Do Not Despise Prophecy

 

Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good.

—1Thessalonians 5:20-21 

 

 

Why would someone despise a word that was attributed to God? Most likely, the person hearing the word is not convinced that God is the author of what is being said. 

 

In I Thessalonians 5:20, Paul said not to despise prophesying, and in the next verse, he said not to be gullible—but to test all things. If we criticize a prophecy without testing it, we have not given it a chance. That is wrong. It is also wrong to believe that everything spoken in the name of God is true. We must use discernment. 

 

In Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus explained that we would know a true prophet by the fruit in his life. 

 

It is wrong to judge a prophet without looking at the fruit his life produces. But we need to exercise wisdom when examining the fruit in someone’s life. Even good fruit can go bad. Some hearers of Paul’s message twisted his message to say that he had given them the freedom to live sinful lives (Romans 3:8). Paul never justified sin in anyone’s life. Those who twisted what Paul said did not discredit his whole ministry. Things said by others today do not justify discrediting a whole ministry. The prevalent fruit that a ministry produces is a good way to judge its validity. 

 

The believers in Berea also gave the greatest example of how to prove the validity of a message.

 

“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:21).

 

The real test of any prophet or prophecy is if what he says aligns with God's written Word. If a message of a prophet disrupts the letter or spirit of the Word, it is wrong. However, we need spiritual maturity to make a judgment like this. We do not have the whole truth of God (1 Corinthians 13:12). We need to be careful. We are human. We can make mistakes when we judge prophecies. There needs to be scriptural consistency and reliability in our judgment. Those who blatantly violate Scripture should never be judged good.

 

If a prophet leads people away from God and places them in bondage with his message, do not hold fast to it. Paul said, “Hold fast that which is good.” He did not say to reject the bad. It is implied, but he places emphasis on embracing the good. Some people just “look to embrace the bad instead of the good.” Some are on judgment-watch, examining everything for the slightest mistake in a minister’s life. When they find that mistake, they come against him and label everything else in his life as false. That is not what Paul was saying in 1 Thessalonians 5:21. When listening to any prophet that says he speaks the Word of God always exercise discernment. Not everything that is said in the name of God is from Him. But it is equally wrong to be critical except in the most blatant instances. 

 

When we judge a prophecy based on our personal judgment of its messenger, we may discredit a word God has for us. It is easy to discredit a message because of a messenger. It takes effort to look past the human conveying the message and receive the message coming from God. 

 

God uses imperfect humans in our lives, and, we humans, are fallible. Do not despise a prophecy. Do not judge a prophet based on the word of others. Carefully, study the fruit in his life. Test his message with the written Word of God, and embrace what is good. 

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/07/judging-prophecy.html

 

Expectant Hope

 

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

—Proverbs 13:12, NKJV

 

 

All of us have expectations in life. Some expectations are spoken and some aren’t. Whether spoken or not—conscious or subconscious, our expectations form our lives. An expectation is described as strong anticipation, and it can be either positive or negative. Hope is a resilient and positive expectation of good. Without hope, the heart becomes sick with despair. But with hope, faith rises from deep within and brings forth life.

 

We are either positive in our outlook or negative. Some people expect to never have enough money, to always fail, to have problems, or never be well. And some of these same people declare that they are believing God for their promise. But a negative outlook keeps them from exercising their faith to believe. Your views of life, of God, and of yourself are always found in your expectations. And your expectations will either kill your faith or encourage it. You cannot believe the promises of God at the same time you are expecting a life of failure and defeat. 

 

If faith is the substance of hope (Hebrews 11:1) and hope is strong anticipation of something good, then it is impossible to believe the truth of God’s promises when you live with negative expectations. If your expectations in life are negative, faith has no fertile soil to take root in your heart and grow. This is why what you think in your heart is so important. As you think you are in your heart, you are (Proverbs 23:7). A negative outlook is a death to faith. A positive outlook is the heart of Holy Spirit faith.

 

“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (Matthew 12:34b-35, NKJV).

 

What you speak comes out of the abundance of your heart—either that which offers no hope or that which gives life. When you are negative in your expectations, your heart overflows with things that speak fear and despair. When you are positive and believing God, you are full of hope and good expectations. 

