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The 3 Ways to Live
My Goal to Live
As you know by now my whole goal for you is for you to live. I want you to stop sitting on the sidelines while others live. I want you to stop agonizing over a spent life. I want you to live. I want you to be somebody who is proud of the way you have lived. I want you to say on your deathbed, “I have lived a good life.”
This is why Jesus has made me who I am. To bring you the news that no matter what is going on in your life, you can live. I know struggle. I know hatred. I know medical problems. I know loss of time. I know every excuse that is known to man, but I still make it my goal every day to do what Jesus has called me to do: live.
If you are able to grapple with and overcome three major problems to living, you will live. Before Jesus gave up His life for us, He told us three things about living that we ought to pay attention too. He told us we must die to live. He told us we must see to live, and He told us we must feed off of Him to live.
Way One: Die to Live
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. John 11:25
You will never live until you kill yourself. To live the life Jesus has for you killing yourself is mandatory. Up until you were saved, you were living your own life. BUT now you must live for Jesus or you will surely die. This is a conundrum all of us grapple with, but I can tell you that once you have successfully overcome this, you will begin to live a life more abundant.
Your mind changes from striving for goods to striving for God. You look at people differently. You love differently. You plan differently. You begin to live as if death has no hold on you.
Way Two: See to Live
A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. John 14:19
You will never live until you see Jesus all around you. To live a life for Jesus you must be able to see Him at work. Jesus is alive and at work in this world. He is alive and at work in the people around you. It is because He is alive in this world that we can possibly live a life more abundant than before.
When you see Jesus at work, He is easier to follow. When you see Him, you see His plan for you. You see Him at work in others’ lives. It is because He manifests Himself to you, that you are able to see Him, follow Him and live through Him. Your previous blindness falls away leaving you are able to see.
Way Three: Feed to Live
As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. John 6:57
You will never live until you feed on the Word. Everything that happens in our life can be understood by Word. Your life will always remain a mystery if you never feed on the Word. While you are trying to solve life’s issues you are not living. You are moving from one problem to the other instead of one event to another. Jesus has provided the food for us, so we can use it to live a life more abundant.
Have you ever heard that if you eat too many carrots your skin turns orange? Well, if you eat much of the Word, you will look like the Word. We already have the image of the Word, now we need the character of the Word. The world will see the image of the Word working like the Word. You will live because of the Word, and your life will become much more abundant.
Your Goal to Live
None of us want to reach our deathbed full of regret and sorrow. Jesus came that we might live (John 10:10) so why aren’t we? Why aren’t we dying to self? Why aren’t we seeing Jesus? Why aren’t we working like the Word? We are grappling with life and we must overcome it.
Living for Jesus is the most wonderful thing in the world to do. He supplies us with everything we need to do what He has asked us to do. He makes the way for us to do His will. He has provided us with a room in the Fathers mansion. He intercedes for us when we fail. What more could we ask for? What more do you want?
If all of the provisions are available living for Jesus should be easy but it takes time and effort in the beginning. You just need to get past this stage no matter how hard it is so that you may live. I want your goal to be to live. I will be with you every step of the way bringing you my stories and solutions to life’s problems. We can and will overcome this life, so we may live His life more abundant.
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The Real Measuring Stick!
He Has Risen
Leola is very excited about this Sunday’s performance at church. They have been talking about it for months and practicing too. She knew the significance of this weekend but the promise of it was still lost to her. The daily Bible readings have done something to her yet she couldn’t use words to describe it to anyone. She was just living day-to-day trying to measure up to some standard she knew nothing about. She knew she didn’t worship God enough, didn’t tell the truth enough, coveted someone’s stuff, lied, stole, and other sins she can’t control. The Scriptures remind her constantly about her total lack of strength to avoid these sins. Her character needs a lot of work because she tries to not sin but she sins all the more. She is a wretched body of sin!
