Oversleeping your salvation

Sorry for my long absence. Life wasn't „normal“ for a while. But I hope to pick this blog up in regular matter some time in the future. Until then I hope to post somewhat regularly...

John 12:42-50

Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment – what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

Can you oversleep your salvation?

When I woke up today, on Good Friday, it was already 11:30 am. As the Bible tells us, Jesus was crucified some time around then. So if I had been living during the time Jesus walked on earth, I would have overslept the whole ordeal. Not living in Israel on top of that I wouldn't have known of it at all. I might have heard of it years later when someone like Paul brought the good news to the “nations” - everyone outside Israel.

So even years later I could still receive salvation through believing in who Jesus is and what he did for me. Does that mean I can't oversleep my salvation?

Yes, I can.

Humans live about 100 years on average. Once you're dead, you can't decide whether or not to accept Jesus' gift of redemption. So you can indeed “oversleep” your salvation by pushing the decision further and further into the future until it's too late.

What do I need to do to get saved?

Jesus said:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. (John 11:25) Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.” (John 6:47)

Romans 10:9-13

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Believe that Jesus is the son of God, the Christ, and that he died for you to cleanse you from your sin forever.

Acts 2:37-39

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Repent – acknowledge the sin (everything against god's will) in your life, ask God for forgiveness about it and turn away from your old, sinful ways with God's help.

If you don't get your life straight with God through Jesus' help, you will oversleep your salvation and might wake up once it's too late to come to God.

But let's look at the text from the beginning:

Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Many believed in Jesus but didn't dare to stand up for it because they were afraid to lose their status, their position, their good relationships. Just a quick reminder that Jesus also said “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:33)

And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.

So whoever believes in Jesus believes in God, Jahwe, our creator.

And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.

This is great! Because so often we have a wrong picture of how God is. Is he the strict judge, always out to catch us doing any forbidden thing? Or is he the old grandpa up in heaven, letting everyone in once they died despite of what they might have done during life? Is he all soft or all hard? How is God? Look at Jesus! Jesus said whoever sees him, sees God (who has sent him). He also said that the father (God) is in him and he is in the father. So when we look at Jesus, we see how God is. It's worth looking at Jesus' life and person, it will bring you closer to God.

Only some aspects I have found:

Loving, caring, not abiding by any rules or standards that rule whatever time, personal, strong, healing, forgiving, standing up for the oppressed, speaking his mind, sinless, hope-giving.

I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

Light in the darkness. Come to the light and you will see. Colors, shapes, details. Everything that was once hidden in the darkness.

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

That's what I meant with “oversleeping your salvation”.

For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment – what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

Isn't it good to know that “his commandment is eternal life”? That God's wish for us is to have eternal life with him? 

I'll try to think about that when Easter comes, reminding us of Jesus' resurrection and victory over sin and death. So that in his death we may share to be dead for our sins, but in his resurrection to have eternal life in him. 

Living forever in the glory of our loving Father. 

That's what Easter is about. 

Isn't that good news?

Forgiveness – Here I am

„Asking for mercy is showing weakness!“ „I won't ask for forgiveness.“ “I'm not Jesus – I will not forgive.”

Words like these sadden me. People seem to be full of hatred and unforgiveness. No wonder it's so hard for us to accept God's gift of salvation for us; because it can only be received through asking for forgiveness.

Taking the first quote – you have to show weakness in front of god to be saved. But who wants to be weak? Everyone wants to do things by himself, when you depend on someone else it seems you're not strong enough to do it on your own. Probably one of the reasons why many think that being a Christian is only for wimps. Yet, the opposite is the case I think.

It takes a lot of courage to confess your guilt, to even face it. Who wants to look at what he's done wrong? I certainly don't. But we need to in order to be set free from it. Take it, look at it, give it to God. That's the way we get freed from our sins. Recognize it, confess it, repent, be forgiven.