 

Hopeful expectations are powerful when the Word of God is believed in your heart. Without knowing who you are in Christ, you cannot have hope in the promises Christ has given you. God has given you victory in Christ. You realize His victory when you believe His promises are true. 

 

Come against the negative expectations that steal, kill, and destroy your faith (John 10:10). Be renewed in your attitude by the Word (Ephesians 4:23). Put on the hope Christ gives (Ephesians 4:24). Let it flourish in your heart and change your perspective (Proverbs 13:12). The hope Christ places in your heart gives abundant life (John 10:10).. 

 

When you believe that Christ is the fulfillment—the completion—the beginning and the end—of everything you have needed or shall ever need, you know you have received life! His promises are yours, and they are yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20).

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/07/expectant-hope.html

 

 

No Condemnation in Christ

 

And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 

—1 John 3:19-21 

 

Many believers struggle with feelings of condemnation. Condemnation is not conviction. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Conviction trains us in the righteousness that Christ has given us. It builds our faith with God’s grace and truth. Condemnation brings feelings of shame and doubt and fear and rejection. It is a tool of the enemy to destroy any confidence we have that God loves us. 

When our hearts condemn us, God’s truth is greater than what we feel. When we don’t feel condemned is when we can have confidence in God’s love for us. We have to assure ourselves of the truth of His Word. 

Those who walk in the spirit instead of in the flesh have confidence in who they are in Christ (Romans 8:1). They don’t live by what they feel. They live what they believe. The way to overcome feelings of condemnation is to encourage your heart with God’s truth and deny your feelings. But if you don’t renew your mind with God’s truth (Romans 12:2), your heart will condemn you and at times you may even doubt your salvation. 

And what does God’s truth say about your salvation?

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13).

 

Your salvation is sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. It is His guarantee. This is not what you feel. This is what you know because God says it is true. Encourage your faith with the Word and believe His truth in your heart.

 

Do you see why the renewing of your mind with the Word is crucial to living by God’s truth and not by what we feel?  For God’s truth to be real in your life, you choose to deny the feelings that bring shame and doubt and fear and rejection. To walk according to the His Spirit and not by what you feel, you have to know God’s Word and believe it in your heart. 

 

Knowing and believing the truth of who you are in Christ gives you confidence in your relationship with God. When you exercise the truth of that relationship, you walk by faith and not by what you feel. According to what you believe, you receive (Matthew 9:29).

 

©2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/07/no-condemnation-in-christ.html

 

 

 

The Good Report of the Lord

 

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23, NKJV).  

 

What do we confess? Hebrews 10:23 says that when we hold on to confessing God’s promise with unswerving hope, God is faithful. We must hold fast to our trust and faith in what Jesus did for us, without wavering (James 1:6-8). The reason we can remain constant in our faith is that our faith is in Jesus and not in ourselves. Jesus never changes. Our feelings always change. Jesus, who is the Word (John 1:14), never changes. He is always the same.

 

When we speak what we feel as truth, we confess what is felt by our senses. But when we speak the truth of the Word—no matter how we feel or what our circumstances—we confess the truth of the supernatural realm of God. We speak the power of God’s unseen over what is seen. 

 

The world says to be afraid. God has not given you a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7) The world says you are sick and have no chance of healing. God says that by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). The world says your needs won’t be met. The Word says He supplies all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ (Philippians 4:19). If you really believed the Word, wouldn’t you confess His truth instead of what the world says or what the enemy says about you? Wouldn’t you believe the Savior who died for you over the enemy who attempts to steal, kill and destroy your life?  

 

Walking by faith and not by sight is believing in the unseen truth of God over what you see or feel. The Holy Spirit guides you into all of God’s truth—into the unseen of God’s spiritual realm that fills you with every spiritual blessing (John 14:17, 16:13, Ephesians 1:3). Not knowing and spiritually understanding the Word keeps you from receiving what Christ has given you. The truth of your identity in Christ needs to be known and understood over what the world or any other person says. You have the mind of Christ to understand His truth (1 Corinthians 2:16). And when you allow His truth to renew your mind, you believe in your heart (Romans 12:2). And when you believe by faith in God’s Word, you sow His Good News in your heart, and you reap its good benefits.

 

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17, NKJV). 

