A Warning About Concussions and Abscessed Teeth

A week after my concussion (bonked my head on the ice at public skating Dec 22) I had to go back up to ER because of severe pain in one of my teeth. When I got in to see my dentist after Christmas break, he discovered a tooth was cracked all the way down the middle. I got it removed yesterday. 

In the instructions for recovery, a familiar warning was included. There is something called “dry socket” (sounds painful just to say it) that results when the clot is dislodged from covering the wound. I have heard of this numerous times. In fact, I was waiting in a dentist office years ago and overheard the receptionist talking to someone who was obviously frantic because they had dry socket and she had nothing she could tell them to make it better. 

Why this update on how I’m doing? Because I keep hearing people say that the Bible’s talk about God’s judgment against sin is just a bunch of scare-tactics or fearmongering. But when I hear about dry socket, something I have never personally witnessed, it scares the heebie-jeebies out of me enough that I want to follow the instructions to the T, as they say. 

In the same way that the goal of the instructions is the ultimate healing of the extraction wound, and the warning about dry socket is just a fact of life we need to know about to help us do the right things for healing, the goal of the Bible is to lead people to know the God who created us so we can return to him. It’s just that there’s a lot working against us in that department and the wide road that most people prefer just happens to lead to destruction. 

So, while age and life continue to take their toll, and the headlines even just of the Coquihalla Highway around Merritt this week have been full of bad (and even deadly) news, warning people to have proper snow tires, carry chains, have an emergency bag in the car, and drive to conditions, are not scare-tactics or fearmongering (just ask someone who has seen the devastation on icy and snowy roads), and neither is it a scare-tactic to tell people about the end of the road that leads anyone away from the only true God. 

The fact is that the Creator created us to be like him. We preferred being like his arch enemy the devil, the one responsible for all the suffering, death, and war in the world. God sent his Son to provide salvation from sin. Most people still don’t want God’s love while the world’s love for the devil seems to be growing exponentially. 

But telling people that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” or that “the wages of sin is death,” or that the wide road leads to “destruction”, is not scare-tactics or fearmongering. It’s just as much just telling the truth as everything I have heard about the warnings for dry-socket and dangerous road conditions. 

So, as I eat my very soft bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, I trust that this will save me the horrible discomfort of that dreaded condition of dry-socket, I thank God that I will soon be well enough to get back on the ice (while appreciating the necessity of wearing a helmet from now on), and I thank the Creator for Jesus Christ his Son who has guaranteed my eternal life with no threat of condemnation or destruction. 

Thank you, our Father in heaven!

 

© 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.)

 

Freeing Hearts to Grow Up

I HAVE studied human maturing in relation to caring for children in our daycare and in shepherding the children of God in the church. One question has plagued me for decades: why are so many adults still children in their hearts? 

I DON’T MEAN children “at” heart, which has a very good side to it both in working with children and living in God’s kingdom. I mean people who still ARE children inside themselves, adults who should have grown up by now, but they haven’t. An objective view of their maturity-level says they are still children, sometimes even infants! 

WHY? 

THE SIMPLE answer is that, passively, immature adults were denied the childhood environment of mature adults to show them how to handle life maturely and, actively, they reached some experience where they decided to send their real self into hiding for protection and began playing a pretend role to survive. 

FACT IS, we can’t mature from a role we are playing. We can only mature by being our real selves in relation to more mature people who are being their real selves. 

AND that requires the kind of love we were designed to thrive in, the love of God. 

I WISH I could say that the church is the safest place to learn to be our real selves in Christ. It should be. It could be. But the world, the flesh, and the devil don’t want broken people to feel safe with God, and they know that a church filled with the love of God would help all the children of God be themselves and grow up for real, and so they are constantly conspiring to “steal, and kill, and destroy”, as Jesus explained. 

