Day 334 - What Qualifies God To Be God?

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 329

         

Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.

The text for Michael’s writing today gives us one of the most profound truths of just who God is. Is, a simple 2-letter word meaning “equal.” God and love cannot be separated because they are one. Equal. The same. Is.

Look at how Michael mentions four things that every Believer should stay constantly alert to…leading to a desirable end.

DAY 334

What Qualifies God To Be God?

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. –I John 4:8

What qualifies God to be God? Why is God eligible to receive worship and to have all glory, honor, and authority? What makes Him a father or gives Him the right to make judgments, to tell others what to do, or to have a kingdom? The answer is really quite simple: God is love! He is perfect, complete, defining, and all-encompassing Love. This means that God is patient, kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not arrogant, never acts unbecomingly, does not seek His own, is not provoked, does not take into account any wrong suffered, hates unrighteousness, rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and never fails. Is there anyone more qualified than God to be in charge?

Well, of course! We already knew God is love! That is exactly the problem: we knew. It is something in the past that we remember being told, but we have moved on to consider loftier aspects of God. The revelation of His love is the foundation for everything we will ever learn and every experience that we have (good or bad); it is the source of our devotion and obedience. 

One time as I walked through the forest, I noticed that what should have been the fresh green sprouts on the tips of a pine tree had turned yellow, and the year’s growth was wasted. The tree would begin next year at the same place it had this year. It reminded me of how new growth within us, no matter how glorious, will be killed without the continued revelation of His love. 

We easily mouth the words, “God is love,” but do we have the revelation of it? To have God at the backs of our minds throughout the day is to confine love in the background. As stated many times, we stand or fall by our definitions. We need definitions, but words cannot describe love; the grandest, most complex vocabulary will not get the job done of enabling us to know what love is. Is it possible with words to describe the great I AM? Then it is equally impossible to describe Love, for God is Love. God did not even try to describe love with words, because they were not good enough! So the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. To know Love we must know Jesus. 

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

These are the four things Michael points out…

1.     The revelation of His love is the foundation for everything we will ever learn and every experience that we have (good or bad); it is the source of our devotion and obedience. 

Then he asks: and do we have the revelation of it?

2.    Words cannot describe love;

3.    So the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

4.    To know Love we must know Jesus

Quite simple, isn’t it…know Jesus. So much of the rest is religious activity. The desirable end? Knowing Jesus we KNOW LOVE, and not just three easily mouthed words. Well, amen.

To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

(email) leemccm@gmail.com

(website) www.leemccm.wixsite.com/lmcm  

P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696

Day 333 - What Made Me Weep Made Me Rejoice!

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 328

         

Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.

Christians and Unbelievers often struggle at the same point. “Am I worthy before God?” It is one thing for one who is blind (Unbelievers) to not see God’s answer, but it is quite another for one who has had the scales removed from their eyes (Christians).

Michael tells us once more to open the Spiritual eyes God has given us as His children (Spiritually born into His Family) and see all that Jesus gives us.

DAY 333

What Made Me Weep Made Me Rejoice!

The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” --Luke 15:21

The situation that makes us weep can, with a change in our attitude, make us rejoice. We say with the Prodigal Son that we are “no longer worthy.” Those three little words can be the source of pain or joy. It is the source of pain if we are trying to create worthiness. However, it can be the source of joy when we see that Jesus came to be our worth. It is interesting that so many sought to take the life of Elijah. He would not let any take it. Yet he wanted God to take his life upon this one discovery: “It is enough, take away my life, I am not better than my fathers!” He had discovered that he had no worthiness and wanted to die. We do the same thing when we fail, but God wants us to see that we lack worthiness so that we can recognize that Jesus has become our worthiness. When we see this, we will wonder why we ever sought to have worth of our own. We must see that Jesus is everything we need. Greater things than He did we will do. Can we believe it? If not, it is because we are looking to ourselves--our flesh and our efforts--for its fulfillment. We have no worthiness, but we can give up on ourselves, for Christ is in us. He is our worthiness, our strength, our holiness, our righteousness, and when we see it, He will flow through us. Seeing that which we are not must always be followed by seeing just what He is in us. What initially caused us to weep will make us rejoice.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Jesus is all we have. He is all we need. He is all we should want.

To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

(email) leemccm@gmail.com

(web) www.leemccm.wixsite.com/lmcm  

P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696

Day 332 - What Is The Flesh?

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 327

         

Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.

Well, in this day’s writing Michael exercises his discipleship muscles and gives some of his most specific observations about this dastard thing we know as “the flesh.” I love it!

We can make a copy of this writing and get busy helping ourselves and others to see the basis for a lot of our thinking and actions. Amen.

DAY 332

             

What Is The Flesh?

Job 34:15, All flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.

John 1:13, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

No one can be born again by the will of the flesh, insidious in its ability to take the eyes off of Jesus. It is impossible, for in the flesh are the senses of man that constantly need feeding. One may think of them as instinct gone amok. The flesh constantly screeches for attention and has a thousand methods at its disposal to get it. Senses in the body and soul (mind, will, and emotions) are given attention whether with pain or reward, feeding or starving, or conscious avoidance or obsession. Any consideration given them keeps them alive and in charge. The greater truth is that the senses want to be activated; the lesser truth is how they are stimulated, which is by eating from the tree of good and evil. The desire for food (wish fulfillment or fantasy) will keep senses alive just as much as condemnation from eating too much. Look at the anorexic or observe the obese, and both scream “flesh in control.” Either an overwhelming desire for sex or the self-condemnation from looking at porno will loudly proclaim that the flesh has regained control. The senses in the soul lead to pride, whether in thinking of oneself as intelligent or stupid; both are still flesh, just as is thinking of what one can do or not do or of being caring or not caring. Again, flesh is simply the senses of body or soul being in control. People in the East have a tendency toward denying the flesh in an attempt to appease it, while those in the West feed it in an attempt to appease it. Of course, the Westerners do not come out ahead, in that nothing is enough to satisfy it; like a tick, flesh will feed until it explodes and destroys itself. Nor do those in the East really have an advantage, since there is ultimately no way to withhold from the flesh.

