Crucified Life « Green P@stures

Archive for the 'Crucified Life' Category

Aug

THE Sin and an Unregenerate Church

Categories: Christianity, Church, Confession, Crucified Life, Deception, Discipleship, Doctrine, Faithfulness, Gospel, Gospel of the Kingdom, Hearing God, Jesus Christ, Kingdom of God, Obedience, Reign of Christ, Repentance, Salvation and THE Sin

Pharisee_and_Publican

Here is an exercise for you aspirants of theology. Search out the significant differences between the sin, sin and sins in the Greek New Testament. I assure you, it has been the glory of God to hide these matters in plain sight. And it has been the glory of the sons of His Kingdom to search them out. What is found in such a search will deliver us from the incomplete gospel that would only save us from our sins…and the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus, His disciples and Paul preached that truly brings Life.

Paul said “the sting of the death is the sin” in 1 Corinthians 15:56 (Young’s Literal). The definite article in the original implies a particular sin, the sin of all sins. It is this sin that men embrace all the way to hell.

When Jesus came to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness, the Baptizer exclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” He did not say, contrary to how the verse if often misquoted “who takes away the sins of the world.”

Jesus didn’t zero in on sins when He went to the cross—although they, too, were rendered powerless, praise be!—He came to do away with, once and for all, the sin that brings about the death. Sins (plural, without definite article) are, put simply, berries on the tree of rebellion, but God made provision through Christ to go to the root of mankind’s problem.

Which is…

…the nefarious nature to rebel against the authority of God and His Kingdom which is, ultimately, His reign. THE sin is man taking the throne. It is Adam casting his vote for himself and ruling God out of office. It is the created being casting himself in the lead role and leaving the Creator God on the cutting room floor.

Say what you wish, but the sin is not just evident in an unregenerate world of hell-bound men today, it is also the Great Plague of the professing church, mostly evident in those places on the map where there is little or no persecution, where abundance is greedily scarfed down by portly epicureans, and where the Gospel has been watered down from its original, robust recipe and abridged into the costless, cross-less, insipidly banal concoction it is today. Continue reading ‘THE Sin and an Unregenerate Church’

Jul

A Prayer From A Soul Laid Bare

By pasturescott 2 Comments

Categories: Christianity, Crucified Life, Hunger, Intimacy, Jesus Christ, Passion, Prayer and Reign of Christ

Father,

May You, O God, shepherd me to Your private pastures, with cooling waters and fresh, vital springs…draw me into Hungry_noLabel Your Life and introduce me to the reality of practicing Your presence. I ask for Your baptism to flow down over me and drown me in grace. I know well that there is “more” and I aim to go after it. As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, I want my soul to pant after You. Not just words, here, but heart and passion and desire. Rush to me, O God. Call me away. My spirit accepts the invitation to Rise Up and Come Away!

Lord, show me the deepest things, the deepest parts of You. Take me there and may the five sanctified senses in me experience You to the fullest. I yearn to hunger for Your Word again! To meet with You in the closet at our daily appointed time where we can embrace and linger in the air of closeness.

Take me higher! Make my feet as hinds’ feet and walk me upon the craggy heights! Take me from the congregation and draw me to the pinnacle of Your desire for me. All that You have for me is my desire. You are most glorified when I am most satisfied in You and I want and wish to glorify You. May this life hold no attraction for me; I pull from it even if its talons hold on for dear life and rip me apart. May the claim of my life become: “the world is crucified to me and I to the world!”

Put a holy dissatisfaction in me for the things of this world. I do not desire its accolades and acceptance but Yours alone. This is the cry of my spirit! My soul follows far behind at times and has for a long time, but I cannot go on in complacency and indifference. Stir me, Lord. Stir my heart for the things that matter to You and may the crevasse that I have allowed to come between us be bridged by Your gracious invitation to come along and follow hard on Your heels.

I pray for a heart of integrity, hands of skill, a voice of impact, the eyes of Elisha, the baptism of the Spirit and the tongue of the learned. For an inoffensible spirit, unconditional love and the fear of God and not man.

