born again - The Text Messages

April 26, 2020

My Journey – Gazing Into The Mirror Of My Soul

People consult me every day; sometimes many times a day – I always tell them the truth. What am I?

A look into the mirror may lead you to think about your younger days – good or bad; it may also lead to wonder about who you are becoming but it only reveals to your eyes who you really are today.

A mirror may take the form of reflective glass in a bathroom or hall, or a photograph or a glimpse into a placid pool of water but God has provided us a different kind of mirror, one which when honestly observed reveals more than meets the eyes in those other types – it is a mirror to your soul. That is what James, the half-brother of our Lord considered the word of God to be:

“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” (James 1:23–24)

I too have always considered the word of God to be a mirror which reveals not the outward appearance of a person but rather the inward appearance of that person and not as they wish they appeared but as they do actually appear. The problem, as James saw it, was that after people have seen themselves in God’s mirror – if they are a hearer of the word and not a doer – they just walk away and disregard what had been revealed to them. Naturally speaking, have you ever done that? As a man I have disregarded my reflection in the bathroom mirror and forgotten to shave but I dare say that a scant few women have EVER looked into the mirror after having just woken up and done nothing to alter the appearance they first saw with their waking eyes. But spiritually speaking, how often have we gazed into God’s mirror and been struck with the fact that something is spiritually out of place with us and done nothing about it?

In (Romans 7:7) Paul declared that he “would not have know sin except through the Law.” The Law of which he spoke was the law of Moses and the Levitical law given to men by God; the words of those laws revealed certain expectations of God; but Paul says that the law also revealed sin to him. The law brought his personal rebellion against God to Paul’s attention – it revealed something of his own heart to Paul.

When the Pharisees and Scribes came to the Jordan to see or else to be baptized by John the Baptist, he said to them:

“Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7)

These people did not see themselves as God did and were under wrath as is every person today who either has not looked into God’s mirror at all or has looked into it and disregarded what they saw.

When I first believed, it was from a place of conviction that I came. I knew that God had expectations of those He created and I knew that I had not lived up to them – I did not yet know that living up to God’s expectation was impossible apart from a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ and the residency of His Holy Spirit within me; I learned that the day I was born again and continue to learn it today.

I say this to you today because I believe that two things are necessary or required for the salvation of a soul. First, a warning from God which produces godly sorrow and second, belief or faith in Him whom God has provided to deal with our sins as a ransom and a refuge for our souls. That warning from God will come by God’s Spirit (John 16:8–11):

“And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

and through God’s word (Acts 2:36-37):

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?””

“Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

Truly, I think it is as Oswald Chambers wrote in his book “Our Ultimate Refuge”: “Until a person is hit with sorrow, the last thing they seek God to be is their refuge.” A refuge isn’t a place a person seeks when all is well with them; refuge is sought from danger: from storms, from rain and from terror. But as soon as a person sees him or herself as God does – as a sinner and a rebel possessing no way of justifying or saving themselves, that person won’t glibly walk to Jesus – they will run to Him and by faith in Him they will be born again (John 3:3)

It starts with an honest look in the mirror and frankly, spiritual life is driven in part by returning to the mirror of God daily.

The Prime Directive of Love

Last Sunday at Parkway Church Pastor Mike Hurt reminded us from the words found in (1 John) that “God’s love for us shapes all of our relationships:” (https://parkwaychurch.tv/sermon/relational-change) the section we dialed down on (1 John 4) concludes with these words in (v.20): “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

Those words, as powerful and convicting as they are can lead the proud among us to ask the same question posed to Jesus by a lawyer in (Luke 10:29): “And who is my neighbor?” As if trying to find some way out of the prime directive of love found in both the Old and New Testaments (Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18 Luke 10:27): “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself; ” we ask , “who is my brother and who is my neighbor – do I really have to love him or her like that?”

In so asking aren’t we really asking “is there anyone I don’t have to love?”

It’s an honest question and a believer might ask it but asking it may also indicate a far greater area of concern in the life of the person asking. Jeremiah wrote in (Jer. 17:9):

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?”

Before we met Jesus, our hearts were incurably sick; our hearts were full of the wrong things. Jesus said that “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” (Matthew 15:19, NKJV) In short, we didn’t and couldn’t love others or God because we loved ourselves too much. Think about it – why do we lie; for our sakes or for others? Why do we steal – to benefit others or ourselves?

The heart is tricky. It so cloaks its true intentions and condition that the one in whom it beats may not even know how wicked it really is – but God knows. He searches the hearts of men (Jeremiah 17:10; Romans 8:27) and while others are making distinctions based on appearances, God looks deeper (1 Samuel 16:7) – “He looks at the heart.”

