Ephesians 6:5-8 – “Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; 6 not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7 With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.”  NASU

I want to talk about BEING RELEASED and I have a growing appreciation for this passage as a profound revelation from God.  I must put this in context for it is most assuredly not a ‘standalone’ passage.  This passage is placed within a set of passages that deal with the tense and difficult aspect of living the Christian life.  It begins with ‘husbands’ and ‘wives’, one of the most significant areas where your Christian life is tested.  Then, it deals with ‘children’ and next ‘slaves.’  All can be special areas of tension.  However, it begins much earlier in Ephesians 5:18 where we are advised,“…do not get drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs…”  It is a directive to be ‘filled’ with the Spirit of God and allow the heart to be overflowing with praise to God and this text is how being ‘filled’ with the Spirit works out in daily life.  It works out in relationships, therefore what we are really talking about is what it really means to be filled with the Spirit.

That being said, there is an even greater context to consider.  In Ephesians 6:10 it deals with ‘spiritual warfare’ which is the finale of the Book of Ephesians.  Thus the passage regarding ‘slaves’ is really the end of what Paul has to say in Ephesians regarding ‘spiritual warfare.’  Everything in the book comes to a conclusion here and that alone makes it incredibly important.  I am convinced that if you understand the message here you will NEVER again be a victim of circumstances or people.  Interested yet?

THE CHARACTERS:

We know from the historical record that ‘slaves’ made up most of the Roman Empire in that time.  To the Romans one ceased to be ‘human’ once they were pressed into slavery and it was virtually permanent.  Slaves, to them, were not humans or animals they were machines!  Interestingly many of the slaves continued doing what they had done before as a vocation or job but it no longer had any meaning they were in bondage even if it was only in their heads.  They developed a sense that they DID NOT MATTER.  The only value a slave had left was their Performance.  It was all about what he did and how he did it.  Their significance came from pleasing their supervisor and have them smile.

They learned to become ‘men pleasers’ craving the smile, praise or simplest recognition and it became the oxygen that the lived by.  They became addicted to the praise of men.  Simply it was: Performance + What Someone Thinks = Worth.  The person in the predicament learns to try to read the minds, faces, actions, body language of those they are seeking to please.  We have all met ‘enslaved people’ and may have been one ourselves in this sense.  If a person is in the condition then if someone expresses or demonstrates any rejection it becomes incredibly traumatic and they fall apart.

Others become entrapped in ‘eye service’ or they only work when the boss or overseer is watching.  They seek to do minimum work for maximum return.  They serve the ‘eyes of men’ and come to view themselves as ‘victims’.  It is tragic that here in the ‘Land of the Free’ we have a large population of ‘Enslaved’.  Remember I am talking about being ‘Filled with the Spirit.’

             The RELEASE comes in knowing you are UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED and become secure in the Love of God realizing your importance and worth is not based on what you do but because of who He is.  Then you are able to relate to others from that position and are FREE!  Some become addicted to work or something trying to fill the hole inside that can only be filled by God.  Paul did not tell them to ‘rebel’ but to ‘obey’ for that was their way to FREEDOM.

People change jobs, houses, cars, and spouses trying to solve this issue but nothing changes by changing things.  Freedom comes when we change!  Obedience is a choice. Victims do not choose but Free Men/Women do.  Victims comply but Free Men/Women choose.  You have to make a choice!   Remember God chose to love you and in Christ you are NOW seated in heavenly places in Christ.  At that point we can ‘perform’ not to be accepted but because we are accepted in the beloved.  You ‘perform’ not to be loved for you cannot be loved more than you are in God.  You do not ‘perform’ for praise because you could not be more important than you are in God.

If you see this you will be RELEASED from bondage and LIVE FREE in Christ!  The spiritual application of this is not physical bondage to another but learning to be RELEASED in GOD!  God bless you as you go through your day!

Psalm 19:14 – “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”  NKJV

This prayer of David is another reason I can accept God’s declaration that David was a man after His own heart.  Too many times we focus on David’s flaws and failures wondering how it could be possible that God would so speak of Israel’s great king.  But if we allow the Holy Spirit to open the prayers of David we will being to understand what God was declaring.  We must always remember that God does not look on the exterior but the interior (heart).  (1 Samuel 16:7)

This prayer in Psalms 19 is one of many that reflects the ‘heart’ of David.  Imagine a man whose greatest concern was that his ‘words’ and ‘thoughts’ be acceptable and pleasing to God.  He is a man rising in power having ascended to the highest position of authority in the land and yet his ‘heart’ cries out to PLEASE GOD!  In my studies of the life of David and other characters in the Bible I find that one of the central parts of the equation for greatness was having a ‘tender heart’ before God.  They were strong men and some men of war but their heart’s desire was to PLEASE GOD.

