In, but not of this world (2)

In my previous blog post, I mentioned the prayer request of Jesus: I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one (John 17:15).

It is God's will that his disciples/followers are in this world, but at the same time... not belong to it (John 17:16). I hope you took the time to read John 17:10-20 a few times. It is such an interesting prayer.

Maybe you are thinking 'Well, I never belonged to the world. I was born in a Christian family, and I've always been to church.' Whether we belong (or not belong) to the world has nothing to do with the way we grew up but everything with God's calling.

In John 15:18-19 Jesus told His disciples: If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Jesus called the disciples out of the world into His Kingdom and He is still calling people today. 👉As a matter of fact, Jesus has chosen all of mankind to come out of this wicked world and enter His Kingdom. All we have to do is say yes to Him and to His plan of salvation.

Is it that simple, Marja? Yes, it is. Let's take a look at Galatians 1:4-5 where it is written, Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.

This is the rescue plan! It is possible to live in this world (as long as we're breathing) but at the same time belong to the Kingdom of God. Yeah, with our feet on the ground and our head in the clouds, so to speak 😁

For the honor of His name (3)

In the previous blog posts in this series, we saw that God is good to us, which brings honor to His own name. He renews our strength, He guides us along the right path, and He forgives our sins.

Let's stay in the book of Psalms and go to Psalm 31:2-3, Turn your ear to listen to me; rescue me quickly. Be my rock of protection, a fortress where I will be safe. You are my rock and my fortress. For the honor of your name, lead me out of this danger. Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me, for I find protection in you alone.

God is our rescuer, our protector, and our defender. In essence, He is our Savior! Whatever danger we might find ourselves in (self inflicted or not), He is ready to lead us out and bring us back to safety. This is His nature, this is who He is and when He acts according to His nature, it brings honor to His name.

That makes sense, doesn't it? A savior saves, a healer heals, and a protector protects. God always acts according to His nature and this brings honor to His name. This is how people get to see Him and know Him.

Now, it is our job, as believers, to make Him known to people who have never heard of Him or have a wrong concept of who God is. 👉When we point people to the Savior, the Rescuer, the Protector... we bring honor to His name!

The good armor (6)

In my previous blog I described briefly how we can use our faith as a shield to ward off the attacks of the enemy, actually to ricochet them.

Let's read on in Ephesians 6, verse 17a.

And you will need the helmet of salvation ... Most translations say: 'Take the helmet of salvation'.

👉A helmet offers protection against head injuries. So actually this is not a weapon, but none the less part of the armor. Kind of like a musician who cannot properly play without his sheet music. Although not an instrument, sheet music is essential for performance.

The helmet of salvation, how should we see it? The Bible speaks of being saved from eternal death that was the result of sin. But God's mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved (Ephesians 2: 4-5).

God's love and grace exceed our shortcomings. He offers us eternal life in His presence if we are to believe in His Son Jesus Christ. Being 100% sure that He has rescued us from darkness and brought us into light protects us from every other thought ... Thoughts that we are not worth it, that we are lost, that it is not for us, that we did awful things ...

In that same chapter of the letter to the Ephesians, it says in verse 8: For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it.

Receive that gift and let it guide your thinking, it can save you a lot of headaches!

Good times, bad times

It is quite interesting (and quite irritable as well) to see that every time a disaster, drama, or crisis occurs, experts' arise, shouting whether or not it was punishment from God, whether the end of time is near and whether or not Jesus will come back soon.

With the passing of time, things quiet down on the battlefield of doomsday thinkers, prophecies, conspiracy theories, and global plots. Until the next catastrophic event of course ... then everyone dares to speak up again.

What I often miss in their messages which (much to my annoyance) pop up everywhere in Christian Facebook groups and forums, is some form of love, grace, and hope. Anyway, each his own thing.

Looking at the history of humanity, it is quite obvious that there have always been good and bad times. Times of peace and war, of abundance and hunger. Yes, the so-called fat and lean years. The world didn't end and life resumed. Usually with people being full of renewed energy, confidence,  and many good intentions.

In bad times, we will often see a massive search for God, while in good times a general idea that we are doing just fine by ourselves is quite common. I don't really know if there is a healthy balance in this, maybe it is such a curve that keeps us alive, the ups and downs, the mountains and the valleys, the periods of great creativity and innovation and the times of indifference and consumption.

