Paul tells us that there are 3 characteristics of gold medal winners in 1 Cor. 9:24-27.

1. THEY RUN THE CHRISTIAN RACE TO WIN: (vs. 24) “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” We run to win by not getting all wrapped up in this life, but by living for eternal values, for which we will be rewarded in heaven. We need to tap into Christ’s strength. as we go for the gold.
2. THEY ARE ALWAYS IN TRAINING: (vs. 25-26) “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air;”    If an Olympic athlete wants to win a gold medal, they have to restrict themselves in all things: diet, activities, associations and probably their friends. As Christian athletes, we are competing in a race that requires self-control, if we are going to win rewards. The word “self-control” literally means “to have power over oneself” and is a fruit of the Spirit. How do we keep “self” in control? By yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to refuse to indulge in sin or to act impulsively. We are to rivet our eyes on Jesus as we run the race. We should refuse to allow anyone or anything to distract us from our training to be like Jesus. He should be No. 1 in our life and if He isn’t, pride, discouragement, desire for praise, hurt feelings, and sin can incapacitate us. What are we living for, the temporal or the eternal?
3. THEY ARE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE: (vs. 27) “but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”  If an Olympic athlete wants to go after the gold, he has to master his own body. The idea in this verse is to beat the body into spiritual subjection, through the power of the Holy Spirit, when the power of sin seeks to express itself through our body. Is the Holy Spirit our master or is our flesh our master?  What may keep us from future reward?  Are we living by our feelings? Are we caught up with a desire for power, prestige and influence or making a name for ourselves? Are we absorbed in the things of this life and overly attracted to them? If we are going to win the imperishable prize, we have to follow the Word and live by the Holy Spirit’s power.

At the time of this writing the US has 1 gold medal in Rio, but each athlete is going for the gold, so should we!

Blessings!

Pastor Ken Keeler, Director of Church Ministries

The Believer’s Metamorphosis

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

 2 Cor. 3:18

An Amish family goes to a city, and they have never been in a city before. They are amazed at everything they see, and they go into a mall. While the mother and daughter are walking around together, the father and son see an elevator. He and his son are fascinated, so they watch as an old lady goes up to the elevator, pushes the button and walks inside. Thirty seconds later, a young beautiful blond lady comes out. The father says to his son, “Go get your Mother.”

Don’t we all wish that physical transformation could be that easy! But, far more important than physical transformation is our spiritual transformation.

In our verse above, the phrase “are being transformed” is the Greek word Metamorphoo from which we get our word metamorphosis. It is a complete change from the inside out.

The context of our verse is when only Moses was allowed to see God’s glory, and as a result, his “face shone with the glory of God … who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory fade.”

In this Age of Grace, all believers have the privilege of beholding Christ’s glory with unveiled faces. The “mirror” in this verse is God’s Word, which reflects back to us the glory of Christ as we read and meditate on it.

So what happens when we consistently do this? The Holy Spirit teaches us His Word and as we yield to His power, He continuously transforms us into the very image of our Savior.

The phrase “from glory to glory” is literally: “from one degree of glory to the next.” Our spiritual growth is a process which comes from our two power sources, the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

When a caterpillar is changed into a beautiful butterfly it goes through the process of metamorphosis.  May we allow the Word and Spirit to bring about of spiritual metamorphosis, so that we can be like our beautiful Savior!

Blessings!

Pastor Ken Keeler, Director of Church Ministries

 

 

 

Friends with Jesus

Last week, we started to look at our new identity in Christ. Remember that mental health comes from seeing ourselves as God sees us.

This week our focus is on the reality that Jesus calls us His friends.

In John 15:15, He states that He considers His followers His friends, and as a result, He shares all that the Father shares with Him.  Now, that’s intimacy.

Do you have any friends that you can share anything with and know that they will share your joy or sorrow?  That’s how Jesus views our relationship with Him.  Why?  Because He loves us with Phileo love — the love of friendship.

For friendships to be what God wants them to be, they have to be rooted in Agape.

Agape expressed in phileo looks like one friend considering his friend’s needs as more important than his own, as he sacrifices to serve his friend’s well-being, no matter the cost or how he is treated in return.

Jesus loved us with Phileo when He died on the cross for us, and He loves us with Phileo every day.

But, here’s something even harder to comprehend: He not only loves us, He really, really likes us too!

Now, He doesn’t like our flesh – the ways we operate in our own strength and selfishness, but we are not our flesh.

We are who we are based on being members of His family.

So, He sees us as we really are: complete in Him.  He sees the finished us.  He sees us in Him, righteous, holy, sanctified, and so much more that He’s given us by His grace.

