Paul exhorts in II Thessalonians 3:14-15, [14] And if any man obey not our word by this
epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. [15]
Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
Jordan explains, “Part of what happens is that in order to
love the truth and to hold onto the truth you have to be willing to go outside
the camp.
“Martin Luther
said, ‘If you’re engaged in the battle for the truth at every point except the
point at which the truth is being contended for in your life, you’re not really
in the battle.’
“Paul calls us
‘debtors’ to ‘his Spirit that dwelleth in you.’ Love puts claims on your life.
Love reaches down and puts a claim on your life that the law never could. Love is a motivator. It’s something that reaches
into your heart and motivates you internally in a way no external compulsion
can do.
“I’ve said many
times that when you learn some things about 'right division,' and the grace of
God, it will change some things in your life. It will probably change where you
go to church. That’s a hard pill; people don’t like to hear that.
“There’s a
religious system out there, folks, that the Bible equates with ‘harlotry’ and
‘adultery,’ and being a part of it is considered being spiritually unfaithful
to God just as if you stepped out on your marriage partner. That’s a serious
thing.
“If the Adversary
can confuse the physical things of your life—the circumstances and struggles of
your life—with life itself, in order to divert you away and to cause you to ‘walk
by sight and not be faith,’ he’s winning a victory.
"That’s why Paul says ‘don’t
give place to the devil.’ In your life, walk in wisdom, walk in light, walk as
children of the light. Understand what the battle is and understand you ARE a
part of it.”
*****
“When you look at something and
you’re afraid you’re going to lose it—how many Believers are afraid of losing?”
says Jordan. “Losing your possessions, losing your (financial) security? Losing
the respect of others? Losing your health, your comforts?
“Why do you fear losing those
things? Did you know that every one of those things you’re going to lose
anyway? Naked you came in and naked you’re going to go out.
“The only thing that’s going to last
forever are the spiritual things you have; your identity in Christ, your riches
in Christ.
“Why do we fear then? Because we
have this idea that our identity and our future resides in our own abilities,
our own resources. It’s unbelief--a lack of dependence on who God has made you
in Jesus Christ and who God has made Christ to you—that makes you want to get
your identity out of anything but Him.
“It’s not what you do; it’s what He
did that makes you valuable. It’s not what you accomplish; it’s what He’s
accomplished that gives you worth and meaning. Because He’s given you HIS value.
“At the most basic level, sin is a
refusal to trust God to give you what you’re looking for in Christ. Fear really
is unbelief.
*****
“If you can get that monkey off your
back that you got to be ‘good enough’ to measure up and belong and have value,
then you’re FREE to let His life produce His work in and through you. As
soon as you do that, there’s that humbling of your mind, that ‘lowliness of mind.’
“Listen, being right doesn’t depend
on you. Would you relax and realize that? Paul says, ‘You can do nothing
against the truth but for the truth.’
“In Acts 20, when Paul’s talking to
these elders and bishops at Ephesus--when he called them together and met with
them at Miletus--he says in verse 19 about his own manner with them, ‘Serving
the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which
befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews.’
“Notice he says, ‘Serving the Lord
with all humility of mind.’ That’s the inside attitude he had: ‘It’s not about
me; it’s not about me being right. I don’t have to defend myself, I don’t have
to make it look like I’m okay and I’m ‘qualified,’ but ‘with many tears, and
temptations . . . ’ He was willing to appear weak so that the power of Christ might
be the real issue.
(new article tomorrow)
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