Insane Luxury

How can someone who lives in insane luxury be a star in today's world?

For many years economist, author, screenwriter, attorney and actor Ben Stein has written a biweekly column for E! Online website called -- Monday Night at Morton's (Morton's is a famous chain of steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe). Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life. This is his final column.

As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is "eonlineFINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. Lew Harris, who founded E! Online, asked me to do it maybe seven or eight years ago, and I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end. But again, all things must pass, and my column for E! Online must pass. In a way, it is actually the perfect time for it to pass. Lew, whom I have known forever, was impressed that I knew so many stars at Morton's on Monday nights. He could not get over it, in fact. So, he said I should write a column about the stars I saw at Morton's and what they had to say. It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars.
I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie.
But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again. Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails. They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer.
A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.
A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.
A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.
The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject. There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament.
The policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive. The orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery. The teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children. The kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.
Here is a rule to help you keep your sanity and keep you in the running for stardom: We are puny, insignificant creatures. We are not responsible for the operation of the universe, and what happens to us is not terribly important. God is real, not a fiction, and when we turn over our lives to Him, he takes far better care of us than we could ever do for ourselves. In a word, we make ourselves sane when we fire ourselves as the directors of the movie of our lives and turn the power over to Him.
I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin--or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them. But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me.
This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.
This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human. Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that
God will.
Ben SteinCopyright ©2005 E! Entertainment Television, Inc.

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The War Against Terrorism - Revenge? Justice? Or Protection?

What happened on September 11th was a terrible tragedy. The loss of life in the wars in Afganistan and Iraq is an ongoing terrible tragedy. The war against terrorism, as important as this is, must seem like small compensation to the ones who have lost their loved ones. After all, nothing will bring back the family members and friends that are no longer living, not even the deaths of the terrorists. It all feels so unfair and unjust; we are all powerless and helpless before death.
So it seems natural to ask where is God in all this? Why did He permit it to happen? I can understand how God might permit me the daily troubles and annoyances of life, but this? This kind of terrorism was not supposed to happen to us; such things never entered our minds; they were beyond the realm of possibility. For myself the myth of American invulnerability was shattered by 9-11, not only because we are the most militarily powerful nation on earth, but simply because such things don't happen to us – we're America! But of course such things do happen to us and have. So again, I ask: where is God in all this?
The simplest answer is that God is where He has always been: right in the thick of things and at the heart of every circumstance. It is not as though things happen while God is off napping somewhere or visiting some distant galaxy and He has to rush back as soon as He hears that some terrible event has happened because He wasn't paying attention. No. God has a purpose in what happens before the event ever occurs, though of course He doesn't cause the terrorists to do what they do. God doesn't merely respond to events in the world and turn them to the good – He is in control from the very beginning and nothing escapes His careful planning.
You might ask how God could have a purpose in such an utterly evil thing such as terrorism. Isn't He a God of love? Of course He is – God is not evil but completely good, loving and just. But whatever evil motivates the terrorists, God was ultimately in control of what happened on September 11th and is in control of the ongoing war on terrorism. God could act to prevent the terrorists from doing what they do, but He doesn't. Why? Because He wants us to get the consequences of our free choices. Since we are persons who are made in the image of God, He has given us freedom, the free choice to be vessels of wrath or of mercy. But our choice not only has consequences for ourselves but consequences for others. Since Adam and Eve we have been getting the consequences of our own evil choices and the consequences of the evil choices of others, and God allows these consequences in order that we might turn back to Him.
Some may have trouble believing that a God of love could have a purpose in such terrorism. But God predetermined that Jesus would be murdered at the hands of evil men, as Peter says: "this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law" (Acts 2:23). In fact, "both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:27-28). It hardly needs to be said that the most evil act in all of history was the unjust murder of Jesus on the cross. He alone is absolutely sinless (2 Cor. 5:21), and therefore the only one completely undeserving of His fate. We are all born as sinners and therefore deserve to die (Rom. 3:23, 6:23), and so if we die in some tragedy, we are after all only getting what we deserve. But Jesus didn't deserve death, and so His death was a crime of unimaginable magnitude, and yet Scripture says that it happened according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. God's purpose in Christ's death was for our salvation, despite the intentions of evil men. In fact God used their evil intentions and actions to accomplish His purpose. God didn't make these men evil; we are evil by our own choice. But given the fact that without Christ we are vessels of Satan, God simply uses us and Satan through us as His convenient agents to accomplish His plan.
If it is true that God predetermined and intended Christ's death, how much more it is true in our case. If it was "the Lord's will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer" (Isa. 53:10), how much more that must be the case when we suffer. But God's purpose is not to cause us pain as if He were some kind of cosmic sadist, but always and only for our ultimate good. As Joseph said: what human beings meant for evil, God meant for good (Gen. 50:20). The evil his brothers had intended was the convenient means by which God fulfilled His purposes. In the same way, the evil the terrorists intended was merely the convenient means by which God fulfilled His plan.
It is impossible to know all that God intends through terrorism, since for each of us God might have a different purpose through it. For unbelievers, terrorism is a warning of coming judgment and the inevitability of death for us all. Terrorism is not simply an unjust evil, but God's call to repent of their wicked, unbelieving life. As I said, death is not an undeserved event. That the means of that death is unjust and wicked makes no difference, since it is God who decides in every single case the exact time when we will die – it is not chance or luck, it is not decided by terrorists or criminals, nor by diseases or accidents. God alone is the one who decides. He is absolutely sovereign over all that occurs and over the times of our deaths, including the deaths of every single person who died in the 9-11 evil or the wars that have followed. This is a hard truth, but the people who died did so because it was their time to die. For Christians, death was an invitation to come home to be with Christ in heaven. Death is not the final word for us; we will be raised from the dead to enjoy eternal life in God's presence. For unbelievers, it was time to face God in judgment. For us who are still alive, their deaths are a warning: death comes to us all, so we need to be right with God in the present (by trusting in Christ). For believers, this tragedy of terrorism ought to spur us on to share the gospel with our unbelieving loved ones and friends, so that they don't have to face the condemnation of God.
For myself, what happens in a war against terrorism is a warning not to trust in the American myth of invulnerability, that is, in our own strength as the most powerful nation in the world. It is a powerful reminder to trust in God alone and not in our strength to protect ourselves, since ultimately our safety is in the hands of God no matter what we do to protect ourselves. This does not mean we don't take adequate steps to ensure our safety, both as individuals and as a nation, but ultimately our safety is in God's hands, as are all the events of our lives and the time of our death. God's command is that we trust His sovereign love, no matter how events appear to contradict it.
Trusting in God's sovereign love does not mean, however, that our country should be passive in the face of what has happened. Our government was given the power of the sword in order to protect its citizens (Rom. 13:4). But should we not "turn the other cheek" as Jesus commands us? First of all, this command applies to individuals, not governments. Secondly, this command simply means not to seek revenge for harm done to one's person, which God forbids. The Command not to seek revenge, however, doesn't relieve us or our government from the responsibility of protecting others from evil when we have the ability to do so. This is especially true of a government which has the God given responsibility to protect its citizens. Not to respond to and deal with the terrorists would be disobedience to God's mandate to the government – to bear the sword for the protection of the people. The failure to deal with the terrorists would mean that they would be free to continue terrorizing anyone who opposed them, and this would represent a real lack of love. Passivity and inaction in the face of evil is not love, but indifference and apathy towards our own people, and we can be grateful that our government has not chosen this sinful course of action.
Thus America's response to the terrorists would not be justifiable as mere revenge or retaliation for what was done to us, for God forbids the taking of revenge (Rom. 12:19).
Nor, despite the comments of our president and officials, should our purpose be one of justice, for how will death of the terrorists bring back our loved ones? We will have to wait until the final judgment and the resurrection from the dead for final justice.
Ultimately, our purpose in Afghanistan and Iraq should not be revenge, nor even justice, but the government legitimately acting to PROTECT its people and prevent further attacks.
But even if our government's acts to protect us are justified, this should not prevent us from looking within ourselves and asking what is it that God wishes me to see through what has happened?
Is God warning me to repent?
Is He shattering the myth of American invulnerability?
Is He reminding me of my own powerlessness before death?
God has many purposes in what happened, and probably as many purposes as there are people on earth. But each of us must ask ourselves: What does God want ME to learn from the war on terrorism?

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Is God a Republican? Or a Democrat?

