Rest

(New York skyscrapers from Central Park)

It's critical to find "rest" in the midst of your crazy world.
John 16:33
(ASV) These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Peace is that undisturbed sense of well-being, that only Jesus can give through His word. Its the weapon we have within, to withstand to pressure without.
Isa 26:3 You, LORD, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.

Peace is what keeps us restful in the middle of a storm or when facing a tribunal, conviction and condemnation to death. Its our spiritual immunity to face anything and everything in this crazy world, because w know that He has overcome. perfect peace is not some nice mushy feeling of tranquility temporarily found in a exquisite sunset or something, as wonderful as these are.

No! This peace is only found in our sure, secure, firm-footed focus on our purpose and His word.

Ambitious

While taking a friend to the airport we got to spend some time in New York City yesterday. Nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to spend too much time there in the city. Too busy.
To me it looked like there are 3 kinds of people, generally:

• those that make it;
• those that fake it &
• those that can't take it!

Those that make it are of the "lottery" of life. Everybody wishes they were them, but never get there. Mostly others fake it, hoping they can make it, but if not, they'll feel better just looking like it. And unfortunately, there is a whole bunch that can not take anymore. They fall through the cracks of life, giving up on any dreams or aspirations.

Luke 4:5 Then the Devil took him up and showed him in a second all the kingdoms of the world.
Luke 4:6 "I will give you all this power and all this wealth," the Devil told him. "It has all been handed over to me, and I can give it to anyone I choose.
Luke 4:7 All this will be yours, then, if you worship me."
Luke 4:8 Jesus answered, "The scripture says, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!' "

There is a constant draw to pursue the power and wealth. There is no mistaking it is there, otherwise it would not have been a temptation to Jesus.

But the price is.....Worship!
Worship gives us intimacy with what is worshiped and makes us its devotee.

Only the worship of God is liberating. Worship always costs us, but one will liberate you; the other will be bondage. You see the devil wanted worship, but the focus was to get the power and the wealth.
Whereas, God requires worship as Him being the focus. Its personal, intimate and fufilling. You see, in Him is all that we need and that's why Jesus did not need anything other than to worship God. We don't need anything else, except to worship God. He is so devoted to me, to us. We can never out-devote Him. We have no need of false dreams and aspirations. We do not need to "fake it" or even get to the place of "can't take it". Worship God, and allow Him to position you and guide you and equip you and see Him bring to pass every good plan He has for you.

Discipleship

Mat 28:18 Jesus drew near and said to them, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.
Mat 28:19 Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age."

"In "going" make disciples" is what Jesus said was our commission. "On the same road you have been travelling, carry on going", "What you have learnt and been shown, this is what you need to keep doing", is the greeting Jesus gave the twelve on His departure from the earth. This was His final and official commission given for them to carry out and pass on to His church.

GO; MAKE DISCIPLES; BAPTIZE; TEACH: "Go" was His greeting; "Make Disciples" was the activity.
Jesus promise was that He would never abandon or leave them while they carried out this directive of the His.

Now, we have seen that He had crowds with Him, and that He had had compassion on them and ministered to them and he also had a bunch of other disciples whom He instructed and sent out to minister on His behalf, but that He invested and imparted into and focused on the 12.

But why?
Joh 2:23 While Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in him as they saw the miracles he performed.
Joh 2:24 But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew them all.
Joh 2:25 There was no need for anyone to tell him about them, because he himself knew what was in their hearts.
Whom did he entrust Himself to? The 12 disciples, whom He had chosen after prayer.

Joh 6:25 When the people found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they said to him, "Teacher, when did you get here?"
Joh 6:26 Jesus answered, "I am telling you the truth: you are looking for me because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you understood my miracles.

Jesus knew the crowds were really there because of the 'fish sandwiches' and the miracles, but not because of who He really was, and is. Their focus was to get their needs met. Now, that is not particularly a bad thing, because Jesus met those needs, but Jesus does call us to a higher place.

Joh 6:28 So they asked him, "What can we do in order to do what God wants us to do?"
Joh 6:29 Jesus answered, "What God wants you to do is to believe in the one he sent."
Joh 6:30 They replied, "What miracle will you perform so that we may see it and believe you? "What will you do?"
Another translation says"What are the things God wants us to do?"
Jesus answer is that, God wants us to BELIEVE! What? In the One He sent.

