August 11, 2002
WHICH IS RIGHT? Our modern day evaluation and compromise of the standards of the Word, or the Word of the Lord? Must we sin every day in word thought or deed. Having been saved from sin we certainly are not expected to continue in sin. The key to a sinless life is death. There is no sin in a cemetery, for they are dead. Death is not an event in life that is easily approached. The Lord has incorporated into us a desire to live. Our physical man will struggle to live when death is nigh. The secret of a victorious Christian life is death. We must die, die to sin, so that we will not continue to be involved in it. Rom. 6:2 Where and how do we die to self and sin? In the waters of baptism. We were baptized INTO the death of the Lord Jesus, buried WITH Him, by baptism into His death. As He died and was buried we also are to follow Him into a sharing and unity with Him in His death, where we die to sin. This is not an appeal for rebaptism but rather a recognition of a transaction that has already taken place in our lives. An exhortation to, to revisit, in prayer, consecration and faith, an act of our Christian heritage that needs to be completed in His church. Rom. 6:3 The individual that has died with Him is blessed by being able to share in His resurrection and all of its powers. Here is the life that we seek, to be found with life, in Christ Jesus. So much of what is manifest in the church world of today is physical rather than spiritual. Similar manifestations may accompany both but there is a great contrast between the two. Newness of life, means that resurrection life that is now His. It is His desire to share it with us. Our longings, our spiritual cravings can only be satiated by living the life that He has designed for His people. It may not be the way of ease, but the pay off is tremendous. Rom. 6:4 The ultimate is that glorious and perfect church.
DIE OR DIE! If the church continues to live according to the sinful nature, the carnal man, the flesh, the sentence of death is upon it. The wages of sin is death, whether committed by an out and out sinner or someone of the household of faith, sin is sin, and its penalty is death. For the Christian, we already know the answer. Mortify, put to death the misconduct of the flesh. Is not that a nice word for sin? Rom. 8:13 This is a situation that must be dealt with in the church and in the lives of every one who names the name of Christ. This is certainly a < thus saith the Lord >. Turn from, forsake sin. 2 Tim. 2:19The challenge to the Christian is to say <NO> to all that is ungodly and that follows the pattern of this world. To live soberly, with the mind of Christ as our guide. Justly, uprightly and doing that which is righteous. Living Godly lives in the midst of a sinful and unrighteous world. At this present time, and perhaps more so than any generation of the past. Titus 2:12 The call of the Spirit of the Lord to His church is that she live His life in every aspect of her life and being. Exemplifying the beauty and holiness of the life of Christ