Relational Bridges

 GOD'S LOVE IN CHRIST God's unconditional love is unconditional that cannot be earned or merited. God's love has never been given as a reward for human achievement of any kind. This infinite love was demonstrated in Jesus Christ's shredded body nailed to a Roman cross. There is a condition to receiving that Love though, that has nothing to do with merit. That "condition" is believing what God has done, turning from sin's delusion that we can "redeem" or "reclaim" ourselves, and in that repentance, turning to God in utter surrender to receive His forgiveness and a new, eternal Life that will be lived in you by the Holy Spirit. God's judgement against the sin that separates us from Him, sin that is bent on the destruction of real humanness is a fact. AND, if people refuse the Truth and cling to sin as their answer to humanity's brokenness rather than its cause, those who choose wickedness will know and experience the wrath of God ...

FORGIVING...OTHERS AND SELF We struggle with our own dealings in "forgiveness" of others, where we may "forgive", but (as the Scottish saying goes) we don't forget the bastard's name. We then, when convicted by the Holy Spirit (convicted, not condemned) we become disappointed in ourselves and think a period of self-flagellation is an appropriate thing. That is because we don't really have a robust grasp of sin and our own ability to commit every horror and to walk or wallow in the same. We actually think too highly of ourselves. We forget that we were dead in our sin. We forget that people are NOT "mostly good." It is God alone Who is the cause of anyone to be reborn into eternal life. We forget that "Salvation is of the Lord." It is begun and brought to completion by His becoming the Life that is working in us! God's forgiveness transcends our thinking and our reasoning ability for He sees our sin as only Holy God can see it in a...

  FAITH IS GROUNDED IN GOD In Luke's Gospel, Chapter 8 and verses 22-25 , we find Jesus asleep in the back of the boat as it was crossing over the Sea of Galilee. There was a raging storm threatening to sink the boat and the disciples were terrified. They woke Jesus up saying, "Master, Master!!! We're going to drown!" Jesus gets up, tells the storm to stop and it stops immediately. He then turns to His disciples and asks. "Where is your faith?" In Matthew 8:23-27 the same event is recorded, and Jesus says, "Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!" People have read into these passages an idea that faith is some sort of quantifiable "stuff" that if you have a proverbial "bucket-full" of it, you can make things happen. That is sheer silliness. Jesus was speaking to His disciples then and now that trying to have living faith in anyone else but Him is puny and sheer folly. In Romans 10:17 we read, "Faith comes by hearing...

 CONSISTENT God's strength is never diminished at any moment because I feel weak, tired or worn out. It's an easy trick of our ancient foe to have us reference God's Presence in us, His Resurrection Power working in us, and His indwelling Life in the Holy Spirit to how we feel or what we can see. I remember the verse that my Dad wrote in the Bible he gave me in 1970: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not rely on your understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, His Lordship, His Sovereignty and faithfulness over every aspect of life. He will show you the path to take." Proverbs 3:5-6 God is always the same, living His Life within us by the Holy Spirit. Don't EVER measure the Power and Presence of God by how you feel at the moment. Remember Who He is, that He is for you, is with you and permanently lives IN you. He is your life, your hope, and your salvation!

  BELIEVE AND LIVE Did you know that death was not meant to be the "natural order" of things. The Life being lived by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (before their death-dealing unbelief) was nothing short of the Life of God filling them, working in them, being Life Itself in them. When they believed the lie that God was holding out on them and that they didn't need God to flourish as human beings, they did the exact opposite to what God had told them. God had the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden as a touchstone for their faith and confidence in Him. Before believing and embracing the satanic lie, every time they passed it, they could say, "I believe what You said about the fruit on that tree. I trust you. I don't need it, and it will cause me to die, whatever that means. It's something to avoid at all costs." Satan didn't ask Adam and Eve to do anything overtly nefarious, he simply tempted them to doubt God's Word to them....

 NOTHING LEFT OUT If you have put your trust in what God has done for you in Christ Jesus, then you need to realize that God is living His Life within you by the Holy Spirit. He has not left anything out. He lives Life within you, and you have all you need to follow Him, to hear Him, to know Him and to cooperate with Him in what He is doing in the world to rescue others who were just as lost, confused and spiritually dead as you once were. When you find yourself being led to worry, the devil is trying to subtly covey lies that God is not who He says He is. This is called a "doctrine of demons" as is usually grounded in the moment by referencing the reality of God against what you are feeling. Your feelings do not define who you are in Christ, but, the world around you has grown accustomed to defining who they are by what they feel. That is why life seems so unstable. Feelings come and go, are affected by what we ate for lunch, how much sleep we had or didn't have, by baro...

  NO COMPETITION There are some who have embraced the misconception that the fight of Good against evil is a kind of ying/yang proposition. Listen, Satan was an archangel who rebelled against God. The devil is a created, finite being, massively greater in power and cunning than mankind put together, but finite, nonetheless. God almighty, the Eternal Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is not in competition with anyone or anything else. He is absolutely Sovereign over all. If you belong to Him by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, then know this, He is Life within you. You were dead in your sin and God has united you to both the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has removed your death and filled you with His Life. God has united you to Himself with such intimacy that He has made you to be one of His heirs. The Holy Spirit lives the resurrection Life of Jesus Christ in every follower of Jesus Christ. That is why the Apostle John could say with authority, "Greater is He...