Christ as Healing Life

Onward!
Christ is not only our redemption before God; He is
also redemption in our body. He gives life to our body,
resurrection life--now!

"If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the 
dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus 
from the dead will also give life to your mortal 
bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you." 
Romans 8:11

Our bodies have not changed but the Someone who
rose from the grave brings resurrection life with Him
when He comes to dwell in us. The sinless One who
never became ill on earth, carries with Him an ample
supply of strength, and vibrant health for any situation.
I have not yet embraced this truth but I am growing....

Jesus, I receive you as my healing today.

Thankful Corner:
The way my Papa God turns up the light to show
a new aspect of redemption to me!

Stories:

http://www.hisvictoriousindwelling.com/stories.html

No Condemnation

Christ has become our redemption.
Christ has become my redemption.

My Papa God sees me in Christ. The blood of Jesus
has removed my sin-record. Christ has satisfied God's
righteous requirement because Christ bore sin's
punishment on my behalf, on your behalf.

Do you hear this? I can never go before God and
moan, "I am such a sinner, an insignificant failure,
such a low life." The truth is that I have been washed
in the blood of the Lamb. I am a redeemed Saint.
Yes, I mess up, make poor choices but that does not
change my identity before God. Jesus had one big
complaint toward the Pharisees, that they neither
understood God's character, or believed in His power.
We live out our Christian life according to what we
believe about God and ourselves. If I see God angry
at this poor sinner, I will act the same scene out
every day. There will be no victory as I try to change
and live up to His expectations.

CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY!!!!!

Dear reader, there is still more to come...

Thankful Corner:
For this study. It is changing me!

See Stories:

http://www.hisvictoriousindwelling.com/stories.html

Redemption

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of 
God is made unto us wisdom: and 
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." 
1 Corinthians 1:30

Just like Christ is becoming our wisdom, our
regeneration, our sanctification, He is also
becoming our redemption. (It is an inward
journey is it not?)

Redemption: "To buy back or to free by
paying a ransom."

Three things go into redemption:
1 The helpless one--we were formerly slaves
    Romans 7:14
2 The Redeemer--Jesus paid the price.
    Mark 10:45
3 The price of redemption--His blood
   Galatians 3:13

The Lord Jesus is not only our redeemer, He is
our redemption. You see a redeemer saves but
does not connect. In redemption, Jesus has
become one with us. Our redemption is a person.
When we have Jesus, we have redemption, but
without Jesus we do not have redemption.

Dear reader, does this sound "old hat." I hope not.
My prayer for you is that God will repackage the
truth in such a way that you will go, "Wow! I
have never seen this before.
What a magnificent God I have!"

(This subject is not nearly finished.)

Thankful Corner:
Freezing rain falls outside, but it does not
touch me. Snow flakes here and there.

See the stories:

http://www.hisvictoriousindwelling.com/stories.html

Sanctification

Another long word. Few truly "get" sanctification.
Well, not in the way most Christians expect.
Surely we have to work, pray, read our Bibles,
serve others, in order to be sanctified! Right? Not so!
Our sanctification is a gift and His name is Jesus.
God does not need our help for us to become Holy.
Our sanctification is a person.

"…who (Jesus) of God is made unto us wisdom: 
and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
redemption." 1 Corinthians 1:30

Many, most Christians including myself, believe or
have believed that a person must have the power
of sanctification before he can produce the fruits of
sanctification. But scripture tells us that when we have
Christ we have sanctification. I bump up against pride.
Ouch! I want to be humble, I really do. For years I
prayed and asked God to make me humble. I knew
I needed his help in this matter, but nothing changed.
Then I discovered--oh, glorious discovery--that God
gave me Christ, who is my humility! What does this
mean? It means that I do not have any humility in
myself. Not any. So, I cannot in my own strength
or even in his power, be humble. I can only say to the
Lord, "You are my humility. I allow you to become
humility in me." I exchange that which I do not have
for Jesus Himself, who is humility.

How  many of you cry out for patience? You have
no patience in yourself, but through surrender and
trust in His glorious Self, the mighty God who dwells
within you, He will manifest patience in that moment
you need it.

Can the Christian life really be so simple? Yes! May
God open your eyes to the freedom that is in our
Savior.

"CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY"

Thankful Corner:
I texted with my son last night.

Righteousness

Wow, that is certainly a putter offer on a Monday
morning! But in talking about wisdom we have
to start with righteousness because they are
connected. (See last weeks Blogs…)

"…who of God is made unto us wisdom:
and righteousness, and sanctification and
redemption."

