The Joyful Heart by Jim Hughes: March 2012

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Love Covers A Multitude Of Sins

1 Peter 4:8

(KJV)

And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

v7-11 (in Context - MSG)

Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully.

Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!

Hebrews 10:24-25

(AMP)

24 And let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up (stimulate and incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities,

25 Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the habit of some people, but admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching.

(MSG)

So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

Jude 1:20-25

(AMP)

20 But you, beloved, build yourselves up [founded] on your most holy faith [[d]make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], praying in the Holy Spirit;

21 Guard and keep yourselves in the love of God; expect and patiently wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)--[which will bring you] unto life eternal.

22 And refute [so as to] convict some who dispute with you, and on some have mercy who waver and doubt.

23 [Strive to] save others, snatching [them] out of [the] fire; on others take pity [but] with fear, loathing even the garment spotted by the flesh and polluted by their sensuality.

24 Now to Him Who is able to keep you without stumbling or slipping or falling, and to present [you] unblemished (blameless and faultless) before the presence of His glory in triumphant joy and exultation [with unspeakable, ecstatic delight]--

25 To the one only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory (splendor), majesty, might and dominion, and power and authority, before all time and now and forever (unto all the ages of eternity). Amen (so be it).

Jude 1:17-23

(CPV)

17 But you-all, my dear, dear people, constantly bear in mind the things you were told previously by those sent out by our Lord Jesus Christ. They told you, "When time runs out there will be men who make a joke of their religion and follow their own insolent desires." These are the segregationists-kooks without a conscience. But you, my loved ones, deepen your commitment to your most sacred way of life. With spirit-filled prayer keep yourselves in God’s love. Always be eager for the kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ which leads into spiritual life.

22 You must deal gently with some people who are wavering but others you are to save by actually snatching them from the fire. Still others you must handle with gloves, as much as you may dislike their clothing messed up by their own filth.

James 5:13-20

(AMP)

13 Is anyone among you afflicted (ill-treated, suffering evil)? He should pray. Is anyone glad at heart? He should sing praise [to God].

14 Is anyone among you sick? He should call in the church elders (the spiritual guides). And they should pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Lord's name.

15 And the prayer of faith will save him who is sick, and the Lord will restore him; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

16 Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest [hot-to-boiling] (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working] [– like a dynamo, a nuclear power plant, as it where, able to generate and make tremendous power available].

17 Elijah was a human being with a nature such as we have [with feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours]; and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell on the earth for three years and six months. [I Kings 17:1.]

18 And [then] he prayed again and the heavens supplied rain and the land produced its crops [as usual]. [I Kings 18:42-45.]

19 [My] brethren, if anyone among you strays from the Truth and falls into error and another [person] brings him back [to God],

20 Let the [latter] one be sure that whoever turns a sinner from his evil course will save [that one's] soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins [[a]procure the pardon of the many sins committed by the convert].

(MSG)

Prayer to Be Reckoned With

13-15 Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven—healed inside and out.

16-18 Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.

19-20 My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.

(CPV)

13 If any one of you is suffering abuse, let him pray. If any one is happy, let him sing. If one of you is sick, let him send for the church leaders, and let them pray for him and wait on him in the name of the Lord. Faithful devotion will restore the sick man, and the Lord will make well. And if he has done some sin, this too shall be forgiven him.

16 Be honest with one another about your sins, and pray for each other that you might get the victory over them, for the petition of a truly good man is powerfully effective. Elijah, for instance, was a human being just like us, and he earnestly prayed that it might not rain, and not a drop fell for three-and-a-half years. Then he prayed again and it poured, and things began to grow again.

19 My brothers, if one of you should stray from the truth, and another guides him back, you may be sure that he who guides an erring one away from his false course, will literally save his life and shield him from a lot of sins.

References:

**King James Version (KJV)—Public Domain/ 1604, King James I of

England

Friday, March 16, 2012

Able and Just

1 John 1:9

(KJV)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The Apostle John was facing some big challenges when he returned to Ephesus after being boiled in oil and exiled to the island of Patmos. John was the last of the original twelve disciples for the rest of the apostles had all been martyred.

With no apostolic supervision the church got into error. There was a deadly doctrine being circulated that Jesus was not really a man but just a spirit. John addressed this in his epistles that Jesus was both man and God.