God is always looking for hearts that are open, receptive and have a willingness to obey His purposes.  He chose Abram who became Abraham and one of the central characteristics of Abraham’s life was his ‘heart’.  We are told in Genesis and Romans that Abraham ‘believed’ God and it was accounted to Him for righteousness.  Likewise we are instructed that ‘without faith’ it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.  These men, such as David, were men who trusted, received and exhibited a willingness to obey the Word and Spirit of God.

David repeatedly revealed his humanness and in many churches of today would have been disqualified as a result of his failings as would most of the other Biblical Patriarchs.  Yet, God chose to use these men to establish a nation and a lineage from which the Christ would come.  He continually confounds the wise, the religiously self-righteous and questioners using things and people we would not have chosen and their hearts crying out to Him brought about glorious results for the Kingdom of God.

If you only review the exterior or actions of another you will likely miss what God is doing or working in their lives and through them.  You will reject the messenger and thereby miss the message.  No wonder Jesus said to those who brought the adulterous woman before Him, “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.”  No wonder we are told, “Get the log out of your own eye before you try to remove a splinter or speck from the eyes of another.”  I have experienced the Holy Spirit opening my eyes to a spiritual truth through people and in places I would not have anticipated that happening.  He has taught me to not look at the packaging but the product.  It is not the marketing but the message that is important.

My heart cries out that the ‘words’ of my mouth and the ‘thoughts’ in my heart be acceptable and pleasing to My Lord.  I ask and continue to ask, Lord set a guard over my mouth.  “Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips guarding my heart from evil.”  That is a daily prayer and the desire of my heart.  I want to be a man after God’s own heart.  I want to be a vessel usable for His purposes.

May God be with you as you go through this day!

Colossians 3:1-5 – “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.  5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  NKJV

Very interesting passage!  I would like for you to consider several words in this passage.  They are words that link sentences and believe me I am not attempting to give a treatise on English grammar.  If you can accept it, God speaks to us in normal language so that we understand.  He uses grammar that obeys the laws of grammar, thus it becomes important for us to notice the grammar as we study scripture.

Two words stand out in this passage.  In verse 3 the word FOR and in verse 5 the word THEREFORE.  These two words are incredibly important because they ‘link us back’ to the previous.  I find it amazing how sometimes the smallest things hold a vital key to understanding.  Listen carefully to what is being said.  Paul writes, “IF then you were raised with Christ…”  Think with me to what is being said.  IF that is the case!  That is not the IF of a question but the IF of ‘since.’  Simply, SINCE you have been raised with Christ!  If that is the case THEN what are you to do?   In verse 2 you find the answer:  “Set your mind on things above.”

THEREFORE, if it is the case that you have been ‘born again’ or ‘raised with Christ’.  IF that is the case, THEN you have to do something.  You have to ‘set’ your mind on Christ. In verse three we find FOR.  This is not a new idea this is an explanation.  Do you know why you have to set your mind on things above?  FOR or BECAUSE you have died and now your life is hidden with Christ in God!

Are you following me?  When Christ, who is our life comes we have to change our thinking, because we have a different life.  We are no longer the person we once were and no longer in the place, position or condition we once were, FOR WE HAVE DIED!  We left Egypt, passed through the Red Sea and DIED.  We said ‘farewell’ to the world. We ‘announced’ our burial.  We have been buried and IT IS OVER!  We are now ALIVE unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Christ is now our life!  That is why you have to ‘set’ your mind on things above, AND the fact that you have set your mind on things above; THEREFORE! 

In light of the fact that you have died, risen and Christ is your life you MUST adjust your thinking.  It is at that point we must CONSIDER the members of our earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, etc.  You now THINK about yourself and everything else in a different way for your mind is ‘set’ on things above not on things of earth.  WHY?  Because you are a new person in Christ dead to sin and alive to God! 

Honestly, if you are not ‘born again’ all the self-help books you could read would do little to truly change your life.  They tell you that you can change your life by changing your thinking but leave out something vital.  We do not begin in our ‘thoughts’ we begin in our ‘spirits.’  When a person’s spirit is dead all the positive thinking in the world will only result in them being positively dead and none of that thinking will make them whole.  We are UNITED with Christ and in that we are united to LOVE, GENTLENESS, JOY, and PEACE.  We cease traveling the religious road looking for virtues we have been united with VIRTUE HIMSELF.  Christ in us is the Hope of Glory.  The life we now live in the flesh we live in and through Him.

