Relational Bridges

  STRANGE QUESTIONS Why do we ask God to give us what He has already supplied? Why do we ask God to give us what he has already put in us? His righteousness is not "imputed" it has been imparted. How else could we be indwelled by the Holy Spirit? He is the One who has caused us to stand before Himself holy, blameless and beyond reproach. God is the One Who has delivered us ALREADY from the dominion of darkness and has translated un into the Kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we HAVE NOW redemption by His blood, the forgiveness of our sin, all of it. I think such strange question arise from the simple fact that we are not yet as saturated by His Word clearly declared and written down for our instruction as God intends. He is clear about what who His is and what He has done as incredible as it seems, it's eternally true! He has already cut off our old nature (Colossians 2:11-12) and has given us a new heart, a new spirit, a new heritage, a new spiritual DNA. And that is at wo...

 BY WHAT MEASURE What I can see just now or what I have in my hands at this moment are NOT the indicator of whether God is committed to me. My present situation does not define God's ability to care for me or supply for all my needs by Christ Jesus. My trust and confidence are simply grounded on Who God is, in His promises and faithfulness. He doesn't change, is not altered by barometric pressure or the wickedness or the culture that may surround me. No matter how many promises God has made, they find their "YES!" in Christ Jesus. the question I must answer is this: will I trust in Him, or in what my finite, nearsighted eyes can see? 

 TIMING When we overlay our own sense of timing on God...what should happen and when it should occur...we have set the stage for the erosion of our faith. That is because, in effect, we have taken our eyes off the Lord Jesus Who has called to Himself, as He did Peter, to walk on the water of our present storm. And rather than trusting His Word that we can do what He has asked of us, we embrace ruin by relying on our own finite insight to determine what God has already secured in His infinite hands. If we make that a habit, our hard and unrepentant hearts will cause us to lose the wisdom and understanding that would lead us by the Holy Spirit to live in hope and peace.

 KEY LIME PIE **INGREDIENTS:** *For the crust:* • 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs • ⅓ cup granulated sugar • 6 tablespoons melted butter *For the filling:* • 4 large egg yolks • 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk • ½ cup fresh key lime juice (or regular lime juice) • 1 tablespoon lime zest • Pinch of salt *For topping:* • Fresh lime slices • Extra lime zest **INSTRUCTIONS:** Preheat your oven to 350°F. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter until it looks like wet sand. Press firmly into a 9-inch pie pan, going up the sides. Bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden and fragrant. Let it cool completely. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks until they're pale and slightly thickened. Add sweetened condensed milk and whisk until smooth and creamy. Add lime juice, lime zest, and a pinch of salt. Whisk vigorously for 3–4 minutes until the mixture is glossy and noticeably thicker. This step matters more than you think. Pour the filling into your cooled crust and smooth the top ...

 WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DRAW LIFE FROM? There are a plethora of things that people try to use to define themselves, to derive a sense of significance or identity from. Some use education to define themselves. For others it is power or money or influence on others.  Today other people try to draw a sense of life and meaning from various types of sexual orientation, identifying with others as confused as they are about what makes for life. Politics has become the major religion of our day, and people think they can actually draw life from belonging to a particular party. People are desperate to have the approval of others to validate the essence of their own being. We desperately long to belong...but that hunger is actually a hunger for God and the wholeness He alone can provide. The problem is that you cannot draw life from sin in any form, be it  pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, sloth or any permutation of them. Sin carries nothing of true and lasting life in it...

 ORDER IN WORSHIP DOES NOT LIMIT MISSION AND MINISTRY There are some who have either unknowingly or knowingly given heed to the idea that Christianity has major flaws in its doctrine regarding ministry shared by both men and women. Some have even begun to be seduced by the spirit of this present age claiming that women have been subjugated by what is now being labeled as "patriarchy" or spiritual abuse of women by men who hold positions of leadership in the church. 1 Timothy 2:11-12 is often used a proof-text to try and confirm this skewed point of view. Here is the text:  "Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet." The context here is worship and discipleship. In the early church men did not disciple women and women were not to disciple men. Discipleship or spiritual mentoring to help another grow in their faith, their obedience to the Word of God and lea...