If Jesus Christ were a United States citizen, would He be a Republican? Or would He be a Libertarian? A Democrat, or a member of the Green Party? Maybe even a socialist? Would He have any political affiliation? Certainly, true Christians should want the same political association as Christ would have.
The term "religious right" is a popular one today; it is often used by the mass media, and, of course, the "liberal left". But parties and labels are not the way Christians should approach government.
Yes, Christians should discuss and be involved in world politics in detail. Yes, we should discuss a myriad of geopolitical issues, decisions and the results of those decisions. That is done, however, with the only unimpeachable source of truth firmly in mind: the Word of God. God's revelation determines our analysis of any situation, whether it is political or not.
The fact is that the Bible is NOT politically correct. As followers of God's Word, neither are we. We must understand that while the political parties heatedly discuss the issues of the day, while the news media frantically scramble to cover the stories they generate, they are all missing the point, ignoring the most phenomenal news story of all time – Jesus Christ, resurrected and alive today, dwells within the very being of His followers!
Jesus Christ is our spiritual/political leader. Yes, Christ's "political" affiliation should be becoming clearer to us all by now: He is simply ABOVE politics! Jesus stated many times that He came to bring the Kingdom of God to humans. What does this have to do with worldly governments? THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR WORLDLY GOVERNMENTS IF PEOPLE ACCEPTED THE "GOVERNMENT" OR THE ACTUAL CONTROL OF GOD IN THEIR LIVES.
Christians serve as ambassadors for this Kingdom today. As ambassadors, we cannot truly be a part of another government – or any political body of any nation founded on man's ideals (although God does command us to be subject to man's government, as long as it doesn't cause us to breach God's law – Titus 3:1).
God's government is built on His perfect law of love. Do the political parties show each other godly love and unconditional, outgoing concern? Do they express care and concern even within their own organizations? Do they each esteem the other better than themselves, as God would have them do? Are the policies they espouse based on His Word? Any thinking person would have to say, "Not much!"
Whether a Republican or a Democratic majority exists in the U.S. government, we don't see a less polarized or partisan America. On the contrary! When we get to the core of the matter, we actually see dog-eat-dog rivalry and hatred. We see a downward spiral – the constant slinging of mud, as each side attempts to achieve what is best for IT. We see nothing but "love for my party and disgust for your party!"
Ultimately, the efforts of mankind's political parties won't mean a thing. Whether the Republicans implement a drastic revamping of Social Security or the Democrats socialize the medical services in this country, or the Green Party succeeds in legalizing marijuana, Jesus Christ and His Word will be LAW!
Anyone who knows the heart of the common man – That it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9) – can understand why the peoples of the Earth resist the leadership and control of Christ. Not only many "conservatives" fight Him; not only many "liberals" fight Him – but so do the communist nations, the Islamic nations, the Hindu nations, in fact, all the nations of the Earth.
Furthermore, there is NO POLITICAL SOLUTION to this world's problems, only a DIVINE one. Only as people come to recognize Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord can there be a proper "government" or leadership on this Earth.
So how ARE we to deal with "politics"? Are Christians to vote for the best leaders and issues? Certainly. We have a duty to keep informed about how the government we are to be "subject" to is being run.
Where we see God's law of love being applied, we should encourage it – regardless of party sponsorship. Where we judge a particular person as being sincere in his leadership of concern for others, we should vote for him – regardless of party designation.
We should speak out in a legal and civilized way about any issues that we like or dislike, BUT ALWAYS BEING SUBJECT TO THE GOVERNMENTAL LAW AND ITS ENFORCEMENT.
Rather than recruiting for political parties, we should "recruit" for Christ. By spreading the message of salvation through the Savior, the new followers become ambassadors like ourselves for the Kingdom of God
The revelation of our all-powerful God tells us that, when all is said and done, POLITICS will be a thing of the PAST!

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Does Grace "Trample On God's Law"?

Does grace “trample on God’s Law”? A person I know thinks so. He said, “Of course we receive grace, but living contrary to God’s laws can keep us from salvation. You are trampling on God’s law! Paul said the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good” (Romans 7:12).
Am I against keeping God’s law? I am against the “obedience to the law gospel.” I am against the “if you don’t obey, then you are toast” gospel?
The message? Might as well face it, you are doomed if you don’t obey. Am I against that message? You bet. Why? Jesus is. And I want to be on His side. I choose Jesus over Moses.
On what basis am I against keeping God’s law? I am against being enslaved to the law. Why? I know its bitter fruit. I did 35 hard years in that spiritual dungeon. Of course I believe the law and the commandment is holy. God made it, therefore it’s holy. It comes from Him. It’s His.
Lots of things, according to the old covenant, are holy, in fact that very word is definitively used to describe “things” (see, for example Leviticus 5:15; Numbers 4:20 and Deuteronomy 12:26). Zechariah 14:21 speaks of holy pots. The old covenant list is endless about holy things. There are holy days, holy oil, holy people and holy places. Holy stuff in the old covenant does not mean that Christians are obligated to worship, follow and obey anything it describes as holy.
Neither are Christians required or obligated to obey holiness codes of behavior and separation that were given to the Hebrews, as if obedience to all that old covenant stuff will save us. I enjoy bacon and eggs, ham sandwiches and pepperoni pizza, but I am in union with Christ. I am still saved even though my wife and I don’t keep a kosher kitchen. I wear clothing with mixed fabric, we plant different plants or seeds in our backyard garden (Leviticus 19:19), we don’t have a battlement or parapet around our house (Deuteronomy 22:8), and there have been times when I have failed to rise when someone older than myself enters the room (Leviticus 19:32).
I’m being silly, you say? You want me to concentrate on the Ten Commandments only? Okay. Well, for starters, I do not believe that there are any days that are holy for Christians -- that is, more holy than another. But the Ten Commandments make it very clear. The day for worship is Saturday (Exodus 20:8-11). By the way, if you read these verses carefully you will find that the Ten Commandments demand that the seventh day Sabbath is holy.
Here’s the bottom line on all this “you have to obey the law to be saved” stuff. The law is impossible to keep. It’s obvious that the law, as given in the Bible, is impossible for Christians. The truth is that the law does not save us. Jesus alone observed the law perfectly. Jesus alone can save us. He does not save us, give us eternal life, and then tell us that if we do not perfectly obey the law (any law) we will lose our salvation. So what law, which laws, exactly, law-keepers of the world, are we commanded to keep and observe so that as Christians we might prove our worthiness to God and eventually earn our safe passage into God’s kingdom of heaven?
Matthew 22:37-40 is the key – love of God and love of your neighbor. Jesus said that everything that came before is based on this love. But do we love in a legalistic way to earn God’s approval? No – we are able to love as a RESULT of God’s approval! And we do it as a form of worship for what He has done for us in saving us.
What happens when our obedience becomes our focus and our priority? We start marching down the path that leads to religious bondage. We find ourselves deeply entrenched in systems that promise us God’s favor in return for our performance, a condition from which the gospel of Jesus Christ promises to liberate us. We find ourselves convinced that we are better than others who do not work as hard as we do to be saved. We find ourselves filled with religious pride, condemning those who do not measure up to the standard imposed by the particular religious doctrine that holds us captive.
But the gospel talks about a way of being a fool, which I believe is the root of this law-keeper’s concern. The cross of Christ is foolishness, says Paul (1 Corinthians 1:18, 21, 23). The perceived weakness of this act, of giving oneself as a lamb to be brutally beaten and crucified, is foolishness to the human mind. God’s grace, which tells us that we cannot earn God’s favor, is foolishness to the human mind. God’s grace is beyond foolishness, it is scandalous to the natural mind. This is the foolishness I recognize and embrace. The foolishness by which I want to be identified is found in Christ. I will gladly be found a fool for Him.
Law keepers find all this grace talk embarrassing, it’s not the stuff of hard working religious folks who are paying their own way. Grace to them seems like welfare and hand-outs, and belittles and demeans all of the hard religious work they do. Their fears are well founded. God’s grace says that our work has nothing to do with our salvation.
I believe the law is more like a curse -- a curse when people become convinced that any law deserves to occupy the spotlight in their lives. Law keeping turns us into religious slaves. Law keeping takes us captive into the world of religious legalism. Paul says that anyone who thinks that his or her salvation comes from keeping the law is under a curse (Galatians 3:10). I believe it. I experienced it for 35 years.
The law did not die on the cross for us, even though it was blotted out there. The law did not rise from the tomb. The law is not seated in heavenly places. The law is not the King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus alone is Lord. He alone is worthy of our worship. He alone saves us. Faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone.
When you come to really understand GRACE, you will know WHO YOU ARE – A CHRIST/PERSON – and you will LOVE because Christ in you is doing the loving.

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The "Managed Care" Concept For Healing

God wants to heal His children:
“I am the Lord who heals you” (Exo 15:26) “. . . I will take away sickness from among you” (Exo. 23:25) “...the Lord will take away all your sickness and will not let you suffer diseases” (Deut. 7:15) “. . . I kill and make live; I wound and heal” (Deut. 32:39).

