On This Day: When Deadly Sorrow is Returned to Joy

   “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:20-22)

   Do you KNOW Jesus as the Shepherd who returns his sheep to joy? Do you see him as the Savior who saves us out of the horrible cursedness of our sinful state and saves us into his kingdom of “righteousness and peace AND JOY in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17)?

   I ask this because “this is eternal life, that they KNOW YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Every Scripture that promises eternal life to those who believe is calling us to KNOW God by personal experience through our interactions with him in his word, in prayer, and in his Spirit.

   And I ask this because the Scriptures are SATURATED with God’s determination to return his children to joy. We see this constantly throughout the whole Bible, God returning his children to joy after discipline, after defeats, after failures, after exiles, and even after outright violent persecution of his people.

   But we see the bull’s eye of this returning-children-to-joy in the evangel (gospel) itself. Prophecies spoke of the joy to come: “WITH JOY you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).

   God’s birth announcement to the shepherds was an announcement of joy: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

   Jesus’ desire for his disciples just before his arrest and crucifixion was for them to experience the fullness of his joy: “These things I have spoken to you, that MY JOY may be in you, and that YOUR JOY may be full” (John 15:11).

   And the description of the effects of salvation in Christ could not be presented without this emphasis on joy: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and REJOICE WITH JOY THAT IS INEXPRESSIBLE AND FILLED WITH GLORY, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (I Peter 1:8-9).

   The whole message of God is that he returns his children to joy in Jesus Christ our Lord. The evangel is not primarily about an escape from hell but an entrance into eternal life. Eternal life is “to know” the Triune God. The fruit of the Spirit is “Love, JOY, peace”, because that is what God is like, and the kingdom of God is about “righteousness and peace and JOY in the Holy Spirit”.

   This is why Paul would summarize the whole gamut of history with this testimony: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with THE GLORY that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). This is why he would emphasize, “the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY” (Colossians 1:27).

   In Luke 15, Jesus told 3 parables (the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son) to emphasize how joyful God is that there is rejoicing in heaven every time a sinner repents. Why? Because God feels joy to have us as his own people.

   And when we are his people, he promises this wonderful description of our eternal return to joy in the coming glorification:

   Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory WITH GREAT JOY, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude vss 24-25).

   The only question is, are we coming to God in our joylessness, our griefs and sorrows, our losses and laments, our mistakes and failures, our despondencies and depressions, our guilt, shame and fear, and letting HIM return us to joy instead of us putting on that role-playing façade of joy so we look like “good” Christians?

   Take another look at the way Jesus spoke to his disciples before they were even conscious of the loss of their Messiah and consider how you need him to speak his “truth in love” to your soul to return you to joy in him. And then keep listening and obeying until you KNOW HIM as your shepherd who returns his sheep to joy.

 

© 2026 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

On This Day: Accepting the Dangers of Preaching Christ

   While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.” (Acts 21:10-14)

   In over 3 decades of treating God’s word like he is speaking to me, one of the most comforting and affirming characteristics has been the way God teaches me things that are exactly what I need at the time.

   Sometimes those things are just personal. God ministers a scripture to my heart for thoughts, feelings, and needs no one else even knows about.

   Other times, like today, the Scripture God uses speaks to me personally, but while addressing something going on in the world around me on a much bigger scale.

   And right now, as the world is reeling from the murder of a young lady on public transit and the assassination of Charlie Kirk, what in the world would God say in his word that is perfectly timed to how his children are doing in handling all the griefs and sorrows we are facing?

   I have just gone through Acts 20, where Paul was preparing the elders of Ephesus for his departure. He told them they would never see him again because he could see the finish line ahead and knew his race would soon be over. What a weight to carry! Not only were suffering and death always looming over Paul’s life, but he knew this particular journey would be the end of his ministry and the elders needed to know how they must build on “the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:20-21).

   What really stood out to me was the impact of the relational dynamic between Paul and the disciples. In relation to Paul leaving the Ephesian elders, Luke writes, “And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again” (Acts 20:37-38).

   In the case I shared above, Paul’s heart was breaking over the way the disciples were weeping at his willingness to suffer and die for the gospel. Even though Paul was the one who had endured so much already (with one “near-death experience”), these things affected everyone around him. You know, like is happening all around the world right now as people who never met Charlie Kirk are feeling deep grief over the ugliness of his death, the shock to his wife, and the loss to his children.

