Sprinkled and Dunked

God has really been imprinting this on me all this week: If you seek holiness, pursue Jesus. If you seek righteousness, pursue Jesus. If you seek peace, pursue Jesus. If you seek security, pursue Jesus. If you seek faith, pursue Jesus. When we pursue Jesus wholeheartedly, as we grow in our closeness to Him, He will grant us the rest. In Jesus, we will find all that we seek. Pursue the Giver, rather than the gifts.

  I finished reading "Gently and Lowly" by Dane Ortlund today. It was tough for me to read, and at times I almost put it down because I wasn't sure I agreed with the author. But I didn't put it down. And the more I read, the more I realized that the limiting factor in my understanding of the depth and richness of Jesus' love is my own small, human, mind. How can we truly understand the infinite? How can our minds make sense of words like "immeasurable" when we spend our lives measuring and quantifying? Jesus' love for His people knows no bounds. He holds nothing back. Even when we think we don't deserve it. Even when we forsake Him. Even when we rebel and wander away. He still loves us without limits. If that sounds too good to be true, as it did to me, that's only because we impose limits on Jesus' love that He Himself does not. God's goodness is infinite. Neverending. Immeasurable. It is too good for us to understand, or even at tim...

1 Corinthians 1:8a - blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ Blameless is translated from the Greek word anegklētos. That word is the negative of egkaleō. Per Strong’s Concordance with Greek Lexicon, egkaleō means bring to account, to charge, to accuse. Being blameless in Christ means so much more than simply being forgiven for our sins. When we stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ we will not be accused and then forgiven. We won’t be accused at all! Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, when God sees us he does not see a sinner that has been forgiven, he sees one who has never sinned.  We have the righteousness of Christ. That is not the righteousness of a man who has fallen short and been restored. That is the righteousness of the perfect man who has never sinned. Later, in 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul writes: For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. God placed our sin, and the penalty that we deserved because ...

In Romans 1:22, Paul says of the unrighteous: 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, The Bible has a lot to say about fools and foolishness, but perhaps the most concise is found in the book of Psalms. In Psalm 14, David says: 1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.  The phrase There is is in italics, because it does not appear in the original texts. It was added by translators because they assumed that a transition is needed to make the meaning of the verse clear. I believe it has been added in error, and the original text maintains the proper context: The fool has said in his heart, “No, God.” In Romans, just before verse 22, in verse 20, Paul makes clear that creation itself proclaims the existence of God so that deniers are “without excuse.”  In chapter 2, verse 15, Paul adds that if creation were not enough, a person’s conscience bears witness to God and his law. The fool does not reject the existence of God, he rejects God’s authority. He s...

Romans 12:1-2 - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2 begins with “and,” linking it to the prior verse. The next directions are included in our “reasonable service” to the Lord. “Don’t be conformed” – to conform means to take the shape of, for example when you pour something into a mold. Paul is warning us against taking the shape of, looking like, being molded by, the world. We have been called by Jesus to live a life that looks different to that offered by the world. The only way this is possible is by the power of Jesus in our lives. In Ephesians 1:18-20, Paul is praying for the believers in Ephesus, and he asks God to show them how great is His power. God’s power, the same power t...

A couple of weeks ago, I started a new reading plan, and the first day’s verses were Romans 12:1-2. Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Of course, I have read this verse before, many times, and heard many sermons and teachings on it. But I felt there was a reason the Lord brought me to this verse to begin the new plan. So, instead of just reading it and saying to myself, “I know this one,” I prayed. I asked the Lord to show me what new insight (new to me, at least, since this verse has been studied, dissected, and analyzed by Christians since the first century) He had for me today. I began by reading it again, starting at the very beginning, and taking nothing for granted. No precon...