The New Life, Inc.

Forgive: a simple little word; sometimes we speak it very lightly and other times it can be so hard to say. It can be used in two important ways: forgive me, meaning I have wronged you in some way, or I forgive you, meaning you have wronged me in some way.

This word can bring peace and healing or it can bring resentment and anger. This word can be tossed around very loosely and it quite often is, then it really doesn’t mean much.

 I would have to say it is a word of power that needs to be used with great caution. You might go to some person you feel has wronged you and say to them, “I forgive you” this person could be very upset with you for placing blame on them. Many times we realize we have injured someone by their response to us but we don’t always know what we said or what did that offended them

 In Luke 23: 34 Jesus made a statement when He hung on the cross; “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”.

 Every one of us have hurt and offended people and we didn’t even realize it. Others have hurt and injured us and they were totally unaware of it. We did not know what we were doing!

 There are times we hurt others deliberately; we have been hurt and we want to hurt them in return. This is when we need to realize they did not know what they were doing. It is not easy then to say that simple little word I forgive, and mean it. You may not be able to say this word to the person, they could not receive it. You must say the word to yourself, and receive it, so you can be healed.

 Forgive; a simple little word; many times I have Christians and non-Christians say; “I will never forgive that person!” I am sorry for those people; they will carry the burden of anger and resentment in their hearts until they experience the power of forgiveness and be free.

One of the things that brought a lot of misery in my life; I was forever reacting to every body and everything.  Even now after knowing Jesus over fifty years and being in the ministry forty years I have to really watch myself or I still react.

 From what I have seen in myself and many others, reacting never bears good fruit. The problem is most every day things happen, people say things we can react to. It seems as if there is something in us that is just waiting like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse, and that thing is evil. If we want to have the victory we must be diligent and on guard against reacting to people and events.

 Our enemy Satan uses our reaction as a weapon to defeat us again and again. Satan tried to use it against Jesus when he went out into the wilderness after He was baptized. He tried to use it again when the woman was caught in adultery. Satan uses it against us day after day until we wise up and stop reacting.

 The opposite of reactions is action. Sometimes our best course of action is to do nothing. Step back and do nothing. When we act it must be positive, even our action can be destructive. Watch other people and learn, look at your past and learn from your mistakes.

 We usually react in our thoughts and words or in our emotions; we must be on guard against both. It is very important to see and know reaction is used by the enemy to defeat us time after time.

 As spiritual people coming from darkness into light we should not allow Satan to use reaction to rob us of victory anymore.

I was visiting a local church this week and the pastor gave a sermon on love. As I was listening to the message I remembered a warning the Holy Spirit gave me about forty years ago. The Lord had called Pauline and I into an evangelistic healing ministry outside of the normal church structure. The warning was, “Stay hidden in the church or they will destroy you”!

 Our meetings were outside the church in homes and public halls. We would have sing-longs and dinners; a lot of different people came. We would always share the message of Jesus Christ and pray for the sick. We went to church but we did not try to interfere in the church at all.

 We found we were not very welcome in some of the churches, and they did not want us making any waves. I paid attention to the warning and kept my head down. We did visit a number of different churches and as a result I discovered a lack of love within the individual churches as well as between the churches.

 Our enemy is not some member of our church; it is not the other churches in town. My point is if we can’t love the people in our church or the church down street; how are we going to love the enemy that hate us and want us dead?  

 Jesus went on to say, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”!

Recently I have had a real burden to pray for those poor Arab families that have no place to go. They don t want to kill me they only want to live and feed their families. In the service this morning the Lord said, “Why aren’t you praying for the enemy, the one’s that want to kill you, they are the saddest ones of all, they are the ones that really need your prayers!”

 The comment from the pastor was, “They don’t need our bullets and guns; they need our prayers!”

Many times I have found myself struggling to be the Christian person I felt God wanted me to be. I found it hard to love unlovable people. I also found it hard to forgive some folks. It seemed impossible to control my mouth I was always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, I could go on with the list but I will not.

 I had received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior; I had received the Holy Spirit, and experienced the gifts there still seemed to be something lacking.

I thank God I finally came to realize I had not laid a very good foundation. I know that Jesus Christ is our basic foundation. I didn’t realize we have a foundation to be laid, it is describes in Hebrews 6:1-2

 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instructions about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and eternal  judgment.

How many Christians really understands these six basic teachings of the bible. If we come to an understanding of these basic foundation blocks and make sure that we have acted on them and laid each one properly, many of our struggles will come to an end.

 I encourage you to get in the bible and read these scriptures over and ask the Lord to show you what building blocks are missing or not well laid.