MY MENTOR, Paul, described the way safety should look in the church Jesus is building: 

“RATHER, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” 

HOWEVER, I have to admit that I have far more experience in “the church” (typically the manmade variants) with “predators” than with “gentle protectors”. And too many people have responded to the scary people in churches by being “possums” who play dead with their souls while acting out a pretend role to avoid notice. 

AND THAT has left me with the one thing that belongs to every child of God who has received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior: The Triune God IS our safe place to grow up!!! 

ALL THE scriptures that picture God as a “refuge” or a “stronghold” are telling us that he is our one safe place. By constantly showing us that he is greater than all others, that he is unstoppable in working all things in our lives for good, and that he will carry on to completion the good work he has begun in his children, God is relating to us in the ways we need to be assured of his faithfulness to us. 

THE POINT this morning is that we can’t look to a church, or a Christian, or a friend, or a family member, as our safe place. We’re all too broken to be 100% trustworthy. And even the best of us don’t pick up on all the secret cues and clues that someone needs something only God knows about. 

BUT GOD is 100% true. His love is the only perfect love. As we attach ourselves to Jesus Christ like branches of a vine, we are filled with his life and his love so that we become like him in loving one another. That will make the church a safer place, but only to the extent that each member of the body of Christ is finding their ultimate safety in Christ himself. 

MY ENCOURAGEMENT to you is, learn to be honest with God. Learn to admit to God how you are doing. But listen to his word. It will amaze you as you pour out your heart to God about anything you are facing in yourself, and then read his word and hear what he has to say to you each day, and discover that you are learning to trust God as your refuge and strength, your ever present help in trouble, and that it feels like you are growing up to be your real self. 

AND ONE DAY you discover yourself thinking of others differently. Instead of the self-protective reaction to keep yourself safe, you have thoughts of how to love people as Jesus loves you. You find yourself asking God to show you how to help someone who is hurting. You begin praying for people about their needs instead of only petitioning God for your own benefit. You know, signs of maturing! 

THIS MORNING, God has already done this for me again. He led me to talk with him about how it feels to have people “spurn your name as evil,” and to listen to his view of what it means to “rejoice and be glad” in mistreatment and injustice. That made me so thankful for the transforming power of God in my life and got me thinking about how others might need this same encouragement. 

AND EVEN THOUGH my maturing today might seem miniscule to anyone else, God does grant us the grace to simply rest and be his beloved who are still children at heart while no longer being scared and self-protective children in our secret hearts. 

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

 

 

Note: the imagery of gentle protectors, predators, and possums, is thanks to Jim Wilder of “Life Model Works”.

© 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.)

 

The Beloved Who Love

Consider these expressions from God’s book:

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:8).
 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1).

We are told to love one another earnestly because that is what it looks like to imitate our Father who is loving us earnestly.

We can only imitate God if we know what he is doing towards us to give us something to imitate.

First, we are “beloved children,” meaning that we are beloved by God, earnestly loved by him. Then we live as “imitators of God”, doing for each other what God is constantly doing for us.

To make sure we do not miss this cause-and-effect relationship with God, his Book clarifies, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). Why do we “walk in love”? Because Christ has already “loved us and gave himself up for us”.

Or, as another part of God’s Book clarifies, “We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19).

If any of us are struggling with the, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly” part of God’s will, the problem is in the area of our love-relationship with God. We must know what it feels like to be loved by God, to be his beloved children, in order to know how to imitate him in earnestly loving one another.

Since it is Sunday, pray through these verses from God’s Book and ask God to make both sides of the love-relationship as real in your life as is possible this side of heaven, and then join with a God-honoring, Bible-believing, Jesus-following, gospel-exalting congregation of believers where you can continue receiving the Father’s love, and seek ways to share that same love with others.

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

The Beatitudinal Journey From “I Can’t” to “God Can”

Why do I love it when people say, “I can’t”, to something that would so obviously please our heavenly Father? Because I know that all of us must see our own poverty of spirit in being righteous by our own efforts in order that we may experience the righteousness of God that is by grace through faith.