   The fact is that Jesus said this would happen. He warned about the suffering. He warned about the martyrs. He warned about the unjust trials and unfair persecutions. He made clear that the people living in darkness would see the great “light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (II Corinthians 4:4) because “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (vs 6).

   And the next thing he testifies to is “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies” (vss 8-10).

   The two things I want to leave with you are the specific testimonies of Paul and the other apostles that, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). We may never face the same threats to our lives as Paul did. We may never be in danger of being in an assassin’s crosshairs. But we must have the same heart and mind, that our temporary and transient earthly lives are lived for Christ, and our deaths will give us the greatness of being with him forever in his eternal paradise

   And the other encouragement is to have your daily time with God in his word and prayer so you can see for yourself how personally God speaks to his children, that we know what he is saying, we can recognize what he is doing, and we can get to know him by experience as we join him in his work.

   That God would do this for me today in such a profoundly obvious way is not just for me. We are all to benefit from “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” because that’s how we know how to “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom,” and how to “sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God,” even when the relational dynamic in our churches is filled with heartache and sorrow (Colossians 3:16).

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

On This Day: How the ‘Unknown God’ Makes Himself Known

   So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. (Acts 17:22-23)

   As I was waking up this morning, it hit me: the centrality of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has not been the central interest in the churches I have been part of. The impact on me was that I must know how to attach to these realities with all my heart and, hopefully, to help others do the same!

   The reason this is standing out right now is that I have arrived in the chapter in Acts I was waiting for more than any other. In this present journey through Luke’s historical narrative, I wanted a fresh encounter, so to speak, in how Paul shared the good news of the kingdom with a thoroughly Gentile audience. And the Greeks of Athens were about as Gentile and disconnected from the Jews and the Scriptures as we could find.

   What I noticed yesterday was that, in Paul’s mingling with the Greeks in the marketplace, his side of the conversations revolved around “preaching Jesus and the resurrection.” In one way, this was nothing new. In another way, it was exactly what I needed settled in me: that it doesn’t matter who we are talking with, church-familiar, scripture-ignorant, evolutionist, atheist, agnostic, skeptic, religious, irreligious, it simply doesn’t matter. The “good news of great joy” is that God has given us “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” That Savior is Jesus, and the way he saves is through his death and resurrection.

   The very personal part of this is in the mirror. What do I see in the guy looking back at me? Do I see a longing that Paul described as “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10)?

   Do my prayers for myself and Jesus’ church exemplify knowing “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Ephesians 1:19-20)?

   Do I long to hear,

   ...around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:11-12)

   My point is simply this: that if telling people about the person of Jesus Christ and what he did for us through his death and resurrection is the way Paul would begin sharing the good news with the worldlings of Athens, then we can’t imagine we have a better way of doing things in our time.

   In Philippians 2, after detailing how Jesus died for us on the cross, Paul continued:

   Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

   Knowing the person, Jesus Christ our Lord, and the “It is finished” realities of his death and resurrection, ought to be everything to us so we cannot help but make Jesus and his resurrection everything in how we relate to everyone.

   Today, I am going to begin introspectively. I want to know Jesus in person, and I want to know his resurrection in power, more than ever before. In fact, the measure I often present to God applies very well here, that I may know Jesus and his resurrection as much as is possible to know these realities this side of heaven. If there’s more I can experience of this (and there is), I want it!

   And then, after whatever God wants to do with me about this, I will weave this into my conversations with people and see how God uses it to find his lost sheep.

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

On This Day: A Debt Cancelled; A Gift Received

   And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

   Spending time with God in his word and prayer is not only about learning facts and information. It is about getting to know God better than we have ever known him before. Sometimes that revolves around discovering things in his word that have never stood out to us which leads us to relate to God more deeply about those very things.

   But other times it is discovering a new facet of something we already know and feeling it touch on things going on in us and around us that are simply the present work of God in our lives.

   Today, my meditation on God’s word led me to see “forgiveness of your sins” and “the gift of the Holy Spirit” in a relational way that hadn’t stood out to me previously, or that just happened to be exactly what I needed today. Either way, it ministered to me the word of God, and it led me to trust him for the very things he was speaking to me about.

   Previously, when I would hear the word “sin”, I would think of it as a thing. It was a particular transgression. An act of wrongdoing. It was simply a thing that was bad, wrong… SINFUL!

   But today’s focus on Peter’s use of “sins” was the discovery that it was more about the effects of our wrongdoing. In other words, it was about the guilt that separates us from God. It wasn’t just doing bad things, but doing the very things that took us away from God.

