Desde Mi Interior

"This is the heart of Christian living: God keeps on entering, using, redeeming, and sanctifying His creation from inside.

Christ not only does something for us; He means to do something to us, and within us; He means to reproduce Himself in everyone. Nor does He wait until we have reached some unimaginable perfection before He comes to make us new. He takes us as we are, just as He once took all mankind as it is.

And, as far as we will permit Him, He makes us over from within, redeems us, and begins the long process of making us His."

^{________
-Bible 11 [Authentic Christian Living 11.2] "Apply to Life", Jubilee Academy}

Ultimate Freedom

Jesus is the perfect example of true freedom.
From the very beginnings of His ministry as He was tempted in the desert, to His pleading in the Garden of Gethsemane, and finally to the Cross, Jesus demonstrated to all of mankind what true freedom really is. He faced the fact of freedom, its limitations, and freedom’s obligation. And in the process of understanding what freedom truly is, He lived in a place knowing whom He wanted to serve. His was the highest obligation. Jesus knew what needed to be done, and did it.

“To be free is to have the possibility of choice and the power to make the decision we want to make.”
The problem is knowing what you want. And there’s a process of using your freedom. From doing what we want, we realize that our choice will lead us to who we will become. So then it changes to who we want to be. From there it solidifies into knowing who we want to be. And finally, we see that our loyalties strengthen and or freedom finally revolves around whom we want to serve.

Jesus lived by this. He served His Father no matter what the costs. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He pleaded for His life, Jesus ended His tearful prayer with “Not my will, but Your will be done!” And the paradox of this is, that Jesus wasn’t giving away His freedom when He said these words. On the contrary, He was realizing the ultimate freedom we can live. God came within our very nature and redeemed us from the inside.
Salvation must lie in freedom. Freedom is inescapable and necessary. The knowledge of good and evil made us unable to automatically choose the right and true. Since we lost that innocence because of freedom, we can only be reached through freedom.

When Jesus was standing before Pilate and was asked why He wouldn’t respond (Pilate reminded Jesus that he had the power to kill or free Him), Jesus finally responded, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above." Jesus could have called on legions of angels to come down and save Him from certain death at any moment. But with every step He made a choice. He went in His freedom to die for us. No one forced Him to, He chose to. The purity of His freedom showed us a way to that same freedom. The Crucifixion was the climax of the entirety of His freedom. Literally, Christ was an example of freedom with His very life, for our ultimate freedom.

_{Now what are you going to do with that freedom?}

The Greatest Quest

"Love never fails."
-1 Corinthians 13:8

What is the number one goal in your life? What is your dream?

Maybe you want to build a successful business. Or be a teacher. Or join the Armed Forces. Or maybe you're called into the ministry. Those are great goals, but something even more important should be "your aim, your great quest" [1 Corinthians 14:1, AMP].

What is it? Living a life led by and filled with God's love.

Human love is changeable and unpredictable. On the other hand, God's love, which is the kind of love you and I should walk in, is entirely different. It doesn't act one way today and another way tomorrow. It doesn't let circumstances or emotions alter it. It is sure and consistent.

[First Corinthians 13:4-8] tells us precisely what its characteristics are. This passage of Scripture sets a very high standard for love--so high that you might be tempted to think it's beyond your reach, but it's not. In fact, if you're a Christian, it's natural for you. It's in your heart. You may not be letting it out, but it's there. When you made Jesus your Lord, God put His love inside you [Romans 5:5].

Without time with God and His Word, however, you'll naturally pull towards selfishness. We all have a natural mind that has been trained to believe things like, "You have to look out for yourself...and stick up for your own rights." Plus, Satan continually tries to draw us out of love, because he wants to steal the answers to our prayers.

The bottom line: Love is the foundation for your new life. When you walk in love, you put yourself in a place where God Himself can protect you--and then nothing can stand against you [Romans 8:31-34]. Love is the key to God's wisdom, power, and protection. No wonder the Word says, "Make it your aim, your great quest!"

Backup: [1 Corinthians 13:4-8]
"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!"


"I eagerly desire and follow the way of love. I make it my aim and my great quest in life."


-*-*-

_{All the above is from the February 14 devotional from "Load Up" by Gloria Copeland. [emphasis added]}

Not So Negative

When we hear the word "discipline" most of us cringe.
Ever thought of it as an opportunity?

Spiritual disciplines are the behaviors that facilitate spiritual growth.

Henri J. M. Nouwen said, "We should know that a spiritual life without discipline is impossible. Discipline is the other side of discipleship. The practice of spiritual disciple makes us more sensitive to the small, gentle voice of God."

