by Steve McCranie | Jun 25, 2020
As we look at the life of John the Baptist, one of his most endearing characteristics is his ability to fully grasp his place in redemptive history. In other words, John the Baptist had a part to play, but that part was secondary to Jesus. John was the opening act. Jesus was the headliner. And this was much the same type of relationship Jesus had with His Father. Both were God, yet Jesus seemed to take a subordinate role to that of His Father. We can see that in the way Jesus describes His relationship with His Father.
For example, consider the following:
“You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28)
Uh, what? What did Jesus mean when He said His Father is “greater” than He is?
The Relationship Between Jesus and His Father
It appears in Scripture that Jesus chose to assume a subordinate relationship with His Father yet, as we know, Jesus and His Father are one (John 10:30). But this raises a few questions we will be addressing as we move forward. Some of them are:
Are they each equally God?
And, if so, is there a subordinate relationship between members of the Godhead?
Is that relationship based on worth or merit or something else?
And why is this even important?
These are some of the questions we will be answering as we dig deeper into John’s statement in John 1:30:
“This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.'” (See also John 1:15, 27 where John the Baptist makes the same claim about Jesus.)
If you have a desire to know more about the relationship between Jesus and His Father and, at the same time, uncover some incredible truth, then keep listening.
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462: Learning How to Humble Yourself
by Steve McCranie | Jun 24, 2020
We have been looking at how to live in the victory Christ provided for us over our past sins and failures. And it is really quite simple: Choose to believe what God says about you (and your past regrets) and not what you feel or what seems right to you. After all, He is God and we are… dust. Yet, because of His great love for us, He chose to provide victory over the consequences of our sins by sacrificing His Son on the cross. And for us to wallow in self-condemnation and despair over the sins and regrets Christ died to forgive, makes light of His great sacrifice.
If His death provided us victory over sin, then our reasonable duty would be to walk and live in that victory. Period. End of story.
But how do we go about living in His victory over our past regrets?
How to Live in Victory
In this message, we’ll give some tools to help you experience freedom from self-condemnation and unforgiveness. And these tools are centered around turning the enemy’s temptations and taunts into praise. After all, Satan hates it when we praise our Lord.
There is also one last Scripture we will look at that clearly puts our life and relationship with Christ into perspective. It’s 1 Corinthians 6:20, and reads:
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Second Verse, Same as the First
And finally, as we shared before, the choice offered to each of us when we struggle with past failures and regrets is to believe what the Lord says about our sins and transgressions or to hold on to what we feel about them. And most Christians, especially when it comes to a choice of grace or condemnation, choose the latter. Why? Because it somehow feels good to punish ourselves for something God has chosen to forget.
If you want to know more, keep listening.
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463: The Prayer Life of Jesus
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462: Learning How to Humble Yourself
461: The Last Great Awakening
by Steve McCranie | Jun 23, 2020
We have been taking the plaguing problem of self-condemnation and unforgiveness regarding our past sins and regrets and using it as a means to learn how to surrender our lives to the Lord. And the crux of the issue always has to do with what we choose to believe. We can base our relationship with the Lord on how we feel, or on what He says. Which brings us to the great question we looked at yesterday: What does God do with our sin? We listed five of ten truths from His Word. And for today, we have the follow-up question: What else does God do with our sin?
Trust me, you’ll be surprised to see the great lengths the Lord goes to make sure we are not only forgiven but feel forgiven and experience the joy of full forgiveness. Here are the first five we discovered:
One, God forgives our sins and transgressions. Period. You can find this truth in Psalm 32.
Two, God covers our sins so they can be seen no more. This truth is also found in Psalm 32:1.
Three, God throws our sins into the depths of the sea. This, and the next truth, are both found in Micah 7:18-19.
Four, God tramples our sins under His foot. The imagery is of a father crushing the head of a serpent who threatens his children as they walk together on a trail.
And five, God removes our sins from us. How much or how far? As far as the “east is from the west”, according to Psalm 103:10-12.
But this is only the beginning.
What Else Does God Do With Our Sin?
God has a limitless supply of grace He freely bestows on those who confess their sins to Him. Let’s quickly list the last five things:
Six, God puts all our sins behind His back. This is from Isaiah 37:17. Let the imagery of this verse sink in for a moment.
Seven, God chooses to forget our transgressions and failures. His choice. Our blessing. This wondrous truth is found in Isaiah 43:25 and Jeremiah 31:34.
Eight, God cancels the debt of our sin. Literally wipes it out. See Colossians 2:13-14.
Nine, God cleanses us from all unrighteousness. This is the second part of 1 John 1:9.
And ten, God “takes away” or removes our sins from us. And we now end where we started, back at John 1:29.