            God bless you as you go through your day!

Psalm 19:14 – “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”  NKJV

This prayer of David is another reason I can accept God’s declaration that David was a man after His own heart.  Too many times we focus on David’s flaws and failures and wonder how it could be possible that God would so speak of Israel’s great king.  But if we allow the Holy Spirit to open the prayers of David we will being to understand that which God was speaking.  We must always remember that God does not look on the exterior but the interior (heart).  (1 Samuel 16:7)

This prayer in Psalms 19 is one of many that reflect the ‘heart’ of David.  Imagine a man whose greatest concern was that his ‘words’ and ‘thoughts’ be acceptable and pleasing to God.  He is a man rising in power or ascended to the highest position of power in the land and yet his ‘heart’ cries out to PLEASE GOD.  In my studies of the life of David and other characters in the Bible I find that one of the central parts of the equation for greatness was having a ‘tender heart’ before God.  They were strong men and some were men of war but when it came to their heart’s desire it was to PLEASE GOD.

God is always looking for hearts that are open, receptive and have a willingness to obey His purposes.  He chose Abram who became Abraham and one of the central characteristics of Abraham’s life was his ‘heart’.  We are told in Genesis and Romans that Abraham ‘believed’ God and it was accounted to Him for righteousness.  Likewise we are instructed that ‘without faith’ it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.  These men, such as David, were men who trusted, received and exhibited a willingness to obey the Word and Spirit of God.

David repeatedly revealed his humanness and in many churches of today would have been disqualified as a result of his failings as would most of the other Biblical Patriarchs.  Yet, God chose to use these men to establish a nation that would preserve the lineage from which the Christ would come.  He continually confounds the wise, the religiously self-righteous and questioners using things and people we would not have chosen and their hearts crying out to Him brought about glorious results for the Kingdom of God.

If you only review the exterior or actions of another you will likely miss what God is doing are working in their lives and through them.  You will reject the messenger and thereby miss the message.  No wonder Jesus said to those who brought the adulterous woman before Him, “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.”  No wonder we are told, “Get the log out of your own eye before you try to remove a splinter or speck from the eyes of another.”  I have experienced the Holy Spirit opening my eyes to a spiritual truth through people and in places I would not have anticipated that happening.  He has taught me to not look at the packaging but the product.  It is not the marketing but the message that is important.

My heart cries out that the ‘words’ of my mouth and the ‘thoughts’ in my heart be acceptable and pleasing to My Lord.  I ask and continue to ask, Lord set a guard over my mouth.  “Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips guarding my heart from evil.”  That is a daily prayer and the desire of my heart.  I want to be a man after God’s own heart.  I want to be a vessel usable for His purposes.

May God be with you as you go through this day!

Colossians 3:1-5 – “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.  5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  NKJV

Very interesting passage!  I would like for you to consider several words in this passage.  They are words that link sentences and believe me I am not attempting to give a treatise on English grammar.  If you can accept it, God speaks to us in normal language so that we understand.  He uses grammar that obeys the laws of grammar, thus it becomes important for us to notice the grammar as we study scripture.

Two words stand out in this passage.  In verse 3 the word FOR and in verse 5 the word THEREFORE.  These two words are incredibly important because they ‘link us back’ to the previous.  I find it amazing how sometimes the smallest things hold a vital key to understanding.  Listen carefully to what is being said.  Paul writes, “IF then you were raised with Christ…”  Think with me to what is being said.  IF that is the case!  That is not the IF of a question but the IF of ‘since.’  Simply, SINCE you have been raised with Christ!  If that is the case THEN what are you to do?   In verse 2 you find the answer:  “Set your mind on things above.”

THEREFORE, if it is the case that you have been ‘born again’ or ‘raised with Christ’.  IF that is the case, THEN you have to do something.  You have to ‘set’ your mind on Christ. In verse three we find FOR.  This is not a new idea this is an explanation.  Do you know why you have to set your mind on things above?  FOR or BECAUSE you have died and now your life is hidden with Christ in God!

Are you following me?  When Christ, who is our life comes we have to change our thinking, because we have a different life.  We are no longer the person we once were and no longer in the place, position or condition we once were, FOR WE HAVE DIED!  We left Egypt, passed through the Red Sea and DIED.  We said ‘farewell’ to the world. We ‘announced’ our burial.  We have been buried and IT IS OVER!  We are now ALIVE unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Christ is now our life!  That is why you have to ‘set’ your mind on things above, AND the fact that you have set your mind on things above; THEREFORE! 