 

Faith and the Word of God are interchangeable. You can’t have faith without hearing the Word, and the Word can’t be heard without it building your faith. Faith has no power without the Word. An alive faith comes by hearing the Word and not by just having heard the Word in the past. 

 

Faith pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). When you appropriate (take) by faith what Jesus has given His life for you to have, it pleases Him. And God rewards those who diligently seek Him with the revealed truth of His Word. You seek God, and you receive His Word (John 1:1, Matthew 7:8).

 

“Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed (Isaiah 53:1, NKJV)?

 

The work of Jesus is finished. It is perfect. God’s Word is settled in heaven. It is the final authority, and it is perfect (Psalm 119:89). When you take (appropriate) the report of the Lord—His Word—at its unfailing value—when you believe it by faith, you receive its unseen truth. When you confess its truth, that truth arises from the abundance of what you believe in your heart (Matthew 12:34). You receive according to what you believe (Matthew 9:29). If you believe and confess what is not God’s truth, then that is what you receive. But if you believe and confess His truth, you profess the finished work of Jesus—the unseen realm—into your life.

 

Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you God’s Word (John 16:13). It is His good report. Be renewed by His truth again and again (Romans 12:2). Hear His truth in your heart. Believe it. Hold fast to it (Hebrews 10:23). Speak life to it (Proverbs 18:21). When you believe His good report, you have the power of His final Word that sets you free (John 8:32).

 

Has His truth been revealed to you? You have the grace—the finished work of Jesus—living inside of you. 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/07/the-good-report-of-lord.html

 

 

 

We Choose You

 

Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven.

—Psalm 119:89

 

 

Forever, God’s truth is settled. Settled means it is fixed, unchanging, and eternal. His Word is true. It was revealed to us in His Son, Jesus, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). The Word is God’s spirit and His life. We only benefit from God’s truth when we believe it in our hearts (John 6:63, Matthew 9:29, Romans 10:10).

 

—For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

—Hebrews 4:12

 

The Word of God is living and powerful. When we believe its truth, we experience its life and power within us. Cutting through the hardened heart with one single stroke, the Word separates truth from what is not true. 

 

We are comprised of spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:24). Together, the soul and spirit make up the heart. Only the severe sharpness of God’s Word can separate between soul and spirit. Only the intense examination of God’s Word reveals if what we believe is born of our feelings or born of God’s truth. 

 

The relationship between soul and spirit is like the relationship between joints and marrow. The marrow of the bone produces life-giving blood. But bones are not connected to each other without a joint. Without joints, the body would not work the way it was designed to work. Without the truth of God’s Word and its life-giving power, our lives would not function the way God designed them to function. 

 

Our born-again spirit is where God has given us new life (John 3:6, 2 Corinthians 5:17). Just as bones are connected by joints, our spirits are connected to our bodies by our souls. The new life that is in our born-again spirits cannot reach our bodies except through our souls, which are also referred to as our minds. Our minds are where we determine what is truth and what it not truth. It is where we determine what we believe. The Word discerns the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Either, we filter what we believe through God’s truth or through what we feel. Therefore, the renewing of our minds with God’s truth is crucial to experiencing the new life we have received in our born-again spirits (Romans 12:2).

 

For God’s truth to be ours, we must take ownership of it and believe it. To believe it, we are renewed by its truth until we believe it in our hearts. We choose not to live by the feelings of our minds but to believe the truth of His Word. We take the Word which was fulfilled in Christ. We take the new life of Christ that He has given us and allow the Holy Spirit to teach us. When our thoughts and understanding are renewed by God’s truth, we conform to His truth because we believe it. We know who we are in Christ. We live out of our new identity. It is only then our lives can prove what is the good, perfect, and acceptable will of God (Romans 12:2-3). Believing the truth of His Word in our hearts makes all the difference. 

 

Forever, Lord, your Word is settled in heaven. And you have given it—you have given yourself—to us. We choose to know your truth. We choose to know the life you have given us. We choose you.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/07/we-choose-you.html

 

 

Who Are You

 

And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

—Romans 8:30 (NLT)

 

 

God declares in this verse that He chose you to know Him. You were chosen to be His child and receive all the inherent blessings in that relationship. Jesus gave His life for you to have this relationship with God. God called you to come to Himself, and when you came to Him, you received right-standing with Him. You now stand in God’s presence without a single fault. And when Jesus gave you right-standing with His Father, you received God’s glory (Ephesians 1:3-8). He became your Abba Father (Galatians 4:6). Christ, the hope, of glory is within you (Colossians 1:27). His glorious power lives within you (Ephesians 1:19). 