Why do I not accept it when people say, “I can’t”, to something God’s word calls them to put into practice? Because I know that the grace of God is always working to lead us into the experience of God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will, and that “everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (I John 5:4).

In the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-12, Jesus shows a transforming experience of blessing which begins by facing the poverty of our spirits, mourning what’s wrong with us, meekly accepting we cannot fix ourselves, and so hungering and thirsting for the righteousness that can only be experienced by faith. If we miss the “blessed are”, at the beginning of each transforming characteristic, we might see the first half of the Beatitudes as rather negative and hopeless.

However, when we surrender to such a gracious work of God as to convince us there is no hope of us ever attaining righteousness through good behavior, we can then become the people who are merciful as our God is merciful.

We then experience what a pure heart feels like when we truly want to keep in step with the Holy Spirit rather than pursue anything of the flesh.

We are constantly transformed into the peacemakers who are at peace with turning the world upside down in order to find lost sheep they can lead to peace with God through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And, our overriding, single-hearted, sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ, leads us to rejoice when we experience the same suffering for righteousness as he experienced when he walked among us in the flesh.

So, when I hear (or see) a professing child of God demonstrating a deep-seated belief that they cannot do the revealed will of God, I seek to know whether they are on the prideful side of, “I can’t”, where they really believe that not knowing how to join God in his work justifies them in saying, “and so I won’t”.

Or, whether they are on the humble and brokenhearted side of, “I can’t”, where they really believe they are surrendering to the grace of their heavenly Father who can do in them everything he pleases.

Once I know where they're at, I know how I am to join God in his work with the ministry they need.

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

A Question of Faith

This morning, these two expressions from God’s Book blessed me so much that I’m sharing them to see what will happen.

First, a verse that has guided my focus for the past 24 years, refreshed my soul once again:

         

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (John 5)

As we consider what Jesus did in his ministry, we must interpret every single act of ministry as the Son of God doing “only what he SEES the Father doing.”

One clue of how Jesus knew he was seeing what his Father was doing is identified in Jesus’ encounter with a paralyzed man and his friends:

2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus SAW their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9)

What did Jesus see? He “saw their faith”. The salvation Jesus brought is a salvation that is “by grace… through faith” (Ephesians 2:8-9). When Jesus saw faith in someone’s heart (and eyes), he knew his Father was graciously working.

Now, we know that, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17), so, we know that the place to look for faith in each other’s lives is wherever we are in God’s word, hearing the words of Christ.

With that in mind, I encourage those of you who love the Lord Jesus Christ and eagerly await his appearing to answer this question. I present it in a positive and negative form. Pick the one that matches your time in God’s word today. Feel free to answer in a response to this post, or think of someone in your church fellowship you could share this with and see what God is doing in each of you for the building up of your mutual faith.

Question in the positive: What were you reading in God’s word today that stirred your heart to faith in whatever the words of Christ were speaking to you?

Question in the negative: What were you reading in God’s word today that convicted you that Jesus was saying, “O you of little faith”, in relation to whatever the words of Christ were speaking to you?

Whichever question best applies, it should make clear to us how God is working. It is now our place to, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Considerations: Faith that Triumphs Over Opponents

Faith residing in the human heart is the only state of being that honestly reflects the relationship between God and his child.

Pride does not reflect the relationship between God and his child because it shows that the child has no honest appreciation of the majestic glory of his Father.

Wallowing in regret does not reflect the relationship between God and his child because it exposes the child’s lack of understanding of the riches of God’s glorious grace as revealed in the redemptive accomplishments of our Lord Jesus Christ.

No, it is faith alone that responds to the majestic glory of God with the humility of a child in the care of his Father, and to the riches of God’s glorious grace with a confident appreciation that all is well with his soul. 

