Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Day 86 - Facts Revisited


         
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 the weekly thoughts I express on Michael’s writings in an easy manner. 



Michael takes us further in understanding the “facts” of our past life: “God permits what He could prevent.”  See if there is an experience of great freedom and peace becoming yours when you realize God really is “IN CONTROL” of life,  and that sometimes means His permitting of something happening in our life that we “wish” would have never happened.




DAY 86

Facts Revisited

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. –Proverbs 3:5

Now I must go one step further in discussing facts. God permits what He could prevent. "And this we shall do, if God permits" (Hebrews 6:3). We quickly and easily praise God for all that He prevents. Any of us could have died in a car accident by now had He not prevented it. He has prevented and protected us from so much. We thank Him. However, there is something that takes much more faith: Can we thank Him for what He has permitted? How often we have heard people say, "How could a loving God allow such a tragedy to happen?" Maybe we have said it ourselves. If God were to pull us aside and ask the following question, how would we answer? "I AM is going to permit a failure in your life, your child's life, or in the life of your mate. Will you praise Me still? I will use the failure, not fight it; will you praise Me still?" What if we were asked this question the day before our or our family's failure in the past, present, or future? What would we say? I am not saying that God causes evil, but it is permitted. Can we praise Him for what is permitted? Can we see Him at work in it, or do we only see ourselves? The fact is that God hates sin, but there is another fact: He uses it. "And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Romans 5:20). What if God said, "I will allow your child to fail. I will use it. May I have his purity, the perfect life you wanted for him, and the life free of struggle you desired? I will permit and use the loss of those things to bring the child to Me”? He allows what He could prevent. Can we agree with His allowing? Can we let Him allow? Do we live to and for the facts, wanting to prevent all that brings people to Christ? Do we want to prevent facts? Are we angry about the facts? This does not just apply to our families. He has permitted so much in world events, past and present. Can we praise Him, the I AM, for what He in His wisdom permitted? Praising Him for what is permitted is the first step. 

We also need peace with the facts of our failures and the failures of others. We need peace in the unexpected turn of events. Where do we find peace? The same place that I AM found it. Remember, after looking at the facts, the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them" (Genesis 6:7). God saw the facts and needed peace! Again, where did He find it? Jesus! "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being {fell} upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4, 5). What grief? The grief that God had for making us! What sorrow? The sorrow that God had after making us! Jesus carried it all and in Him, God had peace. Where will we find peace with the facts of our behavior and the behavior of others, past, present, and future? In Jesus! He is our Peace. Ephesians 2:14, "For He Himself is our peace, who made both {groups into} one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall."

What is as big as an elephant but weighs nothing? The elephant's shadow. Facts weigh nothing in the light of Jesus! I do not care about the facts! I have peace! I have Jesus! I am ready to press on in the great I AM!

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory



Meditate on these great statements in today’s writing:

God permits what He could prevent.

Can we thank Him for what He has permitted?

If God were to pull us aside and ask the following question, how would we answer?  “! AM is going to permit a failure in your life, your child’s life, or in the life of your mate.  Will your praise Me still?  I will use the failure, not fight it; will you praise Me still?

The fact is that God hates sin, but there is another fact: He uses it.

Do we live to and for the facts, wanting to prevent all that brings people to Christ?

Can we praise the I AM, for what He in His wisdom permitted?

Praising Him for what is permitted is the first step.

Where will we find peace with the facts of our behavior and the behavior of others, past, present, and future?  In Jesus!  He is our peace.  Eph. 2:14, “For He Himself is our peace...”

Facts weigh nothing in the light of Jesus!

In light of all this, do you have peace?  If not, why not?



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
(twitter) @bleemc67    (email) leemccm@gmail.com
P. O. Box 633244    Nacogdoches, Tx 75963                                  936-559-5696

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Day 85 - Facts!

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 155
         
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 the weekly thoughts I express on Michael’s writings in an easy manner. 


Acts and facts.  These two can be devastating to us until we grasp God’s victory in getting past the past.  Michael shows us how uncomplicated it is to put “all that” behind us!



DAY 85

Facts!

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. –John 8:32

All of us have participated in acts of unrighteousness, immorality, impurity, and more. We have participated in acts of self-righteousness, judgment, pride, and unbelief, both before conversion and after. These are things that come to haunt us, and not only does our own past behavior vex us, but also the behavior of those around us. What are we to do with these cold, hard facts? 

