Author's Note.
I wrote these comments and posted them on a mailing list I have owned
for more than a dozen years called EChurch-USA. I felt others may
find comfort in these words concerning our relationship and identity
with God through Jesus Christ.
End Of Author's Note.
Words Of Encouragement
As a followup to things already mentioned earlier on this support
group mailing list, I personally experience the efficaciousness of
absolute truth by referring to what He told me once a few years ago.
"Phil, you don't have to be perfect, because I am." Many times, since
the Lord spoke this to me, I have used it to bring stability to my
thinking that is being challenged by circumstances beyond or out of my
control. It may just be a situation which I don't understand
intellectually or eventually spiritually. Furthermore, it could
literally be, as in the case of my recent spinal surgery, something
totally beyond my ability to understand. As with the case of my
surgery, the circumstances we face is sometimes just off the wall. So
does this mean you aren't a very good Christian? Does it mean, if you
really believed the Word, you wouldn't react that way? Does it mean,
other people are much better Christians than you because they have had
similar experiences and sailed right on through; happy as could be?
Does it mean you are just a weak and faithless Christian in the first
place and God is only interested in His children who are giants of the
faith? If these things, and others like them, are true, then King
David, Elijah, Noah, Job, Paul, Peter, and Abraham, just to name a
few, aren't very good examples of Giants of the Faith. You see, the
truth is, this is why Jesus loves you in the first place. Not because
you are perfect but because He is. He doesn't change how He feels
about you due to circumstances you are facing.
What if I'm involved in sin of some kind?
Good question. The answer is still no. Your sin, however,
especially if it is something you are doing you already know is
against God's Word, is a blockage the Enemy uses to keep you from
knowing God intimately. Sure, Jesus still requires responsibility for
sins committed but He is your way out as well as your way onward in
your walk with Him. He still forgives your sins according to First
John 1:9 but of course it is a matter of application.
When I find myself a lot less than what I wish, and this is
normally due to circumstances, I remind the Lord that He told me that
I don't have to be perfect because He is. This is not faith and
confession; it is agreement with the truth He has confirmed in my
spirit through the Holy Spirit. No, silly. I'm not truly reminding
Him of what He said; I'm reminding myself. More specifically, I'm
reminding the Enemy because he is the one trying to unbalance my
relationship with the Lord. Besides, Jesus likes it when we talk to
Him using His own words and the Bible is filled with hundreds of
personal promises the Lord has given us. Nope, we don't use the
promises to become perfect or even to become more like Him. We used
to sing a little cute song in Sunday school when I was growing up. I
can't recall the whole song, although I can hear the melody in my mind
even as I type, but a phrase in the song says, "Be like Jesus all day
long." It took me nearly 50 years of my Christian relationship with
God to learn the promises in God's Word are not to make me more like
Jesus. Until His return, or until we die and go home to be with Him,
we are as much like Jesus now as we ever will be. We are as saved,
born again, as we ever will be. We will never become more holy in His
sight. We will never experience more righteousness than we have right
now nor will we experience being more pure in His sight than right
now. Why? Because, before the foundation of the world, meaning
before anything existed at all, we were conformed to the image of His
Son according to Romans 8:29 and you cannot, I repeat, you cannot
improve upon that image no matter how hard you try. Yes, it is true
we one day will be walking in completeness and have a physical body as
Jesus did following His resurrection. Until then, we walk in what we
know. There are ways of getting rid of the things that hinder us on
earth. Sharing in agreement is one method. Accountability is
another. Application is yet another. Awareness is even another. The
Lord told me once many years ago, "Phil? If it is complex, it isn't
Me." Wherever you are in your walk with the Lord right now, is
exactly where Jesus wants to be and, in fact, He is there even if we
can't sense His presence. He has made a way of escape and it is Him
and His Lordship.
I used to relate to the salvitic experience and relationship with
the Lord as a game. If I don't know the rules, how can I play the
game? I would complain to God that I didn't know His rules. Why
would these terrible things be happening to me other than I wasn't
following His rules.
Upon coming out of surgery a month and a half ago, one of the
first things Jesus spoke to me in my spirit and my thoughts was: "It
isn't a game." I heard it so loudly I said it out loud, with my
family around, a couple of times. I didn't know what He meant right
away but a couple of days after coming home, He told me what He meant.
My relationship with Him had no rules except for who He is and not who
I am or what I am trying to become. He said that my relationship with
Him wasn't a game but a covenant and He keeps His covenant with His
own because He cannot deny Himself. Even if we do, that is, deny by
believing lies about ourselves supplied by the Enemy, Jesus will never
deny Himself as far as how He identifies and relates to us as Lord.
When things are over, He will still be there where He has always been;
standing in the midst of your life.
Safe Place Fellowship
Phil Scovell
Denver, Colorado
Mountain Time Zone
Phone: 303-507-5175
WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.COM
End Of Document
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