Four steps to consecrate yourself
29 Jan 2018After the Lord rescued the people of Israel from brutal slavery in Egypt and delivered them from the powerful hand of Pharaoh, He called them to consecrate their lives. The consecration was not a prerequisite of Israel’s salvation, but a commanded response to God’s faithful love for His people. The Lord commands the nation of Israel to “be My holy people” in Exodus 22:31, to set themselves apart for worship and devotion to God. The command has not changed now that we are under the blood of Christ. Our salvation is still a work of total grace, based on the perfect righteousness of Jesus and not our own. At the same time, Jesus has commanded those who have been purchased by His grace to “obey all that He has commanded us” and to “be holy as His Father is holy.” In other words, we are still directed to consecrate ourselves before the Lord, not as a means of earning His favor, but as the appropriate response to His favor. What does this process of consecration look like?
First, we need to remember God’s grace in our lives. One of the most common commands in the Bible is to “remember” all that God has done for us. The festivals in the OT and the sacraments in the NT are means of remembering the gracious work of God on our behalf. A drift in our commitment to holiness is usually connected to a lack of awe and wonder at all that God has done for us. Start your process of consecration by writing down all the good gifts that God has given to you that you do not deserve.
Second, we need to remove our idols and distractions. As the people of Israel moved into the promised land, they found it full of other nations who worshipped other gods. This is a helpful picture of the church’s position in the world today – surrounded by people who worship everything and everyone else other than the one true God. And because our hearts are naturally bent away from devotion to God, we will drift naturally drift toward idolatry. This is why Jesus commands us to “seek first” the Kingdom of God ahead of everything else, and why God warned His people to not adopt the gods of the peoples around them. To consecrate ourselves before God, we need to recognize where we have adopted the idols of our surrounding culture and remove them from our lives. Continue your consecration by writing down the distractions that keep you from loving God first and most in your life.
Third, we need to repent of sinful attitudes and actions. When we turn from our idols to seek the Lord, we must confess the sins that have become second-nature to us. We must be mindful of the sins that we most easily excuse – the selfish attitudes, evil thoughts, and harsh words. We need to agree with God that our laziness and spite and lust and greed and apathy are sins against His holiness. We need to repent of our flippant attitude toward our own sin, and recognize the damage that our sin causes to our relationship with God and with others. As you consecrate yourself before the Lord, ask Him to show you the sinful attitudes and actions that are offensive to Him, especially those that you cannot see. And turn from those sins back to the Lord.
Fourth, we need to recommit our hearts to God. Consecration is not ultimately about clean living. It is about worship. We consecrate ourselves before the Lord not to prove ourselves to our neighbor or feel good about ourselves. We consecrate ourselves before the Lord for the Lord. We pursue holiness as an act of worship, out of a deep love and awe for the worthiness of God. In this way, true consecration seeks to bring the Lord the glory and honor that He is due. Finish your consecration process by declaring your love and devotion to God as your highest and greatest pursuit.
Source: GospelRenewal.com
The concept of sin from a Hebrew perspective
29 Jan 2018During a friendly “spiritual conversation” with another believer, he said, “I believe we can get to a place where we no longer sin.”
While some of us in the modern-day age have become used to thinking of sin as bad practices or actions taken against God’s law, the concept of “sin” is a much more profound and deep for me, than wrong doing or good deeds. Sin is something which affects, influences and impacts way more than we sometimes superficially understand.
Sin vs. Sin
When reading carefully through the bible, there seems to be many different ways in which the bible authors use the term “sin”. For example, sin can be referring to actions and practices, but also to a condition, a state or a power.
Below are a few examples of verses referring to sin not as actions, but as a power, a state or a condition:
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5);
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jo. 1:29);
“for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin” (Rom. 3:9);
“For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” (Rom. 5:19);
“knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin” (Rom. 6:6);
“But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind” (Rom. 7:8);
“For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” (Rom. 7:14);
“through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin” (Rom 5:12)
To sin (chet\chata) in Hebrew = “to miss”
In our Hebrew language, the word חֶטְא (“sin”) literally means “to miss”[1]. From which the Hebrew speaker understands that “to sin” means to “miss” the will of God.
Unlike the Mosaic Covenant, where to stay away from sin meant not to break laws (such as not to hurt your neighbor), under the New Covenant, that is no longer enough! You saw your neighbor in need and you did not help him? You have sinned – you have missed the will of God.
“To one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)
For Israel, the Mosaic covenant was like receiving first aid treatment. The Mosaic law limited the wrongdoings of our wicked hearts, which were heavily affected by the evil civilization all around. However, the New Covenant raises the bar much higher, setting the standard back as in the days of creation – the ultimate will of God.