JOHN 16:9 "THE WORLD'S SIN IS THAT IT REFUSES TO BELIEVE IN ME." SAID JESUS. ALL OTHER SINS ARE BORN OF THAT ONE ROOT. MANKIND HAS BELIEVED THE SATANIC LIE THAT THEY ARE ABLE ON THEIR OWN TO TRY AND SUCEED AT ATTAINING THEIR OWN SALVATION, COMFORT AND PEACE. NOTHING COULD BE FARTHER FROM THE TRUTH. THE MIND OF MAN IS INCAPABLE OF KNOWING OR DISCOVERING ALL THAT THE MIND OF GOD CONTAINS CONCERNING HIS LOVE FOR HUMANITY. FOR, GOD LOVED THE WORLD SO THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON TO THE END THAT ALL WHO BELIEVE IN HIM WILL NOT KNOW ETERNAL DAMNATION, BUT WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH HIM. HUMANITY, ON THE WHOLE HAS BELIEVED THE DEMONIC LIE THAT THEY DO NOT NEED GOD, OR THAT THEY NEED MORE THAN OD HAS PROVIDED TO EXPERIENCE TRUE FLOURISHING AS HUMAN BEINGS. HUMANITY WAS CREATED TO LIVE BY AND LIVE IN THE LIFE GOD PROVIDED. WE ARE HIS CREATIONS. WE ARE NOT SUFFICIENT IN OURSELVES TO THINK OF AS ANYTHING HAVING COME FROM OURSELVES. OUR SUFFICIENCY IN LIFE COMES TO US IN JE...

 GOD'S TIMING We develop "timelines" that we reason are appropriate for how and when God should act in our circumstances. We forget that we are not God and that He alone IS. We want God to anoint our five-year-plan because we believe we have figured out what needs to happen and how it will work and what the results will look like. We forget that we don't even know what tomorrow will bring. He alone does and has made provision in it for us. God speaks to us through His Word by the Holy Spirit. We can receive His promise believing the promise because of Who the Promiser is.  Then, sadly too often, we try, using finite human reasoning, to determine how we should interpret God's promises based on what we want and how we want it. We want a road map that we can follow without having to really check back with Him when God gives us Himself. He wants us to trust Him, not because we seem to have clarity at the moment, but because He is God and He loves us. Abram had been pr...

 WHAT I CAN SEE What I can see just now or what I have in my hands at this moment are NOT the indicators of God's ability or His commitment to care for me, to supply all my needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus. My trust and confidence are in Who God is, in His promises and faithfulness. Do I trust Him, or merely in what I can see?

 PRAY AND DO NOT GIVE UP Luke 1:13-18 The Angel Gabriel told Zechariah that God had heard hi sprayers and the prayers of his wife and they would have a son. How long had they prayed? A long time. They had prayed to have children. Now they were long past the season of child-bearing and it was evident that any and all human effort would avail nothing. It was here that God confirmed that nothing would be impossible with God. Have you prayed long and hard for a breakthrough for someone dear to you? God has heard you. He needs us to realize that salvation, deliverance, healing, and newness of life are either done by His power and sovereignty or not at all.  Believe that the Lord will do what he said only He could do. Even when it seems impossible, do not stop praying for the One you are seeking in prayer can still do exceedingly, abundantly more, above all you could ever ask or imagine by His power. Do not give up for He has not given up!

 WE ERR We err when we try and reduce our life with God to a series of steps, religious and practical steps thinking that by following the program we have devised we can gain control over an Infinite and Holy Mystery. We can know God ONLY because He has revealed Himself to us in Christ Jesus. 