Every person on the face of this planet experiences times of joy and sorrow, of blooming and withering, of letting go and starting again. As a matter of fact, we see this happening on a larger scale as well. We see it in our country, our economy, our earth ... there is always that curve, called 'seasons'...

👉 As for the return of Jesus. He had something to say about it:

So be ready all the time. For I, the Messiah, will come when least expected (Luke 12:40, TLB).

I have often wondered what kind of moment that will be. A moment when He is least expected, don't you think that is interesting? I wonder if the 'experts' take that into account when they write their end-time scenarios. Basically, we do not know! The key is to be ready to meet God, all the time. Then, and only then, can we truly live a quiet life, no matter what happens.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

Give me a V

In my Bible Alphabet Blog Series V stands for Victory.

Photo: Wietse Visser

This picture was taken several days ago. Quite amazing isn't it? (You can see it even larger here.)

It might be hard to believe that all these people are Christians, but they are. It is maybe even harder to believe that they are from all different churches and denominations, but they are. The hardest thing to believe is that this picture was taken in The Netherlands.

Yes, The Netherlands, that liberal and secular country where God seems to have left the premises. But I want to tell you something, contrary to popular opinion, Christianity is thriving in The Netherlands. Jesus is alive and well. And 65.000 people came together last weekend to celebrate Pentecost, in larger numbers than last year and the year before and the one before that...

No, this happening does not make it to the front pages, maybe because it is too good to be true. And no, it was not always this big. It started 47 years ago with a small group of people who believed revival would come to The Netherlands. They did not give up praying and they refused to be overcome by all the negative news. Let me encourage you with this word: Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 5:4-5).

What we see in the daily news, all the violence, death and destruction, is in reality propaganda of the enemy; Satan showing off his trophies. I surely believe it is nothing more than his reaction to what is really going on... people all over the world are discovering that God loves them and that Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it.

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).

Give me an N

In my Bible Alphabet Blog Series N stands for Name.

To be more precisely, it stands for the Name above all names. Obviously, I am not talking about the name we give to a new born child, or our first, last, middle or baptismal name. This is about the Name that God gave his Son ... Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name (Philippians 2: 9).

What is so special about that Name? What is the power in that Name? ... that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10) Such a picture is hard to imagine perhaps, but one day everyone will recognize that He is the highest God, the Prince of Peace, and all wars will be finished.

Jesus is the only name that can bring salvation (peace) to humanity. Not a president, not a political leader, not a leader in the UN, but only He can do this:  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4 : 12).

All power of heaven and earth is in that one Name. The power to heal, the power to witness, the power to save and to forgive. It is therefore no surprise that for more than two thousand years it has been prohibited in many nations to mention the Name, to talk about that Name or to pray in that Name. In Acts 4: 17-18 it is written as follows: But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name. Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

By prohibiting people to use the Name or to believe in that Name, the opposite will happen of course! Worldwide, there are millions and millions of believers in every possible nation under the sun, and more are added each day. A hundred million of them are being persecuted, tortured and slain for their faith in that Name. Despite the persecution they know that His name offers life!

John's Gospel ends with these words: Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Give me an M

In my Bible Alphabet Blog series M stands for Mankind.

Yes, mankind making a mess of this world, mankind cursing God and exalting himself above the Creator of the Universe, ... yes, the men and women forming the entire human race.

The Bible says that God made mankind in His own image. He thereby decided to distinguish between two different sexes, male and female, So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27).

What an awesome honor to be created in the image of a triune God (Father, Son and Spirit, and yet one God) and to resemble Him whether we are male or female (spirit, soul and body, yet one human being). David wrote about the creation of mankind: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well (Psalm 139: 14).

The same David lived in great amazement about the insignificance of man in comparison to the greatness of God, but acknowledged certainly God's purpose with the creation of mankind: what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet... (Psalm 8: 4-6).

God created mankind and gave us the earth as a residential area where we could rule over the things God had created [not over each other!]. If you have visited other countries, you must have noticed how every nation has a unique place, culture and atmosphere of its own ... sometimes land was taken by force, but that should not be necessary. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands (Acts 17:26).

