Or "GETTING IT RIGHT" WITH GOD -- HIS WAY! 

A double-minded man [or woman] is unstable in all his [or her] ways -- so the Bible says.

Take a good look.  Do I look like someone who would have a duplicit thought process as a habit? None of us believes that about ourselves!  But, we are good at judging others from a distance!  So, God decides to look at our own motives in life.  Are we double-minded in life -- serving God and serving self -- or perhaps even allowing actions which serve the devil and his desire to destroy our lives?

How clearly we see others.

Yet the Great Deception is this:  Believing God's accepts us because of our "getting it right!"

The ultimate reality of full blown deception  is believing we are acceptable to God because of our own righteousness -- our own goodness, somehow attaining to that place of full acceptance by our merits and performance! 

Man looks on the performance.  God looks on the heart!

The opposite of this deception about getting good enough for God's acceptance is this: Knowing it is only by our acceptance into Jesus Christ’s own death on the Cross, His burial and resurrection and His own  Life-giving Presence inside our innermost being that we are made acceptable to God.

All our own righteousnesses, our attempts to produce  “good-enough-for-God” living are totally unacceptable as sufficient to fix our status as "rejects" by God because of our sin. God calls our righteousness "filthy rags" ( the meaning in the original text is that of putrid, bloody menstrual cloths)! (The Bible does speak in such images!) That is what our attempts to satisfy God's requirement for purging sin by offering our good works -- abstaining from badness!

Sadly, we waste much of our productive energy in fear and frustration due to misunderstanding the grace  of God and how His favor and blessing work toward us. We cannot earn anything from God.  We may maintain His favor once we are In Christ Jesus by our loving response to follow Him and serve Him, but favor cannot come any other way than by a gift from God Himself to us as His fallen Creation in simple acknowledgement of that very fact that we cannot 'get it right' with God on our own. . . EVER!!!  

Why do we put other people on trial in our minds for their sins when we have the same tendencies in our own living? We would not recognize sin so easily in another if we were not guilty of such sin in our own minds and actions.

It is shocking how easy it is to identify the traits of sin which lead to a fall in another . . . the matters of deception and lies. But it is not at all possible for most of us to see similar sins in our own actions or even merely our thoughts.

For example, God speaks of adulterous thoughts being sufficient to bring guilt before Him. His Word says that if you commit adultery in your heart, you are guilty before God as if you committed the act.

Another example, God says that if you hate your brother, you are guilty of murder. Even if you haven’t touched a gun or pulled a trigger! The motions of sin in man’s heart make us guilty before God Himself.

It is to God we are accountable first of all in life.

So, the Holy Spirit comes along to give us a good dose of holiness and purity by displaying before our eyes a panorama of the purity of Christ and the holiness of God Himself, without which no man can see God.

Back to square one – starting all over again with the basics.

Let’s examine the process of God’s work to rescue us all. All have sinned, God says, and come short of His glory. The glory of God is Jesus Christ. . .so we have to measure up to the sinless perfection of Jesus or we don’t measure up as acceptable to God.

In Christ alone do we have hope for acceptance by God. How does a sinner get INTO CHRIST?

The soul that sins, it shall die. Who said? God said!

What to do about it?

While we were still (yet) sinners, Christ died for us.

Amazing gift, that!

A sinless man (God’s Perfect Lamb) hung on the altar of that hewn wooden cross in Jerusalem as the atonement for the sin of the whole world.

He took away mankind’s sins. He took sin to the Cross. He took sinners with him through death, burial and resurrection and ascension.

Now we stand before a holy God --looking from afar at the big gulf, that impasse which man cannot bridge in any way on his own. We are not fit to enter God’s presence because we are born in sin . . . children of the Fall of our forefather, the first man, Adam. In Adam, all died.

We are born into this life with natural human life, but are left with a spirit which is dead to God.

We learn to walk and talk in the natural scheme of things . . . for us in America, it is English, mostly. In our home, English only. That is a natural progression in life.

But the language of the spirit is dead. There is only life in the spirit of man when God quickens the human spirit and imparts a quality of life which cannot be inherited from your parents. It must come from God as a direct impartation. The gift of spirit-life comes at the hand of God, the Holy Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead by the power of God Himself.

There is no big secret about things. . . but maybe you don’t know this: Jesus took upon Himself the sin of all mankind because of the Fall of Man. Man was created with perfect capacity to walk with God in harmony and fellowship.

In the Garden of Eden the sin of disobedience to God caused the loss of spirit-to-Spirit capability inside man. The spirit of man died when sin entered his life. Disobedience to God is a huge calamity which has to be atoned for by the blood of a perfect, sinless sacrifice.

It is God’s order of things. He is God. He made the entirety of all that is. This is how it is. We make or break our lives on knowing and observing the pattern of God’s design for all things.

When we understand the love which prompted God’s plan for man, we are not put off by the requirements of a blood sacrifice for sin.

