Monthly Archives: January 2016

A Tender Companion

A TENDER COMPANION

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:29-30).

God has given every believer a special and very precious gift – the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus. He represents the Father and the Son on earth and takes up residence in the believer as a permanent companion. He is to us everything we need of the presence and power of God to overcome the remnants of sin in our lives and to live in the world as God’s beloved sons and daughters.

It is the dearest desire of the Holy Spirit that we get to know Him as intimately as He knows us. He is not in us to be our servant but to be to us everything that Jesus is and requires of us as His followers. He has many functions in our lives – He is our ‘parakletos’ – meaning ‘one who is called alongside’ to support and assist us in our efforts to live godly lives; He is the Spirit of truth – He reveals Jesus to us and leads us to walk in the truth; He is the author and interpreter of God’s Word – He gives is understanding of the Word as we seek Him. He is our sanctifier – He works the transformation in us to become like Jesus as we submit to Him and obey His promptings.

“To have the Holy Spirit as our Paraclete is to have God Himself indwelling us as believers. The Spirit teaches us the Word and guides us into truth. He reminds us of what Jesus has taught so that we can depend on His Word in the difficult times of life. The Spirit works in us to give us His peace (John 14:27), His love (John 15:9–10), and His joy (John 15:11). He comforts our hearts and minds in a troubled world. The power of the indwelling Paraclete gives us the ability to live by the Spirit and “not gratify the desires of the sinful flesh” (Galatians 5:16). The Spirit can then produce His fruit in our lives (Galatians 5:22–23) to the glory of God the Father. What a blessing to have the Holy Spirit in our lives as our Paraclete—our Comforter, our Encourager, our Counselor, and our Advocate!”

http://www.gotquestions.org/paraclete-Holy-Spirit.html – retrieved January 2016.

Paul said that there are two things we should never do to the Holy Spirit. We should never quench or grieve Him.

Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19).

The word ‘quench’ in Scripture speaks of suppressing or putting out fire. Just as the devil throws ‘fiery darts’ at the believer to assault our faith, so the Holy Spirit is God’s ‘fire’ within us, keeping our hearts aglow with a passion for God. When believers do not allow the Spirit to be seen in our actions, when we do what we know is wrong, we suppress or quench the Spirit

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30).

The Holy Spirit is our gentle and tender companion. He cannot be comfortable in the atmosphere of sin. We can quench Him by ignoring His voice and His ministry in our hearts to keep us strong and true in our walk with Jesus and by losing our zeal for the Lord when we become involved in worldly pursuits. We grieve Him when we become embroiled in sinful ways and ignore His promptings to return to the way of the Lord.

 “We grieve the Spirit by living like the pagans (4:17-19), by lying (4:25), by being angry (4:26-27), by stealing (4:28), by cursing (4:29), by being bitter (4:31), by being unforgiving (4:32), and by being sexually immoral (5:3-5). To grieve the Spirit is to act out in a sinful manner, whether it is in thought only or in both thought and deed.”

http://www.gotquestions.org/grieve-quench-Holy-Spirit.html – retrieved January 2016.

Our hearts should be sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit that we become aware of His silence when we no longer feel His promptings in our hearts. He desires to have fellowship with us. He is passionate about the Son. He uses every opportunity to make us aware of His presence in us as His representative. He lives in intimate union with the Father and the Son and He desires to nurture our union with Him so that we can also have fellowship with the Father and with the Son.

When the Holy Spirit goes quiet and inactive in us, we should be alerted to something we have said or done or some wrong attitude that has invaded our hearts to grieve Him. He will be quick to reveal what has silenced His voice when we seek Him in repentance and humility. The Holy Spirit does not sulk. He cannot have fellowship with us when our hearts have become indifferent to Him or hardened by sin.

We need to keep our hearts tender towards Him just as His heart is tender towards us and towards the one He represents.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

 

Deal With Your Anger

DEAL WITH YOUR ANGER

Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body. ‘In your anger, do not sin.’ Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need (Eph. 4:25-28).

Members of one body! Here is the motivation for living a new life. Of whose body are we members? We are members of Christ’s body. We no longer belong to ourselves, and we no longer live in isolation from one another in the body. We are not only joined to Jesus, our head – we are also joined to one another. Paul described it in this way:

From Him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work (Eph. 4:16).

The church is not like an organisation or a club where people are loosely connected by their affiliation to that group. Paul described the church as a body, where its members are inseparably joined to its head and to one another, as closely as the systems in a human body are joined and work together. This means that we make choices and decisions and act in unity and harmony with one another, considering how our actions will affect others in the body.