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Considerations: God Made You vs Goo-to-you

In one part of God’s Book, where he is describing the people who are his, he describes them like this:

“everyone who is called by my name,whom I created for my glory,whom I formed and made.”
(Isaiah 43:7)

Some who hold to a branch of the goo-to-you evolutionary religion concede that God must have been involved in helping evolution along.

However, God specifically states in his Book something quite opposite. Not only did he not help evolution do the amazing work of creation, but neither did evolution help him!

Rather, he “created” for his glory. There is no glory to God’s creative genius if all he is doing is helping evolution produce the vast and complex universe we live in.

When it comes to the humanity that keeps trying to figure out life in a distinctive way that does not belong to animals (because we were created in God’s image and likeness, of course), God states things very personally. In identifying the unique place of those people who are called by his name, he says, that he personally “formed and made” them (this is described right in the second chapter of God’s Book!).

There is no way we can mesh what God wrote in his Book with the teachings of the evolutionary goo-to-you religion.

And, I’ll let you in on a little secret: the evolutionary religion is wrong. Yes, scientifically, philosophically, religiously, factually, wrong.

The question then remains: are you one of the “everyone” who is called by his name?

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Knowing the Abundant Love of God in the Abundant Love of His Child

This morning I noticed something from when Paul told the church his intention, “to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.”[1]

He did NOT say, “to let you know the abundant love that God has for you”. There is no doubt that this is true, but it is not what he said. He wanted the people who were thoroughly beloved of God to know this over-riding motive in his ministry, that he had an abundant love for them.

When we consider this through Jesus’ imagery of the vine and the branches,[2] we see what it looks like when the sap of God’s love flows through a man. The man is not an impersonal conduit through which God’s love flows to others.

The man is a branch. This means that the man must absorb the sap of God’s love for himself, feeling the power of that love overtaking every part of his being. In this experience, something happens to the man’s love: it is awakened and activated.

What we have now is the sap of Jesus’ love flowing through the man’s heart, and we have the man’s love coming alive to express itself in likeness to his Savior. As this life now branches out into the lives of others, there is both the extension of the sap of love that is in Christ, but expressed in the abundant love the man has for those in his care.

The only way to have a life in which we live this wonderful mix of the love of Christ expressed in our abundant love for others is, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”[3]

When I find myself “trying” to love others with abundant love, I’m looking in the wrong direction. If we have to “try” to love others, we are lacking something in our experience of Jesus’ love. He doesn’t try to love us; he does love us.

So, we turn from all the people we care about, in all the varying degrees of responsibility, and longing, and felt-need, and we put all our focus on abiding in Jesus as a branch abides in the vine. The more we focus on knowing his love that surpasses knowledge,[4] the more love-capacity we experience. The more that Jesus fills us with his love, the more our own love comes alive to love like him.

This makes so much sense of why God’s injunction to, “love one another,” is based on, “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”[5] This is not telling us to have such a profound understanding of the doctrine of God’s love so we can go and teach the doctrine of God’s love to others.

No, this is about having such a profound experience of Jesus’ love for us that we go and love others the same way (and at the same time, I may add).

How beautiful that Brother Paul would put it like this: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”[6]

Do you notice that? God’s expectation is not that we would copy his love as good scholars who understand the doctrine of love. Rather he wants us to imitate the very love that has made us feel like “beloved children”. We “walk in love, AS Christ loved us”.

So much more to say, and consider, and experience, but the calling is clear: we must so hunger and thirst for the abundant love of God to fill every part of our being that we will be so satisfied in the love of God by grace through faith that we become the merciful people who keep showing abundant love to those God brings into our lives.[7] God’s grace is doing this to his children. Let us join this work by faith, and watch God bless us with much fruit to the Father’s glory.

PS: As I went to pray about all this, I suddenly saw the connection between Paul’s declaration: 

“I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you,”[8]

And the unnamed mother who came to Jesus crying out, 

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”[9]

The lesson is clear: in my quest to experience and express “abundant love”, I must welcome the affliction, and anguish, and tears, that come from knowing such love.

