#53 THE CALL TO OVERCOME: PSALM 91:11-16

     After sharing all the promises made to those who choose to dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High in the first part of Psalm 91, the writer then proceeds to explain the mechanisms that make the promises effective. You see, God does not wave a magic wand and voila, we are no longer subject to evil. Specific things have to happen to enable us to overcome the evil that seeks to destroy ourselves and our world, so let’s unpack the rest of Psalm 91 to find the steps becoming victorious over evil.

   For He will give His angels charge concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down.           (verses 11-13)

In order to put these verses in context, let’s look again at what Christ said in Matthew 18:18, “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”  As he instructed his disciples, Christ emphasized the responsibility of the outcomes of our lives belongs to us, not to God. I propose that the promises of verses 11-13 in Psalm 91 are a direct result of our own actions. If we choose (or loose) good for ourselves, then that good will be manifested through the protection of angels. They will guard us and prevent us from tripping over the obstacles the kingdom of evil puts in our paths. And, even better, because of the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom that comes to us through dwelling in the Secret Place, we will be able to put the kingdom of evil under our feet (and the feet of Christ) and destroy its effectiveness both in our lives and the lives of our neighbors. As we find our places in the Secret Place, we may well find ourselves among those described in Revelation 15:2-4 (NKJV):

   And, I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying:

   Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints (nations)! Who shall not fear You, O Lord and gorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You. For Your judgments have been manifested.

That last statement in the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb sums up the whole purpose of God’s plan for us to dwell in the Secret Place–His goal is that His judgment will be manifested in our world. What is His judgment? God loves all of us, His love is absolute, and His love is greater than the everything evil is! And, when we choose to dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High, we will begin to manifest His judgment.

   Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and let him see My salvation. (verses 14-16)

The writer of this Psalm waited to the end to make the point of how we enter and dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High. I like the wording of the first part of verse 14 in the NKJV: “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him…” We enter the Secret Place and stay there when we set our love upon God. When you look at our lives, many of us have many things that we “love” or enjoy, but we don’t set our hearts on them. Setting our love upon God involves so much more than feeling His presence or spending a daily quiet time with Him. Setting our love upon God means we make Him the most important person, place, or thing in our lives. Setting our love upon God starts with thinking and progresses to speaking and doing. Setting our love upon God will open the door to His judgments being manifested in our world.

     As I’ve thought about the last verse of this Psalm, I’ve talked with God about the long life that is promised, and I’ve worded it a little different. My goal is to see Christ return–I’m not being selfish because I know Christ’s return will herald the total defeat of the kingdom of evil. (All of the hesitancies we have about what our world will be like will melt away as God’s absolute love is fully manifested.) So, I’ve changed the long life to immortality–”With (immortality) I will satisfy (her)…”–on the basis of Romans 2:6-7, “Who (God) will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life…” I’m believing that, as we take our proper places in the Secret Place of the Most High, we will be the ones to defeat the kingdom of evil and experience the return of Christ. And, I won’t be satisfied until that happens.

     God wants to save our world from the kingdom of evil. As we have discussed throughout these posts, before God started creating our world in the place where He was not, He had a plan in place to deal with and to eventually destroy the kingdom of evil. Although Satan was able to build a dividing wall between God and the human race when he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Christ obliterated that wall and made the way for each of us to enter and dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High. With the promises given to us in Psalm 91, we have the ability to be everything God wants us to be and to release God’s judgments in our world. God’s love is absolute–perfect, complete, and real–and His love will not fail! 

 

     This post ends the “book” that I wanted to write. I still want to continue my blog, so next week, I am planning to change the format of my posts. I am hoping to write shorter pieces more frequently. Rather than build a specific train of thought, my posts will be centered on different topics and/or different scripture passages (or whatever else the Lord lays on my heart). As far as my book is concerned, I have decided not to seek a traditional publisher (based on a circumstance involving an instance of being lost, a storm, and a tent that blew down). I am, however, considering offering my book as a print on demand volume and an e-book (please remember all of my posts are copyrighted). I will still leave my posts up on this blog, so anyone can access them for free. However, I do realize some people may want the ease of a book when they are reading. So, I will keep you all up to date on what God opens up for me.

