Relational Bridges

 WHAT BRINGS LIFE? Judgement, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, envy, greed, anger and unforgiveness will never give birth to life.

 WHAT IF? Jesus made it very clear that "future time-traveling" in your head will get you entangled in unknowns that may never happen but will feel "bigger that God" in the moment. Jesus told us that the only place we actually are, is in the present. We are not in the past. The future is known to God alone. It is in this present moment that we experience the working out of the salvation God has given to us...where we really are with all that we need in this moment. Our salvation doesn't depend on us in the slightest. We will never be able to add to that grace. Trusting God with where you are NOW is a sure-fire way to defend your heart against the "What ifs?"

 SEPARATION Sometimes God will separate us from those who choose to only know us by our wounds and have yet to trust the Sovereign work and faithfulness of the Life of Christ Jesus being lived in us by the Holy Spirit.

 REPENTANCE AND CONFESSION It is life-important that when you have transgressed against someone, that you humble yourself before God first confessing your wrongdoing. Pray for the healing of the hurt you have caused in the other and then confess your sin against the other. Confession and repentance (turning away from the behaviors and attitudes that have cause the pain) do not give others "power" over you. It frees you from falsehood and bondage. Your confession and work of reconciliation may not find traction right away in the one(s) you have hurt, but you have to leave their reaction to your confessing your wrong and asking for forgiveness to God. If you know that your actions have injured another, do not let it fester. Trust God and do what Jesus Christ said to do. Go. God will bless when we live according to His Word, trusting in His mercy and power to heal any hurt we may have caused.

 THOSE DECEIVED, MOCK So this scene from the opening day of the Olympics is deeply disturbing, but not astonishing, give where we are on the timeline just before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ It's not surprising that the only Name that is used in a cussing phrase is the Name of Jesus Christ. It is not surprising that most of the world behaves this way, since, as Scripture records, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 "If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God." Satan knows that followers of Jesus Christ will not be burning buildings or turning over cars or threatening death to the folks who orchestrated this. Satan doesn't control the followers of Jesus Christ. BUT, when other religion...

 THEY NEED TO DO THE MATH With all the conflict in the Middle East, all the antisemitism, all the hatred of Israel and the Jewish people, it is increasingly evident that Israel's enemies don't realize that to be an enemy of Israel is to be an enemy of God. Read part of this Psalm by Asaph, Psalm 83:1-8 1 O God, do not be silent. Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God. 2 Don’t You hear the uproar of Your enemies? Don’t you see that Your arrogant enemies are rising up? 3 They devise crafty schemes against Your people; they conspire against Your precious ones. 4 “Come,” they say, “let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of its existence.” 5 Yes, this was their unanimous decision. They signed a treaty as allies against You— 6 these Edomites and Ishmaelites; Moabites and Hagrites; 7 Gebalites, Ammonites, and Amalekites; and people from Philistia and Tyre. 8 Assyria has joined them, too, and is allied with the descendants of Lot...

WHAT DEFINES YOU? Colossians 3:11   " In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,  circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,  slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and He lives in all of us." Galatians 3:28  " There is no longer Jew or Gentile,  slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." What is it, who is it that defines your worth, your sense of identity? Jesus Christ has done such a final and complete work of redeeming mankind so as to set aside and nullify the categories the world uses to evaluate people, ascribing their worth. Are there real differences between people? Of course there are! But the categories the world uses to assess the value of one or to devalue another have been shown to be utterly empty by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the 2nd century, an early Christian apologist, Justin Martyr, wrote to the Roman Emperor to explain what followers of Jesus Christ thought...

 SECURE Follower of Jesus Christ, have you ever feared that you might "lose" your "abiding" in Christ? Abiding is the essence of you having made your home in Him, by His doing, by His will and power. You DO abide because the   Lord, Who is the Vine, united you to Himself. He was the One Who made you one with Himself. Nothing in all creation can separate you from the Love of God in Christ Jesus. Your abiding in Christ is not a matter of your striving or achieving, but simply believing Him. That is the essence of His rest. It is not a question of how you feel, but what He has done and continues to do in you. Truth is, Jesus is Life within you. He is your Life, Eternal Life being lived out in you by the Holy Spirit.  Romans 8:35-39   " 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?   (As the Scriptures say, “For ...

  ONLY ONE WAY TO VICTORY 1 John 5:1-5 "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves His children, too. 2 We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey His commandments. 3 Loving God means keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. 5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God." Those who do not believe there is a spiritual war going on all around them have had the wool pulled over their eyes. The "world" is vying for your loyalty, devotion and commitment in order to keep you separated from the Love of God that alone can restore you to wholeness and peace. The things the world system promises will fulfill you, give your life meaning, value, and purpose will never actually produce what they advertise. Ed...

  IT'S ALL ABOUT GRACE Romans 5:6-11 " When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.   Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.   But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.   And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.   For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son.   So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. " It was while I was still a slave to sin, a rebel against God, an enemy of the Most High that Jesus Christ died for me...and as me...bearing all my sin...and not mine only, ...

  REMEMBER I was at a conference in the early 1970's in Houston, TX hearing Francis Schaffer speak. He shared his story of wrestling with his faith years before. He spent days pacing back and forth in his attic recalling everything he experienced in his relationship with God. He went through scripture, events, prayers, his sense of calling and vision for life in Christ. He relived his own testimony, recalling the work God had done in his life. He remembered. As he did this, he said the Lord wove together his memories and made of them something akin to a barge rope; something strong and sure. He said that God reminded him of things he had forgotten and assured him of his salvation, his purpose, his calling and his place in the heart of God. In Psalm 78: 41-43, the psalmist recalls the tragedy of not remembering. 41 Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel. 42 They did not remember His power— the day He redeemed them from the oppressor, 43 t...

 FORGIVENESS Ephesians 4:32 " Be kind and compassionate to one another,  forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." When someone slanders you; when someone hurts you; when injustice is what is dealt to you by another; when someone has done something to you that you are certain that should not be forgiven, what do you do? Well, I know this for sure, unforgiveness will always give birth to resentment, bitterness and even a twisted form of self-righteousness. The pain and sorrow and anger get nursed, coddled, protected, and nurtured in such a way that the details of the offense done to you will most likely get morphed into something more than it was. The offender can begin to be regarded as less than human, evil to the core. In some cases, that may be the actual case, but even then, what will you do? The image that keeps itself somehow fixed on my mind's eye is Jesus Christ, nailed to the Roman cross praying for those who had put Him there. "Father, forg...

 TODAY IN THE DAY OF SALVATION Future time-traveling in your mind will get you entangled with unknowns. Satan can present you with "what ifs" that you can't see how God could possibly save and keep you. That's because you've begun to look with you own eyes at possibilities that don't exist and ideas that are actually trying to exalt themselves about the knowledge of God, Who He is, His character and all He has done in the past. He has promised to never leave or forsake you. That means that whatever deceptions that have been flashed up on the "screen" of your mind by the enemy are nothing more than lies to get your eyes off God and on your own finite, nearsighted resources. When the Word of God tells us that "today is the day of salvation" the Lord is trying to get us to realize that we will experience His salvation in the here-and-now. The Lord Jesus meets you in the Holy Spirit's power where you actually are...right now. Grace is given...