Please remember that you bless us with your presence, and may the Holy Spirit bring you His comfort and His peace. Join us!!!
Zoom Link:
For Study, Prayer and Fellowship - 8:00 AM PDT 09/06/2025:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82968961343?pwd=LzcwVjJKcWVESDRURlhDcXlNV0JUdz09
Meeting ID: 829 6896 1343
Passcode: 77299ere:
09/06/2025 – Becoming saints continued. If the only condition to becoming a saint is God’s grace, why does He not just give us the grace and be done? God is a gentleman. He respects our freedom of choice. He only gives us what we truly want. Most of us deep down do not want grace, if we did, we would get it. The equation is direct: When we sincerely want it, we have it, because it is sanctity, sanctity is loving, loving is willing and willing is wanting. We have been promised by God incarnate that all who seek find. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” [Matt 7:7-12] Why is it hard? We are happy with Christ and our religion, Christ and our theology, Christ and our politics, Christ and our culture, but Christ undiluted, is too much. Man is challenged to look into the face of Jesus; it requires confronting our shortcomings and understanding the depth of God’s love and truth, which can be both revealing and transformative. This encounter can evoke feelings of being vulnerable and needing to change; as it reflects who we truly are and who we can become. “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and inherit eternal life.” [Matt. 19:29-30] In the Culture war, the one thing we fear is the winning weapon. Use this weapon to win. If not, we will not. The war is not for our society, but for souls, not for now, but for all eternity.
How do we obtain the only weapon that will win the culture war? We may ask one question. If there is only one thing needed, how do we attain it? Leon Bloy, (French, 1846 – 1917) “Life offers one tragedy, in the end - not to have been a saint.” We begin: Jesus said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your might.” He added, “The second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. No other command-ment is greater than these.” [Deut. 6:4-5; Matt. 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31] We note four things: all or nothing; it takes a long time to get to the end; God is infinitely patient and demanding; and God is easy to please, if we live in faith. God wants us to get on with it – to fulfill our destinies. After all our lives have been in the works since, [Gen. 1:1] “In the beginning, God created …”
The theology above is heavy. Here is the kicker, no matter how much we think we may give to God; the reality is whatever we have given is through God’s grace. Thus, my act is His gift. We are tempted to ask why does He not give more? God created freedom and gave freedom to us. God is a lover; not a manipulator nor one who uses force, both of which negate freedom. Thus, God takes only what we give. We give to God based on our will and our choices. We all begin as spiritual infants. Christ matures within us at different rates, different times and we backslide. Once again that characteristic - undulation. That is our destiny. Do not feel guilty about your very being. God did not design us to become saints in a single day. We must not go faster than His grace. The medieval philosophers stated, “Whatever is received, is received according to the mode of the receiver.” The mode of a human is time. We are a plant and God is our gardener. How do we know this?
When God gave us His supreme gift, His own Son, Jesus entered time as a baby and grew slowly in grace. [Luke 2]. We read snippets of Jesus until age 12. [Luke 2:1-50] “Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” [Luke 2:51-52] We do not encounter Jesus again for 18 years! Jesus was learning a trade. What happened in that stable and over the next 30 years must happen in our souls. Be not impatient! Most people are impatient for the gift of patience. This is compounded for most Americans - the Land of Instant Gratification. Most folks have not read [Job]. Here, we learn that patience is a gift and a virtue. What we also learn is that patience and impatience are not contradictory. Patience means waiting for God’s time, but God lives in the present. We should give “all of me” to God in His time, His time is now, so we should give “all of me” to God now. This is another Nike moment – Do not think, Do not try to understand - Just do it. It takes time to think, to understand, it takes no time to do it. At this point folks respond in different ways. Some may say, “Okay, I see.” That indicates a pause, a thought, a reflection and it is not - just do it. Some may say. “Okay, I will.” That indicates some planning is necessary and just doing it is a point in the future. When you just do it, you do not have to plan. That is God’s commandment. [John 4:23-24; Rom. 12:1]
Thus, if I say I finally see it. We are still seeing and not doing. If you are waiting, thinking, plan-ning, or understanding those are simply distractions, discard them. We have serious work to do. We are not to run away. God wants our heart. He wants us to ignore all distractions. He wants to hear us say, “I surrender.” He wants us to put away our ‘toys’. They distract us. He wants us to stare Him in the face. That is challenging. What should we expect from such an encounter? In a word – freedom – it is impossible to sin while looking God in the face. “To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered Him … How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” [John 8:31-36]
It is as if we are tormented by gnats. We are unable to rid ourselves of all gnats. But you can get rid of the two biggest gnats – pride – ‘I did it my way” and – control. We are able to dispatch both of those pesky sins with the magic words, “I give up”.
The cost may be great, the time long, but the outcome is not in doubt. There are three non- negotiable absolutes – no relativism here. 1) Truth is stronger than falsehood, light is stronger than darkness. Darkness can never extinguish light. 2) Love is stronger than hate. We fight because we love: God, man, nature, children, masculinity, femininity, sexuality, the body, the soul, life, love and truth. The enemy does not! “And so, we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” [1 John 4:16] God cannot lose, God is love, and if we do not abide in love we deserve to lose. And 3) Jesus is Lord, Christ is King – this is not a mystic image nor an ‘ideal’ to be used as a motivator, but it is an eternal necessity. We possess the most potent weapon of all time – The blood of Christ. The blood that saved the world 2,000 years ago still flows. Neither sacrifice w/o love or love w/o sacrifice will work. But the blood of Christ works because it flows from His sacred heart and that heart is agape, divine love, it never gives up. Love never gives up. Nothing is as fearsome as a bloodied opponent who will never surrender. We will win the war no matter how many times we fall down, no matter how many times we fail at being saints, no matter how many times we fail at love, we will never, never, never give up. We will win because we are the body of Christ, and Christ is God, and God is love, and love never, never, never, gives up. AMEN
Love, Hank
Cell: 541-973-5442
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