Does what He perceives in our hearts repulse and repel God from us? No, Paul told us in (Romans 5:8) “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This was the mission of the Savior who said in (John 3:16):

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Far from shrinking back from, hating or condemning us, God, in His love made a way for all of us, since all of us suffer from this incurable heart condition, to be made well. The writer of (2 Samuel 14:14) made it clear that God, in His mercy, “…devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him.”

When a person believes in Jesus, he is born again (John 3:3) in this sense – God gives him or her “a new heart and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 36:26). Because of that new life, he who once upon a time only loved himself can now love God and others because of the NEW condition of his heart.

When we consider the lengths that God went to in order to express His love toward us and what He had to both overlook and endure in terms of our sin to draw near enough to us so as to forgive us the penalty due for our sin by dying in our place and rising again victorious AND that nothing will EVER separate us from His love (see Romans 8:38-39); when we remember that He did THAT for US and believe it, we will then be able to also see and hopefully treat our fellow man with a similar kind of love.

Is there anyone you don’t have to love? The question might be better put like this – is there anyone you just can’t love? Mankind spit in Jesus’ face – He loved them anyway. Mankind beat Jesus to a pulp – He loved them anyway. Mankind hung Jesus on a cross and mocked Him there – He died for their sins anyway. If anyone had a reason to hate it was Jesus. If anyone had a reason to withhold grace and mercy it was Jesus. What stood between you and the Lord that in love He forgave you of even after you first believed? What now stands between you and those who are like you were “without Christ…having no hope and without God in the world?” (Ephesians 2:12)

May the Lord’s enduring love for you inspire you to love those around you for their sake and to His glory…without exception.

May 13, 2019May 13, 2019

Transformed?

Metamorphosis is the process of transformation of an insect or an amphibian from its immature form to its adult form in at least two distinct stages. Maggots become flies, tadpoles and polliwogs become toads and frogs and caterpillars become butterflies. Often, it is image of the transformation of the caterpillar in its chrysalis that Christians use to illustrate the process of a believers transformation.

But is that really what happened when you or I trusted in Jesus?

First of all, the caterpillar creates the cocoon into which it enters to begin the process of metamorphosis. Secondly, the entire process is natural, triggered by God given instinct; spiritual transformation is neither self initiated or naturally triggered. Finally, the person being transformed is not being reconstituted into something functionally and physically different – we still look the same the day after “all things have become new.“

So, what is spiritual transformation?

Spiritual transformation is a process initiated or begun in the heart (the seat of our emotions and thoughts) by the Holy Spirit the moment we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote in (2 Cor. 5:17 NKJV):

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Whether this verse is new to you or you are very familiar with it, a careful reading, even in context leaves the reader scratching his or her head asking themselves “since I have trusted in the Lord has EVERYTHING about me changed?” Since the obvious answer is “NO!” what is Paul talking about in this verse?

I think that Paul is here speaking of the fact that our justification in Christ changes our standing before Almighty God rather than the tension that remains between that reality and the fact that we are still living in a fallen world and struggling with the temptations of it. You see, as believers we are citizens of heaven still living on earth and waiting for our final salvation and because we are still in the flesh we are also still prone to sinning.

In one sense, we are immediately changed – we are justified, that is, we are made righteous by the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:21), forgiven by God (Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14) and granted eternal life (1 John 5:11) the moment we trusted in Jesus Christ, but the process of bringing our lives in line with our new standing will take the rest of our lives and require our cooperation and complete submission (Galatians 5:16) to the Holy Spirit of God within us who began the process (see John 6:44) in the first place. Nevertheless, something will be OUTWARDLY different about a person the moment they trust in the Lord – it will be immediately apparent that SOMETHING has happened in the new believers life.

Consider the Apostle Paul himself for a moment, before he met the Lord, he was persecuting, imprisoning and consenting to the death of Christians and thinking that he was doing the will of Almighty God (see Acts 26:9-11; John 16:2) but after meeting Jesus on the Damascus road (see Acts 9:1-6) Paul the persecutor of Christians trusted the Lord Jesus with whom he had formerly been at war, and becoming a willing vessel unto the Lord He made him His ambassador to the gentile world.

In a moment, Paul’s heart was totally changed – he served a new master; but it would take a lifetime for his transformation to be completed (Philippians 3: 12-14 NKJV):

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

We’ll talk more about this towards the end of the week but I want to wrap up this post by reiterating the main point and asking you a question.

It is my belief that those who have been born again (see John 3:3) – given new life (spiritually speaking) from God through faith in the name and work of the Lord Jesus ARE IMMEDIATELY different in some recognizable way – even without words, they cannot help but give evidence that Father, Son and Spirit have all impacted his or her life.

My question to you is one that I have asked myself – what about you has changed as a result of trusting in Jesus? What unmistakable difference has the Lord made in your life?