In Jesus’ dear Name, Amen.

Jul

The Passionate (Passive) Pursuit of God

By pasturescott Leave a Comment

Categories: Brokenness, Christianity, Commitment, Consecration and Crucified Life

When evangelist Gypsy Smith was asked why, at ninety years of age, there was still a fresh vitality in his witness, he replied, “Because I’ve never lost the wonder of it all.” I, too, pray for that same effervescent hope and glittery twinkle in my eye for my later years. Check that, I strive in Christ for it! I long to dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide forever in the True Vine.

Far too many in the professing church today are hoping in a false security for all their eternal wants and wishes. Because they prayed a prayer, lifted a hand at a pastor’s behest during an invitation or filled out a decision card, they feel they are “in” and that’s all there is to it. There is no coming under the reign of Christ. They live as they good and well please. The Gospel of Heaven has replaced the Gospel of the Reign of Christ in the modern church.

When John the Baptist came preaching an “at-hand” Kingdom of Heaven, it was clear to him that a characteristic of a Kingdom citizen was one who was continually brought under the Lordship of the Son, the King of that Kingdom, Jesus the Christ.

“He must increase; I must decrease.”
(John 3:30)

The interesting thing about that passage is its Greek construction. The first phrase is a present active reality. “He must be increasing.” Simply put, the Baptizer knew this about the Kingdom economy: its citizens MUST be seen flourishing in the Life of Christ and He must be seen thriving and thrumming in them. The Good News is, this is not something we can work up on our own.

In the second phrase, the mood switches to the passive, morphing the words into these: “I must be BEING decreased.” I cannot break myself nor can I bring holiness to myself. It is the Lord’s doing.

Be forewarned. Those who would follow Christ are ripe for the anvil since we are all rife with self. Paul of the Damascus Road once shouted with his reed: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection (He must increase) and the fellowship of His suffering (I must be being decreased)…”

And still, still after years of hammering and hurting, scraping and scouring, being cast down, cast out and cast off, this hearty old apostle could say at the end of his days it had been “a good fight.” How can you kill a man who’s already dead?

When young Gypsy made Christ Lord of all His Life, it stuck. He made it his life’s pursuit to know Christ.

Eternal life is not gained by the mere lifting of a hand but with a life that abides in His Love (John 17:3). And it is a restful abiding, to be sure. Our work is only to yield (though that seems like hard labor in a prison yard at times as self is so unrelenting!). But His work is to deliver us all the way from Egypt and to Promise.

And one day, maybe a few hundred miles from this moment, or just a few perhaps, may we also turn to a would-be inquirer with glowing face and smiling eyes and give witness to a life well lived.

A life that, by God’s needful grace, never loses the wonder.

Mar

Eternal Perspective

By pasturescott 14 Comments

Categories: Adversity, Crucified Life, Disability, Encouragement, Hope, Suffering, Surrender and Trials

darkness_to_light_1600x12001

God has given me something to share with you. The following was written by a college friend of mine on the night of my accident that has rendered me paralyzed since 1981. Walter, whose body bears the burden of cerebral palsy, became my friend in the late 70’s and we have only recently reconnected again after twenty-five years. Friends told me that Walter, when hearing the tragic news, ran off into the night as far as his disabled body would allow him and cried his eyes out to God for his fallen friend.

The questions of “why, God?” rose from his broken heart but they were met on that same night with this magnificent truth and these unforgettable words:

WHEN OUR FAITH IS SEEN AS SIGHT

When through this world of sorrow it seems all life is dark with pain
God will send the sun tomorrow but we cannot grow without rain

Chorus:
An eternal weight of glory worketh from afflictions light
For we’ll shout salvation’s story when our faith is seen as sight!

In darkness, pain and anguish, in helplessness that breeds despair
Jesus wins when we relinquish all that we are to Him in prayer

Oh the cross was agonizing, e’en though to die the Lord was born
Later there was great rejoicing when came the resurrection morn!

