God Is Real, Therefore He Is Relevant

CONSIDER
God desires an intimate relationship with His creation. He is not merely an impersonal creator who has left His creation to fend for itself. He is a real God who desires humanity to experience Him as relevant to every aspect of life. John spoke of the joy that results when we encounter Christ as real and relevant.

BIBLE TRUTH

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. (1 John 1:1–4 NLT)

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
Webster’s dictionary defines relevant as “having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand; affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion.” Is there significant and demonstrable evidence that God is real in your life? If we say we believe God is real, then His reality will be reflected as we demonstrate His image in our lives. As we daily experience God as relevant, our lives offer proof of His existence to a watching world. There must always be an interaction between what we profess and what our lives evidence. The essence of Christianity is not mere profession of faith, but rather possession of faith, where the truth of Christ is confirmed by the reality of our lives.

PRAYER
Lord, when I turn to you I begin to see more clearly because the veil is taken away. Because You are the Spirit, wherever You are there is freedom. I want to live in Your freedom so I may more fully see and reflect Your glory. And Lord, may Your Spirit make me more and more like You as I am changed into Your glorious image. (2 Cor. 3:16–18)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)


We would love for you to POST A COMMENT about the insights you have received on your journey toward desperate dependency.

The Unending Cycle

Independent inclinations thrust individuals further into crisis, which perpetuates an unending cycle of futility. At best, self-effort can only temporarily affect the crisis of our lives; it can do nothing to address the deeper problem of sin. In fact, self-effort exacerbates the problem, actually increasing the intensity of the nature of sin’s impact on us. Now we have, as a result of our best solutions, even more guilt, shame, and fear. We are even more alienated from God than before. We only sink deeper into the bondage of our sinfulness. Because of humanity’s depravity, we are stuck in the unending, self-perpetuating cycle. Demoting God as the authority; promoting self as the authority; and exploiting people, positions, and possessions for personal empowerment characterize self’s redemptive process.

BIBLE TRUTH
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires" (2 Peter 1:3–4 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
Despite our best efforts, our plans cannot measure up to God’s design. Our feeble attempts to live independently from God result in disastrous consequences. Perversion propels us to further crisis, although God continues to assert His truth that we must be desperately dependent on Him in every area of our lives. Through Christ’s redemptive process we have a new set of options that can overcome guilt, shame, and fear with an overflow of His love, joy, and peace if we are willing to be desperately dependent.

PRAYER
Finally, Lord, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Thank you! (Ps. 32:5)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)


We would love for you to share in the COMMENTS the insights you have received on your journey.

Dormant Deliverance

The nature of our sin produces continual crisis. Our current line of solutions is not working to resolve the guilt, shame, and fear inherent to the sinfulness. In an attempt to resolve our crisis produced by the nature of sin, we seek deliverance. God has designed us to live within a context of love, joy, and peace. We are not designed to live in a constant state of pressure, stress, and anxiety. But the nature of sin brings these traumatizing by-products along with the guilt, shame, and fear that are embedded in the sin nature. The craving for love, joy, and peace is a residual part of the image of God lying dormant within our souls that is searching for redemption. We cannot stay in our crisis. The need for restored control and resulting peace prompt the search. Motivated by crisis, people inevitably embrace their redemptive need. Invariably this promotes a redemptive process to meet the redemptive demand.

BIBLE TRUTH
“You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. . . . They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly" (2 Tim. 3:1, 5 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
Although God desires His creation to seek Him for redemption, we continue to devise our own salvation strategies to dissipate the conflicts. Compelled by the redemptive need, all of humanity will either employ self’s redemptive process, or choose participation in Christ’s redemptive process. Self-effort naturally embraces the lie of the sin nature that states we can be complete apart from Christ. This perversion contradicts God’s truth that we can only be complete in Christ. Two choices are laid before us. Either we continue in our way ever seeking new remedies to meet the demands of our soul, or we seek peace through Christ. May we be willing to give up our solutions for His salvation.

PRAYER
Lord, when I refuse to confess my sin, my body wastes away, and I groan all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline is heavy on me. My strength evaporates like water in the summer heat. So, Lord, I confess my sin to you. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. (Ps. 32:3; Ps. 51:12)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)


We would love for you to share in the COMMENTS the insights you have received on your journey.

Christ Is Relevant to Intimacy

The holiday season brings wishes of intimate gatherings and romantic gift exchanges. Do you struggle with intimacy? When you think of the word “intimacy” is a three-letter word the first and only thing that comes to your mind? God designed us to be intimate beings as our connection with others reflects His connection with us.

Intimacy is the concert of souls in communion with God as they connect within the context of God’s plan to achieve God’s purpose with each other. From the very beginning God created man as an intimate being representative of Himself.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:26–27 ESV)

“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone…’” (Gen. 2:18 ESV). According to Theological Word Book of the Old Testament, the core concept is that it was not good for man “to be separate and isolated.” God created man to associate with all the beasts of the field but he could only be intimate with those of his own essence. Some have taken this passage to justify relational dependency, giving credence to a Christian hybrid of enmeshment between husband and wife in place of intimacy. “I will make him a helper fit for him” (Gen. 2:18 ESV) does not translate into man becoming complete because of the marriage relationship, rather that through marital companionship God would spawn into being the human race.

Marital companionship is certainly a fit context for interpersonal intimacy, but it is not capable of producing personal completion, nor was it ever designed for such a task. Note what happened between man and women as they disconnected from a primary intimacy with God.

At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees. Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” “Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” (Gen. 3:7–13 NIV).

Here is a summary of the impact Adam and Eve instigated when seeking completion apart from God:

•Shame in response to exposure and vulnerability
•Compulsion to avoid being transparent
•Compulsion to hide from God
•Reverence for God changed into a fear of God
•Primary communion with God became a prime contempt for God
•Companionship was forfeited for control
•Adam compelled to blame Eve
•Eve compelled to rule over Adam

The abiding experience of intimacy was exchanged for a continuous effort to control intimacy, as intimacy now came to be seen as dangerous, something to be exploited and managed. The compulsion to connect was lost to a determination to govern through the dictates of selfish ambition.

Selfish ambition is the great enemy of intimacy. Most when considering the need for intimacy conceptualize it as getting for oneself something they do not have in order to make them more than they are. The anticipation of getting eclipses the notion of giving to another. Few people view the construct of intimacy as oneness experienced within a context of mutual sharing.

Selfish ambition undermines intimacy through the process of seeking one’s own interest at the expense of achieving relational connectedness. Selfish ambition also works to relieve obligation to relational loyalties, while fostering independence from any real bond to the relationship. Relational independence is an unhealthy condition whereby self-centeredness is heightened sponsoring self-absorption as well as vain conceit. The ideal of giving to another has been replaced by the idea of gaining for oneself.

God created mankind to live within a divine matrix where all relationships would be mediated by a primary connection with Himself that would lord preeminently over all other relationships. Therefore all intimacy must work through a relational hierarchy whereby Jesus is the central focus. Intimacy with Christ meets all essential needs producing completion and balance within the soul setting into motion by means of homeostasis, a congruent condition within one’s soul, brain, and body. This way the entire individual is brought into balance through their spiritual condition. This is the very reason Solomon could make the link between one’s trust in God and their subsequent physical health.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all you ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. (Prov. 3:5–8 ESV)

My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (Prov. 4:20–23 ESV)

Intimacy with Christ addresses the issues of the heart validated by God’s love whereby the Christian’s identity is made complete. It is then established that we are lovable, significant, and secure. This God-centered identity leads to fulfillment in Jesus that tempers all our motives and predisposes all other relationships to a holy balance. Relational equilibrium between God and all else is made possible with Christ having created within our souls a proper perspective on the priority that should be given to relationships within our lives, and the preeminence that needs to be given to God.