This is what Peter 'saw' in Matthew chapter 16.
Mat 16:15 "What about you?" he asked them. "Who do you say I am?"
Mat 16:16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Mat 16:17 "Good for you, Simon son of John!" answered Jesus. "For this truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven.

After Jesus' answer they immediately ask for a sign again. "Give us a miracle", they say. "What will you do?"
You see, Jesus is wanting to take His disciples to a place of where if they never have another miracle, or another prayer answered, or have another sign or wonder, they will never be phased because they BELIEVE. They believe in who He is, not just what He does.

Joh 6:57 The living Father sent me, and because of him I live also. In the same way whoever eats me will live because of me.
Joh 6:58 This, then, is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread that your ancestors ate, but then later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever."
Joh 6:59 Jesus said this as he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Joh 6:60 Many of his followers heard this and said, "This teaching is too hard. Who can listen to it?"
Joh 6:61 Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, "Does this make you want to give up?
Joh 6:62 Suppose, then, that you should see the Son of Man go back up to the place where he was before?
Joh 6:63 What gives life is God's Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit.
Joh 6:64 Yet some of you do not believe." (Jesus knew from the very beginning who were the ones that would not believe and which one would betray him.)
Joh 6:65 And he added, "This is the very reason I told you that no people can come to me unless the Father makes it possible for them to do so."
Joh 6:66 Because of this, many of Jesus' followers turned back and would not go with him any more.


Even the disciples (not the 12 ) had a problem what he required of them. It was too hard for them. Not the miracles, not the 'fish sandwiches', but the Son of the Living God Himself should be the focus of their life and faith. His very life and nature and character was to be reproduced in them. They had to eat His flesh and drink His blood, covenanted and committed until His life was their life.
But that was too hard for them and many turned away at this.

Joh 6:67 So he asked the twelve disciples, "And you---would you also like to leave?"
Joh 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.
Joh 6:69 And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God.

The 12 however, whom Jesus had invested in over the time He was here, stayed because they believed and knew. They had the revelation of Who He is.

When you move to that place where who Christ is, is being reproduced in you, the outward factors are something that happens, but don't move you. You are are a follower because you receive Him. Will you see signs and wonders and miracles? Most definitely. But they are not the reason or the motivation of your follower-ship. He become the centre of your life. Christ Jesus is the reason for your existence. You hunger for Him to reproduced in you and to be reproduced in others. As a "12" disciple you direct people to Christ the Lord and Savior, you 'show' Him, and do not try and draw attention to you or your giftings and ministry. Your one desire is Him and His words that produce Life.

Watchman Nee said," Only the foolish are proud of the words God gives, for has He not shown that He will speak, if need be, through an ass!"

Prayer:
Jesus forgive me for taking your Life and call so lightly. Forgive me for every time I have become offended because i felt You didn't answer or 'do' what i felt You should. Today, i set and committ my life to make You the Focus and be a disciple who believes and knows. Holy Spirit help me be a 12 disciple.

The Law vs Faith

Gal 3:22 But the scripture says that the whole world is under the power of sin; and so the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe.
Gal 3:23 But before the time for faith came, the Law kept us all locked up as prisoners until this coming faith should be revealed.
Gal 3:24 And so the Law was in charge of us until Christ came, in order that we might then be put right with God through faith.
Gal 3:25 Now that the time for faith is here, the Law is no longer in charge of us.
Gal 3:26 It is through faith that all of you are God's children in union with Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself.


"The law kept us locked up as prisoners":
This means the law was a sort of 'watcher in advance'; it means that it mounted guard; hemmed in, to protect.(phoureo)
It held us under, especially in an inferior position or condition and specifically covertly. (hupo)
The law being the regulation and prescribed principles.(nomos)
"in charge of us":
This is the word 'paidagogos' - meaning being led by a servant whose office it is to take the children to school; a tutor; instructor; schoolmaster.
So, the law hemmed us in and mounted guard over us with regulations to keep us in an inferior condition and position, and that done covertly, to lead us bound, in a sense, to school to learn and be tutored.
But why?