She sits, not in her own seat, but near the front between two women with children. Leola longed for her children and her husband to come to church with her but she knew her example would not be the cause of them coming. She knew she was lacking in all the things God saw righteous – everything! The lights went out and the sanctuary went silent. One light appear shining on the cross at the back of the platform. There was a man on it with what looked like blood all over him, Jesus! The commentator appeared on stage to announce the play, “He has Risen, We have Risen!” Leola started crying and never stopped during the whole play. Her heart ached to rise from the dead!
Our state of ‘risenness’ is measured, not by what we aren’t doing, but by what we are doing. There are many promises in the Scriptures Elohim will complete but we spend more time concentrating on the negative words in the Scriptures, such as the ten commandments, which leave us open to the devil to move us right into that sin. We know the more we try to concentrate on avoiding sin the more sin springs to life. (Romans 7:7-9) We need to measure the good in us rather than the bad that the good springs to life. The real measuring stick for us is Jesus and the good He did on the cross for us.
We Have Risen
The play ended and Leola went through what looked like a box of tissue beside her on the seat. The whole time she was watching the play she felt alone in the sanctuary. Someone handed her the tissue but she doesn’t know who she just began using it. “Jesus rose from the dead even after He took on everyone’s sin therefore we need to rise out of our sin too! The Scriptures make us aware of sin but we do not have to be sin. When we take on our sin we are making the cross of no affect,” the commentator said.
Leola left the play with a new perspective. She had been spending too much time measuring herself to the sin listed in the Scripture rather than the promises of God to encourage her. She looked inside her Bible to see what she had underlined and found the verses she underlined were the verses about sin especially the sin she deemed herself guilty. She needs a new Bible because she has learned the lesson well. When she purchased the new Bible the first thing she did was go to Romans 4:13-25 to underline and colour in the words. She went to the front of her Bible to add these verses to the front in red. She wants to spend the rest of her life remembering this point – He has risen therefore we have risen! The writers of the Words of God wrote these Words to encourage her not discourage her. They want her to measure herself to the cross, the real measuring stick. This Easter weekend will be the weekend she changes the way she measures herself with her new measuring stick – the CROSS!
When we measure ourselves to sin we will see the devil in us but if we measure ourselves to Jesus we will see Jesus in us. Let us begin this Easter to measure ourselves with a new measuring stick!
This weeks meditation verses: Romans 4:23-24
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A Soul in Sync
I want to first start with a description of what the soul is because I keep forgetting myself. Our soul is our life and defines who we are, what we believe and what we stand for. It is our volition (desire), our mind (intellect), and our emotion. Our soul is moulded by experience, knowledge and understanding. God gave us talents that we nurtured with our soul. The Bible talks incessantly about soul, heart and mind being something that we need to guard. Our soul is what the world is after. They want us to think like them and in doing that we become them. They will not be happy until we are all like them. We are called by Jesus Christ to think differently from the world.
One Foot in the World One Foot in the Church
Our soul is sanctified (separated) from the world for us to think like Jesus., to take on the mind of Jesus. This is not as easy as it sounds. We read in the Bible we are being called out of the world but the world will hate us (John 15:19). This is why some of us have one foot in the world and one foot in the body. There are some who are just dipping their toe in the body because their soul is weak. A weak soul is a direct result of quenching the Spirit. A weak soul will not be allowed in the New Jerusalem because a weak soul has a penchant for sin. It follows its flesh and makes the flesh its master instead of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-21).
Sanctification Not a Choice; Soul Sync a Choice!
Being sanctified is not our choice, it belongs to God alone, but after salvation we have the choice to live in the world or live in the body of Christ. We can choose to have our mind changed by God or we can choose to have the same mind as the world. The choice is ours to sync our soul with His Spirit or to sync it with the World. When we sync our mind with the Spirit we can expect change, we can expect wisdom, we can expect understanding and we can expect Jesus to move in us. We cannot expect any of this with the world. I do not need to go into a list of things the world expects from us but God expects Jesus from us. We are to have the mind of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:16) therefore the deeds of Jesus. We are to sync our mind with the Spirit and bring our body into submission with our soul (1 Corinthians 9:27).
