Sons!

by: Tripp Campbell

If you feel like you are on the back side of a desert and just Wasting away. Consider how God looks at the word Waste. So many times we Identify ourselves and others by what we Do, instead of Who we Are. Naturally this begs a question! Who are we?

Listen to Paul in Romans 8:14-15:
"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father!"

Wow! what a glorious truth. We are Sons! We are Sons! We are Sons and Daughters of God!

Characteristics of a Slave:
1.) Hireling, obligation to serve for reward.
2.) Performance oriented.
3.) Slaves leave at the end of the day, Sons stay.
4.) Motivated by Fear.
5.) In Bondage

Characteristics of a Son:
1.) Motivated to do the Father's will.
2.) Enjoys Intimacy with Daddy.
3.) Sons have ears to Hear.
4.) Listens to Abba (Daddy) and does what He tells us to do.
5.) Does not fear. Free!

Now read the story of Mary who Lavished, Worshipped, Jesus in loving devotion, with an alabaster vial of costly perfume.
Matthew 26: 6-13

"Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper,
a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table.
But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, "Why this waste?
"For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor."
But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me.
"For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.
"For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.
"Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her." "

The Disciples believed Mary's act of Worship was a Waste. No! Why? Because the Disciples had a different idea of waste to God's idea of waste. Waste is determined by value. Value is determined by purpose or placing value in the things we do. The Disciples believed the perfume should had been sold and given to the poor. (Doing Ministry) Mary understood, Enjoyed, Being with the Father. (Intimacy) The Lord did not consider this act of worship a Waste.


You see, we have bought into this idea that our purpose is Doing, (i.e.. to win the lost). No. Our purpose should be, to do the Father's will. Our purpose is to "be" Sons and Daughters of God. Many of us have determined that doing things for the Father is better than just being with the Father. So the next time you believe you are just wasting away on the backside of a desert. Just remember who you are! Sons and Daughters of God!

"Thank you Lord for the Glorious Truth that we are no longer slaves, but Sons and Daughters. Lord, root out any slave mentality and give us a greater understanding of Sonship. Thank you Lord that we are adopted by the shed blood of your Son and not by anything we have done. Help us this day to Cry Out, Shout, "Abba! Father!" In Jesus name. Amen"

1 John 1:9

By: Paul Rupe

One of the most common responses I get when I tell believers they are forgiven of all sin is "What about 1 John 1:9?" Let's look at 1 John 1:9 and then we'll explain how this verse actually teaches that God has removed our sins completely through Christ.

1 John 1:9 says

If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I feel that what many Christians don't understand is that 1 John 1:9 was never written about believers. 1 John 1:9 was written to believers but it was written about Gnostic teachers who had infiltrated their ranks. In the letter of 1 John, I see two particular Gnostic teachings addressed, there are more but we will use these two for our study. Gnostics taught that Jesus did not have a physical body but rather that He was a spirit or a phantom.

This is why John writes in 1 John chapter 4 verses 1-4

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

John was refuting the Gnostic belief that Jesus did not have a body and that He did not physically die on the cross for sin. John called this Gnostic belief an anti-Christ teaching. In addition to this teaching, Gnostics also believed and taught that they did not have or share a part in the sin of Adam. Gnostics did not believe that they were sinners. Not believing themselves sinful they did not believe that Jesus came to pay the penalty of mans’ sin by His death on the cross, much less theirs. They believed that Jesus was the way-shower, but not the way.

Therefore, John writes addressing this issue in 1 John chapter 1 verses 8-10

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

John was saying that if they would admit that they had a sinful nature and trust in Jesus' final sacrifice for sin, then God would be faithful to have forgiven them and cleansed them from all unrighteousness. If a person does not believe they are a sinner, they see no need to come to Christ for salvation. This is exactly what the Gnostics believed. To the Gnostics Jesus was not a Savior who died on the cross for their sins, but rather a way-shower to God.

A certain believer, wanting to make sure he was reading this chapter correctly, contacted a professor of Greek at a well-known seminary. This professor told this believer that he, for the longest time, had believed the traditional teaching about 1 John 1:9 but that as He was reading the passage in Greek, he had come to an altogether different conclusion. He now was certain that John meant it for unbelieving Gnostics rather than believers in Christ Jesus.

We also see from looking into the Greek text that the words "To forgive" are the Greek words "Hina Alphei" which are a second aorist subjunctive. This implies a "one time forgiveness with ongoing results."

In addition, we must consider the following questions: How many of your sins did Jesus die for? All of them, of course. How many sins had you committed when Jesus died? You hadn't committed any. You weren't born yet. Friend, all of your sins were in the future when Christ died, that was when He forgave you; He forgave you all of your sins!

We also must consider the Apostle Paul and his writings. There is only one verse after the cross that teaches confession of sins in order to be forgiven - 1 John 1:9. Why did not the Apostle Paul, the man that God used to write thirteen different epistles, mention anything at all about confessing sins in any of his epistles? Paul’s message was that God had forgiven believers all trespasses!

Think about this: Why, in the Old Testament, did the Hebrews confess their sins to have all their sins covered for one full year when, under the New Covenant, many Christians confess their sins daily? Is not the blood of Jesus better than that of bulls and goats?

What about the word "confess"? The word "confess" is the Greek word "Homologeo" which means, "To say the same thing as another." I had always thought that to confess sins meant to ask God to forgive you, but this word means nothing of the sort. To confess is to agree with God. Agree with God about what? Agree with Him that you’ve sinned and then agree with Him that He took your sin away when He died on the cross.

Again, John was writing this about Gnostics, and was simply saying that if they would turn from unbelief and agree with God that they were born sinners, and that Jesus died to take away their sins on the cross, then God would be faithful and just to forgive them and cleanse them from all unrighteousness.

Jesus did not miss one ounce of unrighteousness when He saved you! He cleansed you from all of it! 1 John 1:9 actually teaches that you have been cleansed from all unrighteousness!

Believer be free from sin-consciousness. Realize that you have been cleansed from all unrighteousness! Jesus has finished the work and He has forgiven you!

RELIGIOUS OR CHRISTIAN?

By: Major W. Ian Thomas

There are few things quite so boring as being religious, but there is nothing quite so exciting as being a Christian!

Most folks have never discovered the difference between the one and the other, so that there are those who sincerely try to live a life they do not have, substituting religion for
God, Christianity for Christ, and their own noble endeavors for the energy, joy, and power of the Holy Spirit. In the absence of reality, they can only grasp at rituals, stubbornly defending the latter in the absence of the former, lest they be found with neither!

They are lamps without oil, cars without gas, and pens without ink, baffled at their own impotence in the absence of all that alone can make man functional; for man was so engineered by God that the presence of the Creator within the creature is indispensable to His humanity. Christ gave Himself for us to give Himself to us! His presence puts God back into the man! He came that we might have life - God's life!

There are those who have a life they never live. They have come to Christ and thanked Him only for what He did, but do not live in the power of who He is. Between the Jesus who "was" and the Jesus who "will be" they live in a spiritual vacuum, trying with no little zeal to live for Christ a life that only He can live in and through them, perpetually begging for what in Him they already have!

From the foreword of Classic Christianity by Bob George, Eugene: Harvest House Publishers. ©1989.

Christ has set us free to live a free life!

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace.Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love. (msg)
Gal 5:1-6

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