We have a defence mechanism, as human beings, to protect ourselves in our vulnerability from the attitudes and opinions of others. We put on masks of pseudo-holiness to cover our failings. Paul urged his readers to be transparent with each other because we belong to one another. The cells in a body must work together for the systems to function efficiently. So we, too, must be honest and open with each other if we are to live as a true body.

In the body of Christ, we are supposed to ‘bear with one another in love’ which means that we are not to criticise or judge one another. Within the body, we should be safe to fail and we should be open to correction when we stray from the path. Unfortunately, believers are often so defensive that they are offended when someone corrects them instead of humbly accepting the rebuke and coming back to the path of obedience to God’s Word.

Gentleness and humility are the hallmarks of Jesus. We are to follow Him and not to allow ego and pride to alienate us from one another. ‘Lying’ to one another implies more than telling lies. It includes living lies in our relationships within the body.

Paul deals with another common and confusing problem with which believers wrestle – anger. Many of us mistakenly believe that anger is sinful. If that were true, then Jesus’ anger at the Pharisees would have disqualified Him from being our Saviour. We feel guilty when we get angry because we do not realise the purpose of anger.

Much of our anger has to do with unresolved emotional pain. There is no such thing as an ‘angry’ person. People are not angry by nature. People use anger to protect themselves from the hurts they have not resolved. Many carry the pain of abuse from early childhood which they cannot face. They explode and lash out at everyone over minor and often irrelevant issues (called ‘emotional overload’) to protect themselves from being vulnerable to the same hurts again.

This kind of anger is sinful because it destroys relationships and isolates the individual from other people. The way to deal with this kind of anger is not to have counselling on ‘anger management’ which is completely ineffective, but to expose and deal with the cause of the emotional pain. Healing comes from facing the memories, acknowledging the source of the pain and forgiving the person or persons who caused it.

There is another reason for anger, called ‘righteous’ anger, which is a legitimate and important response to injustice.  Jesus was angry with the merchants and money changers who turned the outer court of the temple into a market. His anger produced action which sent a clear message to the offenders, including the religious hierarchy who no doubt benefitted from the profits. He drove the offenders out of the temple with the rebuke from God’s Word,

Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers (Mark 11:17)

This anger is not a volatile emotional explosion but a sustained attitude of displeasure which moves a person to take action against abuse or injustice. This was the attitude that drove William Wilberforce, for example, to persevere in his purpose to rid England of slavery. In this understanding of anger, Paul counsels his readers “not to let the sun go down on their anger”. In other words, he encourages them not to let the matter rest until they bring it to a satisfactory conclusion.

Our responsibility, as members of Christ’s body, is to deal with our anger in the appropriate way. If we are bearing grudges and carrying old offences which cause us to hide behind anger, it is time to bring them out of the closet and to own our reactions and forgive the offender.

If we are angry about the harm caused to others, we should not give up on our efforts to change what needs to be changed so that those around us will receive the respect and dignity they deserve as members of the human race. God needs this kind of ‘angry’ people to change society wherever they can and to bring about harmony, not rebellion and conflict between its members.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

Put On The New Self

PUT ON THE NEW SELF

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:20-24).

Paul used the word ‘taught’ twice and ‘learned’ once in these few verses. This indicates the important place that learning and teaching play in a believer’s life. Unfortunately, many new Christians are expected to make their own way in their new lives, leaving them open to false ideas and vulnerable to ‘every wind of teaching’ that blows from every possible source today. Their minds are filled with a hotchpotch of confused ideas which gives them no direction fro living godly lives.

Every believer should be taught, not only the truths about the life and death of Jesus and the salvation He freely offers those who receive Him, but also the practical application of their faith in Him. Paul referred to their need to put off their old selves. What did he mean?

Were his readers aware of the reason for their sinful lives before they came to Christ? Did they know that they had inherited the nature of Adam? How important that they are taught God’s truth from the beginning. Our world has been filled with the pernicious teaching that man is just a product of evolution. According to scientific theory, there is no such thing as creation and no such person as the Creator. Humans are nothing more than superior apes! In some mysterious and unproven way, we appeared on the earth after millions of years of ‘natural selection’.

For the many thinking people, this theory leaves us with more unanswered questions than answers. Through their blindness and stubborn unbelief, scientists have spawned a universal lie which nullifies human responsibility towards their Creator. However, no matter how big or convincing the lie, or how many people have fallen for it, lies do not cancel the truth. Sin came into the world through the disobedience of one man and brought the entire human race into condemnation and subject to death.