We are given wisdom and spiritual understanding by the Holy Spirit as we are brought to know God’s heart, mind, and will. The Spirit of God shows us how we are to live among people while finding Christ relevant to every area of our lives, as opposed to exploiting people, positions, and possessions. Jesus is made relevant to intimacy when we establish who and what we are based on our identity solidified in Christ’s truth, which in turn brings us to encounter oneness with Him.

Insight Journal
I reflect Christ’s intimacy with me when I …

What Is Authentic Love?

November 14, 2011 we published a blog post that touted the issue of counterfeit love. We wish now to elaborate that Christ is relevant to real authentic love, even essential to experiencing genuine love. In Desperate Dependency we assert, “apart from God, the human heart has no capacity for love.” Such an assertion is often met with offense that one's self-efficacy is violated.

The flesh flatters and comforts itself with thinking that it loves even amid obvious mistreatment of those we allege to love. Invariably there is some rhyme and reason to why continuous neglect, abuse, or rudeness can be fashioned into poetic stanza while offering in refrain a commitment to undying love. Others believe that the concept of Christ’s centrality to love is untrue having encountered no Christians who they deemed to be love-worthy. Either accounting, more often than not, elicits strong disconcerting emotions. What is still profound within such debate however is that the assertion, nonetheless diminished by the opposition, looms as truth.

You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect [i.e. mature in God’s love], even as your Father in heaven is perfect [in respect to the expression of His love]. Matt. 5:44–48 NLT

Many are insistent that one can love in a godly fashion without God. They are willing to assert human logic over divine wisdom, calling the veracity of God's principles into question as they ignore confronting the whole idea. Others skirt the issue with, "Well, we do not have to love like God to still love appropriately!" Here it is postulated that loving in a healthy manner is something altogether different than loving in a godly manner. Therefore one allows the latitude to choose between two plausible options, pacifying any guilt for having deprived their loved ones of God’s love. They instead feel justified for having given to them this most visceral version of the spiritual nutrient, hence believing they can love in a quality life giving way without loving as God loves.

Humanity continuously is on a quest to usurp God’s power. People risk all to find the Holy Grail, the Fountain of Youth, and the Ark of the Covenant in order to possess the power and benefits of God apart from submitting their lives to Him. Even now psychology seeks to mine for God’s truth from His Word at the exclusion of Christ Himself. Humanity would storm the gates of Heaven to take from God for themselves if they were able to do so. The Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel offer ample proof that this depiction of the human nature is true.

Love has been seized, interrogated, and exploited for every visage of grace that can be extracted by carnal effort. In that love is treated in such an unloving manner speaks further to the issue that “apart from God, the human heart has no capacity for love.” Rather, such love possesses only a capital desire to steal, kill, and to destroy in like manner as does the mentor of fleshly deeds.

Furthermore, love is seen as the potion of life and is sought with great craft in anticipation of distilling for self that which would provide a living tonic for a dying soul, therefore undermining the concept of love’s sacrificial nature where it gives at its own expense, expecting nothing in return, for the best interest of the other. These musings emphasize the polar agenda that exists in the heart of man versus what exists in the heart of God concerning love.

There are times where both man and God were said to love with phileo type love (seven times collectively in the New Testament between John and Paul – not counting John 21). What is of great significance is the fact that nowhere in the New Testament is there a non-believer being expected to have loved with agapao type love. Agapao love is only shared by those who belong to God and is the exclusive kind of love referred to in John’s first epistle.

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 1 John 4:7–11 NLT

A survey of the New Testament would verify that agapao love was used expressively over phileo 143 times over 8 times to delimit the heart and activity of God, of Jesus, and of His children. When defining the type of love a Christian was to exemplify, agapao love was used to set the standard (see 1 Cor. 13:1–8).

While it is taught that phileo and agapao are closely related and therefore used interchangeably, the preponderance of usage within the New Testament works to set them apart. John and also Paul on two occasions use phileo with godly reference, yet only then in a limited capacity to show status of association, associations such as exist between the Father, His Son, and between the professing believer and God. Phileo serves to show the highest order of human love, while agapao serves to show the highest order of God’s love. On the occasion when it was important for Christ to express, using human terms, the great love the Father had for the Son, phileo was employed.

However, in context where God’s heart was expressed concerning the issue of love and when the concept of God’s love was set forth, exemplified, or commanded agapao was used to type the divine intention of God and the uniqueness of agapao love from the love of the human sort. It is not without any small interest that even phileo is seen in the New Testament with godly resolve, only when the human heart was involved with God. All other occurrences were man engaged in a loving association with himself or some other sinful pursuit. Therefore phileo was not an exclusively godly love association as is true of agapao love. In addition phileo had to do with love involving intimate associations that may be godly or not, while agapao was always found to be in active service to God’s heart and sacrifice for His purpose seeking the best interest of another.

Left to our own devices, we offer only a counterfeit version of love laden with self-interest as a means to secure our self-centered pleasures. We strive to attain value and worth through people, positions, and possessions, believing we can find fulfillment apart from Christ. This illicit love masquerades in forms that may look noble, but the chief concern is how something will impact self. The ideal of giving to another has been replaced by the idea of gaining for oneself.

We will evidence the fruit of love when we resign from the self-centeredness that culminates in emptiness and then allow the Holy Spirit to enable us to value others. That which is profoundly of God can only be received from God. No amount of human virtue can create what is foreign to his existence. What is rather notable is that whenever humanity attempts to assert self in virtue, it is soon revealed in vice.

Insight Journal
Do I believe that apart from God the human heart has no capacity for love?
I know I am evidencing God’s love because…

(excerpts included from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

Do You Need A Spanking?

Have you noticed a growing trend that people tend to broker only in those commodities of God that provide instant return – love, grace, mercy, forgiveness? Rarely does anyone equally welcome His moral attributes that cause us to flee into the rocks in fear of His holy presence. Relating to God demands that we have a holy reverence for Him that moves each one of us as His children to value God with all our soul’s ability. Only through encountering the total of God’s moral nature are we given the ability to form a proper response that is remotely worthy of Him. Embracing God’s truth, justice, righteousness, goodness, and holiness are the only means by which we as hopeless sinful individuals will ever appreciate Christ’s love, grace, and mercy. Only with this godly perspective can we run to Him for forgiveness when we are faced with the fear of wrath or discipline.

The wrath to come is God’s judgment, condemnation upon the children of “disobedience,” upon those who are outside of Christ’s redemptive grace. Paul admonishes the Roman Christians to note that “it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience” (Col. 3:6 NASB). Paul continues to assert, “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18 NASB). While chastisement is God’s loving discipline upon His errant children, “My son, do not scorn the Lord’s discipline or give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son he accepts” (Heb. 12:5–6 NET).

Many possess a distorted view of God’s holiness while wrongly assuming that His love, grace, and mercy somehow stay the hand of His holiness, justice, and righteousness. God is hence presented as one who “winks at sin” and is portrayed as an indulgent parent. Such teaching betrays the essence of God’s moral nature and does little more than encourage sinners to believe they are saints and saints to living little better than sinners.

The truth is God has established holiness as the moral standard by which to enter into fellowship with Him.