   So, when Peter emphasized the “forgiveness” of our sins, it was about God dealing with our estrangement from him so there was no longer anything between us. Our sin-debt was cancelled. Our violation of relationship with him was forgiven. The guilt, shame, and fear of sin were removed. From God’s side, there is no longer any debt, any condemnation, any works that still need to be done to restore us to him. He has done it all in Jesus Christ, and repentance and faith (as expressed in baptism) bring us into this gift of God.

   On the other side, the “gift of the Holy Spirit” is all about attachment. Forgiveness heals the estrangement, and the gift of the Holy Spirit gives us restored attachment. God removes what took us away from him and gives us his own presence to bring us close to him.

   I share this, not only to satisfy the full-brained needs of our bodies, and the full-minded needs of our souls, but to testify that what God showed me today was what I needed today. I needed to be reminded, and to feel it more deeply, that there is no longer anything between me and God to justify feeling estranged from him. And I needed to be reminded that the free gift of the Holy Spirit is God’s way of attaching to us during this earthly life so we can keep getting to know him better than we have ever known him before.

   And all of that made this Scripture resonate in and around me like a friend God has given me to help me along my way: “and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). When God gives the Holy Spirit to his forgiven children, his love is poured into our hearts. We grow in our experience of that love (attachment) as we seek every day to be “filled with the Spirit”.

   To put this into practice, my primary focus will be on the “set your minds on the Spirit” activity of faith. The battle is for my mind. Satan is just as active to speak his lies to my mind as God is at work to speak his truth in love. But God has spoken his love into my heart today in the exact way I need, and I expect he will keep me focused on him throughout this whole day so that his love feels every bit as real as it really is.

 

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

On This Day: How to Forcefully Enter Jesus’ Kingdom

   “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. (Luke 16:16-17)

   It has been a very long time that I have struggled to really “get it” about what Jesus meant by this. On one side, “forces” sounds like something we do when we’re not invited, or not welcome. On another side, it sounds like we are adding words to grace, something Paul was so clear is not an option. 

   This time, traveling along this section of the trail brought out some new thoughts on the matter. I asked God where I could see people doing this. Where do I see people forcefully entering Jesus’ kingdom? What did it look like for them to do that, and what would it look like for me to follow their example?

   The first person who came to mind was the “sinful” woman going into the Pharisee's house uninvited because Jesus was there. She was quiet. She didn’t interrupt. She didn’t even say anything to Jesus. 

   However, she was unstoppable. If ever someone had a list of reasons to NOT go see Jesus, it was this woman in the scene of a Pharisee’s home. But Jesus was there, and that’s all that mattered to her. She had an insatiable need to know this Savior who had forgiven her sins, and so she quietly, politely, and determinedly forced herself into the scene. 

   The next one that came to mind was this man named Zacchaeus. A despised tax-collector. A thief who had used the political system to his advantage. He heard that Jesus was coming through his town. However, he was short. He had no chance of seeing Jesus with the crowd that was surrounding him. So, he forced himself into the scene by climbing a tree to get a better view. Jesus saw him, invited himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’s house, and welcomed Zacchaeus into the kingdom of God.

   Then there were the blind men who heard a commotion of people heading in their direction and shouted out to someone to tell them what was going on. When they heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth passing by, they began shouting out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!” They would not stop calling Jesus’ name from their blindness. They were desperate. This would likely be their one opportunity to connect with him and, even when told to be quiet, they could not. They kept forcing their need into the scene until Jesus heard them, stopped, and restored their sight. 

   The main quality of those who force themselves into God’s kingdom is that they have an unstoppable faith. Once they connect to Jesus in repentance and faith, and once they know he has saved them by grace through faith, not of works, they cannot be dissuaded from following the Savior.

   And then I realized I could see myself in the picture. As a young man, I was very quiet. I was respectful. I was a hard-working teenager. I didn’t try to provoke anyone who saw life differently than I did. I simply knew that Jesus Christ was Lord. I knew that what is written about his teaching, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and the building of his church is true. I knew that Jesus was and is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one can come into God’s kingdom except through faith in him. 

   However, I can look at times when I was told to disobey Jesus in some way, but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t get loud. I didn’t shout and scream. I simply had a forcefulness of faith that was given to me by God and I could not be different than he had made me, or than he was making me. 