Someday when life is over, this tabernacle will depart
We’ll see Christ the greatest Lover, we’ll know the whole not just the part

Chorus:
An eternal weight of glory worketh from afflictions light
For we’ll shout salvation’s story when our faith is seen as sight!

–Walter Ferguson

I needed to hear that again today and I’m thinking you may have needed the reminder as well. As you may have deduced, the theme of Walter’s song is taken from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthian Church. In one of its many benchmark declarations, Paul reminded his readers long ago,

“Therefore we do not give up; even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen but on what is unseen for what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal.”
(2 Cor 4:16-18)

See that highlighted part? Whatever your affliction or weakness is today, remember these three things and you’ll be just fine:

“momentary” – your adversity is TIMED (just as it began, it will come to a merciful end)
“light” – your difficulty is TEMPERED (the sovereign God has His hand on the thermostat and His eye on the thermometer)
“weight of glory” – your hardship is TAKING YOU FROM GLORY TO HIGHER GLORY!

That’s His word for us today. Amen.

Sep

A Little More Gray…A Little Less Dead

By pasturescott 10 Comments

Categories: Consecration, Crucified Life, Hunger, Intimacy, Jesus Christ, Loving God, Prayer, Reign of Christ, Surrender and Worship

“He must increase; I must be being decreased.”
–John the Plunger, 1st century

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
–Paul, mid-1st century

“Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day.”
–2 Corinthians 4:16, Amplified

The math is easy. Two thousand and seven minus nineteen hundred and sixty equals forty-seven. I did that without using my fingers, a calculator or calendars. When you get to be my age, you hesitate a little longer when someone asks how old you are. In a few years I’ll hesitate when someone asks my name but so far I’m good on that front.

Today I turned 47.

I hopped in the van this morning, headed for some TWG (Time With God) and as I locked my wheelchair into the driver’s side, I stole a quick glance into the rearview mirror. It may have been the way the sunlight highlighted the right side of my head but I had to do a double-take at the increased number of silvery strands that reflected back at me. Did it bother me? No, not one bit because I quickly referenced in my noggin the times that gray hair is meant to be a good thing in the Bible, even desirable.

Now, balding? That’s another matter altogether. I’ve moved from a hair brush to just moving some hairs around with my fingers. Soon I’ll just need a washrag. God is pretty much silent on the subject, too. Some people’s hair he numbers. Others (like me), He puts an asterisk beside.

(Total is pending.)

Sometime after my two older sisters came to be, my Mom suffered an unfortunate miscarriage. Had that child been born, I may not be here today. So, in celebration of this auspicious day in my life, come along with me into the courts and inner chamber of the Maker of Life. I’m SO glad to be alive! Even though I can squint and see fifty, and though flecks of gray are gaining momentum, I rejoiced today that with each passing year, I’m a little less ’dead’. I’m so tired of carrying about this body of death that every turn of the calendar means I’m getting that much closer to putting on immortality!

Please indulge me for yet another entry into my prayer journal:

My Father, God and King,

This is the life! Early Fall, temperatures are becoming more civil…the color of the world even seems to have changed into richer tones…and I’m here with You on my birthday, looking forward to Your Presence to hold me and reveal more riches and the richness of Your grace and Life. Show up, Lord! Speak to me. Let me hear from Your Throne and heart; I invite You to tarry with me here this while. Walk with me and expound Truth to my ears and heart that I might gain a fuller revelation of the Son of God and may my heart BURN—burn on and burn out—for You.

Overwhelm me with waves of mercy, grace following grace, glory to glory and faith to faith. Baptize me in Your deep, deep waters and bury me in them that I might rise in power with You. O God! Fill me to fullness! Complete me! Finish Your work in me! May Christ be fully formed in me…pull me into Yourself that I might come to the complete measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ with no vestige left of Scott-the-old-man. I want You. I long for You. I can even say in this moment that my soul aches for You—please don’t let this ache go away! Bubble up through me, O Living Water! Fill me up to overflowing. I worship You.

