“And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons who were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave” (Numbers 19:19).

You and I live around death, decay, and indifference. As long as we are living for ourselves and the cross of Christ remains a distant thought from an even more distant past, you and I will not fully maximize the life we were to live.

We are dead in Christ. We are not to bring our self-centered thinking, fears, actions, anxieties, and desires into the new relationship. They have been crucified, the old self-life. We are all one in Christ. He is perfect, sinless Deity. A separation happens when we try to live apart from Him. We transfer our allegiance and identity to Christ.

As long as we live by rules and intellectualism and not by an ongoing participation in the death of Christ we will not see victory. It happens only through love that both honors and trusts in Jesus’ belief in Himself and what He has done for us on the cross.

Why is it that so few seem to have intimacy and fellowship with God? Many know about God but few really know God. We know His acts but very few of us know His ways. He’s in the vicinity, somewhere over there, but not intimately working here.

God is not free to flow His power through you and me unless we are identified with the death we experienced in Christ when we were born again. Until we realize and make the decision that we will die to ourself daily, and live to Him, we will continue to simply exist rather than maximize God’s good plan for us. We can not bring our old life into union with His life whereas we were made one.

God has given us the power of His resurrection through a brand-new reference point. How we view our self, others, our circumstances, and life must be all in Him. His life in me–my thinking, my acting, and believing must be His or there will be conflict and severance from His life. To be crucified with Jesus Christ establishes a brand-new reference for life–His life! This is the power of the third day, His resurrection life living in us and through us.

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not” (Isaiah 53:3).

There is a lot out there that can bring sorrow to your heart and life. Sorrow can numb you and cause you to shut down from God and others. We can routinely go through the pain and yet become hardened at the same time. Not realizing that we can limit the Holy One of God in our daily lives, we live withdrawn and tired. We dream about places we love, we long for something to fill, and for people to understand, and we become forlorn and miserable on the inside and it shows.

Some people are lonely and it’s their own fault. They can live so self-centeredly and become so wrapped up in their own little lives and live as if the world should revolve around them. When we are wrapped about our lives we become a small, tight package that is about us and others are not in the picture except for our criticism.

The lonely wants friends but usually only has a few, if any. The selfish and lonely person can make a demigod out of himself and not even realize it. He desires a circle of admirers who will compliment and admire him but usually finds he is not surrounded by any. How sad and how lonely we become when it is about us and really no one else. We judge others by our hurt (imagined or real), and we aren’t aware of the real problem.

There is no life so empty as the self-centered life. There is no life so centered as the self-emptied life. The Lord Jesus made Himself of no reputation. He was despised, rejected, and ridiculed. The only reason we can love others is that first God loved us. When we realize His grace for us and we accept His acceptance of us then we are free to love others and then fellowship happens freely. The life of the believer is free to love unconditionally. What freedom!

Why do we try to impress others with our gifts that God has given to each of His born-again children? Why do we work so hard for a little slap on the back by someone who notices? Why are we so dissatisfied with life and with others? Could it be that we are not dependent upon the grace of God?

Our Savior was faced with misunderstandings, false accusations of His character, insults on His person, chicanery against Him, threats, trumped up charges, torture, abuse, and finally a horrendous death and yet in His loneliness He never became selfish. No one has ever been as lonely as the Lord Jesus. He was cut off from Heaven and earth and yet He still was not selfish. He continued to reach out to the thief upon the cross and to those who heard Him as He suffered. And He is reaching out to you and me today.

You and I need someone to love, someone who understands, and the need to be needed and wanted. Jesus is the One who fulfills these three needs. You say, “I need someone who is real.” That’s part of our problem. He is real. He lives in you, He walks with you, He goes with you, He is our living hope!

You may have seasons of loneliness, but that feeling does not have to master you. Because Jesus is with you, you never need to be really lonely. Recognize your problem and go to Jesus and confess your need of Him so you can love others in Jesus.

Father in Heaven I pray for each of us. We allow too much to knock us around and to keep us down. Forgive us for knowing the stories of the Bible and even teaching them to others while we ourselves forget that You love us, need us, and understands each of us. Forgive us for not allowing You to capture us so that we may capture others in this same out-flowing of Your love through us. Oh what love you give. Can’t wait for Your name to be glorified so that we may see revival. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking, as newborn babies, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow by it” (I Peter 2:1-2).

With the breakup of the home we are becoming an angry nation.  With the advent of kids who are angry at life and what it has done to them there is an uptick in gun violence.  What used to be settled through normal communicable channels and court systems, we are now discounted and unsettled through the vengeance of young men or women with a gun.

The race issue has surfaced like days before.  Except now the media covers quickly what it took papers days to print.  Many conservative speakers can no longer enter our universities because of radical leftists who have resorted to violence.  Add white supremacists into the mix and we could have a war on our hands.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer lamented the fact that students and professors during the Hitler era resorted to silence so as not to lose their jobs, etc.  Today in our institutions Christian students, and especially professors, have to keep their convictions to themselves in order to graduate or continue teaching.  One cannot even say, “Jesus“, in a classroom without repercussions.

I have no hope that the immigration crisis will be ever resolved.  As both sides demonize each other we will continue to have a toxic atmosphere of name-calling and political posturing.  The good news with all of this is that the churches have the privilege of welcoming whomever God sends to us.

God has called us to honor Him by letting our light shine despite the consequences.  What is at stake are the eternal values that has been handed down to us.  The Lord Jesus has given His Church (notice that I said, “His Church“) all the resources she needs to be faithful in every culture, every generation, and every circumstance.  He will not forsake us now!  By His Grace let the Church be the Church!