     All scriptures are from the NASB unless otherwise noted.  Please feel free to comment–just be respectful.

     ©2009-2010 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, August 29th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in THE CALL TO OVERCOME

#27 BECOMING A SON OF GOD: INTRODUCTION

     What does it mean to be a son of God (includes both men and women)? Throughout the Christian world, there are practically as many versions of believers in Christ as there are denominations. And that’s okay to a certain extent; after all (using an analogy), there are practically as many versions of cars as there are drivers. However, underneath the surface, all cars share the same basic underlying structures–they have  frames, engines, transmissions, braking systems, etc. Likewise, no matter who a believer is or where he or she comes from, all sons of God share the same basic underlying structure. Understanding this framework and understanding the process of becoming a son of God will go a long way in enabling us to work as our Father’s adult business partners (another analogy). So, over my next several posts, we are going to discuss becoming sons of God. However, before we begin that discussion, I want to talk a little bit about the Bible and more specifically, about the New Testament.

     As Christ’s death on the cross changed the world, a whole new understanding of God and His absolute love began to infiltrate the human race. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Bible where we see a definitive change of tone between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Let me use a couple of conspicuous examples to illustrate. One of the wisest  men ever to rule the Hebrew nation was Solomon, David and Bathsheba’s second son. This man served God with all of his heart, yet as he looked at life in general, his words were “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, NASB). In other words, after everything he had gained and after all the wisdom he had acquired, he ran into the dividing wall. Listen to what else he wrote in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, “That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun” (verse 9, NASB). There was nothing new–everything was the same-old same-old! And, the rest of Ecclesiastes was written in the same depressed tone with Solomon ending with this, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, NASB). After all the blessings he had received, the only understanding of God that he had was that people needed to fear God–Solomon had no concept of the absolute love of God, none whatsoever.

     Now, let’s take a look at a couple of New Testament writers. Paul, in II Corinthians 5:17 (NASB), goes way beyond what Solomon understood with these words, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Contrary to what Solomon believed, there is something new under the sun. And, then John changed the very conclusion that Solomon reached–fear God and keep His commandments–to this, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…We love because He first loved us…And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also” (I John 4:18, 19, 21, NASB). Yes, indeed, Christ obliterated the dividing wall!

    While the New Testament writers found new knowledge and new understandings from God, they and their fellow believers were facing new and more insidious threats from Satan and his cohorts. Intense persecution arose as Satan tried to destroy every visage of Christ’s victory over him. With the gospel producing new believers by the thousands and with threats and violence surrounding them, the New Testament authors tried to bring stability in the midst of chaos by writing letters to the people they had ministered to. As they wrote, they focused not only on explaining the new knowledge and understandings of God’s absolute love, but also on the specific circumstances their converts were facing at the time. 

     As we read through the New Testament, we need to keep a couple of things in mind. First, the writers were writing letters, not books of the Bible. They had no idea that what they were writing would be read 2000 years later. Along the same line of thought, each of these writers did not have access to what the other New Testament writers were writing. In other words, Paul didn’t have John’s letters who didn’t have Peter’s. Also, despite the notion that every word of the Bible is absolutely “true,” the New Testament writers did not get everything right. For example, Paul, Peter, and John all believed that Christ was going to return in their lifetime (Hebrews 1:2, I Peter 4:7, I John 2:18). When we look at the limited world they lived in, we can understand why they felt that way. The New Testament writers had no idea that the world was as big as it is–the scope of their world was bounded by the Mediterranean Sea. They had no way of knowing that when Christ said “God so loved the world..,” he also meant the people who lived thousands of miles away from Israel. Even more important, the tremendous pressure of the persecution they were under certainly made these writers feel like Christ was going to return quickly. But, he did not.