Paul’s readers needed to know that sin corrupted their old nature and made it impossible for them to have any connection with their Creator.  Jesus, the Son of God, whom the Father sent in human form to live a perfect life and to die as a substitute for sinful man, is God’s remedy for sin. Those who believe in Him and receive Him as Lord are released from the power of sin. He gives them a new nature and a new life, powered by His Holy Spirit to live in submission and obedience to Him.

Every child of God has the potential to be like his Master and to live new lives of righteousness and holiness. What does that mean? Although it is impossible for humans always to do the right thing, Jesus has given us the gift of His righteousness – His perfect obedience to the Father – which covers our sinfulness. We have a new standing before God. We are free to approach Him with confidence because He sees only the perfection of Jesus covering us.

We are freed from the power of sin to act in our everyday circumstances as Jesus would act. The Holy Spirit in us is the same Spirit that enabled Him to live a life of perfect obedience to God. It was Paul’s task, and the task of every spiritual leader to teach the believers how to live out the righteousness which Jesus had imparted to them. Just as one would undress at the end of the day and toss aside the soiled clothing, so Paul instructed his readers to take off their old sinful selves. The blood of Jesus had dealt with their past. Forgiven and cleansed, they were free to don new garments – the garments of righteousness and holiness.

In practical terms, that meant that every time they had to make a choice between doing the wrong thing and doing the right thing, they were free to choose to do right because they were ‘wearing’ their new selves, recreated in the image of their Creator.

Let’s simplify this idea even more. Selfishness and greed are the characteristics of the old nature. Before we came to Christ, we based every decision and choice on these two dominating influences. When Christ came into our lives, He gave us His new self, with the qualities of mercy and generosity which are the hallmark of God’s nature. We are to put on these qualities, that chooses to act in mercy and generosity in every situation just as deliberately as we would put on clean clothes in the morning.

Living this way rather than gratifying the desires demands of our sinful nature is a process of learning. Every decision and choice we make to do the right thing will strengthen our new nature and weaken our old nature. We will grow up into maturity in Christ as surely as a child grows to mature adulthood.

Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Col. 3:9-10).

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

Sensuality And Greed

SENSUALITY AND GREED

So I tell you this, and insist on I in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed (Eph. 4: 17-19).

Paul used two words to sum up the lifestyle of the pagan Gentiles – sensuality and greed. The same description is applicable and apt for the godless world in which we live today. The human heart has not changed. Every generation, from the fall of Adam, lives for sin and self. Every society under the sun is in chaos and disarray for the same reasons – sensuality and greed.

As the unique and supreme creation of God – not some superior ape that has evolved from our monkey “cousins” – made in His image to reflect His glory, God has given us one overriding instruction which encapsulates everything we are to be.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deut. 6:5).

However, another master claims our allegiance. He tricked the first pair into believing his word over the word of their Creator and introduced them to a new trend – disobedience and rebellion in the place of loving obedience and submission to their Maker. They became lovers of self, not lovers of God. Sensual pleasures and greedy selfishness dominates the human race.

By the way, I was amused to read, in a glossy woman’s magazine, the latest diagnosis for marital disharmony which used to be the outcome of selfishness. It is now called “post-romantic stress disorder”! Trust the psychiatrists to come up with a neat way for people to dodge responsibility and for them to make money. Just imagine how much more cash will flow into their coffers while they “counsel” their clients about their post-romantic stress disorder. How much better to teach them to grow up and stop living for themselves at the expense of their spouses!

Of course, like a leopard, we cannot change our “spots”. Only the Holy Spirit can transform our hearts through the forgiveness and new life Jesus came to give us. Ezekiel prophesied that God would do a miracle in the hearts of His people to transform them from stony-hearted, selfish and disobedient idolaters to loving and submissive children of God.

For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws (Ez. 36: 24-27).

God fulfilled this promise through His Son. According to Paul,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here (2 Cor. 5: 17).

Since God has done the miracle of transformation, our responsibility is to put it into practice in our everyday lives. New hearts produce new attitudes and new behaviour. Jesus said that it is the fruit that reveals the nature of the root. If we are still living like we did before we began to follow Jesus, satisfying our sensual appetites and living only to provide for ourselves, a question hangs over the reality of our profession. Here is the test:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation – but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if, by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God (Rom. 8: 12-14).

If we do not produce the proof of a new heart, our profession means nothing. Paul urged his Ephesian readers to respond in faith to the transformation God had accomplished through the power of the gospel at work in them. According to him, they were no longer classified as “Gentiles” because together with the title came the expectation that they would behave like Gentiles, living sensual and greedy lives.