If we want to be strong and healthy physically, it is very important we have a good diet and plenty of exercise. This is also true with our soul and our spirit. It is our responsibility when we become of age to be aware of this and do our best to stay as healthy as we can. This is important to our future.

As we continue on our spiritual journey, these things should become more important to us.

 Are they?

 The social media is a wonderful thing. I think it is great! I can stand only so much of it, though, before I get overloaded. And on television, I watch the number of cooking shows and I think, “No wonder we have so many overweight people.” I see the number of programs promoting sex, and realize it’s no wonder we have so many young women pregnant with no husband. If we are watching this type of shows, our desires can overwhelm us. The same is true with violence and killing. Our emotions become numb.

If we are wise, we will be careful what we take into our body, soul and spirit.

Why is it that we submerge ourselves in this type of stuff?

One of the reasons is that we cannot stand silence. I have noticed as we progress in our spiritual journey, silence and peace become more valuable to us. We don’t have to overindulge in our physical body, emotions, or let our mind become a broken record out of control. We don’t have to be afraid of stillness and of God’s presence. As a result of being silent, we are able then to get in touch with our spirit.

Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.

Many people like noise and they look for it. They submerge themselves in it constantly, but we need balance. When we quiet our body and our soul life, then we become aware of God in the inner part of our being, our spirit.

Only then can we sense and feel life flowing up from the innermost part of our being. Only then can we enter into the flow of it. How blessed are those of us who find that place

Pauline and I have done hundreds of meeting over forty years. We never knew ahead of time what we were going to talk about. The Lord always came through at the last minute as to what we were to share.

Whenever any problem cropped up in our family weather it was between Pauline and me or with our kids this is what the Holy Spirit would have us talk about. Some of these situations are kind of embarrassing to you when your kids do some foolish things. Without fail people would speak up and say, “The same thing is happening in my family”.

Have you ever had your kids tell you they wished they had different parents? I expect some of the parents wish they had different kids, it is not that we mean it, it is that we are embarrassed and they have made us look bad and we have failed each other in some way, it causes us pain.

It seems like many of us are very easily offended. Sometimes we get over the offense quickly and other times we never do.

I met a person several times years ago in ministry; I liked this person and considered him a friend. We were out for lunch one day and had a fine conversation. When we finished lunch I picked up the tab and was going to pay for our lunches which was not very much. He looked at me and said, “Why are you paying for my lunch? Oh! I understand, the great evangelist has come to town.”

 At that moment something happened in me; it was like something broke or died; he was not my friend after all. I never felt the same about that person again. I guess an offense happened. I was not buying his lunch because I was the great evangelist in town, I was buying his lunch because he was my friend and it was just a little blessing.

 I have found that friendships can be very fragile things.  

Now I have to confess I have done the same thing to others, I said the wrong things at the wrong times and broke some wonderful friendships I had had for several years and was never able to regain them.

I am much more careful now with my words because I don’t want to offend anymore friends and lose them

            When we begin our spiritual journey it is pretty exciting. It seems like one blessing after another falls upon us, we just can’t praise God enough. I wonder if it somewhat like when a child is born and leaves the womb. The world suddenly is much larger then it was.

            I think of when Pauline was prayed over for the Holy Spirit. She described it was like warm oil flowing down over her, just a wonderful feeling and then it was like she had been living in this house all her life and all of a sudden all the window shades flew open  and she could see out and the world was much bigger then she had ever seen before.

            We prayed for one young man many years ago he wanted to receive the Holy Spirit.  After several months went by he came back to a pastor we knew and he wanted to know how he could get rid of the Holy Spirit. The pastor wanted to know why he wanted to get rid of the Holy Spirit. His reply was, “I have never been so miserable in my life”.

            Why was he so miserable? He did not want to change; he wanted to continue his old way of life. To walk with the Holy Spirit requires change.

            When we start our journey the first months, maybe a year or two are bliss; then it is time to start growing up. Most of us don’t like that, we fight with God, we plead with God, and we try to tell God what to do. Our emotions go up and down, we are in a valley or on a mountain top.

            Thank God things begin to level out after a while; we start growing up spiritually, we stop fighting with God and demanding our own way, we begin to enjoy the Lord. We begin to see His way is better than our way. The ups and downs level out and we begin a gradual climb upward. We still have problems and sicknesses, difficult children, all the things that are part of this world. We find we are different; we are able to handle lifes problems, the storms do not blow us away.

            We now have confidence God is in control and He knows what He is doing. Because of that confidence we are able to handle each day as it comes, and whatever it brings. Our house is now built on the solid rock; the ups and downs are pretty much left behind.

What People See And Smell!