     So, as we delve into the process of becoming a son of God, we’re going to look at what the New Testament authors wrote through the lens of the entire Bible (which we are blessed to have) and of what we have discovered about our world (overwhelming information) in the intervening years since the New Testament days. In a sense, we are going to transpose the knowledge and understanding of these writers into the new key of today’s world. By drawing on all of these resources, we will discover the power of becoming a son of God, and the power to overcome the kingdom of evil as His sons.

     As always, feel free to comment–just keep it respectful!

     ©2009-2010 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, January 18th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in BECOMING A SON OF GOD

#25 UNDERSTANDING CHRIST: HIS TRIUMPHANT CRUCIFIXION PART 2

     Many Christians see Christ’s crucifixion in terms of his death purchasing the forgiveness of our sins. The transaction for forgiveness did happen on the cross, but it happened fairly early on in the day. Luke was the only one of the Gospel writers who recorded the words that dealt with the unbelief that had enslaved the human race since Satan’s deception in the Garden of Eden. Listen to Christ’s words found in Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Christ hit the nail on the head. From the time that Adam and Eve were conned into letting go of God–they did not know what they were doing–to the crucifixion, the human race was separated from the truth of God’s absolute love by the dividing wall Satan had constructed through his deception. All the sin, all the evil that the human race has participated in, came because humans did not understand God’s absolute love and thus, did not understand their own actions.

     Since Christ asked God to forgive the human race, the question becomes did God answer Christ’s prayer? Back when Christ was at the tomb of Mary and Martha’s brother, Christ spoke these words to God, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I know that thou hearest me always…” (John 11:41-42). On the basis of Christ’s assertion that led to the raising of Lazarus, we can indeed infer that God did answer Christ as he hung on the cross and that the human race was forgiven at that point.

     Somehow, the Christian faith has given the impression that we, as the “sinners,” determine whether God forgives us or not by accepting the gift of salvation. The ones who have sinned have no say in the matter of forgiveness–it is totally in the purview of the one who is sinned against. When God answered Christ’s prayer, the human race was forgiven of its unbelief , period. Through Christ’s prayer for forgiveness for the human race, God took care of the unbelief that would prohibit them from benefitting from what was about to happen next.

     Let’s look at Proverbs 12:28  again, “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” Christ had the spirit of his Father–the spirit of righteousness–within his physical body. Because he had never let go of God, his righteousness was in full-force and it kept him from death. In fact, the only way Christ could die was if he let go of God and let go of life. That was the something that was about to happen. Let’s watch the action.

     When the time was right and he was ready to die, Christ spoke, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). At that point, Christ gave back to God the righteousness that made him the Son of God. Now, the question becomes what happened then? Remember when we talked about God creating an alternative to Himself? Since that point, only two choices have existed–life, good, love, light, and spirit or death, evil, hate, darkness, and physicality. Christ had lived his earthly life in the first choice, so if he let go of that choice, wouldn’t the second choice rush in? Or, to put in simpler terms, wouldn’t sin rush in? Listen to his cry after he gave up his righteousness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). That, my friends, was the cry of unbelief, of sin. As II Corinthians 5:21 says, the one who knew no sin became sin. God did not turn from Christ–in fact, Christ did exactly what God wanted him to do. Christ let go of God and he let go of life, good, love, light, and spirit.

     Hebrews 12:3 encourages us to “…consider him (Christ) that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself…” The one whose joy was to be one with his Father had to let go of his Father and in doing so pleased his Father. What a contradiction! Not only that, but also the one, who spoke of being the Living Water that would totally quench the thirst of the human race (John 4:14) , thirsted and was given sour vinegar to drink (John 19:28). What a contradiction!

     Now, while Christ was dying, Satan and his kingdom were watching and seeing the result of their conniving–the light of the world was being extinguished and darkness was overtaking the surroundings. Then, Christ finally physically died as he spoke the words, “It is finished,” (John 19:30), and behind Satan’s back, a tremendous noise shook the foundations of the kingdom of evil. The veil in the temple was ripped from top to bottom, or to put it in the analogy I’ve been using, the dividing wall was obliterated. When Christ died, unbelief (sin) died, too! It was as if Christ took the hugest sledgehammer ever and bashed the wall into smithereens. Satan’s ability to keep the human race from cleaving to God was forever destroyed (Hebrews 2:14).