Beloved, we don’t have to like our flesh; in fact, we shouldn’t.  We should detest our flesh patterns so much that we choose to put them off and put on our new identity in Him.

The more we learn to rest in our new life in Him, the more we will increase in our awareness of His presence dwelling in our spirit as He expresses Himself through our soul/personality.

As we connect with Him, He will speak in our spirit through His Word and through the Holy Spirit and share all the that the Father shares with Him.

Beloved, think about that.  All that Jesus has from the Father, He shares with us.  Why?  Because we are His friends!  How awesome is that!  That’s mind-blowing folks!

So, if you react to this with, “Why would He ever want to be my friend?”  Stop it!

Reset your mind on the reality that He is your friend because you are in Him and He is in you.  You have an intimate friendship with Him!

Blessings!

Robyn

Who Are You?

Who are you?

Seriously, not the song, but how do you perceive yourself?

The world defines people primarily by their actions.  A person attending an AA meeting has to introduce themselves as someone who is an alcoholic.

How do they reach that conclusion?  It’s simple: actions equal identity.

But that’s a huge lie!

The reality is that who we are is determined by our family of origin.

When we are born into this world, we are born into Adam’s family.  That means we are human beings with a nature infected with this thing called sin.

Sinning does not make us sinners.  Being born into Adam’s family makes us sinners.  Sinning is just the natural outworking of an inner identity problem.

Now, let me address why Christians struggle so much with sinning.

Most Christians do not know who they are in Christ.

They are taught that they are sinners saved by grace.

And that sounds humble and even correct, but it can’t be further from the truth.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior not only are our sins paid for in full, but we are also identified with Jesus.

When He died, we died; when He rose again, we rose again…thus making us born again into a new family: Jesus’ family.

This is what makes every believer a SAINT saved by grace.

Beloved, we are holy…set apart from the power of sin and set apart unto God.

Sin is no longer our master; Jesus is.

We can tell sin to go pound sand when it launches into its demands.  You see, we are dead to it.  We no longer have a relationship with sin.

We now have a relationship with Jesus; we are family.  God sees us completely in Christ, all new creations in Him with human natures freed from sin and reconnected to God.

Why is this so important?

No one can consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with their self perception. 

If I see myself as a sinner, not sinning will bother me, and I will revert back to fleshly habits and excuse them.  If I see that the truth is I am a saint, when I choose the flesh, it will really bug me and I will be quick to get back on track with the Spirit.

Beloved, we are human beings not human doings.

Mental health is the result of seeing ourselves as God sees us.

Over the next few nuggets we are going to look as a few verses that declare our new identity in Christ.

I hope you’ll join me for them.

Blessings!

Robyn Henning

What’s Going on in Your Head? Part 3

By Pastor Ken Keeler, ELM Director of Church Ministries

^“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh,  for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.  We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…” 2 Corinthians  10:3-5

We saw in Part 1 and 2: We need to realize we are in a spiritual battle-vs. 3, apply by faith the proper spiritual weapons-vs. 4, and use the right strategy for victory-vs. 5.

Now we want see how we can apply this right strategy for victory by using the 4 “R” Approach:

• 1^st Recognize the origin of the thought. Thoughts come to us through the power of sin to tempt, deceive, and accuse us.  These thoughts are not generated by our new man, but we are responsible. We need Christ’s wisdom from His Word to recognize the tricks of the power of sin.
• 2^nd Refuse to accept the thought as ours. We must refuse to dwell on the thought by refusing to let it have entrance into our mind.  By Christ’s power and our authority in Him, we can say an authoritative No! We need His power to refuse those thoughts, and entrance into our mind.
• 3^rd Reckon ourselves to be dead to the power of sin. The word reckon means to count on it, to be true because it is.  Since we have been crucified, buried, and raised with Christ, we are no longer slaves to the power of sin, so by Christ’s authority we can count ourselves dead indeed to sin and alive to God.  Our true desire is not to follow the power of sin because we are a new man in Christ.  So, just as a dead person does not follow any physical stimulus, so we do not have to follow the stimulus of sin. We need His authority to count ourselves dead indeed to sin’s power over us and alive to God because we have been raised to new life in Christ.
• 4^th Rest in the total sufficiency of Christ. We are in Christ and Christ is in us and we have His powerful resurrection life.  He allows nothing to come into our lives that he does not either give us the power to escape or the power to endure.  We are to thank Him for His complete love and acceptance of us and that we are seated with Him in our heavenly position of victory.  We are safe, secure, and strong in Christ and we need His grace so we can rest in His total sufficiency by faith.

Buddy was on his first camping trip, and as soon as he had pitched his tent, he went for a hike in the woods.