Throughout history we can see over and over again how mankind became prideful and figured they could do things better than God. The Bible calls this sin or disobedience. In some way or other we have all sinned, but there is also forgiveness for everyone! Romans 5:19 puts it quite simple: For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. That "one man" is the Savior of the world, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

God loves the work of His hands, He saw that is was very good! He loves mankind, He loves you and me and I am sure His heart hurts when He looks at the mess we are making of this world. It is His desire that all people will come to the knowledge of an important truth, for there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people (1 Timothy 2:3-6).

Give me a J

In my Bible alphabet blog series J stands for Jesus.

Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth as a man. His birth was announced by an angel who visited his mother Mary: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus (Luke 1:31).

Now, the angel of course did not speak to Mary in English. The name Jesus is therefore derived from the Hebrew Yeshua which means the Lord is salvation.

When Jesus was about thirty years old, he moved from Nazareth to Capernaum (the remains of that town can still be found in Israel) and from that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17).

During His earthly sojourn Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. In John 5:19 it is written like this, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. So, what did Jesus do? He traveled around, talked about the Kingdom, testified about the truth, forgave people their sins, healed those who were sick and even raised people, who had died prematurely, from the dead.

Jesus came to earth to set mankind free from sin by giving His life, His blood (Revelation 1: 5). He was tortured, crucified and killed. After three days He rose from the grave. He not only overcame sin but also death!

If this is true, why (why, why) then is our world still so full of sin, destruction, sorrow and death? Because every human being must use his or her free will to make a conscious dicision to believe in Jesus and so receive forgiveness, victory and freedom. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 5: 5).

GIVE yourselves to God (3)

"I surrender all..."Yes, we do sing that from time to time. Surrendering all, giving it all to Him. What does that really mean?

The scripture I am using as a basis for this series can be found in Romans 6:12-14, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Offering ourselves, giving ourselves to God, means surrendering our whole being to Him. According to the Bible that is spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Sadly enough there are many Christians who struggle desperately with spiritual, emotional and physical problems (and sometimes all three). A struggle that takes up most of our time and attention, so we never get to the point where we can offer ourselves to be used as instruments in His service. But this does not have to be so, it can change! Take courage, keep reading. 

In part 2 of this series we discovered that the most important moment in a person's life is when we surrender our spirit to God (when we believe in Jesus Christ). God's Spirit comes to live in us and revives our spirit, we become a new creation. In this post we will take a closer look at our soul. How do we give our soul to God? 

According to the Bible our spirit can be renewed (born again), but our soul gets saved. We call that salvation. In Peter 1:8-9 it says that the salvation of our souls is the end result of our faith, Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Our soul does not perish, on the contrary: it gets saved. This means that, despite the fact that we become a new creation through rebirth, we keep our same old soul. The soul with all it's pains and hurts, disappointments and struggles. I do not have enough space on this blog to write extensively about the human soul (see chapter 8 of my book Grace of Giving), but for one thing the human soul consists of our emotions.

We do not receive a new and clean soul... Sometimes people say: repent and turn your life to Jesus, all your worries will be gone. This is a little bit too simple. YES! In Him it is possible to be free from all our burdens (sin, shame, guilt, sickness, pain and worries), but that does not happen automatically. It is very important that we also accept Jesus Christ as the one who has access to our soul, so He can work on it. He wants to be the shepherd and overseer according to 1 Peter 2:25, For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

GIVE your soul to Him so He can do the necessary work. He will guide and direct, heal an deliver, feed and protect your soul. Expose your secrets and tell Him: Lord, this is my inner struggle, I need your help. Please be the shepherd of my soul. The healing and cleansing of our soul is a life long process (because we keep experiencing stuff) and not always easy. But it will surely set us free!

PS: if this series helps you, forward it to a friend!

Give yourselves to God (2)

When listening to the words of some Christian songs and hymns we sing, one would think we pretty much understand what it means to give it all to God. 'I surrender all', we sing enthusiastically. But is it truly so easy, so simple to give it all? To surrender all and offer ourselves to God? Giving ourselves to God ... a great subject for a blog series.

The scripture I am using as a basis for this series can be found in Romans 6:12-14, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Offer ourselves, giving ourselves to God, means surrendering our whole being to Him. According to the Bible that is spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Let us take a closer look at the human spirit. The Bible talks about the Spirit (with a capital S) and the spirit (with a regular s). The Spirit with a capital S is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. The spirit with a small s is the human spirit (unless the Bible specifically talks about bad or unclean spirits). A wonderful example of communication between God's Spirit and our spirit can be found in Romans 8:16 (GNT), God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children.