Isn't it sad that our pride prevents us from being set free? Take the second quote. We deem ourselves to be something better, we're above asking for forgiveness. Even if we did something wrong, we try to argue it away and twist and turn the situation so that maybe it'll turn out that we were right after all. It takes a lot of courage to say sorry.

As for quote three – Jesus happily forgives. But we have to ask for it.

1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I read about confessing today. To have a good relationship with god, there mustn't be anything between us. So the deeper your relationship with him is, the more you will sense it when there is something between you and God. The only thing that can stand between you and God is sin. Ask him about it, he will show it to you. I'm at the same point right now. And I'm very well aware that discovering the sin might be unwanted and bother me a lot. After all our flesh is still used to sin and is fighting against the new spirit in those who are born again from God (Galatians 5:17). Old habits are sneakily trying to come back and take their old place. But I don't want that; though in the moments of craving I yearn to give in. That's the battle we have to fight.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.  

- 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

When we struggle – that's good! Because struggling means that we haven't given up, that we stand our ground. It would be bad to not struggle and simply get defeated – giving in to our sins. To overcome we need to look unto Christ. He is the one we live for and through. He is the one who gives us the power we need because without him, we can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:35

After this, I found the lyrics of Majesty (Here I am) by Delirious? They speak for themselves.

Here I am humbled by your Majesty
Covered by your grace so free
Here I am, knowing I'm a sinful man
Covered by the blood of the Lamb

Now I've found the greatest love of all is mine
Since you laid down your life
The greatest sacrifice

Majesty, Majesty
Your grace has found me just as I am
Empty handed, but alive in your hands

Here I am, humbled by the love that you give
Forgiven so that I can forgive
Here I stand, knowing that I'm your desire
Sanctified by glory and fire

Now I've found the greatest love of all is mine
Since you laid down your life
The greatest sacrifice

Majesty, Majesty
Your grace has found me just as I am
Empty handed, but alive in your hands

Majesty, Majesty
Forever I am changed by your love
In the presence of your Majesty

Majesty.

Be blessed by the God who loves to forgive!

Frozen

(Spoiler-Warning! If you haven't seen the movie yet and want to watch it, please do so before you read on!)

Yesterday we watched Frozen. And I realized – that's 1 John 4:18!

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 

In the movie, one of the main characters, Elsa, has amazing ice powers. One day she accidentally hurts her beloved sister Anna with them. They manage to heal Anna, but the healer warns them – Elsa's power is getting stronger and she needs to learn to control it. But her biggest enemy is fear. So she locks herself away and is getting more and more afraid of hurting the people she loves with this power while it continues to grow steadily. She tries to live by what her father told her: “Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know. ” So she stored away all her feelings.

But of course, everyone who has tried this will find out at one point – hiding your feelings and trying to run away from something will only lead you into bigger fear. Exactly the thing she wanted to NOT have.

Things get out of control, Elsa runs away, Anna tries to get her back, Elsa gets upset and the most feared for thing happens – Elsa hits her sister's heart with her ice bolt. Slowly, Anna will turn into ice. 

 

Fear is a source of many things we don't want to happen. Just think about what you would do out of fear – things you normally never thought you'd do. Fear doesn't let you think rationally anymore. It clouds your mind and sets your emotions into rage. You can't think straight and might be even doing things you'll regret.

The title song “Let it go” could be translated into “Let your fear go” and “set your emotions free”. I know what it's like to store up your emotions and never allow yourself to let them out. It doesn't do you any good, it will only turn against you and destroy you from within.

Just like that, Elsa's emotions get more and more out of control.

When everything turns into ice and all seems lost, Anna gives herself up for her sister and misses the seemingly last chance to receive an “act of love” from the one she loves and who loves her – the only thing that could help her right now. But she turns into ice, saving her sister. 

 

Yet, suddenly, Anna starts to turn back into a living human! She was the one doing the act of love, giving her life for her sister's. That's when Elsa realizes – Love is the key to defeat fear.

