Sold Out And Bought Back

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."  1 Cor. 6:19,20.  Now that we have invited Jesus Christ to come into our lives, we come to a new reality.  We were bought, and we are not our own.  We were bought with "...the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."  1 Pet. 1:19.  The fact that we were bought must mean that we belonged to someone or something else.  To whom did we belong?  How did we get there?  We were "sold under sin" according to Romans 7:14.  We were sold out!  Who sold us out?  "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." Rom. 5:12.  Adam willfully disobeyed God, knowing fully what he was doing.  Eve was deceived, but Adam was not deceived.  Through Adam, sin entered the world, and death by sin.  We were sold into sin and incalculable damage.  But that's not the end of the story.  We were bought back!  We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but Jesus has purchased us back, and restored back to us that which was lost.  That's why we were bought with a price.  We are not our own.  Our bodies are not our own.  Now we submit our bodies to God, in order that we may glorify God in our bodies, and in our spirits, which are God's.  The Corinthian pagan worship with its temple prostitutes meant that people were raised in a culture where there were no morals, and the satisfaction of every fleshly desire was not only expected, it was provided at the place of their worship in their temples.  But now your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and now we are to glorify God in our bodies.  In fact, in everything we do, we are to glorify God, 1 Cor. 10:31.  The acceptance of Christ as both Savour and Lord, means that we submit our bodies to God, and do only those things that glorify God.  We will serve either sin, or righteousness as our master.  Both masters pay wages; sin pays death, but righteousness pays eternal life!  Whose wages would you rather receive?  Which master will you choose today?  We were once sold as slaves to sin, but now we are bought back by a wonderful Master.  Today, make the choice to glorify the One who bought you with a price!

Do you submit yourself to the One who bought you?

Following God's Dream For Your Life

God has a dream for your life.  He has a plan, and a purpose for you.  Finding that dream, and following that dream leads to the fulfillment of the will of God in our lives.  Joseph is a wonderful example of a person who had God's dream, and lived to see it fulfilled.  He was 17 years old when he dreamed about his brother's sheaves bowing down to his.  Then he dreamed about the sun, moon, and 11 stars bowing down to him.  He could not have understood what these dreams meant at the time, but he knew God had a dream and plan for his life.  Things got worse before they got better!  The brothers put him in a pit, intending to leave him there to die.  It is in the pit that our true character shows.  We can learn a lot from being in a pit.  A story is told about a farmer's donkey who fell into a pit.  The farmer couldn't get him out, so decided to bury him.  The donkey shook the dirt off every time it hit his back, and soon realized that he could put it under his feet, and it lifted him up.  The donkey got out of the pit by shaking off the dirt, and putting it under his feet.  The pit experience can make us better or bitter, lift us up, or push us down.   The brothers decided they might as well get some money for Joseph, and they sold him to the travelling Midianites, who then sold him to Potiphar in Egypt.  Everywhere Joseph went, he rose to the top, whether in Potiphar's house, or in the prison, or under Pharaoh.  Joseph was hated, envied, betrayed, sold, tempted, and lied about.  Yet he was successful, favored, blessed, prospered, pure, wise, and very fruitful.  He never let the circumstances stop him, or cause his attitude to become negative or resentful.  He served wherever he went.  He acknowledged that it was God who gave him wisdom, and brought him to Egypt so he could save his people.  His life was not his own, he lived it unto God.  In Gen. 49 22-24 we read, "Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; His branches run over the wall.  The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him.  But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob."  What a testimony about a man who followed God's dream!  We too can follow God's dream for our lives, and leave a testimony of fruitfulness!

Are you following God's dream for your life?

Take Care Of The Seed

The sower and the seed is one of the most well known parables that Jesus taught.  The seed is the word of God.  The parable is about the seed, and its growth.  It is all about the seed.  The Christian life is not about the person.  The Christian life is all about the seed, and how well it grows in the heart of the individual.  The fruit does not depend on our ability, or cleverness, or personality.  The fruit completely depends on the growth of the seed.  That's why the first encounter the seed has is with the devil.  The devil knows that if he can take away the seed that is sown in the heart, he can eliminate any fruit.  Satan's first temptation to Eve was to raise doubt about whether God had actually spoken His word to Eve.  Paul expressed his concern for the Corinthians in 2 Cor. 11:3 saying, "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."  Wholehearted and sincere devotion to Christ is what we are called to.  The simple trust of a child is what we need in order to follow Christ.  The next thing the seed encounters is the need for moisture.  The seed must grow roots.  I was raised on the farm, and our farm basically revolved around rain.  Nothing could substitute for rain.  If it didn't rain, we didn't have a crop.  The survival of our walk with God revolves around water.  We must water the seed, and look after it.  Only constant watering can bring a seed through a dry season.  Keep watering the word.  Even a very dead and dry plant to come back to life with water!  "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase."  1 Cor. 3:6.  Then the seed will encounter weeds.  Weeds can be deadly to the seed if left unchecked.  The thorns come to choke out the word.  The thorns are described as cares, riches, and pleasures of life.  There are both bad thorns, and good looking thorns, but their effect is the same!  Whatever comes in our lives to choke out the growth of the seed must be pulled out and discarded.  Only those with a good and honest heart will see the full potential of the seed.  The seed can produce 100 fold if it is given the right conditions to grow.  God's word can produce in us a tremendous harvest if we will allow it to grow to fruition.  Take care of the seed, and the seed will take care of you!