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:5–7 ESV)

The problem is that apart from Jesus’ redemptive care, administered to us through His gospel applied to our souls by His Holy Spirit and actualized within our lives by His divine unction, we are incapable of connecting to God. A desperate dependence upon the grace of Christ forms the foundation for relating intimately to Him in relational communion.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1John 1:8–2:2 ESV)

As our advocate Christ intercedes on our behalf before the Father because He has pleased the Father through His sacrificial death on the cross. The Bible sets forth that “in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:19–20 ESV).

As our heavenly parent, Christ chastens His children so as to bestow upon us His holy heart.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Heb. 12:7–11 ESV)

Perhaps the most frequently chastened sin in Scripture is the issue of unbelief, when God’s children murmured against Him and /or moved away from Him to God-substitutes thereby committing idolatry. Is this not still the pattern that is most seen among Christians today? Christians attempt to place God on notice that He has not pleased them. Protest follows as they seek a God-substitute to foster having their own way.

God, as in the Old Testament, chastens His children that they might learn to trust Him.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. (Heb. 12:12–17 ESV)

God has no higher concern and espouses no greater agenda than to promote Jesus as preeminent within our lives. Thus His grace is dedicated to this mission. Grace cannot be manipulated or exploited to achieve our own selfish ambition, nor will it be subservient to our vain conceit. Grace resides securely within the heart and mind of God, having no other master, and can be wielded by none other than His hand.

Insight Journal
I need to ask for forgiveness from God because I wanted God to serve me on my terms when…

(excerpts included from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

As A Little Child

“An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest” (Luke 9:46 NIV).

“When he [Jesus] was in the house, he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest” (Mark 9:33, 34 NIV).

We read these verses and marvel that the disciples could be so petty after Jesus had just announced his coming persecution and death. “…he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise’ ” (Mark 9:31 NIV).

Jim Rosscup, in An Exposition on Prayer, postulates

Several things could have led to the question. (1) Jesus had spoken in His great sermon about being greater in the kingdom (5:19), later of being least in the kingdom (11:11). (2) Jesus had singled out Peter, even promised him keys to the kingdom (16:17–19). To wield keys in a king’s palace was to have position with authority giving access to various rooms. Other things, too, could naturally provoke the curiosity. (3) Three disciples were distinguished in going to the Transfiguration, nine not selected (17:1–13). (4) Conviction is building among the disciples that Jesus is the Messiah (16:16). The three had even heard the Father attest Him (17:5). And Jesus has just given Peter the illustration of a king and his sons. (5) Jesus singled Peter out in providing tax money for Himself and this one disciple (17:27).

Too often people gripe about who the pastor spends the majority of his time with, or joust to gain recognition from prominent individuals in order to feel significant. While complaining that there are “favorite pets” people vie for that sacred position themselves, all the while protesting that everyone should be treated equally. However, Jesus life did not exhibit that example. He chose disciples to invest His time in (Matt. 4:18–22), and committed the spreading of the Gospel message to them (Matt. 28:16–20).

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. (Matt. 18:1—5 NIV)

Matthew 18, then is about pleasing God and having a status He approves. A prayer question in curiosity about who is greater in pleasing Him receives Jesus’ answer in criteria of pleasing Him. These flow in attitudes of humility, receptivity, discipline and forgiveness. …they are to view what pleases Him as He assesses it in them, in a servant’s attitude. This is to be humble, dependent on and receptive to Him, prizing His will in self-control and disciplining others, and forgiveness. In essence neither entrance into nor eminence in the kingdom is due to human greatness. It is a privilege conferred by God’s grace. It is not by people deserving but by their dependence. The quest is not really status by the followers’ worthiness, but submission to His will. At the core is not seeking high achievement, but submitting in a humble, helpless attitude—that is, not grasping for self but giving oneself away to God and to others in ways that please Him. (Rosscup)

The Life Application Study Bible notes in reference to Matthew 18: 1–4:

It is easy to lose our eternal perspective and compete for promotions or status in the church. It is difficult, but healthy, to identify with “children”—weak and dependent people with no status or influence.

Jesus used a child to help his self-centered disciples get the point. We are not to be childish (like the disciples, arguing over petty issues), but rather childlike, with humble and sincere hearts. In what areas of your life do you tend to struggle with childishness? In what ways are you making progress with childlikeness?

Insight Journal
Am I willing to become “as a little child” and dependently trust Christ even though it may mean that I will have no status or influence?

Christ Is Relevant to Unity

Oneness with Jesus produces unity with each other.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1 – 3 ESV).

What does it mean to be eager? We anticipate with delight a good many things; Chocolate, bicycling, camping, time with our children, and the list may go on and on. But how many of us can really say that at the top of our list is an eagerness to keep the "unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"? Some are too busy creating disunity within the body of Christ, therefore the thought of maintaining unity is lost to the almost good intention which slightly emerged somewhere between “I ought to…” and “I should…” and “maybe next time.” The sad truth is that being “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” is not part of our daily agenda.

The admonition however is clear; we are to be eager to keep the peace that has been committed to us by the Holy Spirit of God. Unity serves as the benchmark of our divine kinship. To be one with Christ is to be one with all Christ represents, and with all who are one with Him.

The issue of unity is so essential and implicit to Jesus that wherever unity is found, there you will also find Christ in the midst of it. Union with Christ, as evidenced by the traits of such a connection (the Epistle of 1 John delimits these traits), becomes the foundation for all fellowship within the body of Christ and is the litmus test for anyone claiming to be Christ's follower.

This notion of being unified in the Spirit, with all that Christ represents, is completely fulfilled in possessing the love of Christ within our hearts and expressing the love of Christ to others. See 1 Corinthians 13:1 – 3 and 1 John 4:7 – 21.

Oneness with Jesus compels us to connect to each other.
What compels someone to possess an earnest desire to be a steward charged with maintaining the health and welfare of unity? To be the keeper of the light that has been lit by the Holy Spirit? Would it not be that very Spirit that lives within us that moves us into a concerted oneness with each other?

Unity and union are elements comprising intimacy afforded by a common identity while establishing family connection. Unity (the state of being one) is the process producing the condition of our union (the state of being united). Unity is what God is achieving through oneness within the hearts of His children, while union is the resulting condition being established between His children within His Spirit. Unity and union are not merely synonyms but rather are various dimensions of the relational matrix. Unity is caused by oneness with Christ compelling the condition of union to exist between His children.

Oneness with Jesus prompts a sharing of our unified faith with each other.
The issue now is how do we enter into oneness? The answer is that we must have a unifying identity (being in Christ), leading to an unbreakable intimacy (being of Christ) motivating a uniform industry (being compelled by Christ).

The prepositional phrase “of the Spirit” is genitive in case and is certifying that this unity has originated from God's Holy Spirit and is given by the redemptive process of grace, bestowed by the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ. It is He who is working within and between the children of God bringing all His children into the unity of the faith.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:11–13 NIV).

Unity possesses a very unique and distinct signature. Peace is the bond offering proof of who we are in Christ and to whom we belong. Peace asserts that we are children of God birthed by the Bride of Christ – the Church.

Peace is the evidence of those who are dependent on Christ to provide the ability to cope with the problems, pain, and perplexities of living. In the midst of conflict we can experience the absence of fear, dread, and impending doom as we rest in the presence of His safety, tranquility, and contentment. A continuous relationship with Jesus Christ overflows with peace that comes from entrusting every struggle to Him. There is strength in knowing that while all around us is in flux and failure, Jesus provides a spiritual stability beyond the normal boundaries of this existence. We experience peace in the presence of finding Christ relevant to our situation even when we cannot be in control.

