davidbowerkingwood

We live in Satan’s world; mankind forfeited its rights to the world in the Garden of Eden. It is Satan who is the prince of the power of the air as explained in Ephesians 2:2. All is not lost, however, as mankind has a kinsman redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.

When He died on the cross the Lord paid off the debt that mankind had incurred on that fateful day in the Garden when Adam decided to do it his way and not God’s way. Although the earth has yet to actually be redeemed, the price has been paid; the redemption will take place at a time chosen by God when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to earth at the Second Advent.

Although the price has been paid and the redemption secured by the death of the Lord, those of us who are God’s children by faith in the shed blood of Christ still live out our lives in a world controlled by Satan.

I suspect that most readers will agree that this arrangement is fraught with problems. We, as small specs of divine righteousness, are all submerged in a world of sin. I’ve used the analogy of a submarine being submerged under water and needing to be constantly on guard against leaks which could cause great difficulty. We too must maintain constant vigilance against the pressures of sin imposed by our society.

Our challenge is complicated by the fact we have a saboteur on board our little life sub; a traitor in the crew that is trying to disable us, that wants us to take on water/sin and sink. This saboteur is called our sin nature and is a formidable foe with which we must deal. I am personally convinced that the majority of problems we face in life are a direct result of our sin nature, not a Satanic or demonic attack.

As with any analogy this one is not perfect; although we might be put out of commission we can never be sunk without any hope of recovery. God is fully aware of our problem and has provided a means of effectively dealing with this traitor; it’s called confession of sin and is described in I John, Chapter 1 verses 8-10: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

That appears very clear to me, all of us have the same sin problem and here is how God wants us to deal with it. This problem is inherent in each and every one of us no matter who they may be or their positions of authority.

Unlike the submarine our position as born-again children of God, is ultimately safeguarded by the faithfulness of Christ to each and every one of us; although we can be disabled we cannot be sunk.

I have found that things work much better for me if I keep a very short account with God; I confess my sins many times every day. Please notice that when we confess know sins that God is faithful and just to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

What is the point of all this? It all goes back to the Spirit led life and the fruit of the Spirit. Unconfessed sin quenches the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives; when the power of the Spirit is quenched there is no hope of fruit. The secret to consistent fruit in our lives is the controlling presence of the Holy Spirit.

My printer is an important part of my computer set up; I’ve noticed when it is turned on it always performs a self-test. I’ve always found that interesting in its potential application to life. It might be helpful if we think in terms of a test that would suggest some reference standards against which our results would be measured.

The printer’s manufacturer designed into the equipment certain performance characteristics which were intended to serve as a norm for the printer’s operation. When the printer performs the self-test it is comparing its present condition against the design norms. Could it be that our Creator has done likewise, are there a set of norms for us as believers? I believe the answer to that is a resounding yes.

As children of God we were given design parameters when we were saved which should characterize our performance; I believe these are detailed in Galatians 5:22-26 and are called “the fruit of the Spirit.” Notice the singular fruit, this is a package deal from God; we either have it all or we don’t have any. It is important to note that the fruit of the Spirit is not reserved only for the giants of the faith but is the rightful possession of every child of God. We have the fruit of the Spirit when we are living a Spirit led life; the Spirit in control and our sin nature quenched.

Now back to the self-test line of thought and keep in mind this is a private test between you and God, no one else. Ask yourself how you are measuring up against God’s standard for you keeping in mind that this has to do with quality of life and service, not salvation.

As a believer in Jesus Christ as Savior your eternal destiny is secured by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and is absolutely secure. All we’re talking about is how well is your life working in comparison with God’s design standard for you?

I’ve mentioned my experiences as an usher in church to many of the classes I’ve taught; how so many of the people walking into church on Sunday mornings seemed to be carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. This is not God’s plan for their lives.

I’m absolutely convinced that the Lord wants the very best for His children and has made all necessary provisions for a blessed, happy life. It saddens me when I see so many of His children appearing to miss out on His blessings.

I am not the only one to refer to the Bible as “the manufacturers assembly instructions;” life comes with a great deal of assembly required and in too many cases we may be inclined to consult the manufacturer’s assembly instructions only as a last resort, if at all.

The sooner in life we start to utilize the assembly instructions from the manufacturer the less likely we’ll need massive help to correct all of the mistakes we will otherwise surely make.

Do it God’s way early and always and may your self-test always measure up to God’s design standard for you.

Thank you for the amazing interest you have shown in the blog; that is very encouraging to me and suggests my wife may have been right all along, time will tell.

One of yesterday’s comments posed the subject of questions; as those of you who have sat under my teaching know very well, I love and encourage questions. I will, as the Lord enables me, try to answer every question you submit. I’ll either reply as a comment or if the question has enough general interest I may address it as a blog.

To this point the blogs have been more organizational in nature; I’m giving careful consideration to the topic of my first “official” blog and hope to have it ready next week. The problem is not thinking of one but selecting the right one from so many possibilities.

Those of you who know me best are aware of my deep interest in current events in light of Bible prophecy. I’ll devote some of my blogs to that subject as well as the area of quality of life for us as Christians. It appears that entirely too many of our brothers and sisters are short changing themselves when it comes to the blessings inherent in the Christian life as intended by our heavenly Father.

Thank you again for your interest; I pray by God’s grace that I may fully meet your expectations.

P.S. I’ve made better progress than expected on my first “official” blog and will post it tomorrow, 7-24-11 D.V.

What do you know, it was easier than I thought it would be, I got the “About” page updated and have added the email subscription box.

When I get through the mechanics of this process I can give some thought to other things. Once the blog page is fairly well settled I’ll send an email notification to everyone on my distribution lists and a few others that I think may have an interest in my writings.

My beloved wife has already notified several of our friends about the blog so if you receive a second notice I apologize in advance for the redundancy. 

After that it will be up to you to determine if you want to read my blog as I’ll not be constantly reminding people it’s there. The way I think it will work is on the occasion I write a new blog, those subscribed will receive a copy which they can read if it seems of interest to them.

It should not be necessary to go to the blog as the blog will come to those subscribed although anyone is welcome at any time. This may all be very familiar territory to many of you but I’m sort of finding my way one day at a time.

While it is true that I have a lot of thoughts on a variety of subjects; how many of those would be of general interest only time will tell. Although my wife had to twist my arm to do this I have to admit I’m getting a little bit excited by the prospect of sharing my thoughts and reflections on life and current events.

At the insistence of my wife I have decided to start a blog. This is definitely a work in progress and will take some time to get organized. As it developes I will try and notify those of you that I think may have an interest. I am publishing this as a test just to see how it works.