Am I righteous or am I not righteous? We
certainly can't answer that question by how we
feel! Upon what basis do I come to God in
prayer? I come on the basis of my righteous
standing before God. I love this scripture:

"He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew
no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we 
might become the righteous of God."
2 Corinthians 5:21

God has done it. I can't become more
righteous by trying to live a perfect life.

Many Christians think that their righteous
behavior--or not so righteous-- is how God
views them, but God divides our righteousness
from our conduct. Yes, God is interested in
our conduct but our righteousness before
God cannot be improved upon.

Is this not a "Glory to God, Hallelujah" moment?
I can dance into His presence and dance out
because there is no chance He will squash me
like a bug! Dear reader, do you get it?

Thankfulness corner:
That I stand righteous before God--all the time

Wisdom

OK, how does one live the Christian life?
Well, Christ became wisdom to us from God.

First Corinthians 1:30 reads like this in the original:

"But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom:
and righteousness, and sanctification, 
and redemption."

Notice the colon after the word wisdom. Wisdom
is the subject; righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption explains how Christ becomes our
wisdom. God the Father makes Jesus to become
wisdom unto us.

You may not believe this but God has not given
us Christ just so we can be saved. He has given
Christ to be our life. Before we received Jesus
we lived out of our own resources in order to
get life. But now that we have Jesus. He
becomes our life within. He wants us to live our
life through His life.

The verse above does not say that Jesus gives us
wisdom but that Christ became wisdom to us from
God. It is not that Christ makes us wise, or that
we have the gift of wisdom, but He is becoming
our wisdom! It is a becoming, not an all at once
done deal.

Maybe I am one of the few Christians who have
tried and tried to live out my Christian life through
my own resources--and failed miserably--,but I
don't think so. It was not until a few years ago
that I found out that it is not only hard, but it is
impossible to live the Christian life on ones own!

Thankful Corner:
A quiet day of heart peace

See my stories:
http://www.hisvictoriousindwelling.com/stories.html

How?

The words, "Christ is life" sound good but how
can we appropriate his life into ourselves?
Christ is both man and God. I can't get Him
inside me. Ah, but with God as the initiator,
all things are possible! Listen to the verse again.
"But of him, you are in Christ." If God had not
done the work to make this possible, we would
still be dead in our sins. The second part of the
verse, "who became wisdom to us from God,"
was also done by God. We cannot make the
Lord our wisdom in our own strength, anymore
than we can work to become saved.

Thankfulness corner:
One husband, one stud finder; pictures going up!

Christ is Life

A few years ago I came across the phrase,
"Christ is our life." Have you, dear reader
ever come across this phrase, or is it so
commonplace it just rolls off your tongue?
Over the past couple of weeks I have been
pondering a particular verse which highlights
the essentials that underlies this concept--piece
by tiny piece.

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom."
1Corinthians 1:30

God's purpose in sending Jesus to this
earth is not to give us a pattern to live by,
but to give us life, a life manifested to
others through us. If we do not have this
life within us we are not Christians. My
problem has been that I did not realize
that I had this life in me and so for many
years I did not manifest His life to
others--just words.

Thankful Corner: Remembering Friends

Yesterday

It is now Sunday, January 19th. I sit in the same
chair, but the sun is hidden, has been hidden, by
clouds and fog for the past week. The madness
of the move has settled leaving an unfilled void.
Just as the trees stand heavy with ice, so my
heart has been heavy with the loss. How does
one shut down the last eleven years of familiar
roads, favorite restaurants, church, but most
of all, the friendships? We traded our townhouse
on a lake for a farmhouse surrounded by corn
fields and a train across the road! The boxes
are unpacked, but everything has not yet found
a home. Clutter.

As I sit here writing the clouds are rolling away
to reveal a late afternoon sun. The ice is falling
like rain off the fur tree.

The sun has shown everyday, but has been
obscured by clouds.The goodness of God has
not changed, but has been obscured by change,
loss, and distance--on my part.

Thankful corner:
The sharp crunch of snow giving way as Jake
and I walk through a field of white on a foggy
day.

January 4

From my journal:

New year, new page, new opportunities to walk in
God's grace. Challenges! Surrender, thanksgiving,
gratefulness possible. He has everything I need for
this moment. We have been living without routine
for the past four months. How much we humans
crave order! As I sit in the sunlight of early morning
I sense hope that this season of unsettledness is
slowly coming to an end. But, my security is not
in routine, but in Jesus.