   While I bemoan how my body is deteriorating with age no matter how much I exercise, my faith in Jesus Christ as Creator, Savior, and Lord, is as strong as ever. I am alive to the one who found me; he has set me free indeed, and I take hold of my identity and standing in Jesus Christ the Lord in the “obedience of faith” to the glory of God and the good of those who need this encouragement. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: To Rest in What is Revealed

   In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 
   All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Luke 10:21-22)

   One of the biggest things I want people to know is that eternal life is to KNOW God. Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). 

   Yes, that is the essence of what it means to receive eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus has secured the salvation by which we can return to the God who created us and know him as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

   This means that our daily interest should be in how well we know God. And, for some of us (at least people like me), how well I know God rests completely on how he feels about knowing me. 

   The stage on which Jesus has made his heart known to me over the years has been one littered by broken relationships. I grew up in a family that was broken. My attachment-light got stuck in the “always on” position because I was desperate to not miss the hope-springs-eternal time that someone might actually want to attach to me. When I learned that the term “hyper-vigilant” describes a mindstate that has been trained to be on guard against danger, I wanted to know how to bring that into my relationship with God.

   Or, how God was shining his spotlight onto my broken radar system so he could heal what was wounded and bring me to peace in my relationship with him.

   Since I had my first conscious awareness of God’s interest in me almost 6 decades ago, and then learned how to listen to him in his word in the most real and personal of ways almost 33 years ago, I can chart a relationship with God that has been growing because I am God’s child. My security with him doesn’t rest on how well I hang on to him, but on how settled his love is for me. My significance to him doesn’t depend on what I do for good, but what his goodness has delighted in for me before I was even created. My acceptance with God doesn’t rest on my good behavior that must always be that 1 ounce more than anything I do wrong. Rather, my acceptance with the Triune God rests on him accepting me in his beloved Son.

   No matter who I talk with, and no matter who I imagine might read this, my supreme interest is in how they know God. I regularly remind people to see the grace and peace of God in the Beatitudinal Valley because the way God blesses us is typically so different than religious (and irreligious) life has taught us. We need to attach to God in our poverty of spirit in order to know what it means to truly have peace with God. 

   Today it feels like God is comforting me in some of the most painful losses I have experienced as he shows me the reality of his desire to find me and have me as his own. Yes, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Yes, the judge of all creation. Yes, the eternal Father, the glorious Son, the comforting Holy Spirit. They have a personal desire for me to know them and have gone through hell (so to speak) to have me. 

   If no one has told you this, stop pretending, and meet with God as you are. Tell “our Father in heaven” how you are doing. Be the child. Lay your complaints before him. Tell him what you don’t understand. Be honest. Be real. 

   And then listen. 

   Yes, open God’s word and listen to him. He is speaking. His Holy Spirit is with us to teach us all things and bring to our remembrance things we have already known. Whatever stands out, talk to him like that is what he is saying to you. Converse. Dialogue. Meditate on what he says. Cling to it with all your heart. 

   And today, let my testimony that learning “the Son CHOOSES (desires) to reveal” the Father to his beloved brothers encourage you that he will do the same for you as much as for me. Why? Because the level ground at the throne of grace is faith. Not necessarily great faith. Not even mature faith. Just faith that comes like a child and wants to get to know God. Yes, get to KNOW him!

   Eternal life comes through believing in Jesus Christ. And Jesus gives eternal life to us because we must be alive to know the Triune God. As John wrote, “In him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).

   The darkness has not overcome Jesus’ work to pour the love of God into my heart by the Holy Spirit he has given us. Come to Jesus as you are and let him overcome the darkness in your life so he can lead you to know God better than you have ever known him before. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Spirit in History and Life Experience

   And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. (Luke 4:1-2)

   And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. (Luke 4:14-15)

   Luke records that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit led him into the wilderness and that when he returned to Galilee to begin his ministry he was doing everything in the power of the Spirit. If this was the first time we were hearing these things, we wouldn’t know anything more than that this is the history of Jesus’ life and ministry.

   The question of whether the historical account of Jesus’ experience of the Holy Spirit was unique to him, or also applicable to us today, must be answered by looking at what Jesus and the apostles taught on the matter. 

   Jesus’ introduction to the role of the Holy Spirit in the church focuses on the night before his arrest and crucifixion. In John 13-16 Jesus prepares his disciples for what was about to happen by telling them what to expect and that the Holy Spirit would be their Helper. 

   After the Holy Spirit came on the church (Acts 2), the apostles expanded on Jesus’ teaching by giving instructions about our relationship to the third person of the Trinity. It helps to look at this through the filter of left-brain/right-brain experience. 