In light of the fact that you have died, risen and Christ is your life you MUST adjust your thinking.  It is at that point we must CONSIDER the members of our earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, etc.  You now THINK about yourself and everything else in a different way for your mind is ‘set’ on things above not on things of earth.  WHY?  Because you are a new person in Christ dead to sin and alive to God! 

Honestly, if you are not ‘born again’ all the self-help books you can read will do little to truly change your life.  They tell you that you can change your life by changing your thinking but leave out something vital.  We do not begin in our ‘thoughts’ we begin in our ‘spirits.’  When a person’s spirit is dead all the positive thinking in the world will only result in them being positively dead and none of that thinking will make them whole.  We are UNITED with Christ and in that we are united to LOVE, GENTLENESS, JOY, and PEACE.  We cease traveling the religious road looking for virtues we have been united with VIRTUE HIMSELF.  Christ in us is the Hope of Glory.  The life we now live in the flesh we live in and through Him.

            God bless you as you go through your day!

Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  NASU

I believe in God and therefore creation!  The odds of random chance are so astronomical that I would have to have almost incomprehensible faith in chance to believe in evolution.  There is a new movie called “A Matter of Faith” which, according to the director, was attempting to alert parents to what their children are taught in secular schools.  Education, on the whole, today is not neutral on our origin and often teaches evolution with no opposing view. Sadly, many and maybe most universities are nothing more than churches of atheism teaching a materialistic view of our origin.  That view is diametrically opposed to the view presented in the Bible that God is Creator.  If Genesis is wrong it would be a simple task to extrapolate that the remainder of Scripture is completely unreliable and unbelievable as well.  If Jesus is not the Creator of John 1 then He does not have the power to save and we are without hope of salvation and eternal life.

I won’t saddle the old horse of ‘missing links’ but simply refer to the Bible declaration in Genesis 1 that God made the animals ‘after their kind’.  I understand that the word ‘kind’ is not limited to our modern term ‘species’.  There are obviously many varieties of fish, cattle, plants and even people.  For example we might have a new ‘species of pepper’ but they are still the same kind.  There may be changes within the species but the pepper does not become an apple or potato.  We may have changes in the dog ‘kind’ but they did not become lions, tigers, or cows.  They are still dogs.  Likewise there are limitations within the variations of plants and animals.  Dogs cannot mate with cats, pigs, or monkeys and reproduce.  Even further take the mule it cannot reproduce.  It is the offspring of a horse and a donkey and is a different species that is not perpetuated.  If it were all simply evolution then why would that limitation exist?

While I can acknowledge that some people act like animals I cannot believe they evolved from animals for the Bible declares that we were created in the ‘image’ and ‘likeness’ of God.  Man is the only creature so described in the Bible and I believe the biblical record and the scientific evidence that supports it.  When Adam was searching for a mate none of the animals qualified so God create Eve another human being for him.  If we look at the incredibly intricate network of nerves in the human nervous system, the miles of veins, vessels and arteries in the cardiovascular system it is impossible for me to believe that just happened in an evolutionary process.  A single celled amoeba becoming a living breathing thinking human is beyond my ability to believe.  I said once that in some ways it would take more faith (albeit negative) to believe in evolution than creation.

I believe the account of Genesis 1, the miraculous incarnation of Jesus, the miracles and the promises of God’s word.  In short, I believe God!  I have experienced God!  I trust God!  I told a young man on the streets of Dallas years ago while street witnessing with Teen Challenge, “If I am wrong and you are right I have lost nothing living a moral upright life.  I still had a great life.  However, if (and I am) right and you are wrong, you lost everything.”  An elderly man who seemed to appear our of nowhere and spoke with incredible authority in his voice said to the young man I was speaking, “You’d better listen to him.”  A silence fell over the people gathered and a sense of God’s presence was there.  I have no regrets for living my life believing in God and His word.  I know my redeemer lives!

            God bless you as you go through your day!

Jeremiah 2:13 – “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns That can hold no water.”  NASU

I had a person justify their failure to do something by declaring that he did nothing.  I know that sounds nonsensical but he argued that his omission was okay because he was not guilty of committing a overtly wrongful act.  He failed to remember the words of scripture in James 4:17 that knowing to do good and not doing it (omission) is sin.  Just because you do not commit one of the classically identified actions we have deemed sin does not mean that we have not failed via our omission. The one does not justify the other.

