Dear Struggler,
Just so you’ll know – I’m still working on several avenues of escape for you. It’s a promise I intend to keep. Just keep looking for a way out. This is something you can count on – you can escape the Evil One. He’s powerful, but he’s got nothing on us.
I wish that I did not have to remind you of the condemnation that awaits those who do not believe and trust in me, but it’s a necessary part of getting to the point in your life where you can appreciate what I’m going to share with you next. You have to understand how hopeless you are before you can enjoy the kindness of God. After all, if you don’t believe that sin is all that bad (and I’m talking about your sin), how can you be thankful for being rescued?
Go back over what my friend Paul said in the second chapter of his letter to the church of Ephesus. Especially concentrate on verses 4-10. Notice that when you come to me, you come to me empty-handed. You must understand that I will take nothing that you might offer as partial payment for what I’ve done for you. Just look at Paul’s language:
· HE made us alive
· HE raised us up
· HE seated us with him in the heavenly realms
· HIS mercy demonstrates incomparable riches of his grace
· It IS by grace
· It Is NOT of our own doing
· It is NOT by works
· We are GOD’S workmanship
· We have been RECREATED by God to do good works
Did you notice who’s doing all of the work? It’s my father and I. You have one job, and that job is to believe in me. When you do that, you will be well on your way to having full confidence that you are one with us.
Trust me!
Jesus
Saturday, March 28, 2009
e-mails from heaven
Dear Struggler,
I know that your struggle isn’t over yet, but I can see your ailing spiritual body beginning to regain its strength. Remember, every journey is accomplished one step at a time, one mile at a time – you never arrive at your destination without making the journey. Traveling is a necessary part of arriving. And to tell you the truth, you will be travelling for the rest of your life. It’s important to know that because I don’t want you to become discouraged just because you haven’t made it here yet.
Don’t worry; I’ve placed plenty of rest stops along the way. Just stay on the path that other saints have beaten down for you. Follow them as they follow me. You’ll get here if you trust me on this.
Now about that death image that I used to paint that nauseating picture of what sin will do to you: it’s for real. But tonight I want to give you another equally disturbing picture. Believe me – it’s not my intention that you suffer grief or the excruciating pain of temptation – that comes from the rebellious one. Don’t forget what I told you – he is a prowling carnivore looking for the first opportunity to rip the living flesh from your body and eat you morsel by morsel.
Another metaphor I chose to represent man’s condition when he chooses not to serve me is prison. In the twenty-first century and in your culture, prison is bad enough. But when I chose that word, prison was far a more appalling place to be locked up in. Typically, prisoners were confined to dark, dank dungeons. They were chained to the walls. Sanitation was non-existent at best. What sparse crumbs of food prisoners were fed were rank with rot and vermin. Prisoners were beaten and ravaged as they suffered unspeakable horrors.
In my day, prisons were places from which few people emerged alive. If they did manage to get out, their health was so adversely affected that they never were the same again. Prison is horrible. It is unbearable. It denotes powerlessness and hopelessness. It is the same routine every day – a routine dictated to you by someone else whose only interest is in controlling your every waking moment. There is no freedom in prison.
In order for my readers and hearers to understand the devastation of sin, I coupled death and prison with the image of darkness. Since the advent of the electric light, darkness does not carry with it the same connotation that it did two thousand years ago. You have street lights, and hundred watt bulbs in every room. Everywhere you look, the darkness is pierced by light so that most of modern man is unable to even see the stars.
But imagine a world where there is no light. Only darkness prevails. You hear a noise in this overwhelming darkness and you long to illuminate your surroundings so that you can see what it was that made the eerie sounds. But you cannot. Fear – unspeakable fear grips first your heart and it begins to beat more rapidly. But the sound persists and you think it is more menacing with every moment. Then fear gives way to panic. Something instinctive takes over and you lose interest in everything else. Survival is your only thought now. “I must survive!”
Unfortunately, death, imprisonment, and darkness are the devil’s plan for your life. It is a purpose driven life, but it is not a life dedicated to a purpose that will glorify God or bring peace to your souls. It goes nowhere even though in the beginning it holds such promise.