   The left-brain side of things is the information the Scriptures tell us about the Spirit. These include instructions to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), that we are “led by the Spirit” (Romans 8:14), we must “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16), and “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). 

   Paul shows how serious this is by clarifying, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6).  

   The right-brain side of this is how it is working in our bonding with God. For this we must ask ourselves honest relational questions. For example, “How much am I hindered from being filled with the Spirit because I’m already full of myself?” “What would I need to confess, renounce and forsake to make room for the Holy Spirit to fill me?” “How do I feel when I consider being attached to the Holy Spirit as the person God has sent to guide me into all truth and to lead me to walk in the ‘obedience of faith’?”

   Those are just suggestions. The point is that to be filled with the Spirit takes more than a left-brain acknowledgment of the facts of Scripture. It requires us to focus on a right-brain attachment to the Spirit including whatever house-cleaning is required to make room in the inn, so to speak. 

   Today, I am encouraged that God’s command to “be filled with the Spirit” is mine to obey in faith. I plan to repent of anything the Spirit shows me is taking up space in my heart, soul or mind that keeps him from filling me to the full, and I plan to put my faith in Jesus in whatever ways his Spirit calls me to trust him, no matter how relationally scary that may feel. 

   Yes, Jesus walked in the Spirit in ways unique to him. The wonder of Jesus’ human relationship to the Father and the Spirit while he himself was “God with us” is mind-boggling. But the Spirit-filled life is expected of all the sons of God, and we must let Jesus’ uniqueness in this help us with the universal way of life of all those who follow him. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: A Father’s Pleasure in His Son

   Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22)

   Before I could write anything about this, I did a lot of introspective prayer about how father issues have affected me. Asking God to show me what to bring to him became a fresh discovery of my need to know him. But it also reinforced how clearly God reveals his desire for all believers to know we are the beloved children of God who are welcomed into God’s kingdom with joy.

   The biggest thing I can hope to accomplish by this sharing is that someone who has been turning away from God as Father because of dad-wounds would realize that he is the Father “in heaven” who heals our wounds from fathers “on earth”.    

   So, while others try to recreate a god in their own image to soothe the devastating effects of abusive dads, I want to shout from the rooftops that “our Father in heaven” is the person we must run to and know for who he is. It is the ultimate Father who heals our father-wounds. 

   When we do humble ourselves to run to God for help, we not only find out what he is like as the perfect Father, but we discover that what he said to Jesus at his baptism (and again at his transfiguration) was not only how he felt about his son, but what he was calling people into as his children. 

   Yes, a comprehensive understanding of Scripture shows us a God who adopts sinners as his “beloved children” and welcomes them with joy. One of the most beautiful prophecies of what God would do through the coming of Jesus Christ his Son is described like this, “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

   Jesus is “God with us”. He has proven himself mighty to save us out of the domain of darkness and bring us into his kingdom. He rejoices to find his lost sheep and bring us home. He quiets us with his love. And he tells us the things he breathed-out into his word, “that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). 

   It doesn’t matter whether New Year’s Day 2025 means anything to us or whether it’s just the same-old stuff. But God’s joyful love for his Son invites us to know his joy and love for us as we walk with Jesus Christ in faith.

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When Hardness of Heart Hinders the Mind

    And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. (Mark 6:48-52)

   Does it matter to you that your mind might be hindered in understanding God’s word because your heart is hardened against applying it as fully as God is speaking it to you?

   Yup, that’s the point of this passage. The reason the disciples were so astounded about Jesus walking on the water was because they hadn’t let themselves process what it meant that he had just multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish into enough food to feed 5,000 people. 

   This is serious business because I have witnessed it so many times. People sit in church complaining that they really didn’t get anything out of a message, or they aren’t really getting anything out of their time with God in his word, when the problem is that they have hardened their hearts against letting themselves admit the implications and applications of God’s work in their lives. 

   Two other Scriptures help with this. First, 

We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also. (II Corinthians 6:11-13)

   This is another way of describing the hardness of heart in the disciples. The believers were restricted in their affections by choice. They also had the choice to “widen your hearts also”. Paul and his companions had exemplified hearts-wide-open fellowship and ministry. The restriction of affection and attachment between them was on the part of the church. 

   The same applies to Jesus. He is never restricted in his freedom to relate to us in love, grace, and mercy. He wants attachment with us more than we know it exists. What we are lacking with him is because of how we restrict our hearts with self-protection, and how that restriction limits our understanding of him.