A Mind Meld with the Master
I know you are reading this thinking how impossible it is to kick habits, change ways, and most ridiculous to think like Jesus! God sent His only Son as an example to us but He also wrote this great book called the Holy Bible that we would have a reference book. Paul told Timothy All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16). ALL Scripture can be used to train us up into the mind of God and that is exactly what we will do. We are going to create a mind meld with the Master that we will be equipped for every good work the Master sends us to do. God is more than willing to reveal Himself in the Scripture and reveal Himself in us to others. I pray that He reveal Himself in you just as He is revealed in me!
Action
For this week pray to the Master He would give you an open heart for knowledge while we mould our mind into the mind of Christ using Scripture to solve about worldly issues. Pray for me also to bring today’s problems to Him for solution. If you have an issue that keeps plaguing you please IM me or send me an email at Kathleen@thelifeskillsstrategist.com and I will point you in the direction of Jesus and His Word for correction advice.
I know that if we choose life in the Word we will find solid Biblical strategies to improve our life. I ask Jesus to reveal himself in you just as He is revealed in me.
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My Soul Longs for Him!
I have been juggling three very good books over the last week and wonder how much more does God need to teach me. The most phenomenal thing is that they all are related to each other at this very moment. How amazing is that? Not at all because we are dealing with our God here! I am reading The One Year Chronological Bible, Water in the Dessert and The Spiritual Man. Each book has its own theme yet each book at this moment is speaking to me loud and clear.The One Year Chronological Bible is designed to allow us to read Scripture in the order in which it happened. I have read the New Testament already and am reading the Old Testament now, Numbers 5. I have read about the building of the Tabernacle and the placement of the tribes around the Tabernacle. Since I am not a numbers person I have to really force myself to go through any part of the Bible that adds, subtracts and divides people. I am reading it differently now based on the other books I am reading at the same time. What I learn in this Book continuously is when God chooses His people He takes good care of them and since I will never be done reading this book He will continue to teach me this fact. This Book continuously makes my soul long for Him.
The second book I pick up is Water in the Dessert by Sherry Stahl. To tell you the truth I didn’t want to pick this book up at all because first, I am not in a dessert right now and second, the green eyed giant. Each of them was a darn good excuse for not reading this book but they were just that, excuses. Sherry bases this book, so far, on the Exodus account of the Israelites being freed by God. Ironic enough that is what I just got finished reading. My Spirit was there but my soul and flesh did not want to pick this book up. That giant had a hold of me and I couldn’t shake it so I have to have a talk with soul. Had my soul not been transformed by the Spirit I could have been years longer letting that giant take me down. This book (or study) has helped me to bury deep in me the truths I know about our Jesus Christ and make my soul long even more for Him!
Then I pick up the most simple but complex book The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. This book is most fantastic. It is a pondering book for certain. It is not one of those books you can read and walk away from without pondering the information. I have read a couple of Watchman’s books thus far and my soul is changed forever because I understand my soul better. As I read this book (I am on page 61) my soul becomes more aware of exactly what it should be doing. What wonderful information to know! It makes every Word I read in the Scriptures jump out at me and leave a mark so deep that I will be able to feel it forever. It, and Watchman’s other books together, have helped to create in me a longing for Jesus that cannot be quenched with just Sunday meetings. I long to hear the Spirit talk to me all day long.
Reading three books together may sound daunting to you but to me it is exciting. I read the Bible to know Jesus so the rest of the books I read have meaning in my life. Can they help me to understand the Word better? Can they help me live the Word better? Can they help me teach the Word better? These are the questions I ask when I read a book. If I am stranded on an island and I could pick three books to have I would choose these three books. BUT if I could only choose one it would most definitely be the Holy Bible. We will never long for Jesus by reading any other book! When God reveals Himself to us He does it through His own Word! Choose the Word over any book and He will reveal Himself to you!
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Excited to Learn? YEAH!
