The one Jesus loves

John 20 2.

 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They took away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they laid Him.

John is writing here and he refers to himself as "the other disciple whom Jesus loved". This was not a boast, neither was it a bias on Jesus side, but a revelation from John of Jesus' love for him personally. Do you see yourself in that light? The follower of Jesus whom he loves? That reality caused John to go from being known as one of the "sons of thunder" to the author who spoke more about love than any other.


1Jn 4:9  By this the love of God was revealed in us, because His Son, the Only begotten, God has sent into the world that we might live through Him.
1Jn 4:10  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us...

Body life

I just thought I would share something from a book a friend of mine has written. If you would like a PDF copy of  the book please drop me an email at moustachepower@gmail.com and I will gladly send it to you. It's just a short thought on body life. Unfortunately, to many people who leave the religious side of things behind then try to go it alone which should be considered the other extreme.

Christianity is not an individualistic religion, but a new creation as the Body of Christ reconciled to the Father. That means that if we want to be joined to Christ who is the Head, we would need to be attached to other Christians as well who are part of the Body of Christ. Think of it this way; what will happen if a finger is amputated from a human body? Well the reality is that the amputated finger will wither away because it is separated from the life source of the body. Is it then possible that a member can only be a member of the head without having any relation to the rest of the body? No; he or she will wither away spiritually.

1Co.12:20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

1Co.12:21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

In order for us to have a genuine relationship/fellowship with Christ, we have to have fellowship with the whole Person of Christ, which is Body, Soul and Spirit. John writing concerning Jesus the Word of life the following in:

1Jn 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Bible study

There is a trend which, although it has been going on forever, it has only recently caught my attention. Although this trend can be profitable, it can also be damaging  to ones ability to hear and be taught by the Holy Spirit. What I am talking about is peoples tendencies to hoard up teachers and teachings in spiritual matters.

Don’t get me wrong, teachers and teaching material can be highly profitable.The pros are so obvious that I am not even going to spend time writing about them. I myself have a bookshelf that is overflowing with everything from topic specific to complete bible study reference books, I have even done 3 years of formal theological training.

So what could possibly be bad about all this? Well, in the last 2 months or so every time I have heard someone mention that they are doing a bible study it is immediately followed by the name of a person or book which is leading that study. Is it really a bible study then or is it “so and so’s thoughts on the bible” study? I am beginning to wonder how many people have lost the ability to read the scriptures for themselves without having someone interpret it for them. 1 John 2:27 says that we have no need for any man to teach us but that Christ himself would teach us all things. Now it does not mean that we throw away all teachers, people don’t need cars either, we got along for thousands of years without them, but they certainly have been helpful , even if they have made us physically more lazy. 

I fear we have become like the pre printing press invention Christians who relied on others to interpret the scriptures for them. Do you ever sit and wrestle with or pray about something you read or do you just jump straight to the study notes for an interpretation? Teachers are great, but we must not allow them to become our mediators by relying on "holy men" to give us a "thus saith the Lord". 

I would just like to challenge you to put as much trust in the Spirit as we do in humans, not to discard the wisdom of others, but to learn to learn from the master teacher Himself as well. It is no wonder why they say that our theology is a mile wide and our spirituality an inch deep. We have made it that way.

Is the heart desperately wicked and deceitful?

Recently I found myself at a fairly large gathering of people and was amazed to hear how many times Jeremiah 17:9 popped up in peoples conversations. You have probably heard it a million times before as well, “"The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”. I just found it strange though that so many believers confess this even though scripture clearly states that under the new covenant we were given new hearts.

Eze 36:26  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

See also Jer 24:7, Eze 11:19 and 2 Co 3:1-3

For any believer to still hold to Jer 17:9 so tightly he would have to conclude that God gives to His children, who have been born again, a brand new but still desperately wicked and deceitful heart. If that’s true it seems like a pointless transaction doesn’t it?

The fact is, that God uses our new hearts (as well as scripture) as the vehicle to speak to us. The New Testament is full of verses indicating that we can trust our new hearts to guide us.

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

There are many more, but for brevities sake I will just give the references

Rom 2:14-15, 10:10, Acts 23:1, 1 Cor 11:28-32, 2 Cor 4:6, 13:5-7

Paul would not have urged us to examine ourselves if something in us was not trustworthy, he would have pointed us to something like the bible instead. Of course, that is not a swipe at the bible, the 2 should always exist in perfect harmony, and if they are not, we are either being dishonest with ourselves or misunderstand something in scripture. The honest and humble Christian will know when he is acting against God, the Spirit will convict Him and is faithful in doing so to him who will listen.

Despite this trust, there is still the danger posed by the enemy as well as the flesh. Acts 5:3-5 makes it clear that we can still knowingly and willfully disobey the law within us and in so doing we can become hard hearted.

Rabbit hole to go down.

The old man needed the law because without it “every man did what was right in their own eyes”. Today we call it relativism and we all know where that road leads. Paul spends the first 8 chapters of Romans on this theme. It’s interesting that we are no longer under law yet how it is still pushed on people in some form today. As long as Christians are told that they cannot trust their heart, they will be forced to rely on the old system of do’s and do nots.

Bob George is awesome!

The writings of Bob George have really touched me. So I thought that I would share a few excerpts from some of his books. I hope you find them as amazing as I have...