You will keep in perfect peace
      all who trust in you,
      all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Trust in the LORD always,
      for the LORD GOD is the eternal Rock” (Isa. 26:3–4 NLT).

Our relationship with each other is to draw directly from the well of Christ and to drink inter-personally of the water of everlasting life. As we are with God through Christ Jesus—at peace, we are to be with each other—“in the bond (or ties) of peace.” With identity establishing intimacy, peace in this context, now compels the family of God to the industry of sharing their intimacy with each other—sharing with one another the peace that has been received from their bond with Christ that now has become the bond between them. Being reconciled with God results in possessing a bond with our brothers and sisters in Christ, as those whom have been reconciled through Christ to God. Being at peace with Him is now what people of faith have in common. It is our bond—the shared uniqueness that is therefore shared between us.

Insight Journal
1. Based on my behavior, do I value keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?
2. Does my life demonstrate oneness with Jesus and unity with my Christian siblings?
3. Do I possess the bond of peace with Christ and in my relationships with others?


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

Christ Is Relevant to Painting

It has been a LONG summer! In some ways too long. In other ways not long enough. Last fall we primed ourselves for some major home remodeling. One project has led to another, and in May Kirk suggested that we paint our downstairs. It must be noted from the outset, that I do not delight in painting! I do it, but I am not like my friend, Tricia, who joyfully tells me each year how much she is looking forward to her vacation time so that she can repaint all the rooms in her home, and she says it with an expansive smile and means it too!! Several other things are important for you to know. The downstairs used to be our garage, and it had been reallocated to our den/guestroom/crafting area. The walls were covered with unfinished barn siding, and cabinets and bookshelves were stained to achieve a rustic look that coordinated with our wood-burning stove.

Translating, “Let’s paint downstairs” means relocating my entire stash of crafting supplies throughout the house and dismantling all the shelves to be able to access the walls in order to paint them. It also means that everything that had a wood look would be painted either yellow or white. Yep, I said yellow – bright, June Day yellow. That was Kirk’s choice! I like happy colors, so I wasn’t going to argue about him straying from his normally dull, excuse me, muted pallet to embrace the warmth of June Day, but I did question him, repeatedly! Okay, deep breath, we can do this.

I knew it would be a grueling task, but I truly had no idea of the path ahead of us! After long conversations with our friendly Sherwin Williams paint consultants, we purchased many gallons of primer and paint and bravely (actually it was timidly) embarked on the adventure.

Did I happen to mention that as we were working on the downstairs, a contractor was also installing a new entryway to replace the rotting door ensemble? Really the reason for this portion of the remodel was to prevent downpours from flooding our basement. We hoped that in a few short days our front entrance would be reinstated and a new driveway installed to divert the water from the house. The driveway was torn out, and construction commenced in full force.

After Kirk spent hours sanding the cabinets, and shelves, I struggled with the painting process. I grumbled and complained that it didn’t look good and I couldn’t achieve the desired results. Another consultation with Sherwin Williams left them shaking their heads and saying they couldn’t make it work either. Really? Yep, I’ve said that word a lot this summer! So Kirk sanded some more to remove what I labored so many hours to accomplish. I was filled with grumbling and complaining.

Our kids constantly remind us to “Google it” to find solutions, so I took my problem to Google. The bloggers recommended Benjamin Moore paint undercoated with a special primer. I purchased Benjamin Moore paint and the special primer and conducted various sample tests on a cabinet door. The results were superior, but I was still nervous. Ultimately we settled on that particular paint without fully considering how a dry time of 16 hours between coats would actually impact our lives. Would you like to do the math to determine how many days it takes to prime and put at least 2 coats of paint on each side of 48 cabinet doors and drawers, 41 shelves, and all the cabinet bases in a limited indoor space? (I tried it outside, but the birds bombarded my first attempts, and the 90-100 degree heat and rain caused additional complications.) I’ll give you a hint – the answer is TOO long!

“Lord, how are you relevant to this?” In the midst of my grumbling and complaining He gently called me to spend my painting time with Him. God wanted to transform my painting time into an extended, focused prayer time alone with Him. Pray for THAT long? As my painting days drew into weeks, I found myself eager to begin my painting downstairs so that I could have those hours with Him. I blared my playlist of Desperate Dependency related music as He reminded me of His presence and reassured me of His plans for our lives. He set me aside to bring my clients, my burdens, and my dreams before Him and to listen for His tender words of direction.

Many days Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling devotional echoed relevant truths such as:
      •“Self-pity is a slimy, bottomless pit.”
      •“Rest in My presence.”
      •“Find freedom though seeking to please Me above all else.”
      •“Bring Me the sacrifice of your time.”
      •“Hold My hand, and walk joyously with Me through this day.”
      •“When things seem to be going all wrong, stop and affirm your trust in Me.”
      •“I speak to you continually. My nature is to communicate, though not always in words....You can find Me in each moment, when you have eyes that see and ears that hear.”

In regards to painting, the summer has been too long. But in regards to my time with the Lord, it has not been long enough. I think I should go prayer paint some more while I still wait for our new driveway and decide how to finish the entryway!


Insight Journal
How do you find Christ relevant to your everyday, nitty-gritty tasks?

Christ Is Relevant to Aliens

It’s that time of year again – back to school time. The challenges that lie ahead of our kids are honestly incomprehensible. We may believe that we have been there before and understand completely how to navigate the turbulent waters, but in actuality, they are sailing through uncharted territory. Thankfully, God offers timeless truths that apply to current day situations, so that He can help us guide our children to honor and glorify Him in all they do. As parents it is our responsibility to raise them to this goal, not simply to coddle them or supply their material needs as they age. Depending on God’s guidance is a parental characteristic that we must demonstrate to our children so that they may find Him relevant to every area of their lives.

The peer pressure that draws our kids into the hive mind resonates with the adage that “resistance is futile.” The following is a question from a young friend:

I have a question or something to tell you, which ever u rather. All of my friends or at least almost all of them have a cell phone..(big surprise) but I don't.. well that doesn't bother me too much but it does a little because everyone is all like"Ooh want to see my this or my that?" or "Oh ya we txt each other all the time" or "YOU REALLY NEED TO GET A PHONE!" well, it seems like almost everyone of my friends only want to talk to me either in person or by txt, if I can't txt then they don't want my #. It hurts me a little cause its like, everyone else is closer to each other cause they text the other person all the time and like they know every bit about that person.. And I know like nothing cause I can't txt them. what do I do??

Her scenario reminded me of my [Melanie] horrible 7th grade year. When I was in 7th grade I had a terrible time fitting in. The girls in my class berated me because I did not wear Wrangler jeans. I begged and pleaded, and finally was able to purchase my very own pair of Wrangler jeans. The day I walked the halls of school wearing my Wrangler jeans, I believed that I would finally fit in. I was certain I was doing exactly what was expected of me. But, nope, my efforts still did not win the acceptance of the group – they weren’t the right kind of Wrangler jeans! It was at that point I decided that I was going to be who God had for me to be, and if others didn't like it, they didn't have to look.

The reality is that as Christians we are considered aliens to this world! As aliens Peter tells us how to live. “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11 NASB).

Our life’s goal should be to glorify God in all we do. As we seek to know God and His ways more and more, we will better know what He has for us to do. We may not understand how everything fits together all the time, but we can know that God placed us into our unique situation because He has unique plans for us. We don't have to be like everyone else, or know what everyone else is doing. We do need to grow to be like Christ and know what He wants for us to do every day. God's plan for you is different than His plan for anyone else. Enjoy being different!