Here’s what I want you to take from this e-mail: I will raise you from the dead. I will free you from prison. I will illuminate your life and give you a purpose for living that will bring you unspeakable joy for all eternity. I redeemed you so that you could glorify my Father in heaven. And that is what you were created for.
Enough of the negative stuff. But I do want you to know that once you internalize the ugliness of sin, you are ready for my story of love and redemption. I’ll tell it to you again soon. You will like hearing it once more.
I know that your struggle isn’t over yet, but I can see your ailing spiritual body beginning to regain its strength. Remember, every journey is accomplished one step at a time, one mile at a time – you never arrive at your destination without making the journey. Traveling is a necessary part of arriving. And to tell you the truth, you will be travelling for the rest of your life. It’s important to know that because I don’t want you to become discouraged just because you haven’t made it here yet.
Don’t worry; I’ve placed plenty of rest stops along the way. Just stay on the path that other saints have beaten down for you. Follow them as they follow me. You’ll get here if you trust me on this.
Now about that death image that I used to paint that nauseating picture of what sin will do to you: it’s for real. But tonight I want to give you another equally disturbing picture. Believe me – it’s not my intention that you suffer grief or the excruciating pain of temptation – that comes from the rebellious one. Don’t forget what I told you – he is a prowling carnivore looking for the first opportunity to rip the living flesh from your body and eat you morsel by morsel.
Another metaphor I chose to represent man’s condition when he chooses not to serve me is prison. In the twenty-first century and in your culture, prison is bad enough. But when I chose that word, prison was far a more appalling place to be locked up in. Typically, prisoners were confined to dark, dank dungeons. They were chained to the walls. Sanitation was non-existent at best. What sparse crumbs of food prisoners were fed were rank with rot and vermin. Prisoners were beaten and ravaged as they suffered unspeakable horrors.
In my day, prisons were places from which few people emerged alive. If they did manage to get out, their health was so adversely affected that they never were the same again. Prison is horrible. It is unbearable. It denotes powerlessness and hopelessness. It is the same routine every day – a routine dictated to you by someone else whose only interest is in controlling your every waking moment. There is no freedom in prison.
In order for my readers and hearers to understand the devastation of sin, I coupled death and prison with the image of darkness. Since the advent of the electric light, darkness does not carry with it the same connotation that it did two thousand years ago. You have street lights, and hundred watt bulbs in every room. Everywhere you look, the darkness is pierced by light so that most of modern man is unable to even see the stars.
But imagine a world where there is no light. Only darkness prevails. You hear a noise in this overwhelming darkness and you long to illuminate your surroundings so that you can see what it was that made the eerie sounds. But you cannot. Fear – unspeakable fear grips first your heart and it begins to beat more rapidly. But the sound persists and you think it is more menacing with every moment. Then fear gives way to panic. Something instinctive takes over and you lose interest in everything else. Survival is your only thought now. “I must survive!”
Unfortunately, death, imprisonment, and darkness are the devil’s plan for your life. It is a purpose driven life, but it is not a life dedicated to a purpose that will glorify God or bring peace to your souls. It goes nowhere even though in the beginning it holds such promise.
Here’s what I want you to take from this e-mail: I will raise you from the dead. I will free you from prison. I will illuminate your life and give you a purpose for living that will bring you unspeakable joy for all eternity. I redeemed you so that you could glorify my Father in heaven. And that is what you were created for.
Enough of the negative stuff. But I do want you to know that once you internalize the ugliness of sin, you are ready for my story of love and redemption. I’ll tell it to you again soon. You will like hearing it once more.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
E-Mails from Heaven
Dear Struggler,
You might not have seen it as such, but I intervened on your behalf tonight. When my servant shared at tonight’s Bible study, he was telling the truth. Even though he’s not always perfect, as is true of all of my servants, I am proud of his boldness – his willingness to say what needs to be said.
I would encourage you to hear my word on this matter of the relationship between sin and death. And I will admit that when the Spirit chose death as an image of what it means to be following after the flesh instead of being led by the Spirit, it was no accident.
Think about death for a minute. What does it look like to you? What qualities do dead people exhibit that distinguish them from those who are alive?