1 John 1:1-4

(KJV)

¹That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

²(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

³That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

⁴And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

In these opening verses John is saying that he and the boys would roughhouse with Jesus along the shore of Lake Galilee. Can you imagine? Hugging the Creator of the universe!

But to get to the key text of verse nine I had to give the context of the verses in this study. I’ve heard it said that a text without a context is no text. Many a doctrinal error has been based on verses of the Bible taken entirely out of context; and these false teachers use their “proof texts” (verses out of context) to “prove” their doctrines. Most of the time these verses have been misquoted and the average person doesn’t study the Bible enough to know the difference.

Every verse in the Bible is true and accurately recorded, but not everything spoken is true.

For example: “Money is the root of all evil.”

1 Timothy 6:10

(KJV)

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Money isn’t evil, it’s the “love” of money that’s evil; making money our god. But as believers we are to love God with our whole heart and soul. So back to our text,

He is able and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This study is going to blow our natural thinking away and rock the boat of those “out of context” beliefs we have that tell us we need to be afraid of God and always walk in shame because we are sinners.

When Jesus died on the cross, He took the punishment for our sins that His Father intended for us upon Himself. He was faithful in His assignment and fulfilled the legal and just requirements to pay for that punishment.

And because Jesus rose from the dead He now has the legal right to forgive anyone of their sins. He is now able to create in us a new heart with the same resurrection nature that He has. We are not regular human beings anymore, we are new creations! (See 2 Cor 5:17)

Our earth suit (our bodies) might look the same as it did before salvation but we have been changed on the inside. We might look like other humans but we aren’t human anymore; we are aliens from another planet, Heaven!

The original human heart created for Adam in the garden was perfect; but it was never intended to be broken with sin. Once sin entered it could never be fixed. It could never be whole again.

God had to create brand new hearts that can be fixed whenever we sin. The way they are fixed is by admitting to the Father that we have sinned against Him and Him only! Jesus then accepts that confession and as our Heavenly lawyer stands before the Judge, His Father, and pleads our case.

Based solely on the blood that Jesus shed for our sins, He presents our confession and immediately we are not only forgiven but because we have that new fixable heart we are rejuvenated and cleansed from all unrighteousness! We are immediately in right standing with God the Father!

Romans 5:1

(KJV)

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Immediately we become justified (justified—just as if we have never been sinners) before our Heavenly Father, the Judge; and technically—every sin we will ever commit has already been forgiven at the cross, so this process can be repeated over and over!

So in closing, we have learned that can walk in absolute faith knowing that nobody can point an accusing finger at those of us in Christ Jesus who pleads on our behalf before the court of heaven.

Romans 8:31-39

(MSG)

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.

We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Romans 8:31-33

(CPV)

³¹How, then, shall we respond to all this? If God is rootin’ for us, who can win over us? If he didn’t hold back his own Son, but put him in the game for us all, won’t he even more gladly, in addition to his Son, equip us with all we need to win the game?

³³Who shall reject us when God has elected us? God accepts us into fellowship; who banishes us? Does Christ Jesus, the Killed One, or rather, the Risen One, who is God’s "right-hand man" and speaks out for us? What shall drive a wedge between us and the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or drought or poverty or danger or war?

(NLT)

³¹What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? ³²Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? ³³ Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. ³⁴Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

References:

**King James Version (KJV)—Public Domain/ 1604, King James I of

England

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Walk In The Spirit

Galatians 5:16 (in this study the word “soul” is substituted for the word “flesh”)

(KJV)

16 Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the soul.

17 For the soul lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the soul: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Galatians 5:16

(KJV)

I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

John 4:24

(KJV)

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Romans 8:5-7

(AMP)

⁵For those who are according to the soul and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the soul, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit.

⁶Now (in this life on earth before the hereafter) the mind of the soul [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].

⁷[That is] because the mind of the soul [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot.

Do you want soul peace? If you’re like me you sure do. We must remember that we are comprised of three parts to our existence. We are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body. God is a spirit and we are a spirit. We have been made in His image, His likeness. We are the closest thing that God could make if He were to make a god; He couldn’t come any closer! We have the ability to create just as He does. No other being has that ability. We have cognitive abilities (the ability to reason and solve problems) and we have emotions that no other beings have.

With that being said, we cannot trust our soul. The soul is our mind, will and emotions. The soul left by itself will always be hostile towards the Spirit and always tries to take control of our being. That is why we need to be led by the Spirit of God.

Romans 8:5-7

(MSG)

^5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.

Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.