Knowledge is one thing but understanding is a whole new ball game. I love it when I begin to understand something whether related to the Word of God or at my job or even just reading a book that is hard to understand. I ponder stuff all the time and ask why a lot. Jesus is so patient with my questions and my lack of knowledge that it just blows me away when He teaches me something new. I do not deserve to know this much or to understand anything He is teaching me because I am so dim witted sometimes. How many times does He have to teach us something before we learn it? Well, let’s see what the Word has to say about that.
I want to start with Proverbs 6:6 when Solomon calls someone a sluggard. Lazy people cannot learn so he says to them go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise. He wants us not to be lazy and learn fully what we need to learn. Wisdom does not come in one day so the fact that he refers to us becoming wise tells me that he knows we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Psalm 106:35 tells us that they mingled with the nations and learned their practices. That is us Christians. We mingle with the world and learn their ways in time and act like them but we need to mingle with God and learn His ways so we can become knowledgeable about the things of God. To do this we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
The Bible was written for us to learn from and Paul needed to tell us just that in Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. The length of time it takes us to learn is shown here in the term perseverance. Why would we need perseverance if our learning were going to be quick? Again, we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Proverbs 1:7 says that the beginning of knowledge comes from fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord is not based on what you don’t know it is based on what you do know. We cannot gain a fear of the Lord until we know the Lord. He has buried many secrets in His Word that He expects us to uncover. It takes learning to uncover those secrets. Only fools despise wisdom and instruction – be not a fool and fear the Lord. Take time learning and be taught often.
Read books but always come back to the Word! These are just a few verses that tell us about learning. Jesus taught us the whole time He was on the earth so that we would have a mentor; someone to teach us the ways to walk. Jesus said take His yoke upon us and learn from Him for He is gentle and lowly in heart and we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29). Our learning begins and ends with Scripture. We can be taught the Bible from others but the truth can only be found in one place – the Holy Bible. It tells us that we need no other teacher (1 John 2:27) than Jesus and that God will send no one else to tell us the truth (Hebrews 1:1-3) because Jesus has told the truth to us, recorded and distributed it to us that we may learn. When the mystery of the truth is revealed to us it is an exciting thing to comprehend because it has taken us time to learn and we were taught often!
Be persistent this week to spend time in the word with the FULL understanding that it will take time to learn and we will need to be taught many times before we understand. God will reveal His mysteries to us if we persist.
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What Will it Take? Part 3
I have asked you what it will take to get you to read the Bible – what was your answer? I have also asked you what it will take to get you to study the Bible – what was you answer to that question? Now a new question if you can handle it. What will it take for you to memorize the Bible? I am not asking you to memorize the whole thing just parts of it. What is your biggest excuse for refusing to memorize Scripture? Actually, no matter what the excuse, there is no excuse for not knowing the Word of God. In Proverbs 1:7 Solomon says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and that fools reject wisdom and instruction. I am going to tell you on this day that memorizing Scripture is part of this knowledge because memorizing Scripture makes us ponder what it means to us right here, right now and it give us something to hang onto for future use. Shall you present yourself to Jesus mature in the things of God or not?
I hear all the time that people have “life verses” that they have memorized but I am confused about what exactly that means, or more so, what does it mean to them. They memorize a verse like Romans 8:28 but miss the verses before and after where it says that we are predestined to do good works. They memorize Jeremiah 29:11 but skip the fact that God said seek me first and you shall have this. Seeking Him means knowing everything that He says not just what we want to know at that moment or even for life. Has our soul been so spoiled by what we have been feeding it that we want to have life verses that tell us that we are only going to have good things for the future. What about memorizing Hebrews 4:12 or Psalm 149:5 or Isaiah 49:2 or even Jeremiah 23:29 and John 12:48? We are going to be judged by the Words of Jesus when we stand before Him and if we have never buried them in our soul we will not even know what we will be judged by. This is what the Word means to us right here and right now. It is not about our soul here on Earth it is about our soul in Heaven. Paul said to bring your soul into submission (1 Corinthians 9:26-27). Do not run aimlessly through life only putting fluffy verses into your soul, run to win this race to Jesus. Put verses into your soul that change you, encourage you to keep going and keep you on the pavement. Since our life is constantly changing so should our “life verse or verses” change. Challenge yourself and your soul to memorize a whole Psalm this week. Some good ones would be Psalm 8, Psalm 91, Psalm 100 and the all-favourite Psalm 23. Bring your soul into submission so that in the future you will be able to continue running through that desert.