Because love sets free!

2 Timothy 1:7 - For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind/self-control.

And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. - 2 Corinthians 3:17

Jesus is the one who offers us freedom. God is love! (1 John 4:8) Perfect love drives out all fear! And when you belong to Jesus, you receive his spirit.

Another thing I just realized - when I compare Anna's action to what Jesus did for us, it's a beautiful picture. He gave himself up for the ones he loved and died. This act of love was the key for us to get saved.

And then God brought him back to life so that all who believe in him will have eternal life as well!

I pray that we all will realize in our hearts, like Elsa, that true love drives out fear. And that the only one who can give perfect, pure and never ending love is God.

May he bless you! :)

For other thoughts on Frozen from a Christian point of view (that I just found), see this post.

Love, grace - and demands?

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you. - Matthew 6:33

How does this work out, combining God's grace, love and his commandments and demands?

Let's try and have a look at it. What do people strive for? Fame, wealth, family... I think everyone is searching for happiness in the end, only trying to achieve it through different ways.

So now people say that God created us for the sake of spending time with him, to have someone who loves him back. Which would mean that God is needy – which he isn't. So that can't be it. Why did God create us? I think it was to glorify him.

The whole creation is made to glorify God. Now this doesn't really sound like something I'd want to be striving for – glorifying someone else.

But let's dig a little deeper. 

People often say “live for yourself” or “don't waste your life living for someone else”. Yet, we tend to live for others – for our children, for wealth, for our friends, family... bluntly said: for what we love. It makes us happy to see them happy. While living for yourself will satisfy your own desires for a while, it will never give you back what sharing your life with other people gives you. Still, it doesn't fill you up completely. There is still something lacking – and that is God.

Initially we were designed to live for God, to love him. This is why we yearn for something, this is why a lot often isn't enough. But it's our free decision to love God or not. 

 

So God has given us a set of rules, or rather: God showed us what he deems good and bad. He himself is completely good, there is no evil in him. God is holy. And because he is holy he despises sin, the things he finds bad. In fact, he thinks of sin as terrible as that anyone committing a sin has to die.

But now we have a problem – people sin. We cannot fulfill God's commandments through our own will. Just look at history, many people have tried it. And failed.

So God thought of a plan of how to make a possibility that not everyone of those people, that he loves after all, would get lost forever.

John 3:16: God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.

So what counts for God is believing in him. “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Galatians 3:11/Romans 1:17)

Now what happened at the cross was this:

God himself fulfilled the law. He took on flesh, our flesh, he witnessed the same temptations as we do on daily basis; yet never sinned. He endured persecution. And in the end he took our sins upon himself and died in our stead.

But why did he do that?

So we could have a way to come to him? Because he loves us so much? He did it for his glory. 

Because now, through his mercy, we have this possibility to die in Jesus, to become one in him. As Jesus prayed – the son glorifies the father and the father glorifies the son. Why do they glorify each other? Because of their love.

We believe in a triune God – father, son and Holy Spirit. It is a mystery that I cannot explain. It goes as deep as eternity but becomes more and more natural the more time you spend with God. So when it says “God is love”, there is love in himself. He doesn't need us to love him. But he wants to love us. And when I love someone, I'd like them to love me back. That's natural. And it hurts me deeply when the other rejects me.

I believe it's just the same with God. Why else would he go this far as to lower himself from God to a human?

But back to bringing God's demands and love together.

Through Jesus' death and resurrection, the ones who believe in him as their savior have died and been given a new life in him. Which means we are dead for the sin. But we still live in our flesh and the “flesh” is full of problems against God. Our spirit is new but our body and soul are the “old self”.

Everyone who tried it can confirm: I cannot change myself for real through my own willpower. I will fail at one time or another. So we are stuck with our old flesh.

It's not like God wouldn't know this. And he doesn't want us to change ourselves through our own power. But he also doesn't want us to continue living a sinful life – he wants us holy as he is. So how should this be possible?

