He Doesn't Change His Mind

2 Timothy 2:11-13 (NIV)

Here is a trustworthy saying; If we died with Him we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him, if we disown Him, He will also disown us;If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.

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In the King James Version the word used  is deny and the Greek interpretation of that word is disavow, reject, deny, refuse.

It says, “if we deny Him, He will also deny us; If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”

Can a person deny what they never believed?  If a person denies Jesus, does that mean that once they believed but now they don’t?

It sounds like Paul is saying that’s how we can lose our salvation, by denying Him after we accepted Him.

But it is says, “if we are faithless, He will remain faithful…”

So, is this a matter of a man who believed, but no longer believes?  If he turns his back on Christ and says he no longer believes, does Christ disown him?

The Lord says in Psalm 37:28 (KJV)  “For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.”

  Does He change His mind if we change ours?

If, when we choose to believe the promise, He enters in to dwell in us, does He no longer live in us if we deny Him?

Or, having believed, and Christ has come to reside in us, is His promise true?  Will He never leave us or forsake us? (Hebrews 13:5)

If Jesus spoke the truth, then those He denies must be those who never truly knew Him in the first place.

I don't know about you, but as the parent of an adult child who walked away from his faith,

this gives me immeasurable hope!

Jesus is ever faithful!

He will NEVER forsake those who placed their faith in Him.

The time will come when all who have walked away will remember the truth, 

again.

The Effervescence of Creation

Genesis 1:4

God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness.
Seven times the words, “God saw that it was good.” are repeated in Genesis, chapter 1.

The word, “saw”, in Hebrew means many things in many different situations.  In Strong’s Concordance, they are given in alphabetical order.  These are the ones most people think of when reading these verses;  He approved; He beheld; He considered. 

But there are others, that when I look at them fill me with a new assurance of understanding; like “make to enjoy”, to “have experience”, to “joyfully look”, “be near”, to “stare” and “visions”.

The story of creation is the story of how excited God gets when He makes something new.  He gazes at it, He enjoys it.  He looks joyfully at it.  He stares at it.”

He made this thing called Earth and he was delighted with what He’d done!  Any creative person know that feeling when something we’ve made comes out just as we “envisioned” it.  It’s that feeling join our core that is warm and delightful and when flows outward from our center to our skin it becomes effervescent and the roots of our hair tingle.  It’s like, if we don’t do something physical right away, that effervescence will burst out of us and just make a terrible mess!

I think that’s what our Father felt when He was creating the earth.  Each new thing He made filled Him with bubbling joy.  He stared at it, thinking how wonderful it was!

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Every time someone chooses to believe in the salvation offered through Christ, the Father makes them a new creation!  That same bubbling joy comes from His core and fills heaven with His delighted laughter!

 Isn’t it amazing to think of how much hilarious joy we bring God when we say yes to his perfect plan?

                For each and every one of us it’s His first day of creation all over again!

                                             It makes me tingle just thinking about it!

I Am Not A Chachke

1 Corinthians 6:12, 19, 20

“Everything is permissible for me” -  but not everything is beneficial.  “Everything is permissible to me” - but I will not be mastered by anything. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own, you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.

Verse 12 has always been one of my favorites.  To me, it speaks directly to the fact that, once we are saved, God no longer sees our sin.  “All things are permissible.”   Nothing I do can rob me of my inheritance.  And that thought fills me with wonder and makes me love him and want to serve him that much more!  There will still be consequences if I do things that are harmful to me or others, but I cannot lose my salvation.

Verses 19 and 20 remind me that I am not my own.  If I truly wanted to be my own person and run my own life then I wouldn’t have given it to God in the first place.

But here’s the magnificent part;  I was bought with the blood of Jesus for the purpose of being filled with his Holy Spirit.  I am not a chachki!  I’m not something that was purchased because I was so beautiful and interesting, to be put on a shelf and admired.  I was purchased to become a holy vessel, specifically designed to hold the Holy Spirit of God.

And he pours himself out of me, yet I am never emptied.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Luke 6:38