Relational Bridges

 FROM START TO FINISH Hebrews 12:1-2 “As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us.  Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, upon Whom our faith depends from start to finish.”  My faith depends upon Jesus Christ from start to finish. Faith is a gift from God; salvation is a gift from God and depends upon God for “salvation is from the Lord. Since my faith and living this new life is by the grace of God in the Holy Spirit’s power, it has little or nothing to do with the way I feel at any one moment. My faith is grounded solely in Jesus Christ and He is the One Who has grounded me in Himself. It is because Jesus Christ is utterly faithful that I am now living in faith, hope, and confidence. It is only because of all He had already accomplished and is bringing to competition in me by...

 LIFE OR DEATH The world-system attempts to function with a broken moral compass. It has not and will never give any human being a directionally “True North” to guide it into wholeness. Rather than putting the pieces of broken humanity back together, it is dismantling life continually and relentlessly. The world’s way of “living” is living out of flawed instincts manifested in pride, excess and distortion. It walks in the footsteps of Cain, letting envy and jealousy work toward the destruction of anything that confronts its selfishness. It uses deceit, thinly veiling its avarice with “causes” to extort money to try and satisfy its lust to accumulate stuff in a vain attempt to validate its worth. The world’s way rages against and denies God’s authority over all of creation thus giving birth to moral decay and inhumanity rather than peace. It rejects the only things that will make for life because it despises humility, rejecting true virtue while replacing it with “virtue-signali...

 DENY YOURSELF Luke 9:23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after me. Let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” In the days of Jesus’ earthy mission, if you saw someone carrying a cross surrounded by Roman soldiers, you knew that person was not coming back. Death was assured. Jesus knew He was to be crucified and rise again. He was telling His followers, that means us, too, that we are to be willing to have earthly life taken from us for His and the Gospel’s sake. The other aspect of His Words, “Let him deny himself…” is just as profound and risky. Denying myself, at its heart, means that I must die daily to the illusion that I can fix myself. My faith depends on Jesus Christ from start to finish. Apart from Him, there is no hope for humanity to become all God created us to know. Salvation is of the Lord alone. Human beings have been trying to reverse the consequences of Adam’s fall ever sin he fell from grace in Eden. To follow Jesus, thou...

 VITAL AND GREEN Psalm 92:12-15 12   But the godly will flourish like palm trees   and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. 13  For they are transplanted to the  Lord ’s own house.   They flourish in the courts of our God. 14  Even in old age they will still produce fruit;   they will remain vital and green. 15  They will declare, “The  Lord  is just!   He is my rock!   There is no evil in him!”   I am in my 73 rd year and have been following Jesus Christ as Lord of my life since August 28, 1970. He had made Himself real to me at the age of seven but there wasn’t strong grounding beneath me due to a lack of available discipleship in 1958. At 19 Jesus became more than “fire insurance” and at a coffee house outreach named The Well near the University of Texas campus in Austin I had a group of godly men pour their lives into me and disciple me well. The Rev. Dick Pickens, who is celebrating his first birthday ...

 NO CONTRADICTIONS IN GOD There are some who are confused when they are presented with the character of God as He has revealed it in Holy Scripture. I must remind myself and anyone reading this that as a finite being, trying to examine the Infinite, Eternal, Triune God is WAY above my “pay-grade.” But what I do know and understand thus far in my earthly pilgrimage has been revealed by God. My limited understanding takes nothing away from the perfections of Who He is, has been, and ever will be. The truth is, human beings have been ruined by sin by trying to put ourselves in the place of God and our moral compass is so completely devastated that only God’s grace can mend us and reorient us to what being fully human is. We struggle with what our confusion has defined as seemingly contradictory aspects of God’s character revealed on the pages of the Bible; things like mercy and wrath, grace and justice, kindness and judgement, righteousness and peace, forgiveness and condemnation, j...

 HEARING FROM GOD Seeing eyes and hearing ears are from the Lord. He makes the deaf to hear. It is not their struggle that enables them to hear. asking God to speak to you, asking Him to give you ears to hear, praying through His Word and asking the Holy Spirit to teach you is asking the Lord to do for you what He has already determined to do. Sometimes it's how we expect to hear Him that makes us deaf to His speaking to us. Lord however You choose to speak to me, give me the ears to hear you and to not limit how You may wish to cause me to hear you. It's never our striving, but His grace in wanting His children to grow in discerning His voice confirmed by His Word written. The Lord will never speak a Word that is in any conflict with His Word written because the Holy Spirit will not contradict Himself.

 THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud   or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.   It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.   Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. ” Galatians 5:22-23 “ But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,   gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! ” As I read and meditate on these two passages written by the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit what seems clearer to me is the definition of what real love, God’s Love, is according to the Word of God. The fruit of the Spirit, the reality of life in the Spirit as He lives out the Life of Jesus Christ in a believer is de...