     God’s absolute love won! This is the good news–nothing stands between us and God, nothing! Through Christ, we have the right that God’s forgiveness and Christ’s triumphant crucifixion has given us–we have the right and the power to cleave to God and to have life! As we proceed on, we are going to dig into the outcomes and the benefits that Christ’s crucifixion has brought to the human race.

    As always, please feel free to comment–just be respectful!

 

     ©2009-2010 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, January 1st 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Jesus Christ

#23 UNDERSTANDING CHRIST: HIS WALK ON EARTH

     John 21:25 tells us that all the books in the world probably could not contain all that Christ accomplished during the time he spent on earth. The four gospels give us a very small sampling of what happened during his official “ministry.” Think about it–every person who interacted with Christ had a story to tell about the good that came into his or her life through that interaction. As tiny as the Bible’s sampling was, enough was written in the gospels to give us a good overview of Christ’s life as He expressed God’s absolute love to the world. For this post, we are going to, in essence, stand above the recorded action and analyze three of the overriding aspects of Christ’s walk as the Son of Man and the Son of God.

     First, most of us are familiar with the concept of Christ not ever sinning–II Corinthians 5:21 states specifically that he never knew sin. I’m sure we all understand that Christ never lied, never hurt anyone, never stole, etc., but the concept of being sin-free goes much deeper than how Christ acted. You see, the Bible tells us that sin is unbelief (John 16:9) or not holding onto God. Remember what Deuteronomy 30:20 said–cleave  to (or be one with) God for He is our life? And, remember, how Satan was able to pry Adam and Eve away from cleaving to God through a deliberate deception? When Adam and Eve let go of God (i.e. sinned), they let go of life. Now, while Christ was born with the inner man of righteousness and life, he still had to live and walk as a physical human being. Satan knew he had succeeded in causing Adam and Eve to sin, so he went after Christ big time because he was determined to keep the human race away from God. However, until the cross, no matter what Satan threw at him–from outright deceptions to personal attacks–Christ held on to God and did not ever let go! As Hebrews 4:15 says, Christ was tempted in all things, but he never sinned. So, the righteousness and life that was in Christ was greater than any temptation Satan could bring.

    Next, as Christ walked among his fellow human beings, he used the righteousness and life that was in him to overcome the loss, death, and destruction Satan was heaping on those people. What were called miracles were simply the power of righteousness and life over evil. As Christ cleaved to God, he had access to all the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom that God had. Through his connection with his Father, Christ was able to effectively deal with Satan’s ploys to keep people away from God–he was able to open the door to the power of righteousness and life for those with whom he walked.

     Finally, Christ was the beginning of the transition between the Mosiac covenant and the new covenant. Remember, in Psalm 51, when David wrote of his new understanding that God did not delight in sacrifices and burnt offerings, but did delight in a broken and contrite heart? Well, when Jesus arrived on earth, the religious activities of the Hebrews were focused on those sacrifices and burnt offerings. The understanding that David received had escaped the rest of the Hebrews. Christ’s contemporaries were stuck with the concept of God as the Law-giver and Judge and with the understanding that they were responsible to keep the Law in their daily lives, even if it meant choosing against helping someone in need. 

     If we look closely at Christ’s teachings, we can see two patterns emerging. First, Christ was intent on correcting the Hebrew concept of God as the Law-giver and Judge. He repeated and repeated the reality that God is our Father and His  love for the human race is absolute. Christ turned their world upside down with his words–the religious men and women were comfortable with God as the Supreme Judge–how in the world were they suppose to relate to Him as their Father? Likewise, Christ also upset their peace with a second concept that the measure of a person’s faith was not in how he/she kept the minutest detail of the law, but the measure was to be found in how a person treated the people around him/her. Over and over, Christ hammered the point home that man was not made for the law, but the law for man. (Remember, the law was given to limit Satan’s ability to utterly destroy the human race.) To drive these concepts home, Christ even blatantly stated that what God wanted (commanded) the Hebrews and us to do is to first love Him with everything we have and then to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). The Law could never bring this to pass, but the righteousness and life inside Christ could.