POWER OR LIFE?
By: Bob George

I discovered why Christian service had been killing me. I already knew about the Holy Spirit; in fact, I had taught lectures about His ministry in our lives. But I always associated Him with power: giving me power to share Christ, power to understand the Bible, power to teach, power to serve. Of course, there is truth in that. But I was missing the single most important aspect of having the Holy Spirit ­ the fact that through Him I have received the very life of God.

As long as I associated the Spirit's ministry only with power, the emphasis was still on me. My prayers were most often, "God, help me to do this activity." God may have been providing some help, but I was still doing it. When I was doing it, there was no lasting joy or fulfillment, and eventually I reached a state of total burnout. Finally I learned that Christ did not come to "help" me serve God; He came to live His life through me! That is why Paul wrote:

'I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

Failing to hold onto these truths, the Christian world has become so frantic in its activity that it reminds me of the well-known definition of a fanatic: "A person who redoubles his efforts after he has lost sight of his goals." Over and over we have witnessed the spectacle of people coming forward in a service to recommit their lives. In essence, they are coming down to say, "God, I'm really serious this time. This time I'll do it if it kills me!"

To them I say, "Don't worry. It will!" I know, because it killed me. We have simply not come to grips with the fact that it isn't hard to live the Christian life. It's impossible! Only Christ can live it. Our only hope is to learn that Jesus Christ did not come just to get men out of hell and into heaven; He came to get Himself out of heaven and into men!

Many Christians have been trying to ground out the Christian life on their own, resulting in failure. They cry out for God's help. I respond; a dead man doesn't need help. A dead man needs life!" Salvation is not just something that Christ did for us, but it is Jesus Christ Himself living in us.

From: Classic Christianity. Eugene: Harvest House Publishers. ©1989.

The Obedience Gospel

How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? (Galatians 3:3)

The obedience gospel is probably a term you have not heard before, mostly because I just made it up. Nevertheless, although the term may not be in popular use, there are many adherents to this branch of Christianity. Most people would be more familiar with calling it a works orientated or partial law (like the ten commandments) gospel.  But anyway, I prefer the term the obedience gospel, simply because most people would admit that we are no longer under the law or that we are not saved by our own works, that we are saved by faith alone BUT... They will even go as far as professing a “come as you are” alter call, yet the second after someone has become a Christian, they get lumped with a set of rules that they are expected to keep. Go to a weekly church service or you will backslide, tithe or God won’t bless you, have a quiet time and pray daily, feed the poor etc etc. Those would be the bigger demands but you could add a thousand smaller ones to the list, speak in tongues, pray with a hat on ladies, read only this bible version, don’t listen to Christian rock music…

Now I would say that some of those are good things, some of them even are biblical. But the problem with how the “obedience” scriptures are presented today is that the focus is taken off of Christ and the Spirits work through us and put right back onto our shoulders. The first 90% of the bible shows that man simply cannot fulfill the law, and the new testament commands such as “love your enemies” and  “don’t even lust in your heart or you are guilty of adultery” don’t exactly lower the bar either. So why do we not take all this into account when reading ordinances in the New Testament? The Christian life can be highly discouraging and one can become overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and failure quite quickly when we realize that our best is not good enough.  But some people are to scared to get off the performance track because deep down inside they are still trusting in their own righteousness to tip the scales.

In my eyes the problem is simple, Christians are always trying to live their lives for God, when in reality, what God really wants is to live HIS LIFE through us! He is the only one capable of living the Christ life, and our part is simple, it’s up to us to “die to self” and submit control to Him. Jesus was not impressed with the external purity exhibited by the Pharisees, in Mathew 7 there are people who say “Lord Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name? They had obedience down, but Jesus replies and says ”I never knew you”.

I have a view of the ordinances and so on in the bible not so much as being commands, but promises to those who submit control to God. In other words, what we read as a list of rules and regulations should rather be viewed as fruits in a God controlled life. If my life is not one that shows love and compassion, then it’s not that I need to try harder, but a sign that there is something wrong with my relationship with Christ. This is not making excuses for rebellion, but lifting the burden of righteousness off of our shoulders and having Christ’s righteousness counted toward us and even lived out through us.

If you love me, you will keep my commands. (1 Jn 2:3, Joh 14:15)

I will give you a new heart and put my Spirit in you, causing you to be guided my rules (Ez 36:26-27)

Notice also, how Paul’s emphasis is not on the advise he gives about how to live in victory, but rather on reckoning ourselves to be dead but alive in Christ (excerpts from Romans 6 and Galatians 2 and 6.

Galatians 6

 11-13These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ's suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don't keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!

 14-16For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can't you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!

 17Quite frankly, I don't want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.

Romans 6

 1-3 So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

 3-5 That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country.

 6-11 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.

 12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.

 15-18 So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!

Galatians 2

 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. I live life in this body I live by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  To go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God. I refuse to do that, to reject God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.   (Galatians 2:19-21)

Fear and trembling

Kind of read this and adjusted it from another blog. Really awesome though.

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

That’s a scripture that ,for most people, has been drilled into us for years, but what happens when we read the next verse as well…

Php 2:13  For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

The Greek word for trembling in Strong's is defined as: "used to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts his ability completely to meet all requirements, but devotedly does his utmost to fulfill his duty."
Philippians 2:12-13 (with trembling substituted for its definition):

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with reverence and an anxiety that distrusts your own ability to completely meet all the requirements; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

We most certainly must distrust our own ability to meet ALL requirements, our "duty" is to surrender control and trust the God who is at work in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. We are indeed His workmanship and "in deed" His workmanship.