They had become part of a new culture and an alternative society, living under the title of “children of God”. They had stepped over from the realm of “lovers of self” to “lovers of God”, a love which replaced all other loves and changed their hearts from greed to generosity, from selfishness to selfless service because they were followers of Jesus and reflectors of His nature.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

True Functionality

TRUE FUNCTIONALITY

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head. From Him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work (Eph. 4: 14-16).

What a marvellous description of a harmonious and properly functioning body!

However, the real picture of the church, in many of its parts, is very different from the pattern Paul presents here of a body of people whom the Holy Spirit has bound together into an organism that functions perfectly as one. Just imagine how dysfunctional one’s body would be if its systems and cells were constantly vying for position, competing for attention or being pulled apart by leaders who claimed authority over each other.

What would happen if one cell decided to be the boss? It demanded the right to cause a group of cells to pull away from the rest of the organ and set up its own organ in opposition to the one that has fulfilled its function in the body efficiently for many years. The result would be. . . cancer! Cancer kills and cancer in the body of Christ kills as effectively as the rogue cells in a human body which multiply uncontrollably and take over the entire body.

Paul describes God’s pattern for the efficient functioning of the body of Christ as it submits to its Head, through the power of the Spirit. It must, firstly, submit to the authority and follow the instructions of the Head. It is tragic that too many of God’s people are woefully ignorant of Jesus’ teachings. They rely, instead, on what they glean from the pulpit and swallow the teaching without checking the truth of what they hear. They claim to be disciples of Jesus without knowing what a disciple is or what a disciple’s life should be like.

To the Jews who had believed Him Jesus said: ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.’ (John 8: 31-32).

Ignorance of God’s Word is a recipe for error. We can only become truly one in Christ when we believe and hold to the truth. We cannot know the truth if we fail to read God’s Word diligently and trust the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. Paul called people “infants” who were ignorant of the Word and subsequently easy prey for imposters who pulled them away from Jesus by setting themselves up as the custodians of the truth. We must beware of so-called “leaders” who subtly draw people to themselves instead of to Jesus.

Like the spokes of a wheel that are joined to the hub and keep the wheel strong and functioning, the closer each individual draws to Jesus, the stronger the unity of the body will become. The hallmark of the body of Christ is always unity through love based on a commitment to Jesus as Lord and obedience to His teaching.

Unfortunately, there are church groups and denominations that demand adherence to their particular brand of doctrine. Membership of that group depends on the individual’s willingness to believe what that denomination teaches, regardless of whether it reflects Biblical truth or not. I have seen how people easily follow someone’s “good idea” or personal interpretation like sheep, without checking the Scriptures to verify the truth of what they are teaching or practising.

Take, for example, the worldwide movement called “spiritual warfare” or being “prayer warriors”. There are many individuals who claim to be specialists in their brand of spiritual warfare and lead ministries and hold seminars on something that has no foundation in God’s Word. This entire superstructure of teaching and practice is based on an erroneous interpretation of a few passages of Scripture.

Let me illustrate. When Jesus took His disciples to a region called Caesarea Philippi in northern Israel, which was the “red-light” district which no self-respecting Jew would ever visit, He had a specific purpose in mind. The town was the centre of Caesar worship. The nearby region had a huge rock in which niches were carved to house the images of false gods. There was a pagan temple at its base where devotees worshipped these gods, particularly Pan, the goat-god, by having sexual relations with goats.

It was in full view of these goings-on that Jesus asked His disciples the question, “Who do you say that I am?” On the strength of Peter’s response, He gave them the authority to interpret His yoke (His interpretation and application of the Torah) and to loose people from their yokes of paganism and legalism. By teaching them the truth, His disciples would bind His yoke on people like the very ones who were engaging in the vile practices they were observing.

It is the power of Jesus, who is the Son of the living God, and what He taught – the Fatherhood of God who loves and is merciful to all who receive His forgiveness and submit to Jesus as Lord – that sets people free from the bondage of sin and all the sinful beliefs and practices the devil had ensnared them to engage in. The power of the gospel, not doing “prayer walks” and “pulling down imaginary strongholds”, transformed the city of Ephesus and broke the power of the goddess Diana.

This is the essence of spiritual warfare. In partnership with the Holy Spirit and by following Jesus and learning from Him, we are set free from the bondage of false belief systems to become true disciples of Jesus. It is only in fellowship with Him that we can be in fellowship with one another and begin to reflect the power of the gospel to overcome our differences and become the real body of Christ, bound together in love and function as one.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?