Now seriously what good is all of this knowing without the ability to practice? So let's have at it.
First things first. Remember:
1. God has taken you out of the darkness and into his glorious light. Your goal is to dwell in Christ.
2. You are not darkness when you do bad things and light when you do good things. You are either one or the other. Darkness (not a child) or light (a child of God).
Let me explain. It is night time. While I am in my house I have the lights on. If I open the front door and go outside into the darkness, I don't become darkness. I am a child of God at home, in church, in school, in a bar etc. Jesus says walk in the light as I am in the light. Where He is I should be.
3. You are either in or you are out. You cannot be both. There is no middle of the road. Jesus said you are either for me or against me, not sometimes for me and sometimes not. He will be able to tell by your fruit not your words.
4. Jesus is your armour. Literally not figuratively. You wear his glory like a garment. Your goal is to keep your white robe (His glory) from being stained by the world. If you stay in the light His blood will cleanse you.
5. Don't go back. You cannot and will not be saved if you persist in your evil ways. You will perish with the unbelievers and what sense does that make? Scriptures says you will be crucifying Christ all over again and trampling on his very blood laid down for you.
6. Jesus is not at the cross or in the grave except to those who have not been saved. To you, child of God, He is risen. He sits on the throne of grace. Come boldly.
7. You are not overcoming, you have already overcome by crossing over from the darkness into the light. Your practice is for the purpose of purifying and testing your faith. Yes, fire will be used in the process.
Take heart, you will not be given anything beyond which you can handle but you are not the one to determine the temperature! In the end your salvation will be priceless.
In order to make it through the practice you must remember all of these most basic attributes of your new identity in Christ.
Let's begin. Oh one more thing. No condemnation is allowed. You cannot put on a glove and go out on the field and spend the whole time beating yourself up over your mistakes. In Christ your sins have been put away and will never again be remembered. If you spend time condemning yourself you will be miserable and unfruitful. Don't do it, it's a trap meant to keep you distracted so that come game day you will be ashamed.
The point of practice is for gaining knowledge and using that knowledge to transform your life.
Practice #1. Learning the fear of the LORD.
Learning how to exchange evil for good.
You are in the office and some juicy gossip is going around. You want to chime in, afterall sin is pleasureable for the moment. Then you can ask for forgiveness later, right? Don't do it. It's a _____.
Even if you find yourself starting in, zip your lips and walk away. Don't excuse yourself, stop yourself in mid sentence. Yes, people will think something very strange has happened and it has.
You have consumed the evil of your tongue inside of you.
Repeat after me. I am a child of the light. What business do I have here? Don't just go away. Go away and find someone and talk about something good.
You can consume all kinds of evil behavior and the more you do, the more you will automatically have good things come out instead. Consume gossip, anger, malicous talk, cursing (even christian cursing), slander, backstabbing, lies and tall tales. I will often picture a ball of fire exploding and consuming what ever is trying to lure me into the darkness. It is actually kind of fun.
This is no cake walk. It takes practice.
Psalms 34:11 Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 12 What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
The exchange of one for the other. It's not about not doing bad things. It's about exchanging the bad things (your former ways) for the good things of God. After you have turned from evil, then do good. Don't just sit there, look for peace and search until you find it. Enjoy.
Let's do an easy exercise: Take a piece of cardboard and on one side put a white piece of paper and on the other a black piece of paper. It can be whatever shape you like. Circle, square, triangle etc. Make it small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
Each time you encounter a situation quickly determine if it is either darkness or light by switching the cardboard to one side or the other, like flipping a coin. This exercise can be done anywhere, at anytime and for any situation. If someone ask you what it's for say to them it is practice. If they are a believer feel free to go into more detail and invite them to do the same.
Stay tuned for more.
First things first. Remember:
1. God has taken you out of the darkness and into his glorious light. Your goal is to dwell in Christ.
2. You are not darkness when you do bad things and light when you do good things. You are either one or the other. Darkness (not a child) or light (a child of God).
Let me explain. It is night time. While I am in my house I have the lights on. If I open the front door and go outside into the darkness, I don't become darkness. I am a child of God at home, in church, in school, in a bar etc. Jesus says walk in the light as I am in the light. Where He is I should be.
3. You are either in or you are out. You cannot be both. There is no middle of the road. Jesus said you are either for me or against me, not sometimes for me and sometimes not. He will be able to tell by your fruit not your words.
4. Jesus is your armour. Literally not figuratively. You wear his glory like a garment. Your goal is to keep your white robe (His glory) from being stained by the world. If you stay in the light His blood will cleanse you.
5. Don't go back. You cannot and will not be saved if you persist in your evil ways. You will perish with the unbelievers and what sense does that make? Scriptures says you will be crucifying Christ all over again and trampling on his very blood laid down for you.
6. Jesus is not at the cross or in the grave except to those who have not been saved. To you, child of God, He is risen. He sits on the throne of grace. Come boldly.
7. You are not overcoming, you have already overcome by crossing over from the darkness into the light. Your practice is for the purpose of purifying and testing your faith. Yes, fire will be used in the process.
Take heart, you will not be given anything beyond which you can handle but you are not the one to determine the temperature! In the end your salvation will be priceless.
In order to make it through the practice you must remember all of these most basic attributes of your new identity in Christ.
Let's begin. Oh one more thing. No condemnation is allowed. You cannot put on a glove and go out on the field and spend the whole time beating yourself up over your mistakes. In Christ your sins have been put away and will never again be remembered. If you spend time condemning yourself you will be miserable and unfruitful. Don't do it, it's a trap meant to keep you distracted so that come game day you will be ashamed.
The point of practice is for gaining knowledge and using that knowledge to transform your life.
Practice #1. Learning the fear of the LORD.
Learning how to exchange evil for good.
You are in the office and some juicy gossip is going around. You want to chime in, afterall sin is pleasureable for the moment. Then you can ask for forgiveness later, right? Don't do it. It's a _____.
Even if you find yourself starting in, zip your lips and walk away. Don't excuse yourself, stop yourself in mid sentence. Yes, people will think something very strange has happened and it has.
You have consumed the evil of your tongue inside of you.
Repeat after me. I am a child of the light. What business do I have here? Don't just go away. Go away and find someone and talk about something good.
You can consume all kinds of evil behavior and the more you do, the more you will automatically have good things come out instead. Consume gossip, anger, malicous talk, cursing (even christian cursing), slander, backstabbing, lies and tall tales. I will often picture a ball of fire exploding and consuming what ever is trying to lure me into the darkness. It is actually kind of fun.
This is no cake walk. It takes practice.
Psalms 34:11 Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 12 What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
The exchange of one for the other. It's not about not doing bad things. It's about exchanging the bad things (your former ways) for the good things of God. After you have turned from evil, then do good. Don't just sit there, look for peace and search until you find it. Enjoy.
Let's do an easy exercise: Take a piece of cardboard and on one side put a white piece of paper and on the other a black piece of paper. It can be whatever shape you like. Circle, square, triangle etc. Make it small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
Each time you encounter a situation quickly determine if it is either darkness or light by switching the cardboard to one side or the other, like flipping a coin. This exercise can be done anywhere, at anytime and for any situation. If someone ask you what it's for say to them it is practice. If they are a believer feel free to go into more detail and invite them to do the same.
Stay tuned for more.
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