 

This is how God sees you and wants you to see these truths in yourself. But we become frustrated when we try to earn something we have already been given. We must allow the Word to transform our understanding about the gift of righteousness that is ours in Christ. We haven’t called ourselves. We can’t forgive ourselves and make ourselves right with God. We can’t earn His righteous glory because it is already ours—given to us in the gift of His life. Your new life in Christ is a gift you cannot earn. You have to believe what you have received is yours.

 

“What then shall we say to these things?” (Romans 8:31a, NKJV). 

 

Paul asks a crucial question here. “Do you believe who God says you are—that God chose you and having accepted Him, you are called, justified, and glorified?”

 

The Word can declare these truths about you, but until you take ownership of what God says about you, they do not make a difference in your life. When you have unused power in your life, you are not receiving the benefits of your inheritance in Christ. But when you believe what God declares about you in His Word, you receive what His truth declares (Hebrews 4:2). You believe what God says about you by faith (Romans 10:17). You don’t always “feel” what God says is true. You have to know what is true. You exercise by faith that what His Word says is true. And when you believe His Word in your heart, His power is alive and realized in you.

 

What is your response to who Jesus says you are? This is where who you are in Christ comes down to your personal relationship with Him. No one else can answer Romans 8:30 for you. It is your personal question. You might say, “God saved me but for me to believe I’m called, justified, glorified, and filled with the power of God? I don’t know about that.” And with this response, you close the door to believing who you are in Christ. 

 

It is truthful for you to say, “I am called by God. I am justified. I am glorified with the Spirit of God within me. I have the shed blood of my Savior living in me. So what do I say to these things that God says about me? I am forgiven. I am whole. I am healed. I am delivered. I see myself as God sees me. This is true for me. Not tomorrow or the next day. It is true now!”

 

“What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31, NKJV).

 

What do you say to these things about yourself? God sees the image of His Son in you. You are new in Christ. All the old is gone. God is for you and not against you. Nothing has any power to stand against you when you believe who God says you are in your heart.

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/07/who-are-you.html

 

 

His Promises

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, 

to the glory of God through us.

—2 Corinthians 1:20 (NKJV)

 

 

A promise is a vow that someone will do what they say. In 2 Corinthians 1:20, Paul makes a clear statement that God does what He says. The promises of God are guaranteed because the Word says God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18). If God were to break His promises—if He were to break His Word, this world would destroy itself. This world is only held together by the power of God’s Word (Hebrews 1:3).

 

God’s Word is absolutely trustworthy. All His promises are true and faithful. He doesn’t say something in His Word and then means something different. If God has promised you something, He is faithful to do it. 

 

David wrote in the Psalms that God magnifies His Word above His own name.

 

“I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name” (Psalms 138:2, NKJV).

 

The name of the Lord is all-powerful. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess He is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). If God’s name is the name above all names and His Word is greater than His name, this gives us great assurance that the Word of God is absolutely true and the promises He has made are guaranteed (Psalms 19:7-13).

 

In 2 Corinthians 1:20, Paul spoke about the faithfulness of God’s promises because he had told the Corinthians he was coming back to see them, and he hadn’t yet returned. Paul didn’t want the Corinthians to believe that he didn’t keep his word. If the validity of Paul’s personal word was questionable, then what he had shared with them about Christ would also be questionable. Paul told the Corinthians that his word was as good as the Gospel he had preached to them. Whether we like it or not, people judge what we say by our integrity. What we do always speaks louder than what we say. If we lack personal integrity, we lose the respect of others. When we have integrity, we honor God. Our lives worship him.

 

Dear Father, you magnify your Word above your own name. We honor you when we believe in the truth of your Word and we allow your truth to transform our minds. We then live the truth of your Word. Our faith then makes a difference in our actions. 