Jesus paid the blood sacrifice for our sin. We are each one personal sinners against God. We cannot keep from sinning against God due to the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. All Adam’s and Eve’s children in the human race inherited the nature of their broken humanness. . . the sinful nature which they chose.

We are offered an escape from the penalty of sin. . . death, hell and the grave. We are offered eternal life – a quality of life which comes only from God and has its source and sustenance in God alone.

The gift of eternal life, God-life, is offered to everyone everywhere. Incarnate in Jesus Christ is the fullness of God – all the attributes and life-giving qualities for mankind to experience reside in Jesus. His earthly life was to us a non-stop display of God’s intention for man’s behavior and living.

The quality of God as Savior is unique to Jesus Himself. No other human –ever—take on any of those qualities of being a Sin-Atoner! Only God Himself could qualify for that position in God’s order of things. No other created being or creature or thing could satisfy God’s justice. He alone could pay for the offense against Himself by giving His own life as payment for sin against Himself. So God left heaven and took on the form of humanity through the incarnation just so He could save mankind from the effects of the Fall.

Restored through Jesus Christ, the hope of man is glory through Christ.

It is the work of all Christ-followers to spread the good news of the fact of Christ’s saving Life, the how of receiving Jesus, the way God works His Life into human beings, the requirement of believing God in what He has done and said is truth and acting out the reality of God’s verbalized reality in observable living. When one does this, there is a new person in residency inside the body of the ‘believer’ who has been newly created internally by the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus Christ has taken up residency inside the spirit of a repentant sinner who has turned to God. This Resident Life-Giver, Jesus Christ, comes as the Christ of the Spirit to bring hope and healing where sin has done its deadly, destructive work in lives.

Jesus becomes the Life to Live From inside the new creation believer. Rather than having to give in to the habits of a sinner’s past, there is a new way of living which is operative now. That New Life is Christ in you, the hope of glory. God’s glory will begin to be revealed in the life-choices as a Christ-follower begins to respond to the Holy Spirit as Creater Teacher who has birthed Jesus Christ inside. The Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ will begin to take over the reins of life in order to redirect the life-habits of the former sinner, now saint.

It is no goodness on the part of the new believer which makes that person acceptable to God. It is the favor that has come from believing on Jesus and receiving the greatest love which God has to offer mankind – salvation redemption through reconciliation and restoration through Jesus Christ. God is thrilled with the rescuing from sin’s grip of another of His creation. He commits to a life-long faithfulness to all who will simply trust and believe and obey Him.

The law of Life in Jesus Christ works from God’s end initially. He draws us to Himself. We respond. He gives Life in Jesus. We receive Him. He details His plan for living in fullness and abundance of life. We learn to hear His voice and obey His directives. He infuses us with His Spirit-power to enable what He designed us to do – good works. We continue to trust in His Life and Love and Power and Might and do not lean on our own understanding of things. We walk and live in the realm of our spirit-to-Spirit union with Christ rather than our natural inclinations. We are now tuned to another quality of Life rather than just being limited by our natural abilities. All true living in this life comes through union with Christ, by being IN Christ Jesus. From this union, this oneness, comes the new kind of person we were ultimately created to be.

All the old things, the limits of sinful human nature and all destructive tendencies which cripple life’s fullness and abundance, are put off as obedience to God brings freedom and liberty from sin’s devastation.

The amazing Life of Jesus Christ, lived out of the body of believers world-wide, is the agency of hope for the world. Although there are many ‘versions’ of those who claim to be ‘Christian’, it is only those in whom Christ Himself actually lives and breathes and moves about doing the very things we know Jesus did through his earthly body. Now His Body is the true believers everywhere who demonstrate His saving Life, the attributes which come only from God.

Humanity once had the perfection of God’s design in operation in the Garden of Eden. What God designed was without flaw. Sin destroyed the perfection. God’s way of restoring that design and function of His original intention was ultimately revealed in Jesus, God’s Son.

Since we know that in Christ was all the fullness of God in bodily form, we are assured that when we receive the Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ, we are transformed into His image. It is a New Birth, one which grows through the fellowship with God and our responsive obedience to His voice.

Today, He is bringing me back to square one . . . to the place where I once again see the glory of His intention for living by everyone. Compared to Jesus, I have no hope. But, when I see that God acknowledges Christ in me and counts me as righteous in His sight while I am fully trusting Christ to be Life in me, then I have hope. Christ in me the hope of glory. . . now and forever.

Always it is my part to acknowledge that He is God and I am not! In that moment, I am in awe of the grace, mercy and love of God which is the hope of eternal life. . . a hope for a change in my mind about temptation that lurks, a change of direction in my plans which pull me away from focus on His Life and work in and through His Body and me. It is time to return to the Lord and to all His workings to reconcile the world to Himself through Jesus Christ.

I am offering this to you as a promise of hope . . . for yourself, or for others who may need to hear this hope we share in Christ.

