Tag: Inspirational

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I am grateful for the fascinating uniqueness of every person. You, our Creator, are AWESOME!

I Am … A new creation. — 2 Corinthians 5:17

(This is the fifth entry on Christy Mitropolous’ artwork.)

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Me: Good morning Jesus!

Jesus: Good morning Jon!

Me: I want to ask a hard question.

Jesus: Yes?

Me: I was grumpy and surly last night. Even working outside on a gorgeous spring evening, I seemed incapable of proper appreciation.

Jesus: You were preoccupied with comparing your performance at work against your perception of the many demands on your time. You scarcely notice the extra-special sunset I created. Have you thought about why having more to do than you can focus on causes you stress? One of the people you met with yesterday about the likely impact of changes to an electronic controller published an email naming you an expert on the subject at hand.

Me: The guy who actually made the changes was out sick. I knew the details because he reports to me and had graciously kept me involved because he recognized the stakes were high, business wise. But to your question, I feel like a juggler who is struggling to keep all the balls in the air. The last act of my day at work was fielding a question from my manager, who asked me something I had not had time to study. I had no idea.

Jesus: When I was “in the flesh”, so to speak, I answered such a question, about the consummation of all things.

I said, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”. Mark 13:32

My point is, there are things it is not up to you to know. Or do.

I am glad that you recognized your attitude was not right yesterday and then brought it to Me. If your peace is disturbed, it is a red flag that something in your beliefs is not founded on the truth that I Am in control and that I Am willing to guide you through. You have a tendency to think “new creation” implies final perfection. What it means is because the power of sin is broken in Me, there is the possibility. A baby is a new creation, who has a lifetime of learning and development ahead following the process of becoming (v21) what he is created to be.

Me: Thank You Jesus! I love you!

Jesus: You are welcome! I love you!

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I am grateful for more Spring-like weather! Time to rake the gravel out of the grass from plowing the driveway last Winter!

The fourth statement on Christy Mitropoulous’ artwork is:

I AM – A slave to righteousness. Romans 6:18

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 16:15-23

Me: Good evening Jesus!

Jesus: Good evening Jon!

Me: My wife reminded me of Jim Richards’ definition of righteousness, as living the way things ought to be (I’m paraphrasing).

Jesus: When you were living the way you thought things ought to be, you were not righteous. Finding out My definition of the way things ought to be and living according to that in the power of the Spirit is the way to be free from enslavement to sin.

Me: I have had large swaths of my life when I agreed your way was right, but still did not or could not follow it.

Jesus: Yes, mere agreement will not suffice to transform your life. What was the word Paul used as an indicator?

Me: Obedience?

Jesus: The proof is in the outcome. Obey* is a verb. Agreement is a position. Change requires action. Obedience in your own strength is works, and as you know from experience, you will ultimately fail. Obedience operating in My strength, in the grace I have extended to you, is key; I will never fail you.

The other day, in a meeting with friends, you observed that the trajectory of your life had gone from a steady downward spiral to one that was consistently upward. There are many ways to describe the divide Paul is speaking of in this passage. It all comes down to this: will you walk with Me, or not? Many think this means asking Me to walk with them. That is not the way to freedom either.

Me: Thank You Jesus! I love You!

Jesus: You’re welcome! I love you!

* Corrected “Obedience” to “Obey”, thanks to a helpful comment.

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I am grateful that I am free from sin.

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14

Me: Good afternoon Holy Spirit!

Holy Spirit: Good afternoon Jon!

Me: This third statement on Christy Mitropoulous’ artwork is one that my natural mind resists as presumptuous. It says, “Hey, wait a minute! I (insert reference to last bad attitude or hurtful thing I did here) and I clearly miss the mark of God’s best regularly.” I therefore have to get hold of those thoughts and compare them closely against the message of the gospel to bring them into subjection to the truth.