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] II Corinthians 2:4

[2] John 15:1-11

[3] John 15:5

[4] Ephesians 3:19

[5] John 13:34

[6] Ephesians 5:1-2

[7] In God’s expression of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12, he promises to satisfy our hunger and thirst for righteousness in such a way that we become “the merciful”. As we hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God’s love, our satisfaction in that love causes us to show it to others; branches doing what the vine is doing.

[8] II Corinthians 2:4

[9] Matthew 15:22

Considerations ~ In the World, Not of the World

Here is much needed teaching for how God's children face the deteriorating condition of our world. On the night before Jesus' crucifixion, he prayed for his disciples:

"I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world" (John 17:15-18).

Jesus does not want us living "out of the world". He himself has sent his church "into the world".

However, the church going "into the world" is after the pattern and example of the way Jesus went "into the world". In other words, there is no room for worldly, godless, carnal living on one side, and we must be busy in our Father's business in this world just as Jesus was always doing whatever he saw his Father doing (John 5:19).

While living in this world, we must trust in our Father to "keep them (us) from the evil one". He has given his church the "whole armor of God" to "put on" (Ephesians 6:10-20), and so he answers his own prayer by acting in our lives by his grace. It is ours to receive by faith.

When Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth", he was asking his Father to set his disciples apart from the world. While the world fills up its sin to the full,[1] the Father will set his children aside, or apart, as holy and blameless in his sight.

However, this sanctifying work of God is accomplished "in the truth". And so, Jesus clarifies that, "your word is truth".

Guess why the evil one works so hard to keep God's children from spending time in the word of truth?

Doesn't it make clear why the church is to "take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God"?

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] Cf Romans 1:18-32; II Timothy 3:1-9

Considerations ~ Choosing Whom we Will Serve

I found this passage of God's Book very challenging this morning:

“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”[1]

Notice the three parts.

Part one: "fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness," instead of serving idols. Church, deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Jesus, rejecting all advances of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Part two: "if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve". Notice that the "choose this day whom you will serve" no longer applies to the LORD, Yahweh, Jesus. This is now an exhortation to the people who have decided it is evil in their eyes to serve Jesus the Christ.

What choice are such people to declare? Which idols they will serve. Yes, the message is, if you reject the good news of life in Jesus Christ, be honest enough to declare your choice of idol (even if it is you).

Part three: "But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." It would be nice if everyone would return to our Creator and receive his gift of salvation. Many consider it evil to do so, and are willing to be held accountable for serving their own gods. No matter what anyone else does, there is this tremendous example to be clear that we ourselves, and the households we lead, will live in “sincere and pure devotion to Jesus the Christ.”[2]

While this testimony is a few millennia old, the issue is as current as today's news. I would be happy to help anyone say yes to part one and three.

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] Joshua 24:14-15

[2] II Corinthians 11:3

Considerations ~ Trading our Bad News for Good

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the greatest news the world has ever heard, absolutely DENIES everything we have done to be righteous and good in our own sight, and calls us to DENY completely all our trust in ourselves that we are righteous and good (Luke 9:23). It also offers us the full righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, and calls us to RECEIVE it as a free gift, no good works involved (Romans 5:17; 6:23).

The gospel of Jesus Christ is bad news to anyone who wants to pave the way to heaven with their own works of righteousness. Its message to every “good” person is: IMPOSSIBLE!!!

However, to all who will cry out to the only true God, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13), there is the free gift of justification. We receive the mercy that withholds the judgment we deserve, and we receive the grace that pours into our hearts the faith and love we do not deserve (I Timothy 1:13-14).

The bottom line is that, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). The one who exalts himself/herself now, pretentiously telling God they are already too good to need the Savior he provided, will be humbled in the end with the hopelessness of Jesus’ glorious righteousness putting their pitiful attempt at goodness to utter and eternal shame.