One day, it may be soon, Jesus will appear in the air to take to Himself those who are His own. It could be any moment. . .

In case I don’t see you again at this site. . .I pray it will be in the air with our Lord. . .

Maranatha, even so, Come Lord Jesus!

I would rather know You, Jesus, and know You as Life than to have everything else in this life and end up forever separated from Your Presence -- for all eternity. Keep me in Your love and care while I walk in simple trust in You and Your Word. Amen.

AFTER ALL IS SAID AND DONE, IT IS EVER AND ALWAYS ONLY GOD'S PERFECT WORK OF OFFERING US HIMSELF AS HIS GIFT OF LIFE WE ARE TO LIVE FROM -- WHEN WE ACCEPT HIM AND RESPOND IN LOVING GRATITUDE, WE GET IT RIGHT EVERY TIME!! AND THE PLAN NEVER CHANGES.  WE ALWAYS RETURN TO HIM FOR OUR MID-COURSE CORRECTIONS!

Planning a family trip online. . . what options! You can choose any possible combination of routes and transportation systems over any period of time you choose. If you can finance it you can leave immediately! With a GPS (Global positioning system), you can even see the sites before you leave home. Using Google's sky view you can spy on the sites and addresses anywhere in the world.

Trying to plan a multi-stop trip has given me a headache.  After three days of various amounts of time spent in a huddle with the online travel opportunities, I am back at square one. That means, start all over. 

We are having a family reunion in the beautiful Northwest part of the country. August was chosen as the best time since school starts so early everywhere. 

This has been in the works for two years -- since our last reunion in Bend, OR.  A great spot which sits in the middle of gorgeous country with the mountain still hanging on to the snow today. My brother has a ranch which is perfect for our gathering in a rural setting.

Also, there is a 90th Birthday celebration for my mother in Missouri.  We are trying to be there on her day.

Being at the opposite end of the country from the reunion, we could see the whole nation on our way coming or going -- if you had time. Because I am in the opposite end of the country and need to do a multi-city stop trip with people coming from more than one destination the cost is top dollar!

The price of gas precludes cheap airline tickets or fuel for the duration of a family auto trip. Also, recent difficulties in long-time sitting makes such a long auto trip impossible. 

I thought it was all worked out.  The flights are on hold!  But, we just couldn't cover the necessary mileage for us all for such a long multi-stop flight. The absence of sufficient frequent flier miles for the whole group of us has been the culprit of my weariness in doing any more flight schedules. 

I have tried every path to get to both destinations in August. They are planned for consecutive weekends  so two trips is a waste of funds.  Keeping in budget is a challenge. . .because travel is not a budget item these days.

Suddenly, the impossibility of making it happen has settled down on me. . .and I realize that I had to stop and ask the Lord about it. 

My journal said this earlier today:  "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."  I take that to mean 'person' when it says 'man'.  So I know the Lord is clearly wanting to order my steps all the time.   But this trip is not a 'step' occasion. 

REALITY CHECK: But, am I doing the 'ordering'. . .or is God? 

This trip has a time limit and "stepping" there won't get it done.  I have to have wheels or air under me to make this happen.  So. . . I put aside the stack of trip possibilities and the reservations waiting for sufficient frequent flier miles to ticket the whole thing -- with a 'hold' on my spirit.  Surely the Lord is not at all confused about the exact way to make this happen. 

It is not only a desire to be with family that calls our hearts. . .it is the care of our loved ones as family who also need the lavish love of Christ expressed by their ministry family who have not always been available for family events in years past. Now that we are all committed to being together for this event, we discover that some of our family we have never met and others we have only seen one time in all our lives have committed to be there because of our commitment to come.

So, does anyone know how to lower the price of gas by about $50 a barrell this week?  Perhaps it might make a difference in this trip. 

There are hundreds of options for this trip.  I could choose thousands of ways to get to these events. I now know what people mean when they say "all roads lead to God!"

Have you tried to make a trip plan on all the available internet sites?  You really can get to anywhere from all the roads. . . and if you don't know how to do it they will give you every detail of the whole plan in either text without maps or with maps -- you choose. You can alter your route in the middle of your journey and change your mind and still end up at your destination.  Amazing. . . and all mapped out for you. 

If you don't have an internet connection, you can have AAA do it for you in a book form . . plan your trip by any route you choose to your destination -- they will send you a Trip-Tik!  

Speaking of destinations. . . have you heard it is said that "all roads lead to God?"

The trouble is, that is not what God's map, the Bible says.

Isn't it a bit arbitrary that God's Word, His "Trip-Tik"  is clearly not a compilation of our preferred routes and paths.  Getting to God does not work this way!!!

Jesus said:  "No man can come to the Father except by Me!"

That is arbitrary!

There is one path and only one . . one way and none other -- it is not a road, but a Person, Jesus Christ. Only through Jesus can you get to God.  

AMAZING how Jesus gets us right to the FATHER!!! And there is no headache in the process!!!  ~~