A time is coming when you will not feel the Father around or Jesus or the Holy Spirit because your soul is inundated with worldly woes. Are you prepared for that? Will your whole Spirit come to a stand still? Will you wish you had prepared yourself? Yes, you will unless you let your soul whining take over. Will God be to blame if life happens and you have not prepared your soul to handle it with dignity? You won’t be alone. There are many Christians out there who have not prepared their souls for what is about to happen but that is still no excuse for them to be unprepared. What is it that you are preparing for? Are you preparing for financial disaster, a death in the family, kids coming or kids moving out, job or job loss? Jesus tells us that where our heart is, that is where our treasure is (Matthew 6:21) but our heart is supposed to be in Heaven and we are supposed to be preparing ourselves for when Jesus comes again. We are being sought after by a roaring lion to be devoured and the only way to beat him at his game is the Word. He will continue to come after us but if we know the Truth it shall set us free from the oppression that he has laid upon us. We are not without power but it is not our power that can beat the devil it is the power of God that beats him. The power of God is His Word and it is sharper than a two-edged sword piercing even to the separating of soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12).
If you know the things of God you shall present yourself to Jesus mature in the things of God! Is that not what we want? Therefore there is nothing in this world that should stop us from becoming mature and running the race well. Memorizing Scripture will give us this knowledge we need to present ourselves mature because memorizing Scripture makes us ponder what it means to us right here, right now and it give us something to fight the devil with in the future. I cannot say this enough – reading the Bible, studying the Bible and knowing the Bible is the only way to mature in the things of God. It is disappointing to find Christians who are not hell bent on knowing God. Yes, it is work but how well do you know how to search the Internet or run your computer? Do you think that will give you a free pass into the New Jerusalem? How many songs can you sing from memory? What is stopping you from singing a Psalm instead of a song? Can you see how weak your current excuse is, if you just ponder that excuse for just one moment? When Jesus comes He will take no excuses, only the Truth and His Word will judge us! Ignorance of His Word will not save us, it will kill us. We are to bring our soul into submission and make it do what Jesus wants us to do! Unless you read, study and know Scripture you will never know what that is! What will it take for you to understand that God’s will for us will not be thwarted by stubbornness? He knows what you will and won’t do and He will pull you along kicking and screaming if He has too so why don’t you just do what He wants! He wants you to know Him and to know Him you need to read the Word, study the Word and know the Words.
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Picking up the Pieces!
I was reading in Genesis recently and was struck by the pieces of unassuming information that reside in that text until I found another one. As I was reading I was reminded of my last 13 years as a Jesus follower and how many pieces of information Jesus has given me along the way that I have had to put together to solve a puzzle. What have I done with all the pieces that God has revealed to me along the way? The habit I have gotten into while reading the Word now is to search my mind whenever I am given a new piece to a puzzling question. I am always pondering information so that I can join it with something else but sometimes it may very well be just the beginning of a new cluster of information. If you read the same story about Joseph in Genesis chapter 37 with chapters 40 and 41 you will find out that all the dreams were in groups of two, why? To get the answer we must first ask the question then wait for more pieces to pick up the answer to the puzzling question!