By Christ‘s stripes (whip beating), we are healed:
“He was lashed — and we were healed!”
(Isa. 53:5) “. . .all the sick were healed.
This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah…”
(Matt. 8:17) “. . . For His wounds have healed
ours” (I Pet. 2:24)

How is the Christian to approach the subject of sickness, disease, and bodily healing? God says He can heal us directly. It is unequivocally stated that Jesus Christ suffered for our healing. How are we who have been reborn with Christ dwelling in us, to handle disease and medical treatment on a personal level?
Some groups such as the “Christian Scientists” look totally to God for miraculous healing and avoid doctors wherever possible. But physical medical treatment is used in the Bible. See Isaiah 1:5-6; see the “good Samaritan” in Luke 10:34; see II Kings 20:7.
How are we Christians to live with the concept of healing from God? How do we deal with sickness on a day by day basis? Let me digress for a moment to discuss a little about modern day medical treatment.
Our country has been in a great debate over the last decades about how to handle the exploding costs of medical care and the inequities in insurance coverage. There are advantages and disadvantages for each of the remedies being suggested.
Up until the 1970’s, doctors were almost exclusively private practitioners. They were basically self-employed charging a fee for service directly to the patient. Only a very small percentage of doctors were on salary -those working for governmental agencies and those on active duty in the military.
Since then, we have seen the explosive growth of what are called in general “managed care systems” of delivering medical services. An example of this is what is designated an “HMO” - a Health Maintenance Organization. These are basically business corporations formed for profit. Doctors are hired and placed either on salary or on capitation-payments for each patient signed on by them to participate in the HMO. Hospitals and pharmacies are also recruited to be part of the HMO to deliver services at less than their usual charges.
The proponents of HMO‘s state these advantages: 1) lower overall medical expenses for the members 2) better oversight of quality delivered and 3) better efficiency.
The HMO system works as follows. A patient joins the HMO for an agreed monthly premium. The new patient then is required to pick his “primary care physician” from a list of doctor providers in the system. This physician is the one that the patient always goes to first for medical treatment. If more specialized treatment is decided on by the primary care physician, the patient is referred to a specialist physician in the HMO. If hospitalization is decided on, the patient must go to a hospital in the system.
In the HMO community, the primary care physician has come to be known as the “gate-keeper”. He is the one who must decide how extensive and costly to the HMO the patient‘s treatment will be. The gate-keeper is the main factor in cost control within the HMO.
Many complaints are being heard from patients that their gate-keeper is not giving referrals to specialists which, in their view, are obviously needed. Arid many hospital stays are being drastically limited below safe levels for the patient.
The gate-keeper’s job is obviously very important. But evidence is being uncovered that many gate-keeper contracts with the HMO call for kickback bonuses for every patient that is NOT referred to a specialist. Also there are bonuses for keeping hospital stays at an absolute minimum. This certainly creates a conflict of interest between the physician’s income and the patient‘s medical treatment.
There would be no gate-keeper problems if the physician was totally knowledgeable and gave perfect moral judgments on each case.
I believe that a good way to look at Christian healing is with the HMO approach, BUT WITH A PERFECT GATE-KEEPER, JESUS CHRIST!
Just as the Christian is to trust Christ daily, moment by moment, for guidance in every area of life, so medical decisions are to be made by consultation with “The Perfect Physician” - Jesus Christ - the totally
knowledgeable and totally moral spiritual
GATE-KEEPER.
Christ is to be our primary care physician - our first line of decision about medical treatment.
When you are taken by a sickness, an injury or an abnormal growth, the first thing to do is to go directly to your spiritual primary care physician. Contact Christ within for fellowship and guidance about what to do medically. When you keep your awareness of union and trust in Christ’s leadership up to date on a daily level, this “office consultation” can become as routine as any other guidance from Him.
Christ may tell you to go to a doctor and allow the healing to come from the doctor’s expertise. God can very well heal through the doctor.
Christ may tell you to get some over-the-counter medicine to relieve the symptoms as HE heals you.
Christ may tell you to do absolutely nothing because HE has already healed you of the primary cause and the symptoms will disappear in God’s time on their own.
As you can see, this consultation with Christ must result in a very personal decision - one with which those around you might disagree. But you, as a Christ/person, are in charge of any bodily medical decision. When you have learned to hear Christ’s guidance, you will know His medical direction for you.
One thing must be said concerning medical treatment for your minor children. The medical directions given by Christ to you as a Christian in the Family of God are for you alone and are to be applied by and for you only. Therefore a young person who has not established a personal relationship with Jesus has no way of receiving personal medical guidance.
We live in a world which has established laws for the overall good of society. And one of these laws is that parents must not withhold life-saving medical treatment for their minor children. TAKE YOUR MINOR CHILDREN TO THE DOCTOR FOR TREATMENT OF ALL BUT THE OBVIOUSLY UNIMPORTANT SICKNESSES AND INJURIES! You should pray to God for a rapid healing of your child with a minimum of suffering and then use whatever medical treatments are available. Withholding treatment requires trust in Christ of the person involved, and Christ will never have you try to apply your trust to your children’s healing.
We must remember that God never gives us sickness as a test of our faith. Sickness is brought on by the world (the disease organisms cultured and spread within the world community), the flesh (congenital deformities inherited within our genes or lack of body health due to misuse or disuse), and Satan (who can use sickness to attack us).
What about those trying times when our healing is not obvious to us - when we just don’t seem to be getting better? WE SELDOM SEE AN IMMEDIATE, INSTANTANEOUS HEALING. We have a period of time in which we must patiently wait to see God’s promised healing. During this time, the following possibilities must be considered:
1. The cells in my body involved in the sickness are BEING healed even though I can’t see it or feel it yet.
2. I do not see physical healing right now even though it has occurred because God is using my reaction to it as a means of reaching someone else through me. After His purposes are achieved, then the healing will become apparent.
3. If my sickness is caused by bad habits (smoking, lack of exercise, etc.), God expects me to repent and begin to treat my body properly. This repentance and patient obedience to common health rules may be necessary before we see our physical healing.
4. I may never be physically healed, but will die in the future from my sickness. God may have decided to take me out of the world and heal me spiritually with a new spirit body: a. because I have shown by my faith that I have reached a level of maturity or b. because God knew my weaknesses and that I am probably as strong in faith as I will ever be. So He removes the sickness and pain by death.
God does not think as we think because He knows the big picture of His purposes and we don’t. But we do know that the end result for us will be what every good father desires for his children: peace, joy and love. And God as the perfect Father will achieve the perfect good for us.
Yes, healing comes because of and through Jesus Christ. HE IS THE KEY TO HEALING.

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Clergy Sin

What are we to make of it? Ordained priests accused of and admitting sexual acts with adolescents.
We have, in the past, seen a number of instances among Protestants of ministerial sin exposed to the public – Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Bakker, Garner Ted Armstrong. And now the Roman Catholic church has been forced to investigate their priests concerning sexual activities with young people.
How are we as children of God and members of the Body of Christ to view this sin of the clergy?
We know how the world outside of Christianity views it. They laugh and scoff and say things like: "Some kind of men of God these are!" "This proves Christianity is just hypocrisy!" "What kind of supposed Christian power to live a good life is there if these leaders can't even set a good example?" "These guys have been charlatans from the start and have been in it all along for just what they could get out of it."
But is this the way we as Christians, having the indwelling mind of Christ, to view these men? In general, I think not.
Certainly it is possible that some "men of God" are charlatans. But I have come to believe that the vast majority of these leaders who fall started out at conversion just as sincere in their desire to make Jesus the Lord of their life as I did. They became a new creation just as I did. Christ came to dwell in a living union with their spirits just as He did in me. They are forever children in the Family of God just as I am.
Well then, WHAT HAPPENED? Why couldn't they be examples of the Christian life?
Satan's overall control of a person is removed at conversion and replaced by Christ's Spirit control. The human spirit becomes the dwelling place of Jesus Christ.
But Satan hangs around the fringes of the Christian's life trying to exert as much external influence as he can to divert the Christian mentality away from awareness of Christ. And all Christians succumb to this influence, some more, some less. Christ does not leave when the Christian sins. There is a correction process from God the purpose of which is to draw us closer to His lifestyle of dependence on Him.
Knowing Satan's goal to disrupt Christianity, where do you think Satan would focus much of his influence toward sin in the Christian? Wouldn't it be in the public leaders of the church, the priests and ministers? If he can discredit Christianity by discrediting its leaders, he can achieve much of his plan.
And the area of sexual activity would be a prime place for Satan to work. The public seems to view getting caught at any kind of deviant sex as a great news item. (Of course, there is much going on within the public itself that is not "getting caught".)
The world, the flesh and Satan himself have an external influence on every Christian. But I believe that the combination of 1. Church power raising the ego level of the minister and 2. Satan's extra influence on this ego, cause the minister to "miss the mark" by sinning and setting a bad example.
You, I, and every Christian have the work of Christ in the world through us to ratify Christianity. You have your little world to demonstrate to and I have mine. But leading church people on TV and in sermons at church have a larger world to play to. I am certain that Satan works quite harder on the "big guys" than on the "little guys" like us. Leading clergy actually fall easier and require more spiritual correction from God than the average Christian.
Jesus said that a Christian will demonstrate "fruits" in his life. He will achieve many good accomplishments. And there HAS been much calling of others to Christ by these men of God who have slipped into sexual sin. Even in spite of their failings, there has been evangelistic fruit.
There is an old expression, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!" Everything that happens to a Christian is used by God to draw him closer in awareness of his status in Christ. The more an independent ego (and it seems especially in the sexual area) rears its ugly head in a Christian causing bad independent choices, the more correction by consequences is needed. A child in God's Family is STILL a child in God's Family even after he sins. Forgiveness from God comes easy, but the material consequences can linger for a lifetime.
In the case of the Protestant ministers and the Catholic priests and others, the loss of ministry and the public shame can last a lifetime. But this does not make them "bad" people. They are children of God who slipped into "bad" things.
One important aspect needs to be considered. Of course, Christianity will always need leaders. But I believe that the concept of a hierarchy of clergy is not Biblical. There should be no division into "clergy" and "laity". The early churches described in the Bible show no power structure of hierarchy. The "pastor" was just one who kept the church service flowing directing participation among all the brethren.
A hierarchy structure creates a power structure which tends to try to perpetuate itself by the use of more power. The cover-up by bishops of illicit sex among the hierarchy of priests is an example of power used to retain power.
What are we to learn from this clergy sin? We, even with Christ living in us, can and do slip-up and go independently at times. This is just part of living in the world. The Holy Spirit within does all He can to keep us aware of our Family birthing, but we still can be influenced toward independent thinking. And the more ego mentality and power mentality we have, the harder it is to CHOOSE to trust in Christ.
"There is one God, and one MEDIATOR between God and men, the man Jesus Christ" (1 Timothy 2:5).
"Christ is the mediator of the New Testament..." (Hebrews 9:15).