This is the point where many Christians struggle.

“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (Zechariah 4:6)

We are not supposed to change ourselves. We are supposed to let God do the changing. Our only part is to allow him to work inside us, even in the parts we'd like to hide, even in the parts that might hurt. He doesn't go against our will, so the only thing we have to do is to decide and give him our whole life. The rest is his responsibility.

 

So God loves us, told us what is okay for him and what not and gave us the opportunity to live a holy life for and through him – which leads to us glorifying him. 

It's a deep topic and glorifying is really about love. Just think about a special person, celebrities, how people glorify them because of their admiration and love for them. Just that with God it is that he loved us first.

Now let's assume I'm living a life for God, I love him and live for his glory – what good does it bring for me?

Well, besides eternal life and love? It will fulfill me. It will bring me to places I had never dared to dream of. It will give me joy, happiness and peace. Even in hard times.

Put the kingdom first and everything else will be given to you.

It's true. Love God and your inner desire will be stilled. 

The gate to my heart

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! - Matthew 6:22-23

They say your eyes are the mirror of your soul. If you ever looked into several people's eyes for real, you could find that there is truth in this saying. Yet, your eyes aren't only a reflection of your insides. They're more like windows – things you see get inside, too.

When Jesus says

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. - Matthew 5:29-30

that's a pretty clear statement.

Better tear out or cut off what causes you to sin instead of going to hell with it. The eye or hand or foot in itself isn't evil or sinful, but it can cause you to sin. That is why it is so important to take care of what we do, say, hear or see.

For example – I know that I'm easily fascinated by fantasy stuff, which, I believe, in itself isn't sinful. But there are many stories and elements that do not show the evil side as evil as it is or even portrait it as the good side. That's not only fantasy related but basically can be found everywhere. So when I continue watching, reading or listening to stories that subtly tell me occult things are okay or that witchcraft is good, (which is bluntly going against what the bible says) I start believing those things and maybe even doubting god's word. And that can lead to sinful thoughts and actions. It may not happen after the first or second time, but the more I spend time with it, the more it will affect me. 

Another example – sex. Living today isn't easy for people who want to live their sexual life by god's standards. It's common to have sex before marriage, even somewhat normal to have sex after dating so and so often. It's normal to split up, it's normal to see a lot of skin and arousing pictures on TV, in movies, adverts, printed media.

I have found that those images or sounds have a pretty big impact on me that brings me into quite an inner fight. There is a lot of discussion about masturbation and I don't want to hop on the bandwagon now, but I found that for me it is sin. I simply feel dirty and awful after it. So I try my best to avoid movies or music or talks that contain these threats. Even if that means I can't watch a certain series that everyone watches. Once I find it's getting too much, I stop, even though I usually don't stop in the middle of a movie and never pick it up again. It's not easy. But it's worth it. 

 

Find out what causes you to sin.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Where we know that we're prone to temptation we shouldn't willingly go, as hard as it might be for us. Ask God for help and he will help you. You might fall the first times but keep going, it's worth it. And God doesn't judge you – repent and he helps you, step by step.

So let us “cut off” and “tear out” what causes us to sin – be careful with what you see and hear – and let God do the miracle of turning us more and more into his holy image. 

Tired of trying to fulfill God's will?

‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. - Zechariah 4:6

Now this topic is quite an important one. Scripture says we cannot be redeemed by our own deeds but only through what Jesus did at the cross – he died for us, for our sins, because we by ourselves cannot redeem us by doing good deeds to weigh up for our bad ones.

When we look at the commandments God has given us, everything that is written in the Torah, we soon realize – even if we tried really really hard, we won't be able to fulfill every single thing. We will always succumb to the things we shall not do, be it out of rebellion, out of curiosity, out of lust or not knowing better. So, we sin. Even as Christians.

But shouldn't we, as Christians especially, try to live by God's word? Yes. And so we try our hardest to fulfill what Jesus told us to, asking and praying for strength and God's help where we realize we can't do it ourselves.