 

Your promises are yes and amen. They are guaranteed. You are faithful to live up to your Word. Lord, help us to live our lives with integrity—faithfully living up to the promises that we make. We want to glorify you in everything we do so that your revelation of grace is received in the lives of others.

 

When we know the truth of your Word, we believe everything is new in us. Holy Spirit, inspire us not to live on the edge of who we are in your grace. Take us deeper into your heart, and reveal yourself in us. When we believe in our hearts that in your death you gave us new life—when we take ownership of the new identity that you have given us—when we believe your finished work of grace is a finished work in us, we believe who you say we are in your Word. We believe we are reborn in your righteousness, and our vision changes. The perspective of what we naturally think then becomes your spiritual perspective.

 

The faith you have given us is the substance of what you have promised. It is evidence of what we haven’t seen. By faith, we envision your promises already fulfilled before we experience their fulfillment.  We believe you are trustworthy so we believe what you promise is trustworthy. We know we shall receive what you promise because we believe. 

 

Praise you, Jesus, for your grace! We are no longer in debt! We are free from the curse of the law! Praise you for your Resurrection life in us. Praise you for your promises. They are yes and amen, and they are ours. Open our spiritual eyes and ears and understanding. Holy Spirit, teach us to believe. We will rest in your promises. Our confidence is in you.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/07/his-promises.html

Christ in Me

 

 

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

—Colossians 2:13-14

 

 

Life is life. I will have bad, mad, or sad moments. But I can’t go by what I experience in this world or the emotions I feel. Those moments and the feelings they bring are not the truth about my life. I choose to not live by what I feel. I choose to live by what God reveals is true for me in His Word. I choose to believe my unworthy sinful nature has been nailed to the cross and that Christ has given me His new life—His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

 

This truth is not just for a moment. It is a state of being. I choose to believe the truth of who Jesus says I am. I have no reason to live by what I feel. I am new in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). The old me is dead, and that person can condemn me no more. Jesus has presented me without fault to the Father. That is not just a feeling. That is not just a moment. That is His absolute truth. And that moment where I was accepted and loved without measure took place over two-thousand years ago. That one moment in Christ’s life changed everything in my life. I have crucified living by my feelings. I choose to live by His faith (Galatians 2:20). I choose to walk by His faith and not what I see (2 Corinthians 5:7).

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

 

I was lost, but Christ found me. I was dead in my sin, but now I live in His righteousness. I was sick and broken in spirit, filled with fear and bitterness and recrimination, but now I am forgiven and healed and whole. I have no reason to live in shame. I have no reason to fear. Jesus, my living hope lives in me! 

 

Christ has made me victorious. Evil will not prosper in my life. Each issue—lie—problem—failure—sin—that rises against me in judgment, He has already condemned and overcome. And He has given me His power with which to overcome. This is my heritage in Christ (Isaiah 54:17). Jesus—the Son of God, my Savior, my Righteousness, my Healer, my Provider, my Shepherd, my Peace, the Living Word—claims me as His own. I live no more. The life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who gave His life for me (Ephesians 2:20). Jesus, my living hope, the living Word, lives in me. He is the truth by which I live and breathe and have life. 

 

Christ has given me that one life-changing moment—the moment when in His death He became life for me. His moment of grace is now my state of being. His moment has become my life. Christ has chosen me in His unconditional love and grace. And by believing Him in my heart, I am called—I am justified by His grace and living in the faith He has given me. I am glorified with an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that will never fade away (Romans 8:30, 1 Peter 1:4).

 

Christ in me, the hope of glory, is true for eternity (Colossians 1:27, Ephesians 1:13).

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/07/christ-in-me.html

 

Motive

 

 

“Judge not, that you be not judged,” Jesus said. ^“For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” 

—Matthew 7:1-2 NKJV

 

 

God has given us His Word by which we judge if something is right or wrong. But judging, when based on what we feel instead of what we know is true, becomes subjective. There is not only a right and wrong way to judge. What we judge is also important. It is not wrong to judge if something a person has done or said offends us. That is just life. You cannot go through life without being offended by someone. The problem is when we judge someone’s motive. Judging the motive behind someone’s word or action is wrong. We don’t know what is in another person’s heart. And truthfully, sometimes we do not even realize the real motive behind what we do. So how can we judge the motive of someone else?