Romans 8:9-14

(AMP)

9 But you are not living the life of the soul, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. But if anyone does not possess the [Holy] Spirit of Christ, he is none of His [he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God].

10 But if Christ lives in you, [then although] your [natural] body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of [the] righteousness [that He imputes to you].

11 And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.

12 So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the soul [we are not obligated to our carnal nature], to live [a life ruled by the standards set up by the dictates] of the soul.

13 For if you live according to [the dictates of] the soul, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Romans 8:1-12

(CPV)

1 There is, then, no charge outstanding against those who are in (wedlock to) Jesus Christ. For the Spirit’s law of new life in Christ Jesus released you from the claims of the law of sin and destruction. For when it became clear that legalism was a failure, due to its weakness in dealing with humanity, God sent his own Son, in an exact replica of a man of sin and for sin, and dealt effectively with human sin.

He did this in order that the just aims of the commandments might be realized in us who live not on the level of man but on the level of the Spirit. For they who are man-centered think along human lines, and they who are Spirit-centered think in terms of the Spirit. For man-centered reasoning deadends in destruction, but Spirit-centered reasoning leads to life and space.

Man-centered reasoning is hostile to God, because it does not subordinate itself to God’s plan nor indeed can it do so. People who are man-centered just can’t get along with God. But you all, you are not man-centered but Spirit-centered - provided, of course, that God’s Spirit permeates you. If one doesn’t have Christ’s spirit, he isn’t Christ’s man. But if Christ is in you, the self, because of its sin, is stone dead; but the Spirit, because it is good, is throbbing with life.

And if the Spirit of the God who made Jesus to live again permeates you, then this same God will also give life to your hell-bent egos by means of his Spirit that permeates you.

12 It's a fact, then, brothers, that we are under no obligation whatsoever to live a man-centered life. If you do live that way, you re gonna blow yourselves to smithereens. Yet if by the Spirit you utterly smash your selfishness, you will live. For God’s sons are they who are led by God’s Spirit.

So let’s once again be led by the Spirit, let us be quickened in our hell-bent souls to live a life in spirit (in “spired”) and we will not fulfill the lusts of the soul!

References:

**King James Version (KJV)—Public Domain/ 1604, King James I of

England

Friday, March 9, 2012

New Testament Obedience Means To Trust God

Hebrews 11:6

(KJV)

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

In the New Testament, to Trust, and, to Obey, are one and the same thing. To conjure up a doctrine foreign to the Spirit of Christ is to say that all one has to do to please God is to obey His commandments. [Jim]

Dictionary.com

o·bey [oh-bey] verb (used with object)

1. to comply with or follow the commands, restrictions, wishes, or instructions of: to obey one's parents.

2. to comply with or follow (a command, restriction, wish, instruction, etc.).

3. (of things) to respond conformably in action to: The car obeyed the slightest touch of the steering wheel.

4. to submit or conform in action to (some guiding principle, impulse, one's conscience, etc.).

To trust God is the New Testament form of the word to obey. Other forms of the word would be, to BELIEVE, to have FAITH

But without FAITH it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must TRUST. . .

According to Jesus, what is the greatest commandment?

Luke 10:27 (KJV)

And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

According to Jesus, to LOVE is the greatest commandment! Not following the 10 commandments. It is impossible to follow the commandments God gave. Nobody can. Why would the Apostle Paul say he was the chief sinner?

1 Timothy 1:15 (KJV)

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Notice, Paul says, “I am” not “I was”; He still is a sinner. The man who wrote 2/3 of the New testament is still a sinner. Paul also wrote,

Romans 7: 17-20 (KJV)

But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

Paul says, “I can will it, but I can't do it.” For someone to harp on obeying the commandments to keep your salvation is heresy! Paul further says,

Galatians 3 (MSG)

Trust in Christ, Not the Law

¹ You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.

^2-4Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

^5-6Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don't these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

^7-8Is it not obvious to you that persons who put their trust in Christ (not persons who put their trust in the law!) are like Abraham: children of faith? It was all laid out beforehand in Scripture that God would set things right with non-Jews by faith. Scripture anticipated this in the promise to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed in you."

^9-10So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith—this is no new doctrine! And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: "Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law."

^11-12The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: "The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that's the real life." Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: "The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them."

^13-14Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham's blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God's life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing—just the way Abraham received it.

Bingo!

References:

King James Version (KJV)—Public Domain/ 1604, King James I of

England