Newness of Life

  " "And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears…” Isaiah 11:2 “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; he wakened morning by morning, he wakened mine ear to hear as the learned.” Isaiah 52:4 This morning I was again thinking about the two different ways of knowing. The first way is through the fallen mind that reasons and concludes based on our five senses-this type of thinking is also rooted in doubt of God’s word. Eve looked at the fruit and decided it was good to eat because it “seemed” to be good, no mind what the Lord God had said about it. The second way that we learn and know is the same w

“But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us and example, that you should follow His steps: Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree that, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness-by whose stripes you were healed.”  1 Peter 2:20-24 The highest calling of God in Christ is to love those who hate and persecute us. Loving our enemies with His power glorifies God’s radical sacrificial love as nothing else can do. I was praying for the Christians in Afghanistan when I experienced God’s heart and purpose in allowing us to experience persecution. It was powerful, poignant, beautiful and painful all at the same time. I believe Paul saw a reflec