God's Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Do you experience this in your daily life? Basically, this is a simple description of our rebirth, the second birth. God's Spirit melting together with our spirit, becoming a new creation. Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus says, without using difficult words, in John 3:7 I tell you that you must all be born again. One time of human parents, one time of the Spirit (see also 1 Peter 1:23 and 1 Corinthians 6:17, But he who joins himself to the Lord becomes spiritually one with him).

This is the most important moment of surrender in the life of a human being on earth: laying our life down, letting go, giving it back to God and receiving the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1:13 is written that the Holy Spirit comes and lives with us when we believe that Jesus Christ came to save this world, And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised.

We often want to keep our life, our way of thinking and acting. We want to do our own thing. But whoever wants to keep his/her life, will loose it. Our human spirit (life, breath) is dead for communication with God (result of sin) until His Spirit comes and lives in us (result of repentance) and begins to enlighten us (result of grace). Relationship restored as God intended it. We can not experience this by becoming members of a church, by singing the right songs, getting a master's degree in theology or by growing up in a Christian family. It becomes possible when the Holy Spirit makes His home in us, which the Bible calls 'being born again'. Romans 8:9 says, But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to—if, in fact, God's Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Do you truly want to belong to Christ and no longer be a name-Christian? Lay down your life, give it all up, admit that you are a sinner and in need of God... and ask Him for the Holy Spirit.... How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:13)

Maintaining our freedom (6)

In my first post about freedom I mentioned that this series would be no more than a brief summary of the teachings we shared during the freedom conferences. I realize I am only touching the surface of this subject and I hope one thing will become very clear: in order to live in the freedom that Jesus purchased for us, we need to stand firm and not become a slave again... of anything or anyone.

Galatians 5:1 says, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. That freedom is available for everyone who is willing to make a conscious decision to believe in Jesus Christ and to follow Him. Then... we need to stand firm and not let ourselves be burdened again. We can stand firm by 1) making the right choices (holy living), 2) receiving and giving forgiveness, 3) confessing our sins to one another and 4) understanding the power of Communion. That last thing is what this post is all about.

Jesus came to earth to set us free from sin, but (and this we find much harder to believe) He also came to set us free from sickness! We can read that in Matthew 8:16-17, When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Jesus literally fulfilled that prophecy. He came to deliver mankind from sin, but also from sickness and ailments (which are often the result from the Fall of mankind in general). The Bible continually confirms this, for example in Luke 13:10-12, where it is written about a crippled woman When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Jesus declares freedom from her infirmity. He delivers her from her infirmity as He delivers us from our sin. The word freedom or deliverance is being used in connection with sin AND sickness.

When we take a closer look at the prophecy Isaiah uttered about the coming Messiah, we will see that he also described the liberating work of Jesus in detail. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5). All different aspects of human suffering are mentioned here: infirmities (physical), sorrows (psychological and emotional), transgressions (sin) and iniquities (immorality, often inherited). There is absolutely nothing that Jesus does NOT want to deliver us from. Another wonderful confirmation can be found in the Old Testament, and well in Psalms 103:1-5, ... who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. Jesus wants to forgive and heal! Hallelujah. Personally, it brought me much joy and liberty when I realized that He came to save me from sin and sickness.

Maybe you are wondering what this has to do with Communion? I personally believe that the two elements of Communion (bread and wine) symbolize the two facets of salvation: deliverance from sickness and sin. If salvation is no more than deliverance from sin, then wine would be sufficient to symbolize the blood of Jesus that flowed for the forgiveness of all sin. So why the bread? Is there more than forgiveness? YES! The bread symbolizes Jesus' body, which was wounded for our healing. The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:23-31 about celebrating Communion. The Bible tells us there that some people were sick because they did not properly recognize the body of the Lord, some even died... Is it no more than logical to conclude that we can be healed if we participate in Communion in a right manner? That we will receive healing when we recognize the meaning of the wounded body of the Lord?

This is also an important key in order to stand firm in our freedom from sickness and ailments. I truly hope this series have helped you to stand firm too!