Sunday Musings 9/15/2013

The other day a friend said to me, I gotta do such and such.   My response to her was, Why do you gotta?
About that time we were interrupted and I didn't get to pontificate about the "gottas". So you, dear folks, get my pontification on this subject.

I am learning more and more about the "ministry of death" as it differs from "Life in Christ Jesus" as I grow in the freedom and liberty that the Holy Spirit gives as we come to know Jesus more personally. 

To clarify some words to start with..."gotta" or "got to" "have to" "need to" in this article do not refer to those words used in terms of necessities such as I have to turn the faucet on if I want to get water. I gotta turn the key on if I want to start the care.  These are valid uses of the terms.
The other uses of these terms are "pressure" words that stand to bring forth guilt and shame.

OK, Meri, you've rattled on about this before. So what is new?

As I learn the freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus, the guilt and shame that comes from the  failure to do anything we are "supposed to do" is eliminated.  Supposed to do....is always up against some standard that we are required to follow to gain the approval of someone or something. It can be simply put as "law."   The ministry of death works through all sense of law. Does it make the law bad? No, the law is Holy and violation of the law....brings guilt and shame which cover us in death! 

OK..so what?  Jesus Christ frees us from the law of condemnation, our failures, the guilt and the shame which bring forth death and destruction. Oh, we all know that but......what's that got to do with saying "I have to do...or I gotta"....

When we use those words, we are often unaware that we have opened the doorway to the ministry of death...the law of sin and death where guilt and shame reign.   So if we "don't do" what we think we ought to....what comes??? Guilt and shame.

I have heard several friends lately who have been dealing with various medical issues and family issues tell me that they racked their brains to make sure there wasn't any "unconfessed sin" in their lives, thinking those things kept them from enjoying the blessings of God in those areas! WAKE UP FRIENDS!  All that is ours in Christ Jesus is by GRACE not because we deserve it, not because we have "repented of everything we ever did" but because everything we ever did is "UNDER THE BLOOD" and new life is ours in Christ Jesus.  If I have to go hunting for "unconfessed sin", where is my faith that all my sin, past present and future, is under the blood, and my life redeemed from destruction by that blood, and resurrection life in Christ Jesus has been made available to me??

This past week my middle daughter came down on the train from Seattle to visit and I picked her up. After we visited her older sister in Centralia we came to my place in Winlock and then she took my car and went and spent the afternoon with her dad (Chuck).
After the visit with the two girls, much stuff went through my mind and I am soooo thankful that I know the message that I am writing about here, at least in part!  There is NOTHING that can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus...nothing I have done, am doing or will do because it is all paid for....the price was paid ONCE and for ALL!!  It is easy when grown children are around to look at the things in the past and figure out how one could have or should have done things differently!!    Useless endeavour!!  It is today, the present. Now is the day of salvation and I have been saved from the consequences of sin, from the ministry of death, from guilt and shame, all that I  did to "take care of Meri"  to "please other people", to stay safe!   It doesn't make any difference if it was right or wrong. We aren't under the law, no longer  seeing life from the fruit of the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil". But today we see life through Life in Christ Jesus....seated with Him in heavenly places at the right hand of the Father and Jesus holds me by His right hand.

I saw that there is freedom NOW to be "in Christ", to "abide in Him" in the NOW by faith and that frees me from the law of sin and death, it frees me from the ministry of death.  Oh what joy, what freedom to rejoice!!

In the past when  I got around the Body of Christ, one of the issues I would struggle with are my failures in relationships and marriages because there are always a 1000 things I "could have done" or "should have done", most of which I didn't know to do but still they stand to "judge" me.  But today, I recognize that condemnation  as the ministry of death, the law of sin and death!  I HAVE A CHOICE today....believe who I am in Christ and who Christ is in me, or look at all the past and present and future circumstances through the ministry of death(tree of the knowledge of good and evil), what should I have done, how could I have done it differently...etc.

Today the question is, Lord what are you doing, and teach me Your ways!! That comes from the ministry of reconciliation.  In Christ there is no condemnation. In Christ there is freedom, in Christ there is newness of Life, health, strength, Wisdom Himself made known unto us in righteousness, sanctification and redemption.   He has "redeemed" the past from the ministry of death, for He shows how everything in my past accomplished His plan and His purpose for my life!!! Each "failure" was orchestrated to bring forth His plan and His purpose. WOW!!  That is what His blood did on Calvary. That is why we take the bread, the broken bread at Communion as we declare His body was broken by the force of sin in place of mine! And now I live by the Life He made available to me in the Resurrection/Coming of Holy Spirit.

With the grown children here and bringing awareness of the relationships of the past,  I have had the wonderful freedom to see how God has worked out His plan and purpose in my life and am believing Him to be continuing to work out that plan and purpose in the lives of other family members, like the kids' fathers.  And I can rejoice and pray into that plan and purpose because I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him!   I have called those things from my past as part of His plan and purpose in Christ Jesus knowing they are under the blood and His Spirit is hovering over those loved ones even as he hovers over me working out His plan and purpose on the earth as it is in Heaven!!

I like to ask someone when they say, I gotta do.....  Why do you gotta?   Today we who are called by His Name, have choices. We can choose to, we are free to follow after what HE is doing.   I astounded someone recently when I told them that after I "introduced someone to Jesus Christ"  sometime earlier this year, the Lord asked me whether or not I was doing what He was doing or if I was doing what I was "supposed to do?"  And I admitted to Him I was "doing what I was supposed to do" and had not listened to see what He was doing. And He clearly told me that the fruit wasn't ready to be picked as it wasn't fully ripened.  Had I looked for openings? Yes, had I been thoughtful about only sharing if I had an opening and was the person "open"?  Yes, but was that what God was doing, what Holy Spirit was doing? NOPE.....No guilt, no condemnation...but an impartation of His Wisdom and insight....and I was "willing to turn" to Him and not resist that turning and was willing to let "my way" "my ought to"  "the right thing"  lay down and follow after Himself!

Walking in the Kingdom lifestyle is so very different from much of what I have learned in the past. It is about seeing what He is doing and walking it out here on the earth as it is in Heaven. And I am so glad that all my feeble effort to perform His will on earth apart from abiding in Him in the heavenly places....is covered under the blood and cannot separate me from that safe place in the Rock, that dwelling place, that mansion He's made for me in Himself to tabernacle in for all eternity!

Praise be the name of Jesus!

Meri