Again, the choice offered to each of us when we struggle with past failures and regrets is to believe what the Lord says about our sins and transgressions or to hold on to what we feel about them. And most Christians, especially when it comes to a choice of grace or condemnation, choose the latter. Why? Because it somehow feels good to punish ourselves for something God has chosen to forget.
To unpack these truths and learn how to get victory over this, keep listening.
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462: Learning How to Humble Yourself
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Total Surrender, Total Abandonment to God
by Steve McCranie | Jun 22, 2020
One of the ways to learn how to totally surrender your life to the Lord is to also learn how to deal with your past regrets, no matter what form they may take. Your past regrets may be a habitual sin, a failed marriage, or the betrayal of a friend. The substance of your regrets may take on many forms. But at the root, it is always the same problem. And that problem is the fact we refuse to believe what the Scripture says about what God does with our sin and instead hold on to what we feel is right and justified. For many Christians today, that is penance, self-condemnation, and our refusal to forgive ourselves.
Which brings us to the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” final question: What does God do with our sin once we repent of it? Or, what does the Scripture say about how God views our sins after we confess them to Him?
These are excellent questions. But the answer depends on who we choose to believe: God, and what He says about our sins in His Word or the ever-increasing lying voice of self-condemnation we hear in our own head. And as with most of life after regeneration, God leaves the choice of victory or defeat entirely up to us.
It is ours to lose.
So, What Does God Do With Our Sin?
Before we begin with the specifics, remember what His Word says about condemnation. Romans 8, that incredible chapter begins like this:
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
But it gets much better. Look how the same chapter ends:
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
Today, we will look at ten things God does when we sin, five today and five tomorrow. Then, you will have the choice of where to place your faith. In Him and His Word, which always leads to victory and a surrender of our past regrets. Or to your flesh and its demand for restitution and penance, which leads to self-condemnation and loathing.
And as always, God gives the choice to us.
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462: Learning How to Humble Yourself
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The Lamb of God: Our Response to Him
by Steve McCranie | Jun 19, 2020
We have been talking about a life of total surrender or total abandonment to the Lord. We see examples of this kind of life in Scripture and in church history, but are pressed to know anyone personally who lives that way? Which begs the question: How do I surrender my life to the Lord? Or, what are the steps to total surrender? To my giving my all to Him?
These are great questions. But when you ask someone the answer, they usually respond with something like this:
Give everything to God.
Really? That’s all you’ve got for me? Ok, like what? What exactly do I surrender to the Lord? And how exactly do I go about doing that? You make it seem so easy with your pat answer, but I know it can’t be that simple.
How to Surrender Your Life to the Lord
Remember, to surrender your life to the Lord means to “yield ownership or control over what we consider ours: our property, our time, our rights, our self.” And the focus of our surrender is our past, present, and future.
We are to give Him our past regrets, our present problems, and our future ambitions. This means we freely give Him our fears, our dreams, our weaknesses, our habits, our hurts, and our issues (hang-ups). In essence, we give all of who we are, good, bad, and ugly, and allow Jesus to take control.
And what do we get in return? It’s so wonderful it’s hard to put into words. But let’s start with this:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)
And we’ve just scratched the surface. If you want to know more, keep listening.
Our Latest Posts:
Total Surrender, Total Abandonment to God
The Lamb of God: Our Response to Him
The Lamb of God in Scripture
Jesus: The Lamb as if Slain
How the Name of Jesus is Used in Revelation
by Steve McCranie | Jun 18, 2020
One of the key requirements for having the kind of spiritual life we see in the heroes of our faith is an often neglected term: total surrender or total abandonment to God. Or, to make it personal, to be surrendered totally or become totally abandoned to Him. We see this concept in the works of Oswald Chambers and Andrew Murray and many of the other “higher Christian life” proponents of the last century. It was a major theme in the Keswick Movement that had such a lasting effect in the first half of the twentieth century. And the idea of total surrender or total abandonment to God is the foundation in the teaching of Jesus in John 15 about the vine and the branches and the art of “abiding in Him.”
But what does it mean to experience total surrender or total abandonment to God?
What is Total Surrender or Total Abandonment to God?
First, to surrender or experience total abandonment means to “yield ownership or control over what we consider ours: our property, our time, our rights, our self.” This is the key that unlocks the door to the
“abundant life” Jesus promised (John 10:10). There is no other way.
In “My Utmost for His Highest”, Oswald Chambers defines total surrender this way:
Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
Then he gives this warning:
Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.
If you desire to surrender more of yourself to Him, by all means, keep listening.
Our Latest Posts:
The Lamb of God: Our Response to Him
The Lamb of God in Scripture
Jesus: The Lamb as if Slain
How the Name of Jesus is Used in Revelation
Why Do We Do the Things We Do?