The draw to be a part of a larger collective is an attribute God has placed within us so that we may desire to be a part of the body of Christ and dependent on Him to set the standards for life and living. Satan works diligently to distract us with time and energy wasters that others consider the essentials of life. But God's got more important things for us to do.

Two other verses kept coming to mind regarding my young friend’s situation.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1–2 NLT)

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. (1 Corinthians 13:11–12 NLT)

As we live lives that are desperately dependent on Christ, the resulting connection will magnify the Lord. Realizing that our central focus of life is to make Him look wonderful, the dross of the world falls away. Our unified adventure with God supplies purpose and meaning to life. C. S. Lewis wrote, “But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

Insight Journal
Consider: If I applied these verses to my life, what would I do differently?

“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1–3 NLT).

(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

Christ Is Relevant to Doubt

To believe or not to believe that is truly the question. Doubt has become a standard problem within the Christian community. Often it is said, by those coming for spiritual guidance, "I am doubting my salvation," "I am doubting God's will for my life," and/or "I doubt if God can love me." Certainly doubt is a heavy burden upon those who bear under its load.

The Christian can have times of uncertainty that lead to anxiety because they do not understand how Christ is relevant to their particular situation. However, what is generally regarded as doubt is something different. Doubt, as is referred to here in its pathological form, is not typically remedied by truth, so it is a condition of the soul's unhealthy state. Doubt is created to avoid confronting the reality that we are abiding in unbelief. Doubt then is a defense mechanism that defends us from having to confess our state of unbelief and therefore protects us from our personal responsibility to believe. This defense then allows us to continue in the fleshly controls afforded by unbelief. Hence, doubt is blatantly condemned in Scripture.

6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:6-8 NASB)

The NLT translates the word doubt as "divided loyalty."

6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. (James 1:6-8 NLT)

“Divided loyalty” of the heart speaks even more specifically to the issue of a toxic soul. We may say, "I can't believe" when in fact it is that I am choosing not to believe. When it comes down to it, doubt is based in not being willing to give our souls fully to God due to wanting to reserve some part of the flesh for self. Therefore, no matter what changes within our situation, we are prone to perceive the changes in accordance with unbelief and the desire to maintain control. When we cover unbelief with doubt, we will always color the circumstances with the hues of unbelief. The only truth that will release us from bondage is to confess to God our actual choice to not believe Him in regards to our plight.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." (Matt. 6:24 ESV)

We may have a vast knowledge of the Bible, but if this knowledge has never changed us it is because we do not believe what we know to be true. When we believe, we act on what we know is certain. “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (Heb. 11:1 NLT). It does not require complete comprehension. Absolute understanding is not a necessity. What is essential is that we trust and follow in God’s way. “You will hear a word spoken behind you, saying, ‘This is the correct way, walk in it,’ whether you are heading to the right or the left” (Isa. 30:21 NLT).

Our inability to trust reveals that we do not believe God at His word. It is imperative that we acknowledge and confess our unbelief. Authentically facing the reality that we do not believe God results in the trauma of truth that challenges our value system. When we acknowledge our inadequacy, genuine concern for ourselves motivates us to seek God for help.

“Unless your faith is firm,
      I cannot make you stand firm” (Isa. 7:9 NLT).

Insight Journal
Are you willing to convert what you refer to as “doubt” and repent of your sin of unbelief?
Are you willing to forsake your unbelief to embrace the truth by believing?

(Selected excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis.)

Christ Is Relevant to Crisis

The crisis is sacred. Crisis is God’s divine tool to bring us to desperate dependency on Him. Why then do we avoid the intended purpose of the crisis—bringing to fruition the good pleasure of God in our lives? Like a fly caught in a web, only after we have fought vigorously, do we resign to the inevitable fact that we are powerless and need the help of Christ.

The crisis is sanctified, set apart for the occasion of heralding forth to our souls the deeper need to draw more intimately to Jesus. Crisis is comprised of one being moved beyond their maturity to find Jesus relevant to a particular area of need.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 2 Peter 1:2-4 ESV

Do you realize that to find Christ relevant to any struggle in your life, is to be connected to the fullness of all Biblical truth as set forth within the precepts, principles, and promises of Scripture?

“So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority” (Col. 2:10 NLT).

The resources of Heaven are embraced and experienced in the person of Jesus when we lean intimately upon Him, believing ultimately in Him.

Ephesians 1:3–14 (NLT)
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

12 God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

The reality is that unless Christ is constantly putting into us the life giving resource of His grace, the world will soon deplete us with its many demands that take life from us, leaving death in its wake.

Ephesians 2:1–3 (NLT)
Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

Satan and his hordes of evil stand ready to take advantage of every available carnal vulnerability that we present within the course of our living and involvement with the world.

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9a NLT).

Two things we need to do often: (1) acknowledge our struggles—they are a measure of our immaturity, (2) find Christ as relevant to our struggles—this is the measure of our maturity. The crisis is sacred to the end that we are brought to peace, which is the measure of our transformation.

Insight Journal
Are you willing to be transformed into the image of Christ by whatever sacred means He finds necessary?

Christ Is Relevant to MS

In chapter 1 of Desperate Dependency we introduced you to Shirley. Yes, she is a very real person. Her testimony started with “I used to live my life waiting to find a way to beat the system. (God was the system.)” These are a few other excerpts from her testimony: "I guess we all spend some time on the edge. I’ve sort of lived my life there.... But God brought me to the end of myself... what a liberating moment it was as God accepted me right where I was, asking nothing but that I put my complete trust in Him. Somewhere along the line I started to long for Jesus more than I was afraid of losing control..."

This week we received an update on Shirley and her continued desperate dependency on Christ.

Melanie, the health issues that I talked to Kirk about a few months ago and also the sudden depression and exhaustion, trouble walking, numbness and vision changes, finally has a diagnosis. I have Multiple Sclerosis. I'd appreciate your prayers. I knew something was wrong inside my body but I still looked the same on the outside so I discounted each issue until some just got very overwhelming and serious. I still have not had an MRI, I will the end of July when I see my Neurologist, but my doctor, Rheumatologist, and eye specialist all agree. I'm grateful though to just have a name put with what has been going on for a while now. As much as I do not want to have MS, I am glad to have a diagnosis so we can know what I am dealing with and how to move forward. Not knowing is much worse than having facts, even hard ones. I have times that I feel fearful but I am very aware that my Lord is not surprised by this diagnosis and it has not come to me before being sifted through his sovereign hands. I trust him. I have gone to the very depth of my fears and explored those possibilities... and found Christ relevant to even this situation. When I was reading in I Corinthians and got to the part where Paul had been sharing Christ and the Jewish people wanted to flog him when he said he was now going to share it with the Gentiles. Thankfully someone got him out of that crowd and to momentary safety. While he was standing there terrified, Christ came… and the Word says He stood very close to Paul and told him to "Be Courageous" and that they were now going to Rome to do this again. When I read that, I knew that God could have gotten that message to Paul in a myriad of ways but what He did was come to him personally and stood very close to his friend. I thought about how Paul must have felt the warmth from Jesus' body and felt a sense of safety and protection that no one else could have provided except for Jesus. He is a very personal, loving Savior and I am feeling Him stand very close to me through this. My doctor said the depression I have struggled with has been from the MS and thankfully it is much better.

I would appreciate your prayers. I am experiencing God's peace for the most part, and I can't tell you how grateful I am for that. I have known for months something was wrong, just did not have a name to put with it. Just wanted to let y'all know.