   Second, 

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:13-15)

   This illustrates how we are the ones who give in to the desire for self-protection, restrict our affections towards God, and then blame him that we don’t get it what he is saying in his word. 

   Right now, we are three groups of people. The narcissists don’t see anything wrong with them and it is always God and the pastor who are at fault if they don’t get something. The religious practitioners see this may be a struggle, but it clashes with their self-dependent way of deciding how far God can go in making them like Jesus. They will keep thinking about how this might apply without ever doing anything about it.

   On the other hand, the poor in spirit hear of this hardness of heart and mourn how much it is real in their lives. They meekly surrender to Jesus to fix this in them and let themselves hunger and thirst for the righteousness of having a heart that is absolutely unrestricted in affection, thought, or will. These are the ones who are blessed in their relationship with Jesus Christ, and I know this is the kind of church I want to be in, even if it is only a few who desire it.    

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The ‘Again he began to teach’ of Jesus

Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: (Mark 4:1-2)

 

   Before I looked at the next section of God’s word in the gospel of Mark, I was already wondering how God would break through my familiarity with the gospels to teach me what I needed to walk with him today. Some days that thought leans more toward despondency, and other days more toward excited expectation. But it is always there, that I am dependent on God to make known to me whatever he pleases through his word.

   As a bit of background, I learned a few years ago that our brains process information from the right-side to the left-side. The right-hemisphere is focused on bonding (who or what we are attached to) and the left-hemisphere on believing. 

   This is fascinating and explains so much of why people in churches struggle to attach to truth. It isn’t because the truth of God’s word doesn’t make sense, it’s because they have bonded to someone or something that is restricting their ability to believe the good news.

   For example, I have had many professing Christians in churches struggle to believe God loves them. For a long time, I didn’t understand why such obvious truths in Scripture as God’s love for his beloved children had virtually no impact on some people. When I heard that anything I taught was processed on the right side of the brain before it got to the left side, and that it was the deepest bonds that were filtering what a person could believe, I realized that these people needed help with their relationship with God (bonding) more than their instruction about God (believing). 

   I don’t have room to say more in this short post, but ever since I learned how our brains process the intel of our five senses, I have also helped myself by watching for signs of bonding issues that need ministry so my believing issues are free to “delight in truth in the inward being,” so God can “teach me wisdom in the secret heart” (Psalm 51:6). 

   For today, I simply loved the “inward being” feeling of my “secret heart” that delighted in the attachment I felt to Jesus “again” beginning “to teach beside the sea”. Aside from the fact that I grew up in Sandspit, BC, with the “sea” right outside my bedroom window, knowing that God has given me everything I need to meet with Jesus Christ my Creator, Savior, and Lord every morning and day of my life is awesome in the real sense. And knowing that through the word of God in the Bible, I can hear Jesus teaching me by his Spirit today as clearly as those people heard him then fills me with so much wonder and awe that I do not want to miss anything “the Spirit is saying to the churches”. 

   Part of the application for me is to “again” pass on to you those “wonderful words of life”, as the old hymn expressed it. And the verse that just came up with Psalm 51:6 seems like such a beautiful way to conclude, “The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth” (Ecclesiastes 12:10). 

   I’m going to head out on a prayer walk shortly. I will be praying for whoever reads this, that any right-brain bonding issues will be met and comforted and healed by the God who “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). This will include praying that anyone who needs help and healing for their bonding issues will find it through the body of Christ expressing the love of Christ by serving one another in love just as our Savior does “again” and “again”.   

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

It’s Not My Body (to do as I please)

Everyone has an opinion on what level of autonomy we have over our bodies (especially when a mother wants to put to death the other body in her body). However, those who are born again by the power of the gospel are now members of the body of Christ. This means we have no autonomy whatsoever, and no right to decide for ourselves what we do with Jesus body! 

I’m addressing this today because I’m nearing the end of Nehemiah’s journal and he is still finding house-cleaning needs among the people. Ezra had come back to Jerusalem decades earlier to lead the way in rebuilding the temple after the exile. Nehemiah followed with the aim of rebuilding the wall around the city so the remnant could reestablish themselves in their land. 

The first twelve chapters of Nehemiah chronicle the steps he took to lead the rebuilding project, and then we see how the people returned to their covenant relationship with Yahweh, the only true God. This included the repentance that removed any practices that were against their covenant with God, and faith that returned to all the requirements of the Law of God. 