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"Give Your Heart To the Lord!"

I have been thinking about this expression which I have heard so often. This is a favorite evangelical expression which a Christian will use to bring a non-Christian to salvation in Christ.
But, fundamentally, is this “Give your heart to the Lord!” really applicable to a non-Christian? Have we tended to put the cart before the horse in this area?
Perhaps we have lost sight of what the gospel truly is. The gospel is a message from heaven that God loves sinners. The gospel is that God knew man could not be what He wanted him to be within himself, so Christ was appointed to die in condemnation for our sins. This would give God the right to put into the creature man another life – one that pleased Him, the divine Life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The gospel is the report that peace has been made for the poor sinner through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Salvation is not a “belief” of some sort requiring a kind of “giving of the heart” by the sinner. But it is the receiving of another Person whom God has ordained to be the operating Life in the reborn person.
The gospel is the receiving of Christ – not just what He has done, but whom God intends that He be IN US. It is not only the accepting of the gospel, but the receiving acceptance of the Person of the gospel – Christ.
What has long been the initial idea of “getting saved” in Christian circles has been to impress upon the sinner his duty by saying, “Give your heart to Christ!” It is probably unwise to urge this on the sinner as if this were the gospel because it can cause them to begin wrongly in their walk with God. It is not what we give to Him.
Giving your heart to Christ is a law idea, rather than Paul’s gospel of grace. It is most proper that it be done at the right time, of course, for God Himself demands it. But in urging that it be done to receive salvation is putting the cart before the horse. When a new believer starts with the idea that he must do something, or even that he can do anything, he is plagued with the idea of being able to do something throughout all of his Christian experience. This is what keeps many from the rest that God the Father has for them.
We must recognize that if we start out believing that we can do something to be saved, then a seed of independent, self-effort religion is planted. And all our days this keeps us doing rather than entering into our rest of just being.
Salvation is the receiving of Christ into a living union within us. It is all about accepting this free gift and just receiving and not “giving” anything.
This “receiving” gives us the “horse” which will pull the “cart” of our continuing life. Having the “horse” of Christ within us with His power and leadership, THEN your heart will begin to be given to Him, not as a matter of the law, but of love.
For if you have the love of His heart poured into yours, you will feel yourself under the constraining influence of a love impulse to GIVE Him your heart in return, along with all you are and have!
It is RIGHT to give Him your heart – but unless you first receive the open proof of having His Life, you will never really give Him your heart.

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10 Reasons To Believe In a God Who Allows Suffering

RBC Ministries has a 3 part video series with the above title.
If you don't have RealPlayer installed on your computer, you can download it at the website.
Each part is one-half hour long.

Click on Part 1 here

Click on Part 2 here

Click on Part 3 here

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One Kind of Thinking By a Seeker of God

I just watched the movie “The United States of Leland”. It is a story about a mixed up teenager.
At the end of the movie, here is how the young man describes his thinking about life:

There is goodness in people – but mostly it stays deep down and buried.
I guess we have God because we are scared of the bad stuff.
Or maybe not! Maybe we’re really scared of the good stuff because if there’s no God, that means the good stuff is inside of us – and we could be good all the time if we wanted.
So when we do bad things, it would be because we want to – or we have to.
Or maybe we just need the bad stuff to remind us of what the good stuff is in the first place.

Oh – what we go through on our way to God!

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Giving To God

The increasing emphasis on money in most churches is causing many people to study the Word of God for the truth on this important subject. Each year brings new schemes to raise money to support the increasingly top-heavy ecclesiastical organizations with which so many of God’s own are affiliated. A large church in an east Texas city has rated its members according to the amount they contribute to the church each year while another church has developed a slogan: “Would you want your neighbor to know how much you give?”
These clearly are efforts to play on the desire for social approval and the wish to out do one’s neighbor and to use these urges to increase the funds coming into the church organization.
The question I raise is not whether to give or not to give, but it is a question of giving as a member of the body of Christ, in the church age of grace in contrast with giving as an Israelite under the law.
In the first place, the word tithe is found in only one portion of Scripture this side of Calvary, and that is Hebrews 7:1-10, which refers back to Genesis 14:17-24. Many glory in these passages, insisting that since Abraham paid tithes, tithing antedates the Mosaic Law, and is therefore binding today. By the same argument, one would have to accept circumcision, (Gen. 17:9-14); animal sacrifices, (Gen. 4:4; 8:20); the seventh-day Sabbath (Gen. 2:2-3); etc.
Some hold that Hebrews 7:8 which says, “Men that die receive tithes” would indicate, by the verb tense, that they are still being received. In the same book, chapter 10:11, however, we read that priests were still offering daily sacrifices, but that does not indicate that God required either the tithe or the sacrifice at that time that the book was written.
Tithing definitely was incorporated into the law program, as I brought out in Leviticus 27:30-34. Note how carefully God links this with Israel. “These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai”.
In Malachi 3:7-15 we have the verses that are overworked by preachers today who accuse believers of robbing God if they do not tithe. The “storehouse” of verse 10, they tell us, is the local church treasury, and church members are told that they pay the tithe to the storehouse. Anything above the tithe they say is an offering. But actually the “storehouse”, under law, was the Jewish temple. Note again how God tags the verse in Malachi with Israel (3:6 – “Jacob”). He calls tithing His ordinance (3:14). Paul tells us that “we are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). Colossians 2:14 assures us that the ordinance of Malachi 3:14 has been blotted out, nailed to His Cross. How does this effect our giving?
OUR MOTIVE FOR GIVING IS INFINITELY GREATER. Instead of bringing a tithe into an earthly storehouse because a legal ordinance requires it, we give because we have received God’s awesome gift, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 6:23).
Who should give? Every believer in the Lord has the privilege of giving (1 Cor. 16:2; 2 Cor. 9:7). How much should be given? It is here that confusion arises, when the truth God gave to Israel under the law is brought over and forced upon members of the body of Christ, living under grace. Two principles are laid down to guide the member of the body of Christ as to how much he should give.
ONE – HE IS TO GIVE “AS GOD HAS PROSPERED HIM” (1 Cor. 16:2). This suggests giving in proportion to our income, and giving systematically. As the Christian’s income increases, his love gifts to support the work of the Lord will increase.
TWO – HE IS TO GIVE “AS HE HAS PURPOSED IN HIS HEART” (2 Cor. 9:7). The yielded believer prays much about his giving as to the amount, the phase of the Lord’s work to which the gift will go, etc. The giver is to have a willing mind (2 Cor. 8:12), that is, a desire to give without coercion, and we are to give cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:7).
The amount the believer under grace gives, then, is based on the amount of his income and the amount he purposes in his heart to give. This is it! These are the rules of grace!
Contrast a strict law demanding that we give, with giving cheerfully, not because we are bound to, but because it is our desire! Many have been enabled to give far more than the legal tithe, and have done so. One well-known Christian businessman has consistently given 90 percent of his profits to the Lord’s work, and used the other 10 percent for personal needs, and God has prospered him.
On the other hand, God has many choice saints with a meager income, barely able to meet life’s needs, whose financial contributions are not much in numbers, but are acceptable in God’s sight on the basis of the above standards. Many who have been unable to give financially to the support of the gospel have spent much time in prayer and witnessing, and they are accepted according to what they have, and not what they lack.
Giving can and should be a means of worship. But giving is a matter that should be strictly between the believer and his Lord; no man or men have scriptural authority to dictate to the lowliest believer how much he should give or how he should give it.
To summarize, every believer in Christ has the privilege of giving to the Lord’s work because we have been born into God’s Family. We are to give as God has prospered us. There is nothing wrong in giving a tenth, so long as it is understood that we are not legally bound to any tithing ordinance of Israel. And these gifts are to be given as we have purposed in our hearts, cheerfully and freely.
We are saved by grace; let us live under grace; let us learn the superiority of giving under grace compared to tithing as though we were under law.

