Written Dec 29th, 2009
It's been a year now since our move from Wichita to Stilwell, Oklahoma. Our ministry has serviced close to 50 people. We have prayed with and helped several pastors, couples and families going through divorce, students who are placed in the care of the state courts, and transitional high school and college students. Some of the most common factors we deal with in our sessions are fear of the future, shame based on past mistakes, guilt for not being able to change and feeling trapped due to family, community and church induced wounds. Hopelessness is the word that frames it all up. Most folks we see have hit a huge road block they can't seem to overcome. The lie, "measuring performance based on others opinions" is usually the root cause of the road blocks. If we aren't measuring up to someone’s expectations, then we must not be worth much. That's the lie we expose in each session. Our worth is not based on our performance and/or other people's opinions. God came in Jesus to save us from ourselves. He knew we would struggle in our thought processes and struggle to find significance from only Him. It's been this way since the great deception that took place in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve believed they needed more out of their situation than what God had already given them. So, they measured themselves by their own deceived thoughts and sought after something they already had, God’s full acceptance. So God, in His infinite wisdom, purposely planned to undo the whole human predicament brought on by that deception. Even at the very first of human creation, God deemed us His creation, worthy to be made even in His image and likeness. He also made us acceptable by solving our predicament through the sacrifice of Himself in Christ. No other essence of power as creator has ever gone this far in proving our value and worth. Lack of value and worth are the root cause of our depression and loser mentality. They cause us to medicate ourselves on the false perception that we’re doing okay, yet all the addictive behaviors we use to medicate ourselves fall way short of fulfilling our deepest need – “To be made worthy.” Christ sacrifice proves we have not only been made worthy to be saved, but also proves we are worthy of His acceptance. Therefore, we are now able to begin to trust this great truth. God made us worthy of acceptance in and through Christ and now we can begin to accept ourselves. Our worth is also proved by God allowing His essence (Spirit) to live in us. Would God allow His Spirit to dwell in something worthless? I doubt it. The word worthless most likely doesn’t exist in God’s mind. Therefore, God makes us acceptable and worthy all in the one act of sacrifice and the indwelling of Himself in us. If the previous statement is true and believable, then I’m pressed to ask this question, will God ever reject His essence in those who have trusted this truth?
Romans 8:1-17
Life Through the Spirit
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