Today we find Nehemiah discovering one more problem situation that needed addressing. It is described like this: 

Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.[1] 

Tobiah was one of the men who had opposed Nehemiah coming to Jerusalem and rebuilding the wall around the city. Not only was no one given accommodations in the temple, but Tobiah was against God so shouldn’t have been anywhere near there! 

Nehemiah is going to address this, but my focus was on considering possible ways we invite friends and relatives into the temple of God and give them a home when they are still opposing the work of God. At no time in the history of God’s people have favoritism and partiality been acceptable practices. In fact, in the essence of the new covenant, we find the apostles teaching the churches to get rid of people who shouldn’t be there because of their false teachings, sinful practices, or divisive activities. 

The issue is all about who we are. We are not autonomous figures who are entitled to think of no one but ourselves and what we want. That is the toddler level of maturity! Instead, we are even more focused on how we relate to the temple of God under the new covenant since the temple of God is us! Yes, the people of God are the temple of God. And who is in or out of God’s temple is not up to us. 

When Paul was addressing how the Gentile Christians are to see themselves alongside the Jewish Christians, he made it abundantly clear that we are part of the “one body” of Christ. 

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.[2] 

This means that the Gentiles are not added to the Jewish Christians, and the Jews are not added to the Gentile Christians, but are now made into “one new man in place of the two”. Both Jews and Gentiles had to leave their earthly cultures behind and enter the new culture of the kingdom of God. There is no longer any ground for hostility between different ethnic groups of Christians since we no longer belong to those groups because we are now the one people of God. 

Paul continues: 

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.[3] 

Here we see that all believers are “joined together” in Christ so that we grow “into a holy temple in the Lord.” And as much as the Tabernacle and the first and second temples all had requirements and restrictions that could not be violated by favoritism and partiality, the people who make up God’s holy temple are now the place where God lives by his Spirit, and he alone decides who is in and who is out. 

The letters the apostles wrote to the churches explain in detail what it means to be part of this body of Christ, this one new man, this holy temple in the Lord. Anyone who has their daily time with God in his word and prayer and participates in a church where there is regular teaching and instruction in these letters will know what it means to live under the new covenant. 

Paul gives a summary of this in writing to Timothy: 

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.[4] 

All believers are “the church (assembly) of the living God”, and we are all that way through the “bond of peace,” which is the saving work of Jesus through the cross. Our identity includes the fact that the church Jesus is building is the only “pillar and buttress of the truth”, and none of us can behave in the church with prejudice, favoritism, or partiality. We must live according to the details of the new covenant. Who we honor and who we discipline is according to how anyone relates to the new covenant not how they are related to us as family or attached to us as friends. 

The application of this is simple (but not necessarily easy). We must examine ourselves to see if we are relating to everyone in our church fellowships without favoritism or partiality. Each of us must question whether we favor some and ignore others based on friendships or family relationships instead of our “household of God” relationship as God’s children. We must examine whether people who are not honoring Jesus Christ are given leadership or influence just because of who they know (you know, the way the world does things). Any kind of autonomy, favoritism or partiality has no place among God’s people under the new covenant just as it had no place under the old. 

My journey through Nehemiah has shown me so many things about how our mentors of old handled situations according to the old covenant. What is clear is that we can’t do less in our adherence to the new covenant. The letters to the churches in the New Testament continue to address the positives of our life of faith and the negatives of sinful unbelief as clearly as has always been done by God and his shepherds. 

In relation to how we “love the brotherhood” in the faith,[5] we must always be devoted to making sure that no family or friend relationships pull us from “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”[6] into the horrible sins of favoritism and partiality. Nehemiah wouldn’t tolerate it in his day and the apostles didn’t tolerate it in theirs. We must not tolerate it in our generation because Jesus is our head and “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”[7] 

Let us live as God's holy temple no matter what house-cleaning is required. Because, after all, the body of Christ is not our body, and when we are made alive in Jesus Christ, we no longer have the right to do what our sinful and sarky old hearts please. We are “in Christ” and must live accordingly.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

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[1] Nehemiah 13:4-5

[2] Ephesians 2:14-16

[3] Ephesians 2:19-22

[4] I Timothy 3:14-15

[5] I Peter 2:17

[6] Ephesians 4:3

[7] Ephesians 4:4-6

A Personal Journey from Shame to Honor

LONG AGO, when God first showed me the “Deeper” of my orphan-mindedness, he began leading me on a journey of getting to know the Triune as the “first” of my family. Each “higher” that followed revealed to my orphan-mind what it meant to have a Father in heaven, a Firstborn Brother as Savior and Lord, and a Helper in the Holy Spirit who would be Jesus with me always. 