NOT to miss the will of God (not to sin) therefore, goes much deeper and much farther than not to murder someone or not to rob a bank. We miss God’s will in more ways than we begin to realize – we miss God’s will in our lifestyle, in our cultural practices, in our ways of thinking, in what we say, in what we eat, in what we buy and in many other ways. We miss the will of God in simple everyday actions that we don’t even stop to think about – such as polluting God’s creation because of using electricity or driving a car (pollution which leads not only to diseases but also to natural disasters [2]). Or when we buy an iPhone, without realizing we support modern slavery as children as young as thirteen are forced to work in the mines for as little as $2 a day [3]. Or when we give our little ones sodas, pumping their body with sugars and artificial chemicals which cause obesity and other sicknesses. Or when our materialistic culture drives us into buying a $50k leisure boat while there are starving children on the other side of town.
There are endless other examples of realities, situations and things that we do, that are “missing the will of God”, simply because we live in a world which is in a sinful condition, many times even contributing to its condition without realizing.
Everything is tangled together, it is practically impossible for us to escape the infinite cosmic loop of sin we are all stuck in. The implication is that if we like it or not, we are an integral part of the butterfly effect caused by the condition of sin in the world – and in us.
What we do is who we are
Sin, of course, goes much deeper than the external actions we do, as the source of what comes out externally emanates from who we are inside. It has to do with our inner being, with our identity deep inside – and with missing the will of God in who we were created to be.
In his book, “The Reason for God”, Dr. Keller gives this definition of sin:
“Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from him. …So, according to the Bible, the primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things.”[4]
Or as 19th century Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, beautifully and simply puts it:
“Sin is building your identity on anything but God.”[5]
Meaning that even loving our loved ones (which is a good thing in itself) more than we love God is to miss the will of God – to sin.
The swamp of sin
The condition of sin is like a swamp – the more we try to fight it ourselves, the deeper we sink. A cosmic swamp that all creation is affected by.
Due to the sinful condition humanity is in, no one can escape, we are all affected. No one can stand before a holy God, claiming “I had nothing to do with this”.
Just as being stuck in a swamp, there is nothing we can do but only to hope that someone from the outside will reach out to rescue us and pull us out – we need for God Himself to provide the way of justification for us.
Considering the fact that sin is a condition and not only an action, then moving from the condition of sin to the condition of being righteous is not something we can “do” on our own. It is also not a process or a procedure in which we slowly achieve or earn from God, nor it is something we can maintain in our own power – it is God who pulls us out of the swamp, not we who are climbing out, trying to grab onto him. Either we agree that He will pull us out or we reject his offer of rescue. It is simply a swapping of states – either you are still in the swamp because you rejected help, or you are out of it because you allowed God to take hold of you.
The world is divided into two: those who are justified and those who are not. There is no in between, there is no progress, nor a process of slowly climbing out of the swamp, as if completing the race successfully in order to win a computer game.
In other words, it is not your sins that keep salvation away from you, is it your deliberate rejection (disbelief) of the help of the Savior that keeps salvation away from you, and keeps you in the condition of sin (in the swamp).
The only way for you NOT to be saved, is by deliberately refusing to catch on the only life line being offered that can pull you out of the swamp. How do you take hold of the life line? By simply saying “YES” to the rescue God is offering in Messiah Yeshua (aka – the famous “Sola fide”; justification by faith alone through grace alone [6]).
Save me!!
Not being able to understand sin as first and foremost a condition is what I believe causes good hearted believers to fail in grasping this fundamental doctrine of salvation. A good example comes from the Pentecostal pastor and author David Pawson who holds that salvation is something you need to obtain and maintain yourself and by your own power, through a process of being able to stay away from sin: “Salvation is clearly therefore a process. And a process that is not yet complete for any one of us!”.[7]
Pawson’s statement is based of his lack in understanding the concept of sin as a condition from the first place: “Sins are the same in believers as unbelievers. For “saints” to think they will get away with it is a fatal mistake, when actually they are storing up wrath against themselves.”
The good news is that I have security in the new condition I have in Yeshua the Messiah – the condition of justification. And with all due respect to David Pawson, I can sleep at night knowing that it’s not even up to my abilities to maintain in that condition, but merely on what Yeshua did for my on the cross!
“It is Finished.” (John 19:30)
Source: www.oneforisrael.org
[1] Strong’s Concordance, 2398: chata: ‘to miss’ חָטָא
[2] Natural Disasters Tied to Unnatural Causes (Live Science, Apr 5, 2012)
[3] Apple admits child labour was used to build iPods and iPhones in Chinese factories (Daily Mail, Feb 27, 2010)
How the iPhone Helps Perpetuate Modern-Day Slavery (Huffington Post, Nov 10, 2014)
[4] Timothy Keller, “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism” (Penguin Books; 2009), page 162.