We can find pieces of information in the Word of God plus the Holy Spirit gives us pieces of information. Even with these different pieces of information we may still not understand although one day when a piece of information is revealed to us all of them will come together. You might have ten pieces of information that make some sense by themselves but remain incomplete together then one day you get another bit of information and all the other pieces come together into that perfect understanding. It is a wonderful thing when that full understanding comes but it is also a wonderful thing to have the pieces as well. These pieces keep us in communion with Jesus to get the answers. Pieces to a puzzle add intrigue to our lives.What do we do with these pieces of information? Jacob and Mary did what was best and we can do it too. When Joseph told his family about the dreams, they hated him but his father kept it in his mind. Mary, mother of Jesus, did that same thing. Every time Mary got a piece of information about Jesus she kept it in her heart and when He was dying on the cross I am sure that she remembered that she was told by Simeon that her own soul would be pierced (Luke 2:35). I am sure that she began picking up all of the pieces that God revealed to her during the 33 years of Jesus’ life. Keeping the pieces in our heart/mind is exactly what we need to do to make sure that we understand everything that God is revealing to us!
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Watch Your Language!
I am more aware today of language than I have ever been in all my life. I am learning American Sign Language and I am learning the Bible in its original language. The translations of the Bible play a key role in how we understand what God is actually saying to us. I am sure that at least one questionable religion has used the word translation to explain their existence. Are they right? No because the translation of the Bible is our responsibility to make. I am English speaking so I must research the Hebrew or Greek word and what it means in English if I am to discover exactly what the Bible is saying to me. Scholars translated the Bible into English but unfortunately the English language is not as easy as the Hebrew or Greek language because we have so many words. An example of a misunderstanding based on translation is Psalm 8. It has a couple of complicated things to look at such as verse 1. NKJV says O Lord our Lord with the first Lord being YHVH (H3068). If you spend 10 minutes researching this word you will know why it is so perplexing to all of us. Then if you go to verse 5 it says that we lack a little from Elohim (H430) but most translation say we were made a little lower than the angels. If you look up the word for lack it is specific to our person.
This being said from just one Psalm you can imagine what the whole Bible has to offer in the way of language. We know that every Word in the Bible is planned and has meaning in its language. The original language is Hebrew in the Old Testament and Hebrew in the New Testament. If context is a great issue for you, as it is for me, than you aught to own an Interlinear Bible of English/Hebrew/Greek. Then you can see how God originally intended His Words to look and to taste. His will is in His Word and He will reveal all of it to you if you ask.Action Plan: this week buy yourself an Interlinear Bible of English/Hebrew/Greek and start looking at those words that perplex you. There are some on the net but I am partial to the touchy feely kind of books. If the web is where you want to read it you can search it out but do take some time to stop and listen to Jesus explain Himself to you in a language only you understand.
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RIM 2: A Patchwork Called the Body!
Much like this Christmas tree I purchased in 2014 for my basement decorations, we are a patchwork of patterns and colours. Some of us have buttons and some bells. Some are cross-stitched and some are straight stitches. Some of us shine from the top and some of us hold the patchwork up for all to see. There are bells at every level and buttons as well. Each part of the Body needs to be sewn together to make the whole. For this tree to look like a tree it all had to come together at a specific place.So is the will of God for each one of us at each stage in our walk with Him. He puts us into place at a specific time so that we can edify the body at that given time with the knowledge and wisdom we have. He makes us the stand sometimes so we can support the whole. He makes us a bell sometimes so that we can sound an alarm to someone who is in sin. He makes us cross-stitches sometimes so we can be two places at once and straight so we can fly solo. He makes us a colour pattern so we can cause people to look twice and solid to be hidden yet blend. Sometimes He makes us a button so we can be in the gap to hold someone together. He has a clear plan for each one of us even if it is the weld on the stand. It is our responsibility to know what part of the body we belong. This is part of knowing the will of God. When you are in the will of God the body comes together but all it takes is one person in the body to stray from the will and the body becomes out of sink and can become fruitless but when everyone does what God wills them to do the fruitfulness of the body can be seen for miles. 1 Corinthians 12:18:27 describes this wonderful phenomenon that Jesus has put together.
Action Plan: Ask yourself this question this week – what is it that God has gifted me to do and am I doing it? If you understand this part of the will of God you will yield much fruit and help the body yield much fruit too!