Jeremiah declares that the people had committed two evils.  They had forsaken God’s fountain of living water and hewn for themselves cisterns.  He identified the problem that flesh cannot provide the spiritual nourishment for it is a broken cistern.  I am reminded of the words of our Lord when He stood and declared in John 7 that if we believe on Him there would be an artesian well springing up from within us that would become a river flowing out from us.

There is a significant difference between a ‘free flowing well’ and a ‘cistern’.  A cistern was hewn out of solid stone.  Its purpose was to hold water that had been poured into it.  That water would become warm and stale because it had no flow; whereas a well was dug and lined with rocks and the water flowed into it.  Initially the well gives off little water and thus the reason to pump water out for as the water is pumped out the veins through which the stream flows is cleared and more water flows in.  In our lives we find that as we come to Christ we have tapped into the ever flowing stream that fills our wells and never runs dry.

If we want God to guide us we have to ask for, embrace and desire it.  I have encountered people who appear genuinely fearful of submitting to God’s guidance.  The main reason is their want to maintain control.  Imagine, if you will, having a wild child teenage son who had been getting into trouble frequently, demanding a car, more money and freedom.  Then suddenly one day he comes to you and says, “Dad/Mom, I’ve been thinking a lot lately.  You know I used to think I knew everything about life and what I was going to do, but I am beginning to realize that I am still just a kid.  You’ve been around a lot longer than me and I’ve begun to realize that what you want for me is best. Therefore, from now on I want you to guide, direct and show me the right way and I’ll do my best to obey.”   You would not send him to his room saying, “You’re grounded for six months.”  You’d be in shock and deliriously happy.  Many seem to think that is exactly what God is going to do if we submit to Him totally.

Philippians 2:13 – “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.”

Philippians 4:13 – “I am ready for anything through the strength of the one who lives in me.”  (Phillips).

God will guide all who will submit to His guidance.  It is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.   God bless you as you go through this day!

Isaiah 35:8 – ”And a highway shall be there, and a way; and it shall be called the Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for the redeemed; the wayfaring men, yes the simple ones and fools, shall not err in it and lose their way.”  Amplified

Through the years I have been asked many times about Divine guidance.  Most of the questions came from hungry hearts wanting to know the will and plan of God for their lives.  Some were looking for an easy formula they could apply and others were almost in despair tormented by fear of failing God.  Divine guidance is real and God has made provisions for us to experience it.  I find wonderful comfort in the words of our Lord in John 16:13-15 – “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.  15 “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”  He promised the person of the Holy Spirit to walk with us, in us, through us and teach us so we could know.

Our lives have a distinct purpose(s) in God’s Eternal Plan and He does not desire it to be a ‘hit’ and ‘miss’ proposition.  That leads to error and promotes selfishness and self-centeredness.  Unfortunately we sometimes use words so familiar we lose sight of their true meaning.  The term ‘saved’ is used to identify those who have accepted Christ and ‘sinners’ all the rest.  That is true yet sometimes the oversimplification can open the door for error and that is unfortunate.

Please understand, I am in no way diminishing the essentialness of accepting Jesus as our personal savior but if we take the word sin and understand it as ‘missing the mark’ it opens a door of discovery.  If we are saying that a person who has accepted Christ is ‘hitting the bull’s eye’ and ‘fulfilling God’s purpose’ then a brief reexamination of terminology might be in order.

Acceptance of Jesus as Redeemer is the basic requirement for all who desire to know God.  I must ask, ‘Is it possible to be saved and still miss the mark as to God’s purposes and plan for our lives?’  I am not trying to start an argument only to open the door for thought.  Let me give an illustration as to what I am talking about:

A father on the way home from work decides to take his little boy to the ice cream parlor for a treat.  When he arrives home he finds the lad in the back yard playing in the mud.  The father did not change his mind about the ice cream parlor; he brought the little boy inside, gave him a bath, put clean clothes on him and says, “Son we are going to the ice cream parlor for a treat.”  The little boy being a good fundamentalist said, “But daddy I don’t want to go.  I want to stay here by the bathtub and tell everyone how dirty I was and how good you’ve been to me.”  The father says, “Son, you do not understand WHY I cleaned you up.  I want you to go with me.”

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:9 – “Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and plan…”  Jesus found us in the mud, cleaned us and redeemed us so that we could live for and with Him.  Tragically some thank God genuinely for their salvation, but continue to live in the same way following their own desires, ideas, guidance and initiative.  God’s purpose is to save us from sin and unto His eternal purpose.  I am reminded of the story of the little boy who fell out of bed and when his father came to check on him he asked what happened.  The little boy said, “Well I guess I stayed to close to the edge where I got in.”   Move away from the edge and press into God.

            God bless you as you go through this day!