The first step is to understand that not all true things are truth. I used this illustration in a meeting at a Chinese church: "I am not that impressed with the hospitality of the Chinese. I stayed with the Chinese pastor and he never offered me coffee although he knew I liked coffee, needed it, and wanted it. It is true!" Then I continued, "However, when I first got to the pastor's home, I told him, 'You do not need to offer me coffee; I brought my own!'" Now the truth was revealed. You can see that not all things that are true are truth. For a true thing to be truth, it must end at the feet of Jesus, Who is the way, the truth, and the life. It is possible for something that is true to lead you either to truth or away from it. Facts just lie there lifelessly, doing nothing, having no power except attraction. Some facts get our attention, and what gets our attention, gets us. Once we know the facts about our behavior and the behavior of others, what do we do with the information? Facts are history, and history is to be denied. (Luke 9:23,And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’”) "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of {it} yet; but one thing {I do}: forgetting what {lies} behind and reaching forward to what {lies} ahead" (Philippians 3:13).

Often the enemy uses facts to add to and augment his position. He will use true things, but he never uses them to lead a person to truth. He'll use them as additions that detract from the truth (Jesus). God is "I AM," the God of no additions. He simply is "I AM," without even true things and facts detracting from who He is. We are a people without additions. We have Jesus and do not need additional experience, more knowledge, another degree, or the spectacular; we have Jesus, the complete truth, and we need nothing else. In Him you are complete! The facts of past behavior, everything before this moment, are additional and encumbering. "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1). What do we do with facts, not only the facts of our own failures--past, present, and future--but also those of others around us? Once they have been removed by the blood of Christ, we refuse to wear them.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory




OK…let’s face it…we ALL have participated in at least some of the things Michael mentions at the start of this day’s writing.  But the question is: What are we doing with the “cold, hard” facts of these events?

I love Michael’s “step 1.”  It is a great revelation to know and understand that “not all TRUE things are TRUTH” (my caps for emphasis).  And there is great freedom to live by the words: “For a true thing to be truth, it must end at the feet of Jesus, Who is the way, the truth, and the life.”  As I have learned to ask, “Is it true, OR is it truth?”  I have experienced John 8:32…and 36!  I have experienced Jesus!!!

“step 2” for me is to live Paul’s admonition in Phil. 3:13.
“step 3” for me is to live Hebrews 12:1.
“step 4” for me is to live Michael’s last words in this day’s writing: “What do we do with facts, not only the facts of our own failures – past, present, and future – but also those of others around us?  Once they have been removed by the blood of Christ, we refuse to wear them.”

No more “haunting.”  No more “vexing.”  Only Jesus.  Only freedom.  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
(twitter) @bleemc67    (email) leemccm@gmail.com
P. O. Box 633244    Nacogdoches, Tx 75963                                                              936-559-5696

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Day 177 - The Death of Conscience

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 154
         
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 the weekly thoughts I express on Michael’s writings in an easy manner. 



Last week we looked at “Day 176,” a writing Michael titled “The Job of Conscience.”  In this next day’s writing, Michael takes us to the point of conscience being destroyed…and the resulting fleshly lifestyle.  This is a powerful presentation bringing us to realize the absolute devastation to any individual who allows their conscience to be wiped out.



DAY 177

The Death of Conscience

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains {will do so} until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; {that is,} the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 
– II Thessalonians 2:7-10

An assault is being made today on the conscience of those of us living in the United States. It begins with presenting our fathers, grandfathers, and founding fathers as ignorant, foolish believers. Then we are told that family does not matter, only our happiness. Sexual purity is outdated. We are not responsible for our own actions; others (whoever they are) are making our lives miserable. The pain that comes from believing and living with that approach is countered by a greater appetite for a variety of drugs, all calculated to numb our animal existence. To have an abortion and experience no remorse or guilt, the conscience must die, but when it dies, it takes down with it our self-love, other-love, and the love of creation. For a man or woman to abandon the family for a younger live-in, the conscience must die, but so do self-protection, other-protection, and a whole generation of would-be caring parents. To rationalize lying, stealing, and murder, the conscience must die, and along with it the joy of truth, the satisfaction of daily labor, and the appreciation of life. Those who kill a specific area of conscience to allow for the expression of their particular fleshly desire will in the end reap destruction from the hand of another. The conscience of the youth is being snuffed out little by little through television, music, sex, drugs, and all else that promises the pleasure of animal desire. It has been said that the fruit of sin is either green or rotten, but never ripe. The promised satisfaction of the flesh is always just around the corner, but never there today. How can it be? For the flesh is like the fire that never says enough! It cannot be satisfied. The world wants to avoid guilt at all cost. Much has been said about the damaging effect of guilt. However, I pray I am never delivered into the hands of someone who can no longer sense guilt. This person will have no conscience. 
           