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Dangling Future Rewards

I do believe that salvation is a free gift from God. I believe we cannot earn our way to heaven. But what about rewards which are mentioned several times in the Bible? Are we, as Christians, supposed to work to earn rewards in heaven? Or is this just another way that church ministers get their members to serve in the church by dangling future rewards in front of them? We long to hear God say "well done my good and faithful servant", but we sometimes wonder if we are just going to sneak by. Is what I do as a Christian in this life going to determine what I do in heaven? Why do we need extra rewards anyway? Are there different social classes in heaven?
Let’s go over what the Bible says about salvation and rewards. Salvation is by grace. That message is crystal clear in the Bible. But legalism and religious manipulation have many devices and techniques that attempt to nullify, modify and diminish the power of God's grace. One device is to say that we are saved by grace and works. Wrong! Another teaching is that Jesus saves us initially, He gets us started, making a "down payment" on our salvation, but from then on it's up to us. Wrong again! Still others say, in an attempt to control and manipulate, that salvation is by grace but our reward is by works. They go on to say that we can determine our "place" in heaven by what we do now. Wrong again!
But, there are biblical accounts that seem to teach that there are levels of rewards in heaven. What about the parable of the talents (Matthew 25), the pounds (Luke 19), and the passage that speaks of how our glorified, post-resurrection bodies will have different kinds of splendor (1 Corinthians 15:35-41)? And other passages, such as 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; and Revelation 22:12 are understood by some to teach that while we are saved by grace, we will be rewarded based on our works and performance?
Matthew 20 records the parable of the workers in the vineyard, showing that each worker received the same pay even though each worked a different number of hours. The workers did the job they were given, at the time it was offered, and all of it was by God's grace. God's grace, his gracious invitation into the work of his vineyard, enabled all of the effort to be accomplished. So we are saved by grace, and salvation is the same for us all -- eternity in God's presence. On the other hand, the Bible does speak of degrees of rewards. But is it accurate to say that while we are given salvation by grace, the degree of reward, or status if you like, depends on our works? Isn't that contradictory?
The answer is that our salvation and our reward are both by grace. There would be no salvation, nor would there be a reward without grace. "Levels" or "degrees" of rewards the Bible speaks of are based upon OPPORTUNITIES that are given by God's grace. God determines precisely which gifts we are given, when and how many. In the parables of the talents and pounds, the servants are given differing amounts. Catch that. The servants are GIVEN gifts. Yes, they either use the gifts or fail to use the gifts, but the very fact that they possess gifts speaks of God's grace.
Rewards in heaven are not based on what we produce, how well we perform, how much we accomplish -- rather, they are based on UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES that we are given, by God's grace. Rewards in heaven are not the result of works-based righteousness of performance based religion.
Rewards in heaven happen because some humans are given more, and more is expected, in terms of yielding oneself to God so that He may use those gifts to produce His workmanship in us (Ephesians 2:10). Jesus is the vine, we are the fruit. We do not produce fruit because we work hard, fruit is not produced because of our diligence, but because of Jesus. Yes, we are called to yield ourselves to the Master, to be living sacrifices (Romans 12:1), and to pick up our cross and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). Grace means that we will be active in God's service. But we should never get the idea that what we are doing is going to save us, or that what we are doing is going to cause us to be better or superior to others, either on this side or the other side of eternity.
There are those who hold out the biblical teaching of rewards like some carrot (or by "dangling future rewards"), to motivate, and sadly, to manipulate (2 Peter 2:3). Religious legalism twists and distorts biblical teaching about rewards to control its followers -- but its take on heavenly rewards is not Christ-centered or based on God's amazing grace.

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The Tsunami of Suffering

150,000 lives – and possibly much more! The tsunami waves which reverberated over the Indian Ocean the day after Christmas, 2004, caused untold damage and suffering.
We call this a “natural” disaster, meaning it was an act of “nature” which could not have been stopped.
After every incident where there is a large loss of life, people ask the question, “Why?”
So-called atheists say, “See? If there was a “good” god, he would have prevented this disaster!”
Agnostics say, “See? Even if there is a god, (and I’m not saying there is), what good did it do for those dead people?”
Many Christians say, “I know there is a good God, but why such a large loss of life which somehow He could have prevented?”
This idea of human suffering under the control of a good God is perplexing to many.
When a little girl was asked what impressed her most about the powerful movie “The Passion of the Christ”, she said, “When Simon of Cyrene called out for the beating to stop and Jesus had suffered so much, why would they go on causing Him more pain?” Her tender twelve-year-old heart was deeply moved as were so many of us who watched it and echoed the cross-bearer’s plea. As we shielded our tear-filled eyes from the unrelenting beating, humiliation and scourging of our Savior depicted in this film, so we often want to hide from the ongoing assaults on our own lives – crying out “Stop!”
Hearts crushed with a weight of grief, eyes swollen from an unending flow of tears, our lips repeatedly form the aching question – HOW LONG MUST I PUT UP WITH THE PAIN? And as we see the suffering following the tsunami, we say, WHY ALL THAT PAIN?
While myriad of writers, theologians and poets have wrestled through the ages with this enigma, there are no glib answers to the mystery of suffering. At a time when pain appears to be proliferating on every front – physical, mental and emotional – there is a great need to encourage each other in these dark and bewildering times in which we live. It is a time to remind one another that there is purpose in the pain.
One could not watch the Passion movie without being struck with the brutality that begged the question as to what was so heinous and incompatible with heaven’s holiness that human kind could not be reconciled without such suffering? Many unbelieving people find the entire concept of Jesus’ suffering and death totally repellent. A god who requires blood and beatings is irreconcilable with a Supreme Creator who loves His creation. And doubters cannot make the leap of faith that is required to reconcile pain with higher purposes than our own limited human reasoning can comprehend. If we are honest, we who do believe find the problem of pain hard to grasp at times.
The tsunami of suffering struck both Christian believers and unbelievers alike. Pain and death is just a part of the human condition. Part of the difficulty we have in identifying pain as part of the believer’s walk is that we are slow to accept that we are really and truly united with the living Christ. A large segment of Christianity claims that success alone should be the hallmark of a believer’s walk. And when pain and troubles come, they question their walk with Christ itself.
The Scriptures are unequivocal regarding the place of pain in the Christian life. We also, as Jesus did (Heb. 5:8), learn obedience by what we endure, not by what God miraculously takes us out of.
The deluge of disasters, disappointments and tragedies that overtake us are only bearable in the loving context of the Cross which, despite its gruesome physical reality, is still and forever a message of love.
The Bible speaks of God as a Master Potter forming and transforming us into His desired result. A number of years ago, I saw a fine piece of sculpture called “Forming Hands”. While the slightly larger right hand is gouging out the lump of clay, the smaller, finer left hand holds the piece of clay steady in the process. We can endure the pain because we know we are safe within the loving left hand as the right hand does its work forming us into the image of the Son. The Potter will not destroy the raw material in the process.
What of the pain in unbelievers? How long must they put up with pain? As long as it takes for them to come to a realization of their “natural” weakness in morality and their need for a Savior!
The Asian tsunami caused pain in Christians and non-Christians alike. It caused death in Christians and non-Christians alike. We know from the Bible that the deaths had eternal consequences of good for the Christians involved. Only God knows the type of consequences in the deaths of unbelievers.
What we can be thankful for is our assurance that Christ lives in us, as us, and for us – God’s eternal purpose.