[5] “Sickness unto Death” by Soren Kierkegaard
[6] One of the doctrines that most distinguishes between Protestant denominations and the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church.
[7] David Pawson, “What We Believe About Salvation” (part of an 8-part series titled WHAT WE BELIEVE).
[8] David Pawson, “Once Saved, Always Saved?: A Study in Perseverance and Inheritance” (Hodder & Stoughton, 1996), page 8.
The Bible for everyone
26 Jan 2018What would life be without Jesus? Thousands of people have never met a Christian or heard the Good News in their mother tongue. In 2018 more people than ever will find out that God is reaching out to them. Wycliffe Bible Translators personnel work tirelessly towards the goal of delivering the message of Jesus in people's heart languages, while organisations like MAF travel across continents to deliver God's Word to new believers. Recently a South Sudanese Christian said, 'I was jealous of white people being blessed by having the Word of God in their own language. We had no Bible in Baka.’ Then he gave a broad grin: ‘Now I am happy because I have a Baka Bible. God did not forget us.’ Now Christians speaking Baka can share God’s Word with those around them who do not yet know the salvation Christ offers. See the World article ‘Praying for the unreached’, and also https://www.maf-uk.org/campaign/unreached
‘God has been with me always’
26 Jan 2018After nearly three years in exile in Kurdistan, ten-year-old Helda Hindi and her younger brother and parents who fled from IS have returned to their home town in the Nineveh plains. She spoke about the night of 6 August 2014, when IS seized her hometown. ’Alarm bells rang out in our streets - we had to escape the living hell of violence and terrorism. I left, crying, with no hope of ever seeing my town, my school, or my friends again. We lived in torment and tragedy until we got used to it.’ She related her harrowing experiences, but finished, ‘And today, by God's grace, we have returned to our town and I am back in school among my friends. We had only God and we never stopped believing in His power and praying for His mercy for all those hurting in Iraq and around the world.’
Carillion's collapse and venture capitalists
26 Jan 2018Theresa May attacked executives who risked pension funds, and has set out a plan to defend capitalism from capitalists after the collapse of construction company Carillion plc. Pray for new laws that deal with executives who profit at the expense of workers’ pensions. Pray for an end to the culture that gives big bonuses to individuals who put short-term profit above long-term achievement. Carillion’s failure has prompted a debate about how companies are run, and about how much the Government relies on businesses to provide services. The UK spends £10.3 billion a year servicing public-private contracts of the type awarded to Carillion. Pray for politicians to come out of ‘blame game’ mode and make wise decisions which will move our government contracts and policies away from the Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) that have put millions of pounds into the pockets of venture capitalists.
Prince Charles urges western world to pray
26 Jan 2018The Prince of Wales shared how a Jesuit priest from Syria warned him that unless major action is taken, there will be no Christians left in Iraq in five years. ‘We are struggling to capture the immensity of the ripple effect of such persecution’, Prince Charles said, citing statistics from the UN that show the world's refugees now number almost 65.3 million people - close to the entire population of the UK. He suggested that, regardless of one's religion, people should seek to value and respect others, ‘accepting their right to live out their peaceful response to the love of God.’ He said he is ‘heartbroken’ over the pain and suffering inflicted on Christians in the Middle East, and urged prayers for those forced to flee in the face of the most brutal persecution on account of their faith.
Charity dinner draws widespread condemnation
26 Jan 2018The Presidents Club charity dinner on 18 January, for men only, was called the most un-PC event of the year. Its official purpose was to raise money for worthy causes and auction items that included lunch with the British foreign secretary and afternoon tea with the Bank of England governor. But the black tie evening was hosted by women told to wear skimpy black outfits with matching underwear and high heels. The hostesses, who had to be ‘tall, thin and pretty’, received the unwanted attention of being groped, vulgarly harassed and sexually propositioned. The adverse publicity over this event has led to the club promising not to organise any such events in future, and Great Ormond Street hospital is to return all money previously donated by it.
Health of our nation
26 Jan 2018The following is based on a Passion for the Nation post: ‘God desires this nation to be healthy in body, mind and spirit. We can pray for a new season of health to come upon this land and for lifestyles to be changed and negative patterns broken, irrespective of background or wealth. May a fresh wisdom and desire for healthy living rest upon individuals, families and communities, supported and encouraged by all related industries in production and marketing. We pray that in this season Government, NHS trusts, managers and medical staff will work together, co-operating and stewarding resources well; that new medical and financial strategies will be found, facilitating God’s purpose and priority. In the Name of Jesus, we come in agreement with Proverbs 16:24: “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet and delightful to the soul and healing to the body”. We pray for a new thankfulness for the NHS to be released within our nation.’