Easy

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.


Forgiveness is easy to obtain. Too easy? Confess and trust. Lay down your sin and be cleansed; walk on. It is easy for us. It was not easy for Jesus to purchase for us. With respect to power and ability, nothing is difficult for God. But the purchase of our forgiveness cost Christ his blood and that cost pain and anguish and heartache. It cost excruciating and unfathomable pain.

Forgiveness and grace are free to us. They were very expensive for God. It is the very fact that it is so easy that causes us to lay down the flesh – to die. When we believe how easily we are forgiven because of the very expensive blood of Christ, we come to a point that we can’t stand it anymore. We see that we love Him because he loved us first. We cannot stand to continue to so easily lay down the same sin any longer. We come to be ready to die because we hate that it is so easy for us – when it should not be. As long as we try to fight our sin ourselves, we make it hard for ourselves. When we feel it is hard for ourselves, we are self justified. Regretting the consequences of sin may bring us to hate the sin. But it is the ease with which we are granted forgiveness that causes us to hate our own flesh. It is not enough that we hate what a particular sin produces. We have to hate our own flesh enough to carry it on our "cross" as we follow Jesus. As long as we are convinced that it is a burden for us; that it is difficult for us to be rid of sin and that it is our fight, we miss the immensity of the gift of grace. We miss the reality of the price Jesus paid so that we could be free. What makes sin so heartbreaking is that to be free of it is cost Christ His blood and it cost us nothing.

Jesus is Coming

Jesus is Coming....

AND HE WANTS HIS CHILDREN!

Phil. 2:17
Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad

The purposes of God have been on my mind alot lately. I think alot about living for Jesus and not myself. I read a verse like this and can see that the Apostle Paul knew something of living for the purposes of Christ. I want that! How high, how grand, how.....overwhelming - if it is to be real. All the high and holy thoughts come crashing into the everyday. The purposes of God; obedience. It doesn't sound so glamourous when we say obedience. Well, if we are going to live for the purposes of God, we will encounter spiritual battles. Spiritual battle without obedience is like fighting with no arms.

Obedience is not an option - clear conscience or not. It is a matter of survival. We look forward to Jesus's coming with eagerness. That is strength and food. But today the enemy prowls, the flesh entices and the world hates. In every day matters, the purposes of God can seem too high, too far away. But they are never nearer or clearer than in the simple tasks that take up the moments of a single day.

We ought to spend less time acknowledging the sinful flesh and more time resisting it. We ought to spend less time whining and more time praying. We ought to spend less time wondering when we will get an "opportunity" to preach the gospel and a little more time loving someone other than ourselves. We ought to spend less time trying to escape our troubles and more time embracing them.

Jesus is serious about His purposes. He is set on completing His every word. The Devil is serious in keeping you from living for God. Jesus is serious about calling in the children of heaven from every nation. He is serious about building His church for the glory of His name. He is coming...He wants His children...and He will have them. How serious are you?