About 15 minutes later, he rushed back into camp, bleeding and messy.

“What happened?” asked a fellow camper.

“I was chased by a black snake!” cried the frightened youngster.

The other camper laughed and responded, “A black snake isn’t deadly.”

Buddy said, “If he can make you jump off a 50-foot cliff, he is!”

It is very important what is going on in our heads!

Do we have the mind of Christ and His weapons and strategy for victory?

May we have the right things going on in our heads as we go forth to battle!

Blessings!

 

What’s Going on in Your Head? Pt. 2

By Pastor Ken Keeler

^“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh,  for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.  We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…” 2 Corinthians  10:3-5

The statistics about pornography are shocking. Every second, more than $3,000 is spent on it and nearly 30,000 Internet users view it. Every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is created. The pornography industry pulls in about $100 billion in annual revenue worldwide. At least 4.2 million websites, or 12 percent of the total, are pornographic. Every day, Internet users make 68 million pornographic search engine requests, or about one-quarter of the total. While men are the main consumers of pornography, one of every three visitors to an adult website is a woman.

We are shaped by our thought life. That is why what is going on in our head is very important. We saw in Part 1 of this blog: 1) We need to realize we are in a spiritual battle, vs. 3; 2) We need to apply by faith the proper spiritual weapons, vs. 4.

Now we want look at applying the right strategy for victory, vs. 5 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” The idea here is to continually be tearing down the negative thoughts that lead to sin, by force, by the power of Christ.

We must get tough with anything that comes to our mind that is against God’s truth. But this is only half of the right strategy.  We must also be “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” We are to bring them under the control of the Holy Spirit in line with His Word.

In order to have freedom from sin’s control over our mind, we need to remember that victory over the power of sin is won at the threshold of our mind, not in our mind. At the threshold, it is still temptation, but once we accept the thought and let it in our mind and dwell on it, it becomes sin.  It is far, far better to deal with the temptation at the threshold then to try to deal with it after we let it into our mind.

Remember the old vacuum cleaner salesman who came to the threshold of your door and sought entrance into your home to sell you one? If you let him in, you are in trouble, because you will have a hard time getting rid of him!  It is much better dealing with him at the threshold by saying an authoritative “no!” and slamming the door shut!

So, when the power of sin sends tempting thoughts to the threshold of our mind we need to slam the door shut by saying an authoritative “no!” to them to defeat them and take them captive to Christ by the Holy Spirit’s power within us. In part 3, we will apply this by using the 4 “R” Approach.

The Feast of Trumpets Part 2

Last week, I shared with you about the uniqueness of the start of the Feast of Trumpets.

No other Feast was linked to the start of the New Moon.

And, just as  the exact timing of the first sighting of the New Moon was unknown, so is the exact timing of the Rapture of the church.

While the exact day and hour of Jesus’ coming for His Bride is unknown, He still tells us to watch for the cosmic signs and world events that precede it.

When the disciples asked Him in Acts 1 if He was restoring the kingdom to Israel at that time, He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons…”

Now, the Jews would have seen the allusion in His use of the word seasons to point to the seven Feasts.

Yet, several years later, Paul wrote of the Rapture in his first letter to the Thessalonians saying, “of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need for me to write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.”

Today, we have the advantage as well as the responsibility to understand the season of history in which we now live.

We have the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

We have the list of ‘birth pangs’ like wars, famines. pestilence, earthquakes, comets to tell us that the season is truly upon us.

Jesus tells us that when we see these things to look up for our Redemption draws near.

Some folks say, “So what!  People have always thought the Rapture was near.”

Well, the point is that we have to live with the mindset that expects Him to call us upward at any moment.

If you thought this way, how would that impact your decisions, your relationships, your willingness to share the gospel?

Do you want to be on your way up thinking, “Oh No! I never shared Jesus with…”

The folks that are left behind are here for the Tribulation and reign of the Antichrist — the most horrific time in history.

Who do you want to be caught up with you?  Make a list.

Then, ask them for 15 minutes to share some good news.

If they give you the time, share the message of the cross with them.

• Romans 3:23  “for all have sinned and fal short of the glory of God.”
• Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
• Romans 5:8  “For God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinner, Christ died for us.”
• Ephesians 2:8,9  “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not that of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one can boast.”
• Romans 10:9,10  “For if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord and believe in your hear that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved….

It’s their decision to accept or reject Jesus and the Spirit’s job to work in their hearts with faith.

Our job is to share the good news and to live lives that are holy — different than the world around us.

Beloved, our Redeemer is drawing near.

Are you ready for His return?

Maranatha!  Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Blessings!

Robyn Henning