So, without spiritual discipline, we have no spiritual life. And without a spiritual life it makes it really hard to pray to God effectively. And without prayer, we are really lost. That makes spiritual discipline essential to our Christian walk if we ever want to get anywhere.

Spiritual disciplines help us to get to know God. It is a building block for a friendship with God. When we choose to spend time with God instead of cleaning, reading, writing, watching a movie, video games, internet or anything else that can distract us, we are practicing spiritual discipline.
And a step of from that is disciplining ourselves to be silent. To "be still and know that [He is] God."

It has been said, "A love which has no silence, has no depth to it."

Consider the way lovers gaze at each other at a wedding ceremony just before they say their vows. Or how a mother watches her children loving from the bench at the park as they play on the slide and swings. That's love beyond words.

Selfish prayer, unorganized priorities, and being distracted can threaten spiritual growth. When our schedules are way to busy that we begin ignoring God, He's not going to force time on us. He won't change the world to get our priorities in the right order. Instead He simply asks us to shift the point of gravity, to replace our center of attention, to change our priorities. Jesus wants us to move from the 'many things' to the 'One necessary thing'. He wants us to live in the world, but be firmly rooted at the center in Him.

Spiritual growth and discipline involves imitating God, developing a character like His. "If we have faith in Christ, we must believe that He knows how to live and imitate that." -Dallas Willard.

Don't be threatened by busy schedules, don't like mixed priorities keep you from Him. Spiritual growth is essential to who we are as Christians, and to what we represent. Prayer and silence are important to that growth. And a relationship with God is the basis of it all.


_{It's in your heart. Not your head.}

Adoration

I found this in the "Draft" section of my email with this title in the subject.
It's from my Bible class last year.
_{[Jubilee Academy: Bible - Old Testament]}

Maybe someone needs to see it.

-*-*-

With God we may have these varying levels of knowing.

There are many who have but a nodding acquaintance with Him, lasting only as long as the nod. There are many more — far more than we readily admit — whose only knowledge of God is about Him, second-hand; and who never arrive at the first-hand knowledge of Him that comes from first-hand experience with Him.

We all start our religious life by leaning upon the experience of others. The child's first knowledge of God is not direct, but rooted in the belief and practice of parent and teacher. It is possible to go through adult life without ever passing beyond this second-hand knowledge of God. There are also very many whose only religious knowledge is that of the externals of religion. Their interest and main concern is with the minutiae and mechanics of church life. This constitutes a deadly temptation for many of the clergy. Here the externals of religion, its churchiness, or devotion to legalism and ritual become the substitute for knowing God.

But it is also possible to have with God that deep and rich relationship, which is His friendship and love, and which the New Testament calls eternal life. It is only this kind of knowledge that can ever satisfy the heart of man and set him at rest and at peace. The life of praying seeks to prepare us for that kind of knowledge of God.

Ultimately we can draw near to God in but one of two moods: the mood of using God selfishly, or the mood of disinterested love — the mood of adoration.

In the life of Christian praying we heed and seek to obey these mysterious workings of God. We learn slowly that much depends upon our immediate and willing obedience to them. When we do not live by the light of prayer, we often seek to ignore them, to forget them, to resist them, to disobey them. We have thus a very decisive part to play in this work of God for, in, and upon us. We shall find that the universe of God will not budge before us, when we set our wills stubbornly against all the mighty powers of God's ordered world.

In the life of Christian praying we joyfully and peacefully give God the time and attention and consent which He asks from us. Thus does God works His redemptive action in us with every resistance broken down. But in this work we shall have to fight against long-established tendencies to forget God, to ignore Him, and to live for ourselves as if He did not exist. We shall have to fight against deep and hidden fears of the inevitable, worldly consequences of belonging wholly and first to God.

God has created us for Himself, for His glory, and for fellowship with Himself; not that He is seeking something for Himself, but that He is seeking us for our sakes.

To have friendship with God involves necessarily the transformation of our old self-centered being by God's own action in and upon us into the likeness of God.

To say that we must become like God in no way implies that we can escape or ignore the basic distinction between man and God. Even in heaven man will ever remain a being, utterly dependent for both the fact and the kind of his existence upon the Creator God.
We know that we have become so deeply attached to things and to persons and to ourselves that we have no longer power to detach ourselves. We gradually learn that not we ourselves, but God, is the main factor and agent in the long, progressive work of detachment.

"He that loses his life shall find it; he that keeps his life shall lose it."

But once we have heard and accepted this Christian purpose of life
— that we are made for God, for His glory, and for intimate friendship with Him — then the whole of life here on earth takes on a new and satisfying significance.