How are you taking care of the seed today?

Speckled and Spotted

Gen. 30 contains one of the most intriguing stories in the Bible.  Jacob has served Laban for 7 years and received Leah as his wife.  Then he served for another 7 years to obtain Rachel as his wife.  He wants to leave Laban and go back to his home, but Laban doesn't want Jacob to leave, because Laban has seen the blessing of God on Jacob.  So Laban says to Jacob, "Name me your wages, and I will give it."  Jacob says that all he wants is to have the speckled and spotted livestock that are born. Jacob says he will remove all the sheep and goats that are speckled and spotted to another place, so only the white livestock will remain.  His wages will be only the speckled and spotted that are born.  Laban thinks this is a really good deal, as white sheep are likely to bear only white lambs.  But Jacob takes the branches of trees, and peels white strips in them, and lays them in the watering troughs for the livestock.  The livestock look at the the strips in the branches, and when they give birth, the lambs are speckled and spotted.  Then he faces the white livestock toward the speckled and spotted, and the lambs born are speckled and spotted.  And so Jacob prospered greatly with the best and strongest of the herd.  Even when Laban changed the rules to the streaked only, or the spotted only, still Jacob prospered.  The secret of this mystery is found in Gen. 31:12 where Jacob reveals that God had shown him in a dream that all the livestock born were streaked, speckled, and spotted.  This is a picture of how a vision from God can change our lives.  Jacob kept his eyes on the vision, and he kept the livestock looking at the vision, in order to receive the blessing of God.  You and I need a vision from God for our lives.  We need to keep our eyes on that vision.  We must not be distracted by unbelief, or temptation, or other things.  We must keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  God will supply for you, and prosper your life, as you keep your eyes on Him.  Don't take your eyes off Jesus for a moment.  Know that He has a plan and destiny for your life, and He will fulfil that good work that He has started in you!  Hab. 2:3 says, "For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.  Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry."

What is the vision that you need to keep your eyes on?

No More Pain

In a long list of names given in 1 Chronicles 4, there are two verses that stand out giving us some information about a man named Jabez.  Vs. 9 says, Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, 'Because I bore him in pain.'"  The word Jabez literally means, "He will cause pain."  The birth of Jabez caused his mother pain and sorrow.  Now he bears the name Jabez as a continual reminder of who he is.  Every time he hears his name, he hears pain.  He realizes that his life caused pain from the very beginning.  He has lived with it all his life.  He comes to a place in his life where he wants change from this identity.  Vs. 10 says, "And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, 'Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!'  So God granted him what he requested."  Jabez comes to God with his life, and asked for five things:  Bless me, enlarge my territory, let Your hand be with me, keep me from evil, and that I may not cause pain.  Jabez wants a change in his life.  He could have went through life with pain, but by crying out to God, he found out that he didn't have to live with the pain anymore.  He didn't want to cause pain for anyone anymore.  This was true repentance, a real turn around in his life.  Sometimes we say, "Hurt people, hurt people."  But this would not be the life of Jabez anymore.  He brought his hurt to God, and received the blessing he needed, so he would not hurt people anymore.  Jesus bore our griefs and carried our sorrows.  He took our sicknesses and diseases.  By His stripes we were healed.  He opened the door for us to bring our hurts to Him.  He invites us to bring our pain to Him, that he would be healed.  He wants to bless us like Jabez.  He wants to enlarge us, and bless us, and be with us, and keep us from evil, so we don't cause pain anymore.  Let us pray the prayer of Jabez over our lives, and watch God bring healing and blessing into our lives!

Where is there pain today that God wants to heal?

The Anchor of the New Covenant

God is a covenant making God.  God has dealt with people by covenants, both in history and in the present.  The old testament is the old covenant.  There was a covenant made with Abraham in Gen. 15 where animals were split in two, with also a turtledove and a pigeon.  That night, a burning  fire passed through the pieces, as God Himself cut a covenant with Abraham.  Then in Ex. 24 God made a covenant with Moses and the people.  Blood was sprinkled on the altar and on the people, as they promised they would do according to all the words of the covenant.  When Jesus had the last supper with the disciples, he took the bread and broke it and said, "Take, eat, this is my body."  He took the cup and gave it to the disciples saying, "Drink from it, all of you, for this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."  That day the bread and the wine took on a new meaning which would change the history of the world.  No longer would the blood of bulls and goats be necessary to cover sin.  The blood of Jesus would once and for all pay the debt of our sins.  The way into the very presence of God has been the made.  The veil in the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom at the time of Jesus death.  This signified to us that the way into the Holy of Holies has been made through Jesus Christ.  "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil."  Heb. 6:19.  We live in uncertain and trying times.  We don't know what will happen in this coming year.  But we have something that is both sure and certain.  This new covenant is an anchor for our souls.  An anchor holds you steady through the winds and the storms.  This anchor of the new covenant holds us steady in the storms of life.  This new covenant brings us into the presence of God.  The High Priest of the new covenant lives forever to make intercession for us.  We are invited to draw near into the very presence of God to find the grace and help we need.  Let us be established in the new covenant today!

What does the new covenant mean to you today?