In death, there is no movement or consciousness. Dead bodies have no feeling of either joy or pain. At the very moment that someone dies, their bodies begin a very rapid descent into decay. Oh, it might not be apparent at first, but it begins to take place one second after they take their last breath. Death is irreversible. It is final.
Even though some people die suddenly and without any warning at all, most people die after a period of declining health. Too many times, it is the result of years of abusing their bodies that began with a seemingly harmless decision they made earlier in life. Maybe they drank too much or they smoked too many cigarettes. One thing is sure, it wasn’t the first cigarette that killed them, but their death began with the first one.
As I said, death was specifically chosen as an appropriate metaphor for what it means to be in rebellion against my father’s will. Unfortunately, spiritual death is not quite as easy to spot as physical death is. But one thing they do have in common is that spiritual death doesn’t occur overnight either.
This is especially true of those who at one time loved me and had committed their lives to me. The final act that drove them to resign themselves to a life of sin began long before. Spiritual death also comes after a time of declining health – your spiritual immune system has been compromised. Your faith has been weakened. When that happens, you have to stay away from the infectious disease of sin and temptation. Avoid it like the plague that it is.
If the connection between physical and spiritual death isn’t enough to make you shriek back in horror at your temptation to gratify the cravings of your flesh (a temptation I fully understand, by the way), maybe some of the other representations of sin I chose to put in my book will do the trick.
I view sin literally as a prison (Galatians 3:22). I see it as darkness (Colossians 1:13; Romans 12:13 and a host of others). I could go on, but you get the idea, don’t you? Sin is ugly! It will suck the life right out of you. It will imprison you. With sin, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Here’s what I want you to do: pour your heart into reading my word, my original message to you. Read it knowing that I am working with all of my might to snatch you out of the jaws of that roaring lion, Satan. He only wants to devour you: I am trying to rescue you. Don’t fight me on this. No matter what pretty picture he is painting for you, it is a lie. Remember – I am the only one of us who loves you. He hates you and wants you to die a hopeless death along with him. I want you to live. It's that simple.
In Love,
Jesus
You might not have seen it as such, but I intervened on your behalf tonight. When my servant shared at tonight’s Bible study, he was telling the truth. Even though he’s not always perfect, as is true of all of my servants, I am proud of his boldness – his willingness to say what needs to be said.
I would encourage you to hear my word on this matter of the relationship between sin and death. And I will admit that when the Spirit chose death as an image of what it means to be following after the flesh instead of being led by the Spirit, it was no accident.
Think about death for a minute. What does it look like to you? What qualities do dead people exhibit that distinguish them from those who are alive?
In death, there is no movement or consciousness. Dead bodies have no feeling of either joy or pain. At the very moment that someone dies, their bodies begin a very rapid descent into decay. Oh, it might not be apparent at first, but it begins to take place one second after they take their last breath. Death is irreversible. It is final.
Even though some people die suddenly and without any warning at all, most people die after a period of declining health. Too many times, it is the result of years of abusing their bodies that began with a seemingly harmless decision they made earlier in life. Maybe they drank too much or they smoked too many cigarettes. One thing is sure, it wasn’t the first cigarette that killed them, but their death began with the first one.
As I said, death was specifically chosen as an appropriate metaphor for what it means to be in rebellion against my father’s will. Unfortunately, spiritual death is not quite as easy to spot as physical death is. But one thing they do have in common is that spiritual death doesn’t occur overnight either.
This is especially true of those who at one time loved me and had committed their lives to me. The final act that drove them to resign themselves to a life of sin began long before. Spiritual death also comes after a time of declining health – your spiritual immune system has been compromised. Your faith has been weakened. When that happens, you have to stay away from the infectious disease of sin and temptation. Avoid it like the plague that it is.
If the connection between physical and spiritual death isn’t enough to make you shriek back in horror at your temptation to gratify the cravings of your flesh (a temptation I fully understand, by the way), maybe some of the other representations of sin I chose to put in my book will do the trick.
I view sin literally as a prison (Galatians 3:22). I see it as darkness (Colossians 1:13; Romans 12:13 and a host of others). I could go on, but you get the idea, don’t you? Sin is ugly! It will suck the life right out of you. It will imprison you. With sin, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Here’s what I want you to do: pour your heart into reading my word, my original message to you. Read it knowing that I am working with all of my might to snatch you out of the jaws of that roaring lion, Satan. He only wants to devour you: I am trying to rescue you. Don’t fight me on this. No matter what pretty picture he is painting for you, it is a lie. Remember – I am the only one of us who loves you. He hates you and wants you to die a hopeless death along with him. I want you to live. It's that simple.