Holy Spirit: That is certainly one aspect of the necessary work of correcting things you have come to believe that are just not true. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 says, 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, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

Notice some things about this passage:

• Every thought matters.
  • The notion that only what you do outwardly matters is as false as false can be. (See Matthew 15:19 or Mark 7:21)
• Men’s ideas are one of the things that stand against true knowledge of God.
  • Men are proud of these ideas.
• Getting your thinking straightened out is a war.
  • It is a desperate struggle.
  • Life and death are at stake.
• I Am providing the power you need to break the strongholds of wrong thinking.
  • It is My power, the power that created the cosmos and all its mechanisms.
• Correction takes time.
  • Not because I have yet to provide a way, but because of your ability to apply yourself to the process, to do battle in your spirit and reconcile yourself to the truth.

Me: I remember that word “master” also came up with regard to sin in the early chapters of Genesis.

Holy Spirit: Yes. Cain had some trouble with his thinking. He did not master it, and he killed his brother Able while he was still operating in self-centered anger.

Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

The point of Romans 6:14 is that those who are in Christ because they have accepted the salvation purchased by His death for their sin are free from the power of sin. That is, sin’s power over them is broken. There are many passages of scripture that attest to this. Before we look at some of those, note the difference in the message to Cain and the one to believers (after the cross).

• To Cain – “you must master it.”
• To believers – “sin shall not be master over you”

This is the grace that has been extended to you.

John 1:29 — The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

John 8:34 — Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

Romans 6:23 — For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:6-8 — For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 10:10 — for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Philippians 2:12-13 — So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Take this work seriously. Think of a demolition expert working to diffuse a bomb; he wants to get it right. Your life is at stake too. This passage does not mean that the basis of your salvation is your works. The basis of your salvation is the completed work of Christ. The work this passage is referring to is the same work as 2 Corinthians 10:5; the work of aligning your beliefs, and therefore your thoughts, and then therefore your actions to the Truth, which is Christ. Neither are you to attempt this on your own. I Am here to help you.

Me: Thank You Holy Spirit! I love You!

Holy Spirit: You are welcome! I love you! Here is some more help:

Hebrews 4:12 — For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Meditate on how I Am providing guidance to sort out what you believe and how that affects what you end up doing.

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I am grateful for the many scripture verses attesting to the availability of a Spirit-filled life!

My wife recently bought this piece of inspirational artwork.

This is the second installment of a series of meditations about the message carried in this Christy Miropoulos’ piece. This second statement has a lot of scriptural backing. I’m therefore not going to editorialize.

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I AM full of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:9 – However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Matthew 3:11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Matthew 10:20 For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

John 3:34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

John 7:39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

John 14:16,17 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

John 15:26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,

John 16:13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

Acts 5:32 And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

[There are hundreds of references to the Holy Spirit in both the Old and New Testaments, beginning with His part in the Creation.]

You and I have a choice to make every moment; follow our own desires, or the leading of the Spirit. It’s life and death. Choose wisely.

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My wife recently bought this piece of inspirational artwork.

This is the first of a series of meditations about the message it carries.

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I am grateful to have You as my Father!

O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness. – Isaiah 25:1

The statement at the top of this piece of Christy Mitropoulos’ artwork leaps out at you: “I am a son of God”. At least it leaps out at me. It seems to fall into the category of things that are hard to believe because of pervasive self doubt. The notion of being a child of God acknowledges Him as creator of all, of course. But it is more than that. He created fish, gophers, and earthworms too. To my understanding, none of them are known to be able to read the scripture that man (the species) is made in Their image (Father, Son, Spirit, Genesis 1:26). Jesus got in in big trouble with the religious leaders for Calling God His Father out loud – in public, no less. Who was He, they accused, to claim God as Father? In His days walking around on the dirt, every first son was considered the heir, with all the authority of the father, once he was “of age”. Those with authority constantly questioned Him on the authority issue.

The verse that Christy references is in Romans 8. It bears reading:

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:12-17

Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. Matthew 23:9

Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” Mark 10:15

You and I have a choice to make every moment; follow our own desires, or the leading of the Spirit. It’s life and death. Choose wisely.

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My wife recently bought this piece of inspirational artwork.

I’m thinking I might spend a few posts musing about it. Today, I’ll just let it speak for itself.