My…

Faithful God.
Wonderful Friend.
Caring Shepherd.
Loving Companion.
Patient Counselor.
Ever-present Helper.
Constant Hope.
Loyal Defender.

I feel deep pools rising up within me. Look at me when Your eyes look to and from on the earth because I’m raising my hand so You can spot me. I’m here, looking at You, beholding You. Come to me, O One Who reigns! I owe my whole life to You and bathe in Your grace. Take me deep into Your waters but as they rise to find their level, raise me with them.

I’m not after counterfeit and make-believe or manufactured holiness or any ‘virtual’ oasis in this desert. I want You to reign in me and through me. I can’t wait for the day when Your Kingdom truly comes in all its fullness to me and completely shatters and displaces all the flesh and mortar kingdoms of my heart. I long for the day when You reign supreme and there is no rebellion, hypocrisy or conditional love in me. I cry for the day when Your radiance is so seen in me that “I” become transparent—yea, removed—that all that is seen is divine glory, and the fragrance of Christ so permeates me that all stench is removed. When LOVE pours out of me in measures only known in Heaven.

Thank You for life!

Thank You for bringing me into existence that I might feel Your Touch, love and redeeming grace. Thank You for allowing me to be “in the story” and for giving me a place in it where I can demonstrate Your Life and not be stumbling around in the darkness along with the whole of humanity. Praise You! I love living and today is an opportunity for me to tell it to my heart…

I’m a little more gray today but a little less ‘dead’, too. Each passing year gets me closer to removing entirely this body of death and to be fitted for the garment You are tailoring for me. I only ask for fabric that breathes, that is porous enough to more readily, quickly and noticeably display Your glory abundantly throughout eternity…“Not unto me, O Lord. Not unto me. But to Your Name I give the glory—“ (Ps 115:1)

A little more gray. A little less dead.

Today, as I look forward from this place in the time I have left, I recommit myself to these things:

·         A little more death, a little less me
·         A little more praise, a little less indifference
·         A little more surrender, a little less selfishness
·         A little more patience, a little less judgment
·         A little more intention, a little less waste
·         A little more passion, a little less paralysis
·         A little more glory, a little less relevance
·         A little more love, a little less self-protection
·         A little more fasting, a little less indulgence
·         A little more worship, a little less preoccupation
·         A little more pilgrimage, a little less Egypt
·         A little more faith, a little less rationalism
·         A little more poor, a little less rich
·         A little more listening, a little less noise
·         A little more God, a little less theology
·         A little more risk, a little less resignation

Thank You for my life, Lord. It’s Yours. Thank You for Your Life, Lord. It’s mine.

Giver of every breath I breathe
Author of all eternity
Giver of every perfect thing
To You be the glory
Maker of Heaven and earth
No one can comprehend Your worth
King over all the universe
To You be the glory
And I am alive because I’m alive in You

It’s all because of Jesus I’m alive
It’s all because of the blood of Jesus Christ
That covers me and raised this dead man’s life
It’s all because of Jesus I’m alive

–“It’s All Because of Jesus”
The Altar and the Door, Casting Crowns

What about you? What do you need a ‘little’ more of? A ‘little’ less of?

Search Like Little Bo Peep

Other Pages For Ewe

Wool-Gathering Month By Month

November 2009
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Sep
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Got Wool?

SocialVibe

Recent Sheep Paths

RAMs (Readers And Messages)

	krislinatin on Fond Farewell
	Sid on Fond Farewell
	KaKa on Fond Farewell
	brotherjohnny on Fond Farewell
	marie on Fond Farewell
	Alan Powell on From Double-Breasted to Blue…
	Mic on From Double-Breasted to Blue…
	marie on From Double-Breasted to Blue…
	Walter Ferguson on From Double-Breasted to Blue…
	Alisa on From Double-Breasted to Blue…
	KaKa on Quick Intro and “100 (pl…
	KaKa on From Double-Breasted to Blue…
	Ackla933 on From Double-Breasted to Blue…
	pasturescott on A Prayer From A Soul Laid…
	pasturescott on THE Sin and an Unregenerate…