On the other hand, the one who humbles himself/herself now, repenting of their sin, admitting their need for Jesus Christ, calling out to him, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:30), will be lifted up from their sinful condition, and exalted to the place of sonship where they all, men and women alike, receive the full rights of sons (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:4-7).

The gospel’s denial of all our prideful attempts at good behavior is the best news any of us could hear because, once the gospel convinces us of the utterly hopeless condition that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), it can then grant us the wonderful gift of God’s grace that we “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

In the end, when Jesus returns, all people will be divided into two groups. It will not be those who are good being rewarded while those who are bad are condemned. It will be those who trusted in their own goodness being condemned as the sinners they really are, and those who trusted in Jesus Christ being rewarded with “the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (I Peter 1:9).

         

It is no wonder that God’s word graciously proclaims, “‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (II Corinthians 6:2). Since Jesus has not yet returned, and you are still alive to read this, consider that it is God giving you one more invitation to reject your own righteousness/goodness as a “polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6), and to receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith in his name (Romans 4:5; Philippians 3:9). 

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Considerations ~ I Believe the Bible

I believe the Bible to be the written word of God because it is the only document in the world that completely explains every aspect of life without any contradiction within itself, or with anything in the world in which we live.

God chose to present his book to us through forty different men, breathed-out over a period of fifteen centuries, so that its cohesiveness could be explained only by divine authorship.

In this book, God told us of things that happened prior to the writing of the book, things that have consistently been validated by archeology and scientific testing. He also told us of things that would happen after the writing of his book, things that are also consistently validated by the witness of history.

Throughout the pages of this book are so many examples of prophecy proclaimed, and later fulfilled, that the intricacies and complexities of the descriptions leave no doubt that the same person spoke to the prophets as commanded the prophecies into their fulfillment.

In the present time alone, so many things are taking place as described in this book that was completed over nineteen centuries ago, that we not only see the foreknowledge of the author in seeing what would happen in the coming time, but the unarguable evidence of his ability to carry on to completion the good work he started in his church.

Because of this book’s perfection of thought, and its description of life in complete conformity to all we witness in the world around us, and its revelation of a Savior who “is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25), the only fitting response to such a book is to “draw near to God through him,” meaning, to draw near to the God who wrote the book through faith in his Son, our Lord Jesus the Christ.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Considerations ~ Questions of Sin, Temptation, and Failure

Here are some questions to help us assess whether we relate to sin, temptation, and failure, out of a grace-through-faith mindset, or a good-works mindset.

Question: when facing temptation, is your first thought, “Lord, save me!” or, “I must resist, resist, resist!”

Question: when facing failure to resist temptation, is your first thought, “Lord, forgive me!” or, “I must stop doing this!”

Question: when facing a recurring problem with a specific sin, is your first thought, “Lord, let me know you as my greatest treasure so my heart will seek to be with you above all other things!” or, “I need a program, or a group, or a resource, so I can stop doing this!”

Summary: when facing sin, temptation, and failure, do your thoughts revolve around your need to know Jesus Christ better than you have ever known him before, or do they center on what you must do to be a good Christian.

It is not that difficult to assess whether we live out of the grace-through-faith mindset that constantly approaches the throne of grace in time of need, knowing it is God who will give us the grace and mercy to help us through whatever we are facing (Hebrews 4:14-16); or we live out of the good-works mindset that keeps trying to be the good Christian everyone expects us to be.

Consider our temptations, and especially our failures to resist temptations, as a test that shows us where our hearts are, and who we are relying on to become like Jesus.

God’s book assures us that God will complete the work he has started in us, the work of transforming us into the image of his Son just as intended in creation. He does not ask us to do his work for him, but to walk with him in the work he is doing in us. That includes getting to know him as the Savior who does the saving from sin.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Considerations ~ Learning Attachment

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13)

Question: If learning something always begins with not knowing how to do that thing (and it does), and the secret of contentment is, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (and it is), how do we learn to attach to people where attachments are broken (and they are)?