At least I did.

Now the bible says “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2. Corinthians 3:17)

Honestly, I don't really feel free when trying my hardest to fulfill God's demands. So what do I do wrong? Because since I'm a born again Christian, the Holy Spirit lives inside me and hence I should be free, right?

If you're feeling the same and, like me, grow tired of waking up every morning, praying that God would give you strength to survive this day and act according to his will – there's something I need to share with you.

Indeed, God wants us to live in freedom. That's part of why Jesus died for us.

I listened to a teaching on Romans 6-8 today and God, am I glad I decided to listen to this one instead of continuing the one I had started with a while ago. That tiny gentle feeling you sometimes get – it proved right again. One of the ways the Holy Spirit can lead me and you.

Here is my revelation for today:

Romans 7:1-6

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Now read it again and bear in mind that “the law” is God's commandments.

Before you jump to conclusions like “so I don't have to follow God's commandments anymore!” - nope. That's not the point of it. Let me explain.

See Verse 4 – You have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to Jesus, in order to bear fruit for God.

As Christians, when we made our decision to follow Jesus, to lay our life down and surrender to him, we have died. Because we gave our life to Christ and so take part in his death and resurrection. We have died. The law doesn't apply to the dead.

But what does apply is that we belong to Jesus and so we cannot simply ignore what our owner wants either.

So what? It's following the law nevertheless? No, not in the same way.

Let's take the image of a king and a peasant child. There are laws everyone has to abide by. Anyone who doesn't follow them will be punished. The problem is that those laws are hard to keep and almost everyone fails in constantly obeying them.

Now the king rides through the country and sees a peasant child. He has mercy and invites the child to become part of his royal family. The child happily follows.

For a while they live in joy and peace until the child remembers all those laws it has to keep. Instead of a loving and merciful father, the child starts seeing the king as just and strict man whose demands it needs to meet. The father-child relationship from before starts to turn into a Lord-servant one. The freedom of a beloved child is gone.

But not because the king had changed – the king is still the same, having mercy on his child. But the child set the focus on the wrong thing. It doesn't look to its father anymore but only at his commandments.

It's the same with us and God. God didn't change. He wants us to be free. Of course his will is still the same and his laws are valid BUT as Christians we do not have to fulfill them by our own strength. It is God in us. Jesus in us is the power who justifies us.

Instead of waking up every morning, groaning under the weight of another day to live by the law, we should be looking at God's mercy and thank him. We should shift our focus away from what (we think) we have to do to what God has done and does and will do for us. He is the one who fulfills the law. We are dead to the law. We belong to Jesus. We can trust HIM that HE provides for us, that HE loves through us, that HE speaks through us. It isn't us doing all the good stuff. Instead, when we try to do good deeds out of our own strength will be often end up as Romans 7:15 says - “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.“

So relax. Lean back. Look at what God did, does and will do for you. Trust him. Remember that you're his beloved child. That he is your father. He cares for you, he provides for you. He knows your struggle and trouble and wants to help you.

Rely on his strength and power, not on your own. Let him live through you, rejoice in the freedom that belonging to Jesus brings:

You are dead to the sin. And you are dead to the law. Jesus lives. And through him, everything is done.

Keep reminding yourself – it isn't you who is supposed to do all this. It is God who will do it.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20

Not my life anymore

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20

When hard times come or depression rises, it's not easy to not give up. Dark thoughts cloud your mind, make everything seem hopeless, senseless, they rob you of the energy you try to put up to fight them. But as Christian I can't give up. I'm not living my own life anymore. I surrendered my life to Christ. So that not I but HE lives through me now. My life doesn't belong to me anymore. My old self is dead. It died when I chose Jesus. I got born again. My new life belongs to Jesus. I have no right to end this life on my own will. So when it comes down to go on living or quit, this might be the only reason to stay alive.

And I'm glad about that.