HOWEVER, in one memorable Deeper I discovered that, of the three persons of the Triune, it was Jesus who triggered the most negative-emotion reaction in me. I realized that I had a “fear-based identity”, and the fear reactions seemed to come from a stronghold of shame that was free to do whatever it wanted in my life. I also learned that the shame felt strongest when I pictured Jesus looking at me. 

THIS MORNING, I was traveling through a deeper layer of the familiar orphan-minded territory. I was facing how my life has been affected by the reviling and harsh criticism Jesus is talking about in his Beatitudes. And God totally surprised me with one word of his word: “HE”. 

I HAD BEEN praying through the first chapter of John’s gospel in a surprising journey of statements I was affirming as true in themselves, but also very real to me personally. I acknowledged that Jesus was the true light who came into the world, that he was the Creator who made all things, that the world did not know him and his own people did not receive him, but that there was this glorious contrast in God’s gift of grace to those who did receive him, and who did believe in his name. 

AND THEN it hit me: “HE gave the right to become children of God”, and that “HE” is talking about JESUS!!! 

WHEN I REPLAYED my life, starting with my first awareness of God at age seven, and knowing that I had been one of those in the world who did not know him or receive him, God was adding Jesus to the picture in a way I had never seen him before. What I have always thought of as “God” letting me know he was watching over me even from an early age now had this distinctive addition, that it was JESUS who was giving me “the right” to become a child of God! 

THE POINT is not that I have been a dufus all these years and had never noticed the left-brain-obvious. 

RATHER, the point is that today was the day God chose to expose a “deeper” of woundedness infected with shame that needs to be healed for me to rejoice in the persecutions of the past, present, and future. His love, grace, and mercy chose this for today because it was the only way I would notice the “higher” of “HE” (Jesus) gave me the right to become a child of GOD! 

WHICH MEANS THAT, in the most real and personal of ways, Jesus Christ my Lord was granting to me, a seven-year-old boy, the divinely-given right to become a child of God right then and there (1965). And, because Jesus did this, personally giving me the right to become a child of God, I was “born, not of blood (my human lineage) nor of the will of the flesh (me trying to be born) nor of the will of man (my parents wanting to have children), but of God (by God foreknowing me, and predestining me to the adoption of sonship, and calling me to himself by the gospel, and justifying me by grace through faith, and glorifying me in his presence when I will be just like Jesus when I see him as he is).” 

AT PRAYER MEETING last night we were just talking about how, when we pray about things, we do not decide what to look for that will match our expectation of how God will answer our prayers. Instead, we pour out our hearts to God like children, and then watch what happens in the coming days to see how God is working everything together for good in our lives. We know that whatever he does next will come from his thoughts and ways that are so much higher than our own that we can’t possibly imagine we can tell him how to answer our prayers! 

WHICH MEANS THAT, noticing the beautiful pronoun “HE” is like a one-word answer to my prayers from last night. It serves as the first domino falling into every truth and reality about Jesus Christ my Lord that God wants to be far more real and personal to me than ever before. 

AND, it is knowing Jesus Christ as the Savior who personally granted me the right to believe in him, and to receive him, and to become a child of God by grace through faith, that shines in direct contradiction of all the shameful things this orphan-minded child has ever felt, and all the fear-based-identity reactions that have hindered my walk with God, so I could feel the attachment to my Savior that he was not merely doing what his Father told him to do, but he was doing for me what his own love delighted to do! 

AND SO, I “consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that I may not grow weary or fainthearted” in the hostilities that have come against me because of knowing him. HE granted me the gift of the new-birth into the adoption of sonship. And HE is worthy to be worshiped by me rejoicing in the reviling and harsh criticism that is now a badge of honor instead of a bruise of shame. 

I HAVE heard what God is speaking to me about this morning. I can see what he is doing in me to prepare me for things he is doing around me. And I am joining him in his work by praising Jesus for personally granting me the right to become a child of God by grace through faith, and by practicing joy in response to any form of persecution that may come today, and in every memory of harsh criticism and reviling that plucks at the heart-strings. 

AND I HOPE that facing these things in my walk with God this morning is as helpful to you as it has been to me!

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)