Answer: by welcoming any relationships God brings us where we do not know how to attach to the people involved, accepting that Jesus will strengthen us, and teach us how to attach.

Consideration: Broken relationships must be one of the scariest things for us to deal with. We are hurt most by those we most want to be with. Road rage from some stranger on the highway doesn’t hurt the way explicit rejection from a loved one cuts us to the core.

However, when Paul spoke about “all things,” he had his share of broken relationships, people trying to kill him, enduring unjust treatment because of false testimonies against him. Because of what Jesus meant to him, he was able to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4), because Jesus was the constant who gave Paul life.

How do we look at attaching in broken relationships when the people we are expected to attach to seem in worst condition than ourselves? We agree with God that even this fits into the parameters of the  “all things” Paul speaks about, which means that we “can do” the attachment work from our side because of who it is who strengthens us.

The secret? It is in the relationship of “through”. We are free to look in the mirror and say that, “with man this is impossible” (Matthew 19:26). As Jesus said, “blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3). However, we must then fix our eyes on Jesus, and consider that, “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Since the “all things” we can do applies to everything we don’t know how to do, and the measure of success is on “him who strengthens me,” and the measure of strength in Jesus is unlimited, the key is that we learn attachments “through” Jesus. We go into broken relationships with Jesus, relating to people through him, experiencing him strengthening us as we pursue healing through him.

It should be no surprise when God presents us with situations we don’t know how to handle, or with relationship requirements we have never learned. After all, he is working every day to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ from one degree of glory to another (II Corinthians 3:18), so we must expect this to include daily experiences of things we have never learned.

However, Paul was clear that he had “learned” to be content, and had “learned” the secret of doing all things through Jesus who strengthened him. His example is just as doable for us as for him since the one who strengthens us today is the same one who strengthened him then.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Considerations ~ Falling From Grace?

“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)

This reminds me of a common description of a Christian who has been caught in sin as someone who has “fallen from grace.” However, it is not the Christian who sins who falls from grace, but the person who begins trusting in self to be good. As Paul wrote, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

When people depend on self to be good, they remain under law, and are guilty of all its requirements (James 2:10). The same is true when people deny their sin and believe they have no need for salvation. They, too, remain under condemnation because sin has dominion over them under the law.

On the other hand, when Christians respond to their sin by confessing their sins to God, depending on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ as their only hope of deliverance, they are standing as strongly in grace as anyone we would think of as the strongest grace-standing Christian of all.

Grace is the undeserved favor of God actively working in our lives to make us like Jesus. We are saved by this undeserved favor of God actively bringing us to faith in God’s Son (Ephesians 2:8-9).

We are transformed into the same image as Jesus Christ our Lord “from one degree of glory to another” (II Corinthians 3:18), by the undeserved favor of God actively working such monumental change in our lives.

We will one day be just like Jesus when we see him as he is (I John 3:2), because the undeserved favor of God will actively bring to completion the good work it has started in us (Philippians 1:6). 

To the Christian struggling with sin, we have this hope in the grace of God: “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). This does not encourage us “to continue in sin that grace may abound” (Romans 6:1-2). Rather, it encourages us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Considerations ~ The Always-and-All-Things Way of Life

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13)

Notice the connection:

“Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS” (vs 4)

“Let your reasonableness be known to EVERYONE” (vs 5)

“do not be anxious about ANYTHING” (vs 6)

“in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (vs 6)

“Finally, brothers, WHATEVER is true, WHATEVER is honorable, WHATEVER is just, WHATEVER is pure, WHATEVER is lovely, WHATEVER is commendable, if there is ANY excellence, if there is ANYTHING worthy of praise, think about these things” (vs 8)

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in WHATEVER situation I am to be content” (vs 11)

“I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In ANY AND EVERY circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (vs 12)

“I can do ALL THINGS through him who strengthens me” (vs 13)

Is it possible that we miss out on the joy and contentment God is working into us because we only want a part-time, some things, kind of relationship with our heavenly Father? Perhaps we only want to rejoice in the Lord in some things, and only want to show our reasonableness to some people, and only want to be free from anxiety about some situations, and only want to present some things to God in prayer, and only want to think about some of the things that are excellent and praiseworthy in God’s sight, and only want God’s kind of contentment in some situations and circumstances we are facing, and only want to do some of God’s will through him who strengthens us?