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The Birthing

At the beginning of the book of Hebrews, it is stated that there are two totally different methods of knowing God. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.” (Heb. 1:1-2).
Prior to the birthing of Christians which began after the Cross, humans knew God in many different ways at different times. But Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that the new way of knowing God is by a human having a new birth, a birthing – being “born- again”. To know God through any method other than the birthing is to revert to time past.
To many believers, time past seems to have been the most glorious time because this was the time of tremendous miracles, great leaders, great and notable characters, great prophets, great teachers, great preachers, tremendous works by God, etc.
As great and wonderful as this time was, it was void of the birthing, God’s ultimate purpose for mankind. In time past, someone other than Christ was the focal point, but in the birthing there is only one focal point for the believer, which is “Christ in you.”
The Mosaic Law is also included in time past and was the standard by which Israel lived. The difference between law and the birthing is that the law controlled its subjects in contrast to the birthing which motivates those within its realm.
Many believers still prefer the things and events of time past instead of the truths of the birthing. This means that they seek after rituals and signs and miracles and law-keeping rather than seeking a deep relationship with “Christ in you” which many Christians do not understand.
No prophet or prophecy, no miracle or miracle worker, no human high-priest or ritual can establish the birthing of Christ within. The birthing of a Christian was something that those in time past did not know could exist.
Without the birthing, the only relationship with God would be through methods of time past. Time past is what the believer loses when he is born-again because there is no need for those things in the birthing of Christ within. There is no go-between or intermediary agent needed in the birthing except “Christ in you” Who actually is the only life the born-again believer has throughout eternity.
Prior to Paul’s gospel the Jews thought the only means of having a relationship with God was through the law. Paul tells them that they are no longer under the law. If that is true, how are they going to maintain their relationship with God? The relationship through the law is still in the minds of most born-again believers today who work faithfully to maintain a relationship with God. But the birthing is not a faith or law relationship, but is a real, actual new birth in Christ’s life now and forever.
Those under the law could be free from sin if they perfectly obey the law in its fullness at all times. Can the birthing provide freedom from sin? Under the law, God looked for those who were without sin. And He couldn’t find any – not Moses and especially not David.
What does God look for under the birthing? God no longer looks for those without sin but for those who have Christ in them as their sinless life. Actually God is no longer pleased with a sinless life – “What” you say? Yes, God desires something much greater than that. What could be greater than a sinless life? It is being a birthed member of God’s Family and joined to the living Christ!
If you think the law had a uncompromising hold on you, just wait until you come to the proper understanding of the birthing. The law demanded perfection but could not give perfection to its subjects. The birthing does not demand perfection in human actions but it does give total perfection through “Christ in you” to those who believe and choose the birthing.
“If there had been a law given which could have given life, truly, righteousness should have been by the law” (Gal. 3:21). In this verse, the words “life” and “righteousness” are being used interchangeably. Righteousness simply means “possessing the right life” which is “Christ in you” life! For many years, I thought that righteousness was simply the act of doing things right. Actually, “doing things right” is the result of possessing the right life! The law did not give a life that could do that which is right. The birthing could, and did, give a life that produced righteousness in the born-again believer.
If you think Israel’s great High-Priest in all his glory was something to behold, just wait until you really understand the birthing of “Christ in you” (Gal. 4:19)! If you think walking on streets of gold in heaven will be glorious, just wait until you learn how to walk in the Spirit in Christ! Things pertaining to heaven are all in the future, but the things that are ours in the birthing are for us now and throughout eternity!
These two phrases – “Christ in you” and “in Christ” – make the same proclamation that is found in “I will be to him a Father and He shall be to me a Son” (Heb. 1:5) which is the greatest declaration of purpose found in the Bible. It will take an eternity for Christians to learn of the glorious sufficiency of birthing in Christ.
“Grace” is a word on the front of many churches. It is often defined as “the unmerited favor of God”. This definition is adequate for God’s relationship with people in the past before the Cross.
But I propose a better definition as grace is concerned in the birthing. GRACE IS THE UNMERITED RELATIONSHIP CHRISTIAN SONS AND DAUGHTERS HAVE WITH GOD THROUGH THE BIRTHING OF CHRIST WITHIN.

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Be Perfect To Stay Saved?

Many Christians consider it important to live a holy life, not to earn salvation, but out of gratitude for it. Some have misconstrued that to mean we must be perfect like Jesus in order to "stay saved" or we can't call ourselves Christians. I've actually heard some say they no longer “really” sin. I believe the Bible makes perfection a goal to be worked toward, with no expectation to reach it in this life. But, nonetheless, it should be our target. If we continue to aim for the target I think we will do what is our "good and reasonable service." When we willingly turn from that target and aim in another direction (willful sin) we are clearly not demonstrating our gratitude for the gift of grace.
What is the best way to combat sound doctrines that have been traditionalized to mean something else, without destroying good fellowship among believers? Here’s how I see it.
Most people who go to church want to be assured that what they believe is true. William Sloan Coffin once put it this way: "The church is full of people who are seeking that which they have already found and only want to become that which they already are." Seen from the other direction -- most people are not receptive to a message which upsets the status quo. Therein lies the challenge, and the danger, of ministry.
As you well know, Jesus was not received with open arms. Matthew 23 is a summary of Jesus' clash with organized and accepted religion of his day. I believe that Jesus' reception by much of religion that is organized and dedicated to him - Christianity - would be much the same today. At the bottom line, where the rubber hits the road, people generally opt for religious ritual, tradition, deeds, programs and beliefs rather than the grace of God.
The "best way" to confront people who are convinced that their deeds, their obedience, their quest for perfection is critically important to their salvation? Preach Jesus. Preach the gospel. Preach Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, Colossians. All that is said and done in the context of church should be centered in Christ. Anything - anything - that threatens to take the place of Christ, or demands equal time - whether it be denominational traditions, core doctrines of the faith, however innocent, pure and true the issues may be - anything that is divorced from Jesus, anything that does not focus on Jesus will lead people away from authentic Christianity.
We use computers now in much of what we do. Computers have what is called a default - when one needs to reboot. When humans reboot, we always default, by virtue of our human wiring, to what we can do, how we can do it, how much of it we need to do. We default, in terms of religion, to performance. We do not automatically default to God's grace - we do not automatically see our contributions to salvation as worthless. Many fall for some kind of legalistic theological combination plate (think of a Mexican restaurant) which at the end of the day amounts to the same kind of religious meal others partake of at some other church. They may order the chicken tacos, or the cheese enchiladas, or the beef tostada, while we, at our church, go for the tamale. But it’s all made in the same religious kitchen -- it all comes with religious rice and beans. Okay - enough of the metaphor. It's breaking down! My point is: we humans fall for some idea that Jesus saves us, yes, BUT - what we then do after that point has some significance. Some think of entire sanctification. Some emphasize holiness. Some see justification as primarily a human work in which we are assisted and helped by the Holy Spirit. Any of these theological “combination plates” give people the illusion of control, the illusion that what they do has a direct bearing on their salvation.
But the great hymn teaches "I surrender ALL." All. There is no way to teach God's grace without being Christ-centered. There is no way to understand salvation without the recognition of the totality of grace. God gives salvation to those who see their weakness toward sin, repent, and seek Christ as Savior and Lord. The grace action is unmerited favor from God – unmerited before seeking Christ and unmerited after receiving Christ.

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Do?? or Done!!

We hear so much about what we must do as Christians, that one would almost think there was nothing that Christ had done. "Do," "Do," we hear on every hand, and how seldom do we hear "DONE".
Thank God that in a world of so many unfinished things, there is one thing finished. "It is finished!" - the work of the Savior is finished, said He who did it, and no one yet has ever been able to point out an unfinished thing in that redemption work.
The "DONE" takes away the "Do".

"Do" means human endeavor...

"Done" means Divine accomplishment.

"Do" is possible to human attainment...

"Done" is alone possible with God.

"Do" satisfies the flesh...

"Done" satisfies the spirit.

"Do" is the exercise of human energy...

"Done" is the display of Divine power and grace.

We are not to be crucified with Christ...

We were crucified with Christ.

Christians are not to be united with Christ...

They are united with Christ now.

Every blessing, every experience, every victory, every deliverance known to the Christian life, comes as the result of the DONE work of the Cross.

We can never exhaust the results of the DONE work of the Cross.

God never gave to any sinner or any saint anything that did not flow from the DONE issue of the Cross of Christ.

So what is there for US to do? Be aware and be dependent on the life of Christ in us to direct us away from sin and to lead us into the "good life" - the lifestyle of a child of God.

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Christian Growth

[An article by RBC Ministries President Mart De Haan]

This is an open letter addressed to someone who exists in the collective experience of people I’ve had the privilege of knowing and learning from over the years.