Insight Journal
Will you allow the Master to complete His self-portrait through your life by whatever means He sees as necessary?

(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

The Great Scam

(excerpts included from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

GOD ASSIGNED JOB the job of demonstrating desperate dependency amid plenty and loss. Our lives are driven by the desire to be successful, and many viewed the life of Job as being a grand success with his ten children, leadership positions, and vast possessions. But when Job was stripped of the people, positions, and possessions, his friends and neighbors would have been hard pressed to label him as a success while he sat on the ash heap mourning his unspeakable losses.

“All right, you may test him,” the LORD said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the LORD’s presence.

One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting at the oldest brother’s house, a messenger arrived at Job’s home with this news: “Your oxen were plowing, with the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided us. They stole all the animals and killed all the farmhands. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “The fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up your sheep and all the shepherds. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, a third messenger arrived with this news: “Three bands of Chaldean raiders have stolen your camels and killed your servants. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother’s home. Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides. The house collapsed, and all your children are dead. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.” (Job 1:12–19 NLT)

At this point in the story, every fiber of our being stands in judgment against God, casting dispersion on His name. “If You love me, why would You allow this to happen?” Hardly can God be understood while being weighed in the balance of our pain. Yet, God in His love uses suffering as a platform to convey the depths of His sovereignty. God will save us. God will sustain us. God will promote our best interest. But His ways are beyond our comprehension.

One of the first challenges we face in the Christian growth process is resolving the incongruence between what is true of God versus how we believe those truths about Him should be experienced.

We believe God cares for and loves us, so how should these realities manifest within our lives? These notions are synthesized into expectations that we place upon God. Preconceived notions develop, setting us up to be frustrated. We judge that God has not acted in accordance to our interpretation of His attributes, and we respond with disappointment. Frustration sets in: “I want God to do what I think He should do!” and “I believe I have the right to think this way because His attributes, after all, give me permission to feel as I do.”

It is difficult to admit when our beliefs are shaken and we are soon overwhelmed with questions: “Can anyone really know how God works?” “Can anyone really expect anything from God?” Frustration morphs into a sense of alienation. Perhaps God simply is not pleased with me, or maybe He does not like me.

The spiritual communion prior to the unmet expectations has now become lost to the spiritual commotion of the deeper, darker assumptions that grow like mold in the damp shadowed recesses of the soul. Distorted views of God burst forth from the spores only to be inhaled by a gasping spirit.

Feeling mistreated is the logical conclusion that many a child of God has come to over and over again. “Why will God not treat me as He has the others whom He has blessed?” “What does God want from me?” “Maybe I will never please Him. Maybe I should just give up?” “Trying is just too hard.”

Job’s dire situation produced desperate dependency upon God and facilitated communion with God in response to his loss and suffering. Job had already given everything to God, so it was not without his permission that God followed through to use Job as He desired.

Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. He said,

“I came naked from my mother’s womb,
      and I will be naked when I leave.
The LORD gave me what I had,
      and the LORD has taken it away.
Praise the name of the LORD!”

In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God. (Job 1:20–22 NLT)

Job assumed God’s sovereign involvement in the course of life that he could not control. In Job’s mind God’s presence was not only acknowledged in his suffering, but His will was ascribed to it. In response to his bereavement, Job asserted a benediction of blessing to the Lord. In the midst of his tragedy, Job worshipped while submitting to God’s sovereign right to rule over his person, positions, and possessions.

When one believes that faith has become a set up for failure, than that one seeks to remedy the conflict by giving up on faith. With “I’ll show God” animosity one chooses to stop trusting, as if to punish God. The reality is this—-we have just been scammed by the wiles of the devil.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Eph. 6:10-12 ESV)

The moral character of God held Job constant even though his mortal condition was completely in chaos. Overwhelmed by his limitations, he could only find comfort in total self-abandonment through trust. Delimited by his dependency, Job had no other choice but to interpret the nature of his anguish through the moral attributes of a holy, righteous, just, and good God who is full of truth. All of Job’s philosophical ponderings, including his frustration and confusion, were delineated by his dependence on God, making him more desperate than ever. In Job’s agony his dilemma was to understand life’s new normal consistently with the truth about God.

Insight Journal:
How would your life challenges look if you first viewed them as having come to you through God's truth, justice, righteousness, goodness, holiness, and love?

Relevant Relationship

I [Melanie] have been reading Success and the Christian: The Cost and Criteria of Spiritual Maturity by A. W. Tozer and James L. Snyder. Although we have never read this work before, it is very interesting to see the many elaborations that are similar to those we have written in Desperate Dependency: Finding Christ Relevant to Every Area of Life. From chapter 5 of this work (The Deeper Life), I gleaned these comments:

A Christian is not one who has been baptized, necessarily, though a Christian is likely to be baptized. A Christian is not one who receives Communion, though a Christian may receive Communion, and if he’s been properly taught, he will. But that is not a Christian necessarily. A Christian is not one who has been born into a Christian home, though the chances are more likely that he will be a Christian if he has a good Christian background. A Christian is not one who has memorized the New Testament, or is a great lover of Christian music, or who goes to hear the Apollo Club sing the Messiah every year. A Christian may do all of those things and I think it might be fine if he did; but that doesn’t make one a Christian. A Christian is one who sustains a right relationship to Jesus Christ.

Christians enjoy a kind of union with Jesus Christ. Everybody sustains some relationship to Jesus Christ; just the same as everybody in America sustains some relation to Krushchev [former leader of the Soviet Union]. My personal relation is one of active hostility so far as can be possible within a Christian framework. We can’t hate people, but we can hate everything they stand for, and I want it known that I do. But everybody has a relationship to everybody else, and everybody has a relation to Jesus Christ. The relation he sustains may be one of adoring faith and love; it may be one of admiration; it may be one of hostility; it may be one of complete carelessness; but it is an attitude of some sort. A relationship of some sort exists between every human being and Jesus Christ; that is, every human being that ever heard of Jesus Christ. But a Christian is one who sustains a right and proper relation, a biblical relation, to Jesus Christ. (p. 67-68)

Tozer and Snyder offer these insight regarding “Freedom from Earthly Loves.”

What do I mean by earthly love? I mean any love out of the will of God, any love that we would not allow God to take away. If you have anything in this world or anybody in this world that you would not let God take away from you, then you don’t love Him as you should and you don’t know anything about the deeper life in experience. For the Spirit-filled Christian life means that I am delivered from earthly loves to a point where there is no love that I would not allow Jesus Christ to take away—be it money, reputation, my home, my friends, my family or whatever it may be. The love of Jesus Christ has come in and swallowed up all other loves and sanctified them, purified them, made them holy and put them in their right relationship to that all-consuming love of God so that they’re secondary and never primary.

I want to ask you this question: Is there anything or anyone on Earth that you love so much that you’d fight God if He wanted to take him? Then you are not where you should be and you might as well face up to it and not pretend to be something you’re not. Complete freedom means that I want the will of God only. And if it is the will of God for me to have these things, then I love them for His sake, but I love them with a tentative and relative love and not an all-poured-out love that makes me a slave. It means that I love nothing outside the will of God and that I love only what and who He wills that I should love. Then you can love everybody. (p. 78-79)

If you love anything enough that there’s any question about whether God can have it or not, you know nothing about the deeper life; you are a slave to that love whatever it is. If we’ve been freed from every earthly love, then we have no unsatisfied longings and we have no wishes and no dreams. (p. 81)

Freedom from earthly fears means that I choose the will of God now and forever; it is my treasure, my whole attitude. The only fear I have is to fear to get out of the will of God. Outside of the will of God, there’s nothing I want, and in the will of God there’s nothing I fear, for God has sworn to keep me in His will. If I’m out of His will, that is another matter. But if I’m in His will, He’s sworn to keep me.