Seeing that nature abhors a vacuum, once conscience is destroyed it is replaced by anger, which allows for the freedom needed to follow selfish animal existence. Those without a conscience are in a constant state of anger. Notice how animals can get immediately mad! This condition of living for the present fulfillment of the flesh is actually intellectualized and made to appear something other than the shallowness that it is. Encouraging the death of the conscience becomes politically correct, intelligent, open-minded, caring, even heads above the poor ignorant masses. Rights become all important, lest the right to live as an animal be taken away. When it rains on the farm, the feedlot becomes quite muddy. The sheep and pigs venture out and both become stuck in the muck. The sheep begin to cry for someone to come and rescue them, while the pigs quite comfortably simply roll in the mud. The sheep are like men with a conscience, because they know they are not at home in the mire; the pigs reveal their true character. It would be quite distasteful were a pig to lie to himself and others about his true condition, making the muck out to be something of a lofty experience. 
           
I have witnessed people's stress that comes from not having a job, from looking for a place to live, from having severe medical problems, and from having marital difficulty, and none compare with the misery that comes from having a child without a conscience. However, this is an exciting time to live! Never before has the first chapter of Romans (the foolish philosophy of evolution and the depravity of living without a conscience) or Proverbs, Chapter 1 (describes perfectly the gang mentality), meant so much. We are witnessing both firsthand. I am excited and have taken heart; I do not feel undone or hopeless, nor am I wringing my hands, because I have a God! That is right, I have a God! Do we think He does not see all? He is not caught off guard! He has given some over to their wicked desires (Romans 1:24). Do I worry about the believers' children in the midst of the above? No! He is the Gardener. We as parents have planted the seed of His Kingdom, the most powerful of all seeds, able to split the largest rock. He will water, He will cause growth, and He will reap the fruit. I have a God! How else will you find out that your God, the only God, the living God, can protect your family, provide in crisis, work miracles in family members, displace the enemy, and put to shame all worldly wisdom if you are never in the need of protection, food, miracles, wisdom, and victory? In the coming years, be prepared to expand! As our God provides, our faith will expand, and as it expands, so do we. I want to find out just how big God is. As we stand fast in the midst of a world without conscience, the great revelation that we have a God, the only true God, will become an actuality. 


Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory



Do you know someone living this “life”?  Do you recognize all around you the worldly activities that are stealing the conscience of so many?  This is a wake-up call for many.  This is an awareness list for all to see just how the “mystery of lawlessness” is truly at work right in our midst.  A big question is: what are we going to do about it?  Or, how are we going to help someone to avoid having their conscience destroyed?

It is absolutely incredible to stop and think how Almighty God gives each individual a conscience that is placed in us to have the capacity to “receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”  But to reject God and believe the “deception of wickedness” is so sad.

Seven things Michael mentions grab my attention:
1.  “The pain that comes from believing and living with that approach (the deceit and
    lies) is countered by a great appetite for a variety of drugs, all calculated to numb
    our animal existence.”
2. Then he gives a variety of life experiences that require a death of our conscience.
3.  “Those who kill a specific area of conscience to allow for the expression of their
    particular fleshly desire will in the end reap destruction from the hand of another.” 
4.   “Once conscience is destroyed it is replaced by anger, which allows for the freedom
     needed to follow selfish animal existence.  Those without a conscience are in a 
     constant state of anger.”
5.  “I am excited and have taken heart, I do not feel undone or hopeless, nor am I 
     wringing my hands, because I have a God!”
6.   “As our God provides, our faith will expand, and as it expands, so do we.”
7.   “As we stand fast in the midst of a world without conscience, the great revelation
     that we have a God, the only true God, will become an actuality.”

Knowing all this, I am equipped to disciple people better.  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
(twitter) @bleemc67    (email) leemccm@gmail.com

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

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Day 176 - The Job of Conscience

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 153
         
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 the weekly thoughts I express on Michael’s writings in an easy manner. 


In this day’s writing, Michael gives us one of those “bottom-line” discourses…he speaks of “conscience”…something very few ever talk about any more.  Ever wonder why???