It was only till Christ would come and we could believe in His completed work for us. The law held us in bondage, till faith came. Jesus revealed the power of faith when He walked on the earth. Never before had man been able to live by the power of his own faith. Jesus fulfilled all the law and took its curse (Gal 3:13), thereby giving us the ability to live by our personal full persuasion, moral conviction of truth; especially reliance upon Christ for our salvation, and then the constancy in the profession of our faith; assurance, and belief. This is what FAITH is. (pistis)

Just like the Pharisees who wanted to keep people under the bondage of the law even though Christ was the Redeemer, so even today, we have those who use the 'law' of regulation to manipulate and control as many as they can. The Judiazers insisted that the gentile believers be circumcised as they were, but Paul the apostle refuted this as a 'frustration' of the grace Christ has brought us.
We cannot 'control' peoples behavior, much less their personal belief system. We can persuade and influence through the Word, but not 'control'.
The Bible tells us that "without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Heb11:6) and that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom 10:17).
Laws and regulations will only leave you spiritually in a place of inferiority and bondage. Your condition will always be one of hemmed in feeling of being 'watched' at every move you make. But Christ came and with Him the time of faith. Now we receive the promise on the basis of faith because we believe.

Galations 5:1
"We have freedom now, because Christ made us free. So, stand strong. Do not change and go back into the slavery of the law. 2. Listen, I Paul tell you that if you go back to the law by being circumcised, Christ does you no good".

The freedom we have through faith is because Christ set us free.
Freedom: eleutheria: legitimate, chiefly moral or ceremonial: - liberty.
Made us free: eleutheroō; to liberate, that is, (figuratively) to exempt (from moral, ceremonial or mortal liability): - deliver, make free.
Stand strong: stēkō; to be stationary, that is, (figuratively) to persevere: - stand (fast).

Christ has delivered and liberated us from moral or ceremonial liability, and He made it a legitimate liberty so that we are free and can stay free. In fact, we are to persevere in that liberty. If we don't, we end up back under the entanglement and snare of being yoked or brought into servant hood and slavery and bondage to laws and obligations to the ceremonies, regulations of this yoke. Its the yoke of being 'balanced', judged and brought into the ensnarement. (enecho; zugos; douleia) You are never sure of your ability to do it right or fulfill its obligations. In fact, you cant!
Only believing in Christ, walking by the faith of the Son of God, do you experience knowing that all is fulfilled because of Him and now you can walk in all of it because of Him.
When men are 'laying' on you the 'law' of regulations, you too feel as if nothing you do is right or enough, leaving you to try and obtain your promise through the fulfilling of your ceremonies and regulations.
You may even be applying this personally. Because you cannot 'believe' Christ would do it all for you , you feel you need to give Him some 'help'. But you don't realise you are bringing yourself into a snare of bondage, slavery to your own 'works'.

Eph 2:8 For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it.

Christ has brought us freedom and legitimate liberty, so that we may walk in faith in His total complete work for us and receive His promised gift. No more slavery, no more yokes of bondage.
All is Christ.
Everyone needs to be brought to faith so that they may receive. Personal and individual.

Questions:

1. Are you constantly 'striving' in your faith walk to try and be good enough or accepted?
2. Do you feel you are 'good enough' to receive what Christ purchased for you?
3. When leaving meetings, do you feel you not good enough and the standard is too high for you?
4. Do constantly feel you need to please someone to 'earn' your acceptance?

Confess today:
I walk by faith and not by sight. Christ has redeemed me from the curse of the law. Its not by my might or the power of my own effort that I receive and enjoy all that Jesus died for for me, but by His grace and by my faith I enjoy all. Today I stand strong in His freedom for my life purchased with His blood. I am free to worship and free to receive. My faith works today. No more bondage for me.

Legalism is bound to produce pride of heart

Legalism is bound to produce pride of heart. To live by the law I must exert my strength of will, often against my own inclinations. Such effort inevitably leads me to despise or pity those who are not trying as hard as I, or who are trying and failing.
My very exertions give me a superior feeling that sours me toward them, and even though I keep my feeling to myself, I shall soon find I am too aloof even to pray with those I consider less spiritual.
Living by the law leads to this . But God is too big to stereotype His saints. People are not to be conformed to me, but to His death. And that is just as well. For sourness in apples is no mark of maturity! Ripe apples are sweet.
If God is really producing something in me I shall find no difficulty in going along with other saints whose history is different from mine.
Watchman Nee

Our home in Narvon. And a snowy day on the way to our home.

Amish buggies pass by our house daily. It feels like we are caught in a time warp, the 18th Century in the 21st.