     So, through the righteousness and life that was in him, Christ was able to cleave to God and to overcome all the temptations that Satan through against him. Not only that, but Christ also was able to effectively deal with the loss, death, and destruction Satan was heaping on the human race. All the while, he was diligently tackling the misconceptions the Hebrews had about God and the measure of a person’s faith. Yet, with all that going on, Christ’s most important mission was yet to come. In my next two posts, we are going to look at the underlying story behind Christ’s crucifixion and learn just what God’s absolute love brought into being.

 

     As always, please feel free to comment–just be respectful!

 

     ©2009 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, December 21st 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Jesus Christ

#20 UNDERSTANDING CHRIST: GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS

     As we transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament, let’s take some time to consider one aspect of God’s interaction with the Israelites that is bothersome to many. If we’re honest, we have to admit that, on the surface, God seemed to border on hypocrisy at times during Israel’s history. For example, He specifically told the Hebrews that they were not to kill, yet many times, as the Israelites fought their enemies, God told them to kill everyone. Was God double-minded; was He a hypocrite? This issue is important because it has caused many people to doubt God’s veracity. So, ket’s take what we have already discussed in this blog and try to find a reasonable answer to this dilemma.

     As we have seen, quite a bit of the work God accomplished with the Old Testament believers was purposed to limit the destruction that Satan was determined to use to wipe the human race off the face of the earth. In story after story, God worked with different people to prevent their destruction, the destruction of Israel, and/or the destruction of the whole human race. When we come right down to the nitty-gritty of the whole picture, Satan used every weapon in his arsenal to kill all that he could. However, whenever God found someone who would seek Him, He made as many promises as He could to him or her. Those promises enabled God to intervene to save people’s lives. Those who did not seek God and/or rejected Him often immediately lost their lives because Satan was ready to destroy them. And, in all this–here’s the clincher–God’s wisdom sometimes resulted in the death of people because He was not able to intervene because of the choices they made.

     We need to grasp hold of two concepts at this point. First, God’s actions and His wisdom are two different things. God’s actions are consistent and flow from His character while God’s wisdom is based on the circumstances in people’s lives, and it originates in response to what Satan is trying to accomplish. In other words, God’s wisdom is what gives us victory over the kingdom of evil. Yes, in the Old Testament, when God gave wisdom to the Hebrews, other people often died, but the deaths were not the result of God’s actions but of Satan’s. Remember, Satan is the destroyer, not God. With this in mind, here is the second concept–God “knew” all those deaths were temporary. God “knew” His absolute love would prevail. Just listen to His promise in Isaiah 25:6-8:

The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine.

And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations.

He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.

I don’t see how this concept could be any clearer–the death that took all those lives was going to be swallowed up. Even though the Old Testament writers didn’t understand this, God did. So, the eventual fruit of the wisdom God gave to the Israelites would be the freedom from death for all people, including those who died at the time.

     Now, let’s focus on another concept, one that will clear the way for us to understand who Jesus Christ is. II Corinthians 5:21 talks about becoming the righteousness of God in Christ. Over the years, I have heard many people equate righteousness with right living. God’s righteousness is so much more than that! A number of years ago I found these words tucked into the Webster’s definition of righteousness–”free from guilt or sin.” Free from sin, free from unbelief, free from evil. Let’s remember what James wrote in his letter: “…for God can not be tempted with evil…” (James 1:13). God is free from guilt or sin. God is righteousness and righteousness is God. Righteousness has nothing to do with “doing” and everything to do with “being.”

     In my next post, we are going to connect “the righteousness of God” with “God is spirit” (John 4:24) in order to understand who Jesus Christ really is.

     As always, please feel free to comment–just be respectful because we are all loved by God and His love is absolute: perfect, complete, and real!

 

     ©2009 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, November 27th 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Jesus Christ