In judging another person’s motive, you set yourself up to be judged in return. When you judge the motive behind someone’s action or reaction, you set yourself up to experience a range of hurtful emotions. You not only judge the motive behind their words or action, but you place yourself in a position where the offense makes you defensive. And then you react out of your hurt and pain. Your emotions are subject to being manipulated by the enemy—and old and new wounds have the power to direct your actions. In your judgment of another person’s motive, you are reminded of every insufficiency in your life, and you see insufficiency in the lives of others. In your judgment of another person’s motive, you frustrate love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in your own life.

 

God determines right or wrong in our lives. He gives us His Word so we can know if our actions or someone else’s actions are right or wrong. The problem is when we judge the motive behind another person’s action. The problem is when we react out of our feelings instead of out of His truth. 

 

Don’t judge the motive of someone else. Don’t react out of what you feel. You become harsh. And those of us who are harsh with others are treated the same way. When you injure someone they want to strike back. But when we sow mercy, we reap mercy (Matthew 5:7). How we respond to others is what we receive in return (Matthew 7:12).

 

God alone knows the motive in someone’s heart. Ours included. With the measure we use to judge another person’s heart, it will be measured back to us. 

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/07/motive.html

 

 

 

Christ Alive

 He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.

—Psalm 33:15 (NKJV)

 

What is a worldview? James Sire wrote in his book, The Universe Next Door, that it is a set of assumptions about the basic makeup of the world. It is the way we see reality. 

 

A Christian worldview is a positive and beneficial force in a culture. It even benefits a culture where there are those that don’t hold to its unchanging moral standard. Those with a secular or relativistic worldview have ethics that change in response to situations. Those with a Christian worldview believe there is an unchanging moral standard with which we measure our lives. And the unchanging standard of the Christian worldview is the Word of God. A Christian worldview believes a man’s effort profits him nothing—but that the truth of God’s Word is spirit and gives life (John 6:63). 

 

A relativistic worldview says we make our own truth. According to moral relativism, we decide what is right or wrong. In other words, moral relativism says a decision about what is right or wrong is not based on a standard but is subject to our feelings. A Christian worldview says that the only way we can say if something is good or bad is when it is measured by an objective standard and not subject to what we feel. Without a standard to measure something, we have no way to determine if something is good or bad. God, who created us, did not leave His creation without guidance. He has given us His moral standard and His Holy Spirit to enlighten our understanding. We have the truth of His Word. We don’t make our own truth which is subject to our feelings. Without God’s truth, we have no objective moral guidance. 

 

Do we really want a world where a Hitler is the same as a Mother Theresa? When there is no moral standard, there is nothing to define good and evil. Apart from God, the human heart is capable of the greatest evil (Jeremiah 17:9). When cut loose from the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the heart will gravitate toward what is dark, sinful, and destructive. But with Christ alive in us, the human heart is capable of the greatest compassion and grace. Faith in Christ is the only way to experience the heart change that brings the redeeming love of God to a world starving for acceptance and love. 

 

“The Lord looks from heaven; he sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; he fashions their hearts individually; he considers all their works” (Psalm 33:12-14).

 

God created a pure world until sin entered. He looked at this fallen world and had compassion for all the sons of men. God believed that this world ought not to be fallen. He wanted a restored relationship with His creation. So He sent His Son to restore it by changing the human heart. The Good News of the Gospel is that the human heart can be redeemed! God, who brings us His new life, fashions each one of us individually. He has a standard, but that standard can only be met by the grace of Jesus. When we intentionally allow God’s Word to grow us spiritually, we reap the benefits of its truth. We have access by faith to the grace of Jesus. We stand in its promise. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2).

 

Christianity is not a stagnant faith. It is a relationship with Jesus, and it is alive. But it is only alive when we allow Christ to live in us. In our personal relationship with Christ we should live in the perpetual grace of revelation and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Our Christian worldview—the grace of Jesus—will only bring restoration and healing in the lives of others when it has brought restoration and healing in us. With the grace of Jesus alive and making a difference in us, it has the power to change the world. 

 

Do we want revival? Revelation and renewal begin in us. Christ is alive in us, and He is the hope of glory.

 

 © 2022 Lynn Lacher

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