Nevertheless, the flesh is flesh and is hostile to God, which explains why flesh desires to be in control so that man is flesh-centered. If man becomes Christ-centered, the senses of flesh would not be fed but would be subdued before Christ. The flesh can never be more than a slave, and a rebellious one at that, for by the works of the flesh will no flesh be justified. Believers and non-believers alike have flesh. The saddest thing is to witness someone who has abandoned his will to flesh. I meet many Christians that struggle with the sin of homosexuality but are not homosexual, and someone meeting them would never guess their particular deed of the flesh. However, meet someone who has by choice yielded to that area of the flesh, and it is evident in his or her body. Just a few minutes with that person reveals the object of their fleshly leanings. 

Now, why would God put us in flesh? I am not talking about a physical body but the accompanying anti-God desires of the senses that reside in the physical body and in the soul. Well, it has been said that the greatness of a man is not determined by what he does but rather by what he refuses to do. The man who feeds his flesh through adventure and the procession of praise for victory or the mockery for defeat is not as great a man as he who says, “Not my will but Thy will be done.” Having flesh and its senses allows man the unique opportunity of choice, of living on the earth but not being of the earth, of living to God and not to senses, and the discovery of something higher in this life, spiritual fulfillment. Flesh, or rather the call of the senses to stay alive, is a constant reminder that we must move our eyes to Jesus. It is another stronghold allowing us to stay focused. If God is for us, then who can be against us? Again, the flesh is never a friend; we may buffet it and make it a slave, but it will never be a friend. The flesh is a strange thing in that it cannot live on its own but must thrive on something that is living. It adapts to resemble the thing on which it lives, but it is not really a living thing. When man dies, his fleshly condition dies.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Boy howdy, what a piece of information that can be of such great benefit to so many.

I think of two questions that constantly grieve me:

1.     how is it that Believers have Truth that our New Birth is nothing of the old (this and other great verses telling us just that), yet so many will judge the actions of flesh in observing whether they think someone has been Born Again?

2.    Why do so many Believers spend so much time focused on “the flesh” instead of moving the eyes to Jesus and staying focused on Him?

What is up with “the church” these days?

To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

(email) leemccm@gmail.com

(blog) www.leemccmviews.blogspot.com  

P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696

Day 331 - What Is Not The Will Of God

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 326

         

Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.

Very few things enter the discussions of Believers as much as “Is this the will of God?”  How sad.  Michael points out the simplicity of knowing God’s will.

DAY 331

What Is Not The Will Of God

And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden. --Genesis 2:9

How often we meet believers who are looking for red lights that will stop them, because they do not know whether they are doing God's will. Did Adam and Eve spend their days in paradise looking for red lights? Obviously not! God told them from the start that there was a red light in front of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that prohibited their partaking of the fruit. From every other tree they were free to eat, and those trees fed not only the physical hunger of man but also the desires of mind, will, and emotions, for they were pleasing to the sight. The tree of life (Jesus) was there, also, the One that would feed the spirit of man. Man was free to eat from all. God clearly told of the tree that was not allowed so that man would not have to walk through the garden examining each tree and wondering if it were allowed, living a life of exhaustion and worry rather than getting on with the enjoyment of life, the dwelling place, and God Himself. Man was to be free! It takes far too much energy to know all that is allowed; it is much simpler to understand the few things that are not allowed. God has the habit of telling us what the red lights are so that we can get on with abundant living and not be sidetracked by the constant examination of the permissible while missing Him. By knowing ahead of time what the red lights are, we can get on with living in the Kingdom of God and enjoying what we are doing.  

If you are confused in knowing the will of God, discern in Scripture what you are not to do and avoid those things; all else is permissible. We are to love our neighbor as our self, and when we are not doing this one thing, little else matters. Do you see how simple it is? If we avoid self-centeredness, we will find that 90% of what we do is allowable. It is permissible to move where we want, take the job we want, go on the vacation that we desire, and choose a place of fellowship and service; but it is not permissible to be bitter, judgmental, to participate in the deeds of the flesh, or to lack love and compassion, for all of these feed self-centeredness. Many strain over knowing the right car to buy when the real issue is whether they are loving their mates, not provoking others to anger, or not being competitive. 

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

As with so much in life, definitions cause our “rise and fall.”  Michael said this over and over and over.  “Will of God”?  The Greek for “will” means “heart.”  The heart of God.  How do we know His heart?  Read the Bible.  Discern Scripture.  God shows us what His heart is in virtually every matter of life.  At least enough to “choke a horse” as the saying goes in East Texas…enough to keep Christians IN His will for years to come!

Besides Holy Spirit will bring an “unh-uh” if we head in the wrong direction with a heart desiring God’s will.

To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

(email) leemccm@gmail.com

(blog) www.leemccmviews.blogspot.com  

P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696