DAY 176

The Job Of Conscience

Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. --Romans 1:19, 20


The conscience of man is a wonderful thing. It might be called the thumbprint of God on our very being. Created by Him, with every fiber of our being held together by Him, and living in a world created for man, we find that we cannot escape God. The whole of our being agrees that there is a God. Every man knows it is so whether he resides deep in the Amazon or in the highest places of modern learning. All know of Him. I have a recurring experience with unbelievers in that they begin our meeting stating that there is no God, man evolved, and Christianity is an archaic set of rules that keeps man from living normally due to bondage under Judeo-Christian principles. Yet by the end of our session, if Christ has broken through, they will often say that they always knew there was a God and if they had not found an answer that day they were considering suicide! Imagine! They were just before saying they had no need of an absent deity! Jesus made an interesting statement to unbelievers: "The Kingdom of God is in you"! How could this be? The very laws of the Kingdom of God are written in man’s very members! It could be no other way, for we are made in Him. God is good, and everything created in Him must ultimately be good. That is not to say that man has not fallen into sin, but it affirms that sin is not normal for man, for if it were normal, man would grow and improve under it. The very opposite is true. Man is made for the Kingdom; its laws suit us best. Our conscience includes all of the above and is always pulling us toward God like a magnet. We know deep within that we need Him and sin never really suits us. That is why when some of the most notorious criminals are captured, they breathe a sigh of relief, acknowledging that they could not stop what they were doing, though they despised it and hoped for the day that they could rest from their wrongdoing. They would rather be confined in prison and not allowed to sin than to continue on.  

Conscience drives man to keep, in some measure, the laws of the Kingdom of God without command. To a degree man does act decently, help others, sense compassion for others, and even treat nature with a measure of respect, all without the command to do so! Before I was a Christian I sold an old pickup truck that I had restored to a fellow passing through town. The next day after he departed the engine blew up. He called me, and I arranged for another engine to be installed at my own expense. When my grandfather found out what I had done, the only comment I received from him was, "You did the right thing." It was the right thing, and somehow I knew it and felt good doing it. Conscience in any society is invaluable; how can we put a price on it or fully describe its practical worth? Poverty and unemployment reached an all-time high during the Great Depression, and yet crime did not increase. Why? The conscience of man was still widely operative in our society. A few years back a movie was produced in the U.S. on the life of Christ; in a slanderous attempt to discredit Christianity, it portrayed Jesus as having had an illicit affair with Mary Magdalene. Though never popular, the movie was distributed and consent granted for viewing throughout the United States. Some in India attempted to show the movie there but were arrested. Why? The conscience of the people decreed that it was wrong to put anyone’s god in a bad light. Would you like to live in a culture without a conscience?

Laws are given to keep man from destroying his conscience and to keep society from self-destructing before the message of grace in Jesus Christ can be preached. However, the carnal side of man has no wisdom and attempts to destroy all laws that hinder the expression and satisfaction of the flesh (animal nature); when these laws are destroyed, the collective conscience is destroyed. The attempt can be made to selectively destroy the conscience, but it cannot be destroyed cafeteria-style; the conscience is either wholly kept or wholly damaged. Once it is buried, any attempt made to replace it with laws will end in failure and frustration. How many outer laws that possess no power over man's flesh are needed to replace the conscience: one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, ten million? How many? So as laws increase so does wickedness, and a monster is born.


Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory



WOW!  Is it any wonder so many DO NOT want to read, discuss, or hear about Romans ch. 1???  God just tells us plainly that no one is without excuse to not “know Him.”  Why?  Because He gives every person a “conscience” at birth…  Don’t you like Michael’s description: “It might be called the thumbprint of God on our very being.” 

Think about it…God intended that we didn’t need anything else to know that He exists.  So what does man do to change that?  SIN.  So much sin that man’s conscience can become destroyed, and no longer acknowledge God.

As Michael spoke of “outer laws that possess no power over man’s flesh,” and that “as laws increase so does wickedness,” I thought of the days of the Jews and all the laws upon laws upon laws (Pharisees’ doing)…and God tells us: “(Jesus) came unto His own, and His own received Him not.”  Throw in the Romans, and we see a day of “reprobate minds” and “destroyed consciences.”

Ever get the feeling we are living in a similar day?

There is so much truth and counsel in Michael’s writing this “day.”  I will leave it to each one to get with God, and see what and where He wants to take each one of us with this thing of “conscience.”  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
(twitter) @bleemc67    (email) leemccm@gmail.com

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