And He’s able to do it, He’s wise enough to know how to do it and He’s kind enough to want to do it. So really there’s nothing to fear. (p. 82)

So I don’t say that the deeper life—the Spirit-filled life—means that you won’t be normal. If lightning strikes near you, you’ll jump. And if somebody comes at you with a needle, you’ll shrink—you are human. But that is one thing; it is quite another thing to walk around chained by human fears—chained by the fear of death or the fear of sickness or the fear of poverty or the fear of friends or the fear of enemies. God never means that His children should thus be afraid. (p. 84)

How desperately dependent are you on Christ?

[excerpts taken from Success and the Christian: The Cost and Criteria of Spiritual Maturity by A. W. Tozer and James L. Snyder, (Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread, 1994). (Tozer died in 1963.)]

Jesus Calling

Hello?... Hello?... Who is this?... Jesus?...

Is it difficult to comprehend that the Creator of the Universe desires a relationship with you? He not only desires a relationship, He desires an intimate relationship. He desires a relationship in which He is your all in all, your everything, the reason you get up in the morning, the motivation of your life, the beat of your heart, your breath. But still we struggle to find Christ relevant to every area of life. We take our desires and ascribe them to His desires, instead of taking His desires and making them our desires.

I was blessed to receive the devotional book, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young, as a Christmas gift. Daily I am reminded that Jesus does indeed call to us and woo us into an intimate relationship with him.

Here is a year’s worth of daily readings from Young’s journals to bring you closer to Christ and move your time with Him from a monologue to a dialogue. Each day is written as if Jesus Himself were speaking to you. Because He is. Do you hear Him calling?

Sarah Young writes in her introduction:

The Bible is, of course, the only inerrant Word of God; my writings must be consistent with that unchanging standard. I have written them from Jesus’ point of view; i.e., the first person singular (I, Me, Mine) always refers to Christ. “You” refers to you, the reader, so the perspective is that of Jesus speaking to you.

Here is Sarah Young’s devotional for May 14th.

I AM A MIGHTY GOD. Nothing is too difficult for Me. I have chosen to use weak ones like you to accomplish My purposes. Your weakness is designed to open you up to My Power. Therefore, do not fear your limitations or measure the day’s demands against your strength. What I require of you is to stay connected to Me, living in trusting dependence on My limitless resources. When you face unexpected demands, there is no need to panic. Remember that I am with you. Talk with Me, and listen while I talk you through each challenging situation.

I am not a carless God. When I allow difficulties to come into your life, I equip you fully to handle them. Relax in My Presence, trusting in My strength.

Luke 1:37 (NASB)
“For nothing will be impossible with God.”

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 (NIV)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young is an excellent resource as you live in desperate dependency and finding Christ relevant to every area of your life.

Do you hear Him calling to you?

Christ Is Relevant to Religion

Christ IS relevant to religion. "Duh!" you say! Unfortunately too many people come to Christ to satisfy their own agendas, not seeking a desperately dependent relationship with Jesus that follows His leadership in their lives. Kevin offers his story as an example:

I recently was given the blessed opportunity to share with my Small Group the story of how God, by the power of His grace, reached down and rescued me from the grips of sin and death. I would like to share that story here because God used Kirk and Melanie, through their ministry detailed in Desperate Dependency, in a mighty way through this process.

My story starts out much like many testimonies I have heard in that I grew up in church. My Mom did everything she could to make sure I was in church virtually every time the doors were open. One similarity that my story will not share with others is a focus on the tragic events of my life and the sins I have committed. You see, the tragic events of my life and the sins I have committed are no smaller or greater than anyone else who has lived separated from the grace of God. These tragic events and sins were not the cause of the darkness in my life anyway. The darkness began to grow as a result of a decision I made as a young boy. It was during the invitation at a revival service that I made my choice. My heart was racing and my stomach was tied in knots. I literally had to hold on to the pew to keep from going forward to accept the free gift of salvation. The reason I resisted the leading of, what I now believe to be, the Holy Spirit? I knew there was no way I could follow all of the rules I had heard preached and I was sure to lose all of my friends if I became a Christian. So, I made a volitional choice to reject God and the salvation He was offering me.

As a result of this decision my nature, that of sin, remained unchanged and I was hopelessly bound to a life of sin. Jesus said,

You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits (Matt. 7:16-20 NASB).

I was a bad tree incapable of anything other than bad fruit. This is not a cop-out, I chose, by rejecting God’s calling, to remain a bad tree. Had I accepted Christ as a young boy, God would have gloriously transformed my nature into that of a good tree capable of producing only good fruit. As it were, the next thirty or so years of my life would be lived as an outward manifestation of the inward reality, and I would live given to ever increasing levels of sinfulness, trying desperately to make my life work.

Fast forward to 1997 when I followed god’s leading and made a "profession of faith" at a church in Meridian Mississippi and was “baptized.” Before I explain why I used a little “g” and put baptized in quotations, let me give some insight into my mindset through the use of the triangle tool found on page 167 of Desperate Dependency. For me, the foundational element in the validation of my identity was significance. To feel significant was to certainly be loved and secure. Therefore, I was in an endless pursuit of significance, and the means to that end was the worship of me. The more I could get people to talk about what a good person I was, how sweet I was, how hard of a worker I was, or to be attracted to me physically, the more significant I would feel. My whole life became about using people, positions, and possessions to foster an atmosphere of Kevin worship, which allowed me to believe I was supremely significant. I lied and manipulated my way through life in a chameleon-like manner being who or whatever I needed to be in any given situation so as to maintain my sense of significance. I was my god! So when my wife, one of my main sources of significance, made a profession of faith in 1997, I knew the best way to maintain her worship (as I perceived it) of me was to also make a "profession of faith." Within a year or so we stopped attending church and the things of God became less important. Christianity was no longer a necessity in my ruse so I discarded it and continued living my life to the glory of Kevin. However, I believed that my "profession of faith" was enough to save me because I had no idea what authentic Christianity was. After all, our culture tells us that if you have repeated a prayer after a minister during a time of invitation, and really meant it, then you are saved.

In September of 2008 things drastically changed. My life of lies and manipulation was exposed, and I was almost as shocked as everyone else. I say that because I truly believed that all of the good things people had to say about me were true and that I was a man of integrity. I had not only deceived everyone around me I had deceived myself simply because that was far easier than facing the truth. Having been exposed, I resorted again to manipulation and pretense, and consequently “re-dedicated” my life to the Lord in October 2008. Let me pause here to say that I no longer believe in "re-dedication." It gives the idea that we can give our life to the Lord, take it back so that we may give ourselves to sin, and then give it back to the Lord again. This ideology is not found in the Scriptures. Over the next year I would try frantically to convince my soon to be ex-wife and the men in my counseling groups that I was changing. As I think about that a picture comes to mind of a man in a musty, damp, medieval dungeon chained to a wall thrashing and jerking incessantly at his chains while screaming at the top of his lungs, “I am free! I am free! Why won’t you believe me?” God, in His sovereignty, had brought me to a place where my lying, manipulating, and pretense no longer worked.