Dear Aaron,
I hope you are doing well. I miss our conversations about life, religion, and the Chicago Cubs. Even more, I regret that we haven’t kept in touch after your move to Philadelphia.
I’m writing now because time has changed my thoughts on a subject we used to disagree about, and I owe you an update.
Aaron, you used to say that “Church people aren’t better than anyone else; they just think they are. The best people I know never darken the door of a church.”
Even though I argued with you at the time, you helped me see that people who build hospitals, orphanages, and rescue missions in the name of Christ aren’t the only ones working for the benefit of humanity. I remember the letters to the editor you wrote, and the streets you walked, to protest the wrongs of racism, the evils of war, and the pollution of the environment.
Since the last time we talked, I’ve traveled enough internationally to see the hospitality and goodwill of people of non-Christian cultures. In other countries, as in our own, I’ve seen that a person doesn’t have to believe in Christ to be loving, gracious, and even heroic in the face of human need.
Such experiences over the years have reminded me of the disbelief I saw in your eyes when I talked to you about becoming “a new person in Christ.” I remember the questions you asked when I quoted the words of the apostle Paul, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” You told me you didn’t buy it, that you had grown up in the church, and knew firsthand that these were not people for whom all things had become new.
Well, Aaron, enough time has passed that I am able to understand more clearly what you were saying. Along the way I’ve seen enough in myself and in others to give me second thoughts about what I had said to you. Somewhere along the line I started asking questions: “If believing in Christ changes people’s hearts—why are His followers unable to sustain the “first love” and enthusiasm of their relationship with Christ? Why do so many eventually struggle with personal bitterness, church conflict, troubled marriages, investment scandals, anxiety disorders, and a whole spectrum of addictive behaviors? Why does faith in Christ produce changes that are more like the honeymoon phase of a marriage than a lasting change in life?
At this point, I admit that my spiritual journey has run parallel to what I’ve learned in marriage. What doesn’t change in either is the human baggage we bring into both. The independent inclinations that were a part of me before and after marriage were also a part of me before and after I put my faith in Christ. The self-centeredness that makes it difficult for me to hear the concerns of my wife also makes it hard for me to hear the voice of Christ living in me.
It took time for me to discover that in salvation and in marriage, growth and maturity would not come automatically or easily. In both cases, I was not prepared for what turned out to be the greatest challenges of my life. What I didn’t realize beforehand is that the biggest enemy I would ever face would be my own unchanged inclination toward self-centeredness.
I don’t mean to understate all the wonderful sides of marriage or conversion. But I can see now how wrong my expectations had been. I had looked to salvation to make me good, as I had looked to marriage to make me happy. I didn’t see that in both cases my own human nature would stack the deck against me if I didn’t do whatever it took to let the Spirit of Christ live His life in me.
Aaron, as I look back on some of our conversations, it’s clear that I was wrong in assuming that my whole life had changed through faith in Christ. It didn’t occur to me that whenever the Bible encourages us to love, or to pray, or to think and speak honestly, it is because we are so inclined to do just the opposite.
Yes, Aaron, my thinking has changed a lot since the last time we talked. Life has been a lot harder than I expected. Too often I have underestimated the diligence needed to let Christ make a difference in me.
I can now see more clearly that upon a couple’s public confession, a minister declares a man and woman married, but not mature. And, upon an individual’s faith in Christ, God declares us righteous in Christ, but not good in ourselves. In both cases there is a huge difference between the legal declaration and resulting quality of life.
I now believe that church people, in their best moments, have a lot in common with members of a 12-step recovery group. They attend meetings and work the program, not because they are better than others but because they know they need God and one another to overcome the problems that would ruin their lives.
I only wish, Aaron, that I had understood years ago why so many people like me reflect far more of ourselves than of who we are, and could be, in Him.
Thanks for listening. I’d love to know where you are in your own spiritual journey. If you are inclined, drop me a line, either by letter or e-mail. I hope you’ll find that I’m more ready to listen and less likely to defend the moral superiority of anyone other than the One who died for us.

Sincerely,Mart

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SO BE IT!

THE LAW IS THE LAW
This is one of the better e-mails I have received in a long time!
So Be It!

THE LAW IS THE LAW

So if the US government determines

that it is against the law

for the words "under God" to be on our money, then,

so be it.

And if that same government

decides that the "Ten Commandments"

are not to be used

in or on a government installation, then,

so be it.

And since they already have prohibited

any prayer in the schools,

on which they deem their authority,
then so be it.

I say, "so be it,"

because I would like to be

a law abiding US citizen.

I say, "so be it,"

because I would like to think

that smarter people than I

are in positions to make good decisions.

I would like to think

that those people have the

American Publics' best interests at heart.

BUT, YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE I'D LIKE?

Since we can't pray to God,
can't Trust in God

and cannot Post His Commandments

in Government buildings,
I don't believe the Government and

it's employees should participate in the Easter

and Christmas celebrations

which honor the God that our government

is eliminating from many facets of American life.

I'd like my mail delivered on Christmas,
Good Friday,
Thanksgiving

&

Easter.
After all, it's just another day.

I'd like the US Supreme Court

to be in session on Christmas,
Good Friday,
Thanksgiving
&
Easter
as well as Sundays.

After all, it's just another day.

I'd like the Senate and the House of Representatives
to not have to worry

about getting home for the "Christmas Break."

After all -
it's just another day.

I'm thinking that a lot

of my taxpayer dollars could be saved,

if all government offices & services

would work on Christmas,

Good Friday
&

Easter.
It shouldn't cost any overtime

since those would be just like

any other day of the week

to a government that

is trying to be "politically correct".

In fact....
I think that our government

should work on Sundays

(initially set aside for worshipping God...)
because,

after all,
our government says that

it should be just another day....

What do you all think????

If this idea gets to enough people,
maybe our elected officials

will stop giving in to the minority opinions

and begin, once again,
to represent the 'majority'

of ALL of the American people.
SO BE IT...........

Please Dear Lord,
Give us the help needed to keep you in our country!