But however great may be our confusion or bewilderment concerning the purpose of our lives, God knows completely the purpose of our existence. He has brought us into existence for His purpose, and He sustains us in order that that purpose may be fulfilled. We know ourselves only in a very fragmentary and partial way. We know ourselves as spirit far less than we know ourselves as body. But God acts upon us with complete and perfect knowledge of every factor, whether we think it relevant or irrelevant to Him. He knows what we require: often we do not. His action is limited and conditioned only by His self-subjection to the ways of divine love.

God is a jealous God.
But we are not to interpret the divine jealousy in terms of our human jealousy, which is always self-seeking. God's jealousy is never for His sake, but for ours. He knows how much we are missing when we seek to live apart from Him. He is jealous because He wills to give us the high gifts of holy friendship, and He cannot tolerate our lives becoming so attached to earthly realities, good as they may be, that we have no time or concern for spiritual fellowship with Him. He knows that we can never be truly joyful until we place Him first in our lives, and thus enter into that holy friendship with Him which is the pearl of great price. Therefore God must be jealous — yes, even angry and wrathful — at the idols which absorb us in earthly life.

Trials

why is it we are so afraid of trials, suffering, pain, or simply, just being uncomfortable?

[Romans 5:3-4]
"3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. "


In Acts 16:16-40 we see that sometimes doing the right thing can get you into trouble.
But God can do something in it. He can use bad situations for His glory.

In the middle of being unjustly punished, Paul and Silas sang praises to God. And so, they were able to witness to the jailer and his whole family.

God used the disgrace and injustice against Paul and Silas to touch the life of the jailer.


In Genesis 37-46 we see the story of Joseph, son of Jacob.
The same Joseph with the coat of many colors, and dreams.
The same Joseph whose jealous brothers sold him into slavery for 20 silver pieces.
Joseph who made Potiphar's house blessed.
And then was falsely accused of rape by Potiphar's wife.
Then, in prison, interpreted the dreams of the baker and the wine bearer.
The Joseph who was not remembered for two years, though through it all the Lord was with him.
The same Joseph who was finally summoned to interpret the Pharoah's dream.
And became second in command to the whole nation of Egypt.

Yes, Joseph was unjustly persecuted and punished. But through it all, God had a plan. He was preparing Joseph, so that in His timing the nations of Egypt and Israel would be saved.

This same Joseph had learned to forgive...and love.

God did not forget Joseph.
Nor the promises He made to him.

And He has not forgotten you.

God did not promise us a safe journey, but a safe landing.
Do not pray to be brought out of your trials, but for Him to bring you through them.

If you got in it, God can bring you out.
Just pray you pull the lesson out with you.

_{Do not give up hope.
He is nearer than you dare think.}

On the tenth day of Christmas...

Only ten days to Christmas!
_{(Just a side note: the "Twelve Days of Christmas" are actually after Christmas day! And continue to "Three Kings Day" in January!)}

What's the one thing you're waiting for this Christmas?
Is it an object, food, or family and friends?

Along with the wonderful fact that I am finally going to be with family this Christmas, I'm also hoping for a little snow. :)

But I have something interesting to mention here.

I was listening to a podcast last week, and it was talking about the Magi that went to visit Jesus as a baby.
Okay so, trivia question.
Let's see how much you really know about Christmas.

How many wise men traveled from the Orient to visit Jesus?
(a) two
(b) a few
(c) three
(d) not specified

Now, you may have guessed (c).
But actually it's (d)!

Here it is from the gospel of Matthew [2].

"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:" 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'"

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route."

It did say they came from the east. But it didn't say there were three.
We probably assume this from the three gifts [gold, incense, and myrrh] that they gave.

But to me, the most interesting part of all of this is that they knew the King of the Jews was to be born in Palestine, all by a star!
The preacher went on to say that there is a difference between astrology and astronomy, which people get mixed up now-a-days.

Astronomy is defined as "the science that deals with the material universe beyond the earth's atmosphere. "

Astrology is defined as "the study that assumes and attempts to interpret the influence of the heavenly bodies on human affairs."
[And check this out: "Obsolete. the science of astronomy."]

These Magi were smart guys.
The star they saw were three heavenly bodies aligned.
Jupiter, Mars, and the star of Bethelem [or Palestine] were the one "star" they saw in the sky.

Astronomers have traced this back (an event that only happens every several thousand years) to 7 B.C. in winter!

But that's not even the amazing part.
Jupiter represented to those in the Orient the "Top Dog" so to speak. The One, True God.
Mars was Jupiters son, the warrior to save the world.
And the star of Palestine, of course, represented the Middle East, Palestine itself.

So what did these guys interpret the event as?

Jupiter (the One, True God) was sending Mars (His Son) to Palestine to save the world!