WHAT GOD GIVES People ask, "God, give me joy!" But God does so much more than that. True joy is never separated from God, Himself. God gives us Himself, all that He is. He becomes life within everyone who believes Jesus Christ. he becomes life in us as He was in Adam and Eve before the fall. God gives to every believer all that He is: Creator, Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Sustainer, Provider, Hope and everlasting Peace...and JOY! 

 WORSHIP Worship can happen at an event, but worship is NOT an event. Worship is an ongoing way of living and being for those who belong to Jesus Christ. It is a life yielded in the consciousness that we are utterly dependent on the Lord for every aspect of salvation and wholeness. He, alone, is worthy of life-worship, submission, and obedience, for He alone rescues, disciplines, blesses and redeems His people.  

 ONENESS Jesus Christ prayed for us in John chapter 17 for nothing less than our absolute oneness with Him. What God the father has given to us through God the Son is to make us one with Him and He is one with the Son. That is what Jesus prayed. Therefore, that is what the Father is doing. What Jesus prayed for is that we would never be satisfied with anything short of eternal union with the Father through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit in resurrection power. He is to become Life and Breath to all who will follow Jesus as Lord of all.

 PURPOSE IN PRAYER As we pray, God's purpose for us and in us is not just to answer our prayers (as if we could ever know by our own finite "knowing" what we need to pray into). Prayer is meant to be a two-way form of communication, communion between The Lord God and us. It is through prayer: speaking and listening informed by His Word that we come to discern His will, His mind. Jesus made it clear that when He prayed, the Father always heard Him. Jesus Christ NEVER taught on "unanswered prayer." We get discouraged when we have reduced in our own minds that God is like a kind of eternal vending machine that IF we have the 'right change", the magic wording to get God to do what we want. That would make God our servant, not we His disciples, His learners.  It has been said that when we pray something always happens. And sometimes when we pray, everything happens. "Yes", "No", "Not now", "Not yet" are all ways that G...

 GOD'S WAY OR MAN'S WAY Israel and Judah burned their children to the demon god Molech. They sacrificed their own flesh and blood to try and gain prosperity, power, and opportunity that the demons had promised. The chief idol of our day, abortion, is a satanic sacrifice to the idols we have fashioned with our own hands. Greed, power, prosperity, success have become idol that drive humanity to destroy and sacrifice their heritage, their sons and daughters, to be "unencumbered". God warned His people, but they would not listen. They chose what seemed to be pragmatic rather than living by faith. God told them that the things the pagans around them attributed to the idols giving them were in fact gifts from God, not a wage paid. They chose their own way, the way of selfishness and self-centeredness, the way of destruction rather that God's way of life and human flourishing. Without God, His Word, His ways and His power there is no real humanity, no lasting life, just ...

 WHOSE IDEA WAS IT? We must never forget that salvation is God's idea, not mankind's. Therefore, God's salvation has an eternal, unfathomable depth. Salvation is the great thought of God, not a mere experience. Experience is the door salvation comes through bringing one into the wholeness of life by the Holy Spirit's power and grace. The Good news, the Gospel, is news about who God is. Jesus never asks of us, commands us to do in following Him that which He does not also empower us by the Holy Spirit, equipping us to do what He has said.

 Acts 1:8 Witnessing to the wholeness of the Gospel for all humanity doesn't come "naturally" but supernaturally. For Jesus declared, "...but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and (then) you will be My witnesses..." to all people groups everywhere. Effective witness to the Gospel is supernaturally empowered. It is the Holy Spirit who makes us efficient, effective, and anointed ambassadors who, by Jesus' authority, extend the Kingdom of God into the lives of others.

  Ezekiel 33:1-9 "The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, 4 then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. 5 Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’ 7 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give t...

 REFUGE Psalm 57:1 "I will take refuge in the shadow of Your wings until disaster has passed." YES! I will rest in You, Lord God, at ALL TIMES for my adversary does not wait. The Lord God is the only safe place of refuge for a human life.