All of my efforts had made me weary, and I felt very defeated as I walked into one of Kirk’s men’s groups in September 2009. I had been unable to convince anyone that I was changing, and it had become clear that I was not going to get my wife back anytime soon, so I told Kirk that I was ready to quit group, quit trying to be different, and just go back to my old life, which seemed to be much easier. He told me that God had brought me to a definite decision point, a Matthew 16:24 decision point, and that it was crucial that I go home and make a decision, but if I were to choose Christ, He would forever change my life. That night as I thought about this decision, part of a passage of Scripture kept coming to mind, “choose this day whom you will serve.” I began to wonder what the rest of the passage said, so I looked it up and here is what I found.

Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD (Josh. 24:14-15 NASB, emphasis added).

From the time that I rejected Christ as a young boy until that night in 2009, I had been given to the service of other gods and it had become exponentially disagreeable in my sight to serve the Lord. That night brought me face to face with the reality that I did not want God in my life. That greatly disturbed me so I asked Jesus to forgive me, to be Lord of my life, and help me want to want Him in my life. Kirk was right; my decision, enabled by the enlightenment and power of the Holy Spirit, to choose Christ that night has forever changed my life!

The search for significance was over. Up until this point I had believed the lie that the worship of me would make me significant, yet no matter what people, positions, or possessions I used to try to manufacture significance, I always found myself empty and frantically searching for something or someone to complete me. As I allowed God to help me put Him in the “God place” of my life, He established a significance that never fails and is eternal. The source of my significance is found in the only person, the only position, and the only possession that can complete me. That person is Jesus Christ, “and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority” (Col. 2:10 NASB). The position is that of His child, “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph. 1:5 NASB). The possession is His righteousness,

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith (Phil. 3:8-9 NASB).

The most frightening part of my whole story began in 1997 when I made an empty profession of faith and believed I was eternally saved. That is the greatest lie Satan sells, and I fear many who sit in the pews of American churches have bought it hook, line, and sinker. It is why Paul admonished the Corinthians, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Cor. 13:5 NASB) How do we examine ourselves? It cannot be by looking within ourselves to determine the authenticity of our belief (i.e. whether or not we “really meant it” when we professed faith in Christ). The Lord said in Jeremiah, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds" (Jer. 17:9-10 NASB). That is why David cried out to the Lord saying, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps. 139:23-24 NASB). So, how can we have assurance of eternal life? The apostle John, speaking of his first epistle, wrote, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13 NASB). While authentic Christians will commit sins of immaturity, it is impossible for them to live in continuous, habitual rebellion to God. Living in rebellion to God while claiming to be a Christian based on a “profession of faith” is a lie.

Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother (1 John 3:4-10 NASB, emphasis added).

Examine yourselves and make sure you are in the faith. The consequences are eternal and determine whether we are condemned to damnation or live unto salvation through the matchless grace of God.

Counterfeit Leadership

Our efforts to control our lives produce undesirable results. But still we attempt to counterfeit God’s design for our lives through our own efforts. With tenacity we persist in demanding that our way must work. And so we continue to counterfeit the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Deceived, we believe the fruit of the Spirit is merely the best side of humanity. If we try hard enough we can manufacture this fruit consistently in our lives. But living a life that is desperately dependent on Christ necessitates yielding to His Spirit’s movement as we cease endeavoring to produce our own fruit. We are incapable of producing His fruit on our own vines; we can only produce His fruit as we are grafted into His vine.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:4–5 NASB)

Leadership is vital for servants and provides the structure necessary to oppose the sin nature in a manner that would facilitate useful ministry fostering effective service to those in bondage to having things their way. Leadership within its Biblical context is interpersonal and in its true essence is stewardship that has been promoted to management. The leader, using the great tool of a divinely enabled influence, builds spiritual maturity (Christ-likeness) into a soul by a course of speaking the truth in love within the confines of a divinely anointed relationship. The great task of leadership then is to oppose the nature of sin within an individual that would seek to graft themselves into their own make shift vine and then seek to counterfeit the fruit of God’s Spirit while calling it divine.

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. (Eph. 4:14-15 NLT)

Leadership gives time and attention to how this truth is applied in order to mentor a follower into finding Christ relevant to every area of life. Godly leadership paves the way for service to thrive by creating structure that ensures truth and time are available within appropriate limits so as to promote healthy ministry. These three: truth, time, and structure being employed by a servant-leader who desperately seeks the enabling of the Holy Spirit, comprise the foundation for all effective serving and offer to us a Biblical formula for developing Christian maturity.

T + T + S = M
Truth + Time + Structure = Maturity

However when leadership promotes a view of servant-ministry as merely doing some work or completing some action, they cease to emphasize the primary nature of ministry where mature servants of God are being moved by the compulsion of Christ’s grace to interact with others in need of Christ, prompted only by the supreme motive of love.

We as servant-leaders must not lose sight of the everyday process of having a ministering heart as a way of life – ministering within the enabling power of God and manifesting the fruit of His Spirit to all in the sphere of our influence. We must draw from the anointed power of God’s call and compulsion within our lives as mature believers being prompted to seek God’s good pleasure.

Mature Christian service being produced is one of the chief evidences of spiritually mature leadership being present. If we as Christians fail to live out our salvation to its full potential with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12-13) then we are merely a people performing good deeds. The great loss is that as a Christian people we will not have followed Christ, nor born much fruit that the Father would have been glorified. "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples" (John 15:8 NASB).

So what is the primary nature of your service?
How would you describe the prime objective for your serving?
How would you define the supreme motive inspiring you to lead and serve?

(excerpts included from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

Finding Christ in the Storm Damage

It is said that a tornado is one of the most powerful meteorological forces on the earth. Communities in their entirety have been decimated by the incomprehensible power of tornados’ winds. Most recently, such a force encroached upon our very own city. Lives have been unalterably changed, never to be the same again this side of eternity’s veil.

Storm damage, such as experienced in Harrison, Tennessee last week, cannot be completely calculated in dollars and cents or even in tallying the loss of property and possessions. The loss of real estate cannot be compared to how lives have been affected by the collateral influence of a storm-touched life.

Damage such as this moves beyond that of the storm and touches us in places that the eye cannot witness, and in many ways that the mind cannot fully comprehend. The soul can be injured in a manner that can never be addressed in the physical realm. Injury such as this may manifest with feelings of powerlessness abounding, pervasive unrelenting guilt, and an ever-looming sense of despair. Solomon cites, "hope deferred makes the heart sick" (Prov. 13:12 NLT). So why does God allow us to be touched by evil?

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? . . . No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Rom. 8:35–39 NLT)

God allows people to be touched by evil because He is capable of redeeming us from it. God’s sovereignty promises that when we encounter the evil of this world we will be encompassed by the love, mercy, and grace of God to the perfecting of our souls, the performing of God’s will, and the proclaiming of His faithfulness. Therefore, it is imperative for us to believe “ . . . that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28 NASB).

God is real, God is love, and God is sovereign; therefore, He is relevant, He is compassionate, and He is worthy of our trust. All who have given themselves to Him in brokenness, repentance, submission, and obedience benefit from His transforming power that is conforming us to His image. The fruit of His Spirit emerges as our own personal attributes reflect the fact that Jesus Christ is at work, faithfully keeping His promises.

His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
(2 Peter 1:3–4 NASB)

All He is accomplishing in our lives is for the purpose of establishing a deeper relationship with Him so that we may evidence Christ’s work in our lives.

Will we allow our calamities to be the window through which others may look upon the redemptive grace of Jesus Christ and thereby glorify God?

(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)