What do you see and smell when you look at the people around you? I think we all make a kind of appraisal without even thinking about it. We may like or dislike what we see, it seems that people give off an odor; some smell good some smell bad.

Sometimes it’s a slow cautious process. It might take some time before we like or dislike a person’s odor. We seem to make a decision without thinking about it: is this a person I want to be around, or a person I want nothing to do with?

I remember a couple of years ago at a meeting in Wisconsin a young man made a comment to me after the meeting. He said, “You are strange”. I don’t think he meant it as a put down or anything like that. I guess he couldn’t figure out my smell. I did not fit into any of his boxes. He could not quite figure me out. Was I real or artificial?

What do people see when they see you? Do they see a person who has come to grips with life and is making the best of it? Do they see a person who is at peace and a person they would like to know better? Do they see a person who loves, and is kind and considerate of folks around them?

As you continue on in your spiritual journey you will find it affects how you see people, and how they see you. Some who were good friends will not have much to do with you anymore, and some you did not want much to do with before, now become your best friends. Surprisingly, it might be church and religious friends who turn their face from you; remember it was religious people who had a problem with Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 2:15-16

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma of death to death, to the other an aroma of life to life. And who is adequate for these things

As Christ is being formed in us, others see us differently; the odor of life and death become stronger. Don’t be alarmed or offended of if some stay their distance, it is not your odor that bothers them, it is the odor of Christ being formed in you.

Kingdom Within

We all go through various trials which might be better labeled spiritual warfare. Most of these wars are right within us, they take place in our mind and emotions, and we lose our peace, joy.

We lose these valuable things because we have allowed ourselves to be drawn outside the Kingdom of God, by these spiritual battles going on within us, and around us, in the world, in our homes and even in our churches.  We then try to regain the peace and joy but we don’t look in the right place for it. If we want to regain our peace and joy we must reenter the Kingdom of God. Paul describes the kingdom of God in us as peace, joy, righteousness and the fullness of the Holy Spirit; it is internal not external.

John 17:21 “Nor will they say, “Look here it is’ or ‘There it is! For behold the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Meaning within you.)

It must be quite obvious to all of us that we are not always in the kingdom of God, even though the kingdom of God is in us. Sometime along in our spiritual journey we should begin to recognize immediately when we have left the kingdom of God and quickly make an effort to enter back in.

We must learn to control our thought life, if we do not, confusion and worry will rob you of all peace and joy.

We must also control our emotions and not allow fear, hatred or bitterness to gain a stronghold there.

As soon as you realize any of these things are at work in you turn quickly to the Lord. Recognize that you have lost touch with the kingdom of God in you. You can know this has happened to you because the peace and joy are gone from your life.

Direct your attention to the innermost part of your being where the streams of living water are. Get out of your mind and emotions and center in on God’s presence in you and you will find the peace and joy are still there.

I think everyone of us have had special moments where we have been so blessed by Gods presence; go back to that memory that special place and you will be able to go right back in the kingdom of God that is in you once again

We are body, soul and spirit; if you allow the body to control you have a big problem. If you allow the soul to control you still have a big problem. The spiritual person looks to their spirit, which is  the highest and deepest part of their being to direct their life.

Stones

I was sitting in church this morning with a wonderful feeling of peace with God and with myself. I was thinking it has not always been like this. The Lord spoke through my thoughts and said; “the reason you now have peace here is because you have stopped throwing stones at the church

The Lord then brought to mind what He had said when they were going to stone the woman caught in adultery. “You without sin cast the first stone.” They all dropped their stones and walked away.

We have a big problem in our country right now; we all stand with our hands full of stones. We are all throwing them right and left.

The church is not perfect. It has made a lot of mistakes. So has the government, so have you. There is not a perfect church out there, they have all sinned.

Jesus said in Mark 7:15 There is nothing outside the man which going into him can defile him; But the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.

I remember as a child growing up I helped dad pick stones in the field. Every time the ground was plowed and harrowed there were more stones. Big stones and little stones, we would then make a stone wall with them. We did not throw them at one another!

Then I grew up and had all the answers and I started throwing stones, in my family, in the church and everywhere I went. I was good at finding just the right stone to throw. Now, I don’t have all the answers, I am sick of picking up stones and throwing them. I just want to press on and upward to the high calling in Christ Jesus

How blessed is the person who has dropped all their stones; they will find peace!

It seems that in our human nature we get some kind of satisfaction throwing stones, but as Christ is formed in us we lose that satisfaction. Maybe we will keep throwing stone until Christ is formed in us. That may be the measure of how much He has changed us. Jesus was not a stone thrower.

I expect we will always have folks ready to stone us for one reason or another. The interesting thing is when we have dropped all our stones; the stones thrown at us don’t touch us anymore.