Our joy and contentment do not rest in our own ability to do God’s will perfectly. Rather, we begin by acknowledging that God is working in us both to will the all-inclusive obedience of faith, and to work the all-inclusive obedience of faith, and respond in fellowship with the whole church family by working out all these issues of our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13).

When we know God is CONSTANTLY working this ALWAYS-AND-ALL-THINGS way of life into his church, we just ALWAYS join him in his constant work.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Considerations ~ Love vs Loving

God’s book says: 

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (I Corinthians 13:4-7).

God’s book does not say: 

“It is loving to be patient and kind; it is loving to not envy or boast; it is loving to not be arrogant or rude. It is loving to not insist on our own way; it is loving to not be irritable or resentful; it is loving to not rejoice at wrongdoing, but to rejoice with the truth. It is loving to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things.” 

What’s the difference?

The first tells us what love is and what it does; the second tells us what loving behavior is, and what loving people do.

The first puts the emphasis on love itself, and what love will do to everyone who has it; the second puts the emphasis on behavior, and what we need to do to qualify as loving people.

The first puts the source where it belongs, in the necessity of having God's love “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5); the second puts the source in ourselves as loving people, and necessitates us doing the loving things.

God’s book tells us what fruit to expect from those who are filled with the Holy Spirit (the means by which God pours his love into our hearts). The first color of the spectrum of the Spirit’s fruit in our lives is, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love…” (Galatians 5:22).

To express the love described in I Corinthians 13, we must experience the Spirit of the living God filling us with this love. When we have this love, we will show this love. Simple (but not easy) as that.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Considerations ~ The False-Exposing Truth

          One reason the world hates truth is that it exposes what is false. The world would rather hold to its absolute belief that there are no absolutes (without flinching at the obvious contradiction), than sit its puniness down in this vast and monstrous universe and ask who decides and discerns what is true from what is false.

          The God who created us and our universe is truth, he is the source of truth, and he is the revelation of what is true. Invariably, that means that he exposes what is not true. Put him and his truth beside anything, and we will immediately know if something or someone is true or false.

          The God of truth determined that the way he could communicate his spiritual glory to people living in a material world was to write his truth in a book. The truth is spiritual, the writing is material, and so the material and spiritual wonder of humanity can avail itself of God’s written words in order to know and understand his spiritual truth.

          When anyone comes to God’s book, listens to God’s words, and receives God’s truth, it immediately becomes apparent what is false in the world. Our sinful pleasures are a false experience of what God offers as the true gift of his joy. Our sinful relationships are a false experience of what God designed into humanity as a reflection of the true nature of relationship between the Father, the Son, and their Holy Spirit.

          The fact is that the truth of God’s Light exposes the counterfeit glitter of the world’s darkness. The truth of God’s holiness exposes the emptiness of man’s ungodliness. The truth of God’s righteousness exposes the deceptiveness of man’s sin.

          And yet, to end with the really good news, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ both exposes our sinful need for this gospel, and satisfies this need for cleansing and forgiveness by providing salvation through faith in God’s Son. God exposes sin at the very same time as he reveals salvation from sin.

          While it is impossible for God’s light not to expose our darkness, and for his holiness not to expose our sin, the glory of God’s mercy and grace are also revealed in stark contrast to the world’s violence and hatred, giving us the most beautiful revelation of hope against the backdrop of an ever-deteriorating world.

          “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). That wonderful revelation makes God the safest and most desirable person to know. And the most terrifying person in the universe should we prefer darkness.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)