In Love,
Jesus
Sunday, March 22, 2009
E-mails from Heaven!
Dear Struggler,
I call you struggler because you haven’t given up. And rest assured, it is a struggle. Come to think of it, I want you to look at this word, struggle. In the Greek language, the word that you English speakers translate as struggle can also be translated wrestle. It comes from the root word meaning to vibrate.
In other words, it is a wrestling match. It is a battle, and it takes place inside of you. It is an irritating vibration that can make you think that you are going crazy.
Here’s what I want you to know: you are not going crazy, but you are being attacked. Remember what my friend and brother Paul wrote?
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
If you are going to win this battle (and I know that it can be won), you must comprehend the size and the strength of the enemy that is opposing you. You must understand how he operates.
F
irst of all, he is powerful. He has the ability to deceive and to implant thoughts into your mind that make it difficult to see me or my love for you. He will try to convince you that you are foolish to attempt to be reconciled with me. He will whisper in your ear that you have gone too far in your sin to ever turn back now.
K
now this: he is a liar. He is the father of all lies. Every falsehood ever spoken comes from him, and this one especially is one of his greatest works.
But for those who have loved me and loved the truth, for those who have decided that it is worthwhile to retain and maintain a relationship with me through my Word, his power is negligible. It is your choice to make – what you will believe and who you will trust. Trust me and live. Trust him and be destroyed.
Of course, I’m pulling for you to choose me. As a matter of fact, I’ve been working on your behalf to give you opportunities to choose to do the reasonable thing in your life. Take advantage of them.
You also need to know that he will arrange circumstances in your life so that you will think that your struggle is against someone else or against your own self. It is not. It is clearly a struggle against the powers of the ruler of this dark age and against the forces in the outer realms. Do not be confused about this – it is another one of his lies.
But you have to be armed. Check out my message I left for you in the Book. CHeck out the rest of what Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians. Put on the full armor of God. Know my word and internalize its truth. And make a decision that you will pursue my word and live by it.
You’ll be okay.
I call you struggler because you haven’t given up. And rest assured, it is a struggle. Come to think of it, I want you to look at this word, struggle. In the Greek language, the word that you English speakers translate as struggle can also be translated wrestle. It comes from the root word meaning to vibrate.
In other words, it is a wrestling match. It is a battle, and it takes place inside of you. It is an irritating vibration that can make you think that you are going crazy.
Here’s what I want you to know: you are not going crazy, but you are being attacked. Remember what my friend and brother Paul wrote?
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
If you are going to win this battle (and I know that it can be won), you must comprehend the size and the strength of the enemy that is opposing you. You must understand how he operates.
F
irst of all, he is powerful. He has the ability to deceive and to implant thoughts into your mind that make it difficult to see me or my love for you. He will try to convince you that you are foolish to attempt to be reconciled with me. He will whisper in your ear that you have gone too far in your sin to ever turn back now.
K
now this: he is a liar. He is the father of all lies. Every falsehood ever spoken comes from him, and this one especially is one of his greatest works.
But for those who have loved me and loved the truth, for those who have decided that it is worthwhile to retain and maintain a relationship with me through my Word, his power is negligible. It is your choice to make – what you will believe and who you will trust. Trust me and live. Trust him and be destroyed.
Of course, I’m pulling for you to choose me. As a matter of fact, I’ve been working on your behalf to give you opportunities to choose to do the reasonable thing in your life. Take advantage of them.
You also need to know that he will arrange circumstances in your life so that you will think that your struggle is against someone else or against your own self. It is not. It is clearly a struggle against the powers of the ruler of this dark age and against the forces in the outer realms. Do not be confused about this – it is another one of his lies.
But you have to be armed. Check out my message I left for you in the Book. CHeck out the rest of what Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians. Put on the full armor of God. Know my word and internalize its truth. And make a decision that you will pursue my word and live by it.
You’ll be okay.
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