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True and False Condemnation

Every human being in the world is dealt with by the Holy Spirit of God. There is a constant work of the Spirit going on in the life of everyone. The unconverted person is being drawn toward God by two general methods: the “carrot” and the “stick”. The old saying goes that you can get a mule to move by a carrot in front of his nose or a stick applied to his rear. Mules are recognized to be very independent creatures, and this is the spiritual characteristic of unconverted people also. God tries the “carrot” technique by demonstrating His power and majesty in the beauty of creation. He tries to draw people to a knowledge of Himself by making them see “goodness” around them in some form or another - the beauty of a sunset, a “good” act by one person toward another, or just by stressing the fact that the person contains a soul conscience toward “good”.
But most often, demonstrating “good” is not enough to draw the unconverted to God. The “stick” approach is necessary. Evil has a built-in “stick”. God does not have to strike us with the stick. When we act as if we are independent from God, we smack ourselves with the stick. There are built-in consequences to “sin”, which is any attempt at independent living. The whole idea of God is to get us to see that doing our own thing does not work. He wants us to see that independent living does not work. (Later, after conversion, we can come to see that there is no such thing as independent living. The unconverted person lives the nature of Satan and the Christian lives the nature of Christ.)
What God is actually doing is applying TRUE condemnation to the unconverted person. The person separated from God must come to see that he is not a “good” person, that he doesn’t have it in him to BE a “good” person, and that there are spiritual as well as physical penalties for sin.
This drawing toward understanding gradually brings the person to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and what He did for the sinner by paying the penalty of death. By accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Master, the person is converted - that is, he becomes a “new creature” with Satan’s nature removed and Christ coming in a living union within.
TRUE condemnation has done its work. It has made another child in God’s family. TRUE condemnation is practically always a requirement for conversion and the new birth. Humans are such “mule-heads” that showing us “good” things hardly ever works toward our good. We need that smack with the “stick” of sin over the rump. We need that feeling of guilt over our “badness”. So TRUE condemnation is an important TOOL of God in the plan of salvation.
BUT WHAT BECOMES OF CONDEMNATION IN THE CHRISTIAN? Here we are that “new person” in union with Christ. Satan’s nature is out. Christ is in. But what happens? WE STILL SIN! In fact, things seem to go along pretty much the same as in our unconverted days. Oh sure, in some areas we feel better about ourselves. And we feel we can call on Christ to “help” us when the going gets too tough.
But now, in the Christian, the Holy Spirit has a different job to do in us with the attitude of condemnation. In order to grow spiritually in our awareness of our “in Christ” position, our “one Spirit” with Christ, we must be made to see that any feeling of condemnation after slipping into sin is FALSE CONDEMNATION!
False condemnation is probably the most prevalent cause of unhappiness and ineffectiveness among God’s children. If the thunders of the penalty of the law have ceased to terrify us through the peace of reconciliation with God, the pointing finger of the law at our daily shortcomings is a constant discomfort. For we do “come short of the glory of God”, AND WE DO SO DAILY! What are we to do about it? We are in union with Christ. And He said He will never leave us. But Satan, using all the external allurement and disturbance that this distorted world affords, finds plenty of means of pulling at us. We are “drawn away of our own desires and enticed”, and often the enticement leads on to consent, and we have sinned (James 1:14,15). Not the blatant sins of our past life, not certainly persistent sinning, for those who do that are not born of God (I John 3:9). But wrong attitudes of soul mind, the quick word, selfishness, impatience, sins of the eyes, slowness toward helping others, the finer points of failure in holiness, which we had never even noticed in our insensitive days; these we fall into and then recognize our fall.
And the moment we spot our weakness, if we don’t get clear at once, we begin to linger in false condemnation - we begin to feel independent again. But false condemnation is an illusion. A Christian in union with Christ will never be condemned again. Christ suffered the penalty of our TRUE condemnation and that is it! Condemnation for sin is over!
Then how do we get out of this guilt feeling, and get out quickly? First, there is the big lie of the Accuser of the brethren. Satan will cast doubts on our crucified position in Christ, and try to tell us that our “old man” is still very much alive in us. That is a falsehood. But many accept it, and drag their feet through life on the false assumption that they have a divided self, a divided nature. Their conception of Christian living is a continuous struggle, a losing battle between their old nature and their new. But there are not two co-equal natures battling in the believer one against the other. We have only one nature at a time; we cannot have more. We were by nature the children of darkness, we are now partakers of the divine nature. No halfway measures about that! The old nature is the old man who died by crucifixion with Christ. The new nature is the new man which is we risen with Christ and Christ living in us.
When God looks at the Christian, He sees Christ! A Christian is a Christ-person, a child in God’s family. And as any good parent knows, we don’t disown (condemn) our child when he slips up and falls. BUT A GOOD PARENT DOES CORRECT! And, for the Christian, CORRECTION takes the place of CONDEMNATION.
The Holy Spirit is the Teacher within the Christian to always keep us mindful of who we are within our spirit - Jesus Christ. We are to live and walk in the Spirit, led by and trusting in Christ (Galatians 5). When we stay in this awareness, we are not then walking in the flesh (independent self), which we have crucified. Because we are not walking in the flesh, the law has no claim on us, for it only presents its demands to independent self. While we abide in Christ, we are dead in Him to law, and therefore dead to sin which is by the law.
But if we do not walk in the Spirit, that is, staying in awareness and trust in Christ within, then we return again under law by independent thinking. And therefore, we return under the external influence of sin, of Mr. Sin, Satan - but not under his CONTROL and therefore not under CONDEMNATION! This is not a question of an old and new nature, which was settled at the new birth. This external and internal matter is a question of the daily walk, and the possibility of slipping back any time for an external visit to sin.
So we have to learn not to accept the big lie of our return to an old “no good” condition, just because we drifted out to an external influence on occasion. We are not to live in the bondage of a false, but very commonly held conception of being two people at once, with a civil war within, a good and bad nature, and who will win? No. Let us confess with the same assured voice as Paul that “the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death”.
And moreover we must not stay, even temporarily, under false condemnation, when the world, the flesh or the devil has influenced us. It is the easiest thing to do, and our distressed feelings are really self-pity and pride. It is not so much that we have grieved GOD that disturbs us, as that WE, OURSELVES, have failed. The acceptance of false condemnation is really a form of self-righteousness. God has told us that when we sin, to get up quickly and recognize and confess the sin and He is quick to forgive and forget. To remain in false condemnation, therefore, is really disobedience and hurt self.
Every sin of a Christian involves a correction or a re-direction back to Christ. Sin is “missing the mark” and the “mark” is TRUSTING DEPENDENCE ON CHRIST.
Every fall of a child learning to walk hurts a little bit. But the parent urges the child up again in caring love. And the child learns to avoid the hurts by getting better at walking. The falls become fewer and farther apart. And as we grow and learn to walk perfectly, and then even to run with agility, even an adult will occasionally stumble and fall. In fact, we are never immune from falling. That’s life! And that’s also the Spirit Life!
We can learn many lessons from simple believers who keep short accounts with God. They are tripped up, they humbly recognize it, they get back up and go on their way rejoicing. And they often use their testimony to such daily simple experiences to be a blessing to others.

OUR HEAVENLY FATHER KEEPS SHORT ACCOUNTS OF
THE ACTIONS OF HIS CHILDREN.
HE FORGIVES QUICKLY -
AND FORGETS QUICKLY!

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In Christ Alone

Worship songs have a way of reaching your soul that is unique. Beautiful musical notes combined with lyrics about God's relationship with man can reach deep into the soul's intellect and emotions.
I have said many times that my favorite Bible verse is Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
I am very much drawn to music and there are many great and inspiring songs that I love. But there is one in particular that seems to match perfectly with Galatians 2:20 – "In Christ Alone".

In Christ alone I put my trust.
I find my glory in the power of the Cross.
In every victory, let it be said of me:
My source of strength, my source of hope
IS CHRIST ALONE!

It took me most of my Christian years to discover – to really understand – Galatians 2:20 and "In Christ Alone". I spent too many years looking to myself as my source of strength, putting my trust in my own ability to please God. I knew the power of the Cross to forgive my sins. I knew Christ was somehow available to "help" me when I thought I needed it. But seeing the Christian life as trusting in Christ alone? It just seemed to escape me. Why? I wanted to please God - but I wanted to earn His pleasure with me.
Matthew 5:17 says that Jesus came to fulfill the law. There has been much debate about the meaning of "fulfill". Many feel that this means making the 10 commandments stricter – filling them full. There were examples of hating a person being "murder in your heart"; lusting in your mind about a person was "adultery in your heart".
But what is a law? It is the WAY that a thing is made to work – and it does not work properly in any other WAY.
Jesus said that He is the WAY, the truth and the life (John 14:6). In other words, Christ is the LAW implanted within us – the WAY to live implanted within us. When we trust that this is so and live from this knowledge, we are living from the righteousness of the law by Christ's righteousness and power. When we try to live by the strength of our own righteousness, we inevitably fall on our face. Trying to "do our own thing" to please God (with a little help from Christ) leads to failure and frustration. But God uses that failure and frustration in the Christian for good – to drive us to a closer awareness and trust in Christ within to direct us, that is, to fulfill the law in us.
King David, the psalmist, summarizes the merits of our union with Christ in Psalm 19:7-11: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is your servant warned. And in keeping of them there is great reward."
What does this say about Christ within? Let's make a list:
* CONVERTS THE SOUL – as the Holy Spirit teaches our soul more and more about our living union with Christ in our spirit, the soul is transformed or converted into a greater and greater awareness of our dependence and trust in Christ.
* MAKES WISE THE SIMPLE – as long as our ego independence exists, we see life as complicated to solve. But allowing the mind of Christ to live out through us gives us the wisdom to see God's overall plan. This gives us insights about God, man, life and everything.
* REJOICES THE HEART – trusting and allowing Christ to direct us gives us a rejoicing peace and happiness.
* ENLIGHTENS THE EYES – we see how Christ causes the situations around us in the world to play out for our good.
* ENDURES FOREVER – the power of Christ within us endures for eternity, first in material, human existence, and then in the total-spirit afterlife. Christ said that He would never leave us or forsake us.
* TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ALTOGETHER -
Christians are children in God's Family having the actual nature of God (2 Peter 1:4). When the Father looks on us, He sees this spirit, soul and body being as altogether righteous in Christ's righteousness.
* MORE DESIRABLE THAN FINE GOLD – Solomon and many others have found that all of our worldly possessions are as nothing when compared to a relationship with God. And we as a born again new species in union with Christ have that relationship. Christ is able to produce in us a kind of prosperity that is more valuable than all the riches of the world.
* SWEETER THAN HONEY AND THE HONEYCOMB – there is not only a spiritual pleasure but also a physical, mental pleasure in our fellowship with Christ within. During those quiet times alone with our Savior and Master, we savor the pleasure of His love. He lone is able to remove the sourness, acidity, and bitterness of sin and to produce in us a sweetness of life that surpasses anything the world can provide.
* A WARNING TO GOD'S SERVANTS – when we slip up and are influence toward independence, a Christian does sin, misses the mark. A form of correction is built into the sin which warns us that this is not the WAY. We stay a child in God's Family but the sin results in a kind of "spanking" and reminder of our Family status and obligation. Trust in Christ alone is able to infallibly warn and protect us from the numerous dangers and disasters of life caused by ignorance of what is truly right.
* GREAT REWARD IN KEEPING – there is a physical reward in following Christ within, a peace of mind. And the Bible also speaks of individual, eternal, spiritual rewards in heaven. I have no idea what these rewards are, but they are part of God's promises.
Confidently, we can say that Christ alone is more than capable of challenging, teaching, changing, correcting, and fully equipping any person who will make Him Lord and follow Him.
Understanding this power of transformation existing in our salvation is crucial to the Christian life. All true Christians know the "forgiveness" of salvation. But many do not understand the "living union" of salvation. Eternal life begins with our human living union with Christ on this earth NOW!
All those who have personally encountered the power and depth of Christ within would readily agree with Jeremiah 15:16: "Your words are what sustain me. They are food to my hungry soul. They bring joy to my sorrowing heart and delight me. HOW PROUD I AM TO BEAR YOUR NAME O LORD!"

Yes, in union with Christ, you bear His Name. IN CHRIST ALONE, you are a child of God with the name: Christ/______________.
(put your own name in the blank)

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