In a Nut Shell

I am not sure if everyone who reads this will know what the term “in a nut shell means”.  Simply put, it is everything condensed completely to fit in a nut shell, like all the goodness of a nut is within. 

As I have been thinking about the subject of keeping it simple, I have found that is not always easy.  Christianity today has become so complex.  There is so much diversity in doctrines and faith, how can one know the truth in today’s Christian world.  Christians make up 1/3 of today’s population and within that there are hundreds of different beliefs and doctrines. They all claim to have the truth and often willing to fight to protect what they perceive to be truth. 

Like I asked in my last blog, how has this helped us grow, or how has today’s messages helped us through life.  We have everything from strict legalism to quick positive feel good messages.  Yet so called Christians still struggle with life.  They are still divorcing at a higher rate than the rest of the world; they commit murders, steal, lie, struggling with addictions, and are sitting in church pews under the influence of prescribed drugs to keep them from going crazy.  Is this what Jesus’ message, life, death, and resurrection was meant to produce, or is there something better?

Today we have more Bibles produced and in homes than ever.  There are more books written for Christians, than any other group of people.  Books are written on about every subject one can imagine. Yet there is less unity and victory in today’s Christians than ever in history, statistics prove this out.  We are told there are certain things God does not do anymore because we have a complete Bible, yet there is less today that believe in what it says.

Let’s look at one fact here.  The church in the first several centuries did not have a Bible.  Many of the gentile groups most likely did not even have any written Hebrew scrolls.  The churches that Paul wrote to had only the letter that was written to them, and did not have any of the others to compare what Paul was saying. Yet in all this there was growth and strong adherence to the gospel message of Jesus the Christ and his coming kingdom.  It has been the growth of religious minds and writings that have complicated the message of Jesus.

I do believe the Bible we have today is complete and the spoken word of God in written word.  In it we can find truth and get to know Him who is our God, and His son Jesus.  We have to be willing to read it on a regular basis with a passion to find God, Jesus and their message to us.  We have to be willing to cast off traditions that cloud the message and ask those questions of scriptures that seem to go against what we have believed, or been handed down to us.  Most of all we need to continually seek the Father in prayer for His spirit to work within us and for Him to speak to us.  There has to be a balance of both.

I had a mother who I know was a praying woman.  As a child, I remember many a late night seeing her on her knees praying at the sofa.  Yet there were many of things that she missed in the word of God.  Some of the main ones I knew about were such as forgiveness and grace. I know she read her Bible on a regular basis but, she also lived strongly by the emotional spiritual part. This was out of balance.  She judged others that did not live up to her standards of what she believed the Bible to say.  I have been asked many a time about how I was raised and I would joke and say “if it was fun it was sin”. 

The Bible is what the Psalmist says in (Psa 119:105 NKJV) Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. Then there must be a spirit filled life that gives understanding to what God is saying.  That comes through a relationship with the Father and His son Jesus.  That is a life of prayer and submission to His leading.  I take to heart the words in Romans eight that through the spirit I can call him Abba.  Today when I pray I like to just call him Dad or Daddy, and I feel this is relational not disrespectful.  You can use your religious terms if you want, but to me it is personal, He is my Daddy.  

(2 Cor 3:4-8 NIV)  Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. {5} Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. {6} He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. {7} Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, {8} will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

I realize I am nobody in this big world.  I have not been educated in any Christian Schools.  I am not a Bible scholar or have any degree.  I did not find this faith I now have following the traditions of men. As a young man I fell madly in love with the gospel message and started out on a journey to find who I was according to God.  I did not find my answers in men or just by reading the Bible.  Because of how I was raised the scriptures were skewed to me, so for a long time I never read it completely.  Yet my heart hungered for God and to know Him more.  I had to be willing to change, biblically this is called repentance.  For a long time I was lead by emotion and that would often fail me. It was when I began to balance my life with prayer and Bible reading with new hunger, being lead by the spirit and allowing God to speak to me.  I began to see truths that was there all along, but obscured by religious teachings.  So let me share some thought and scripture and try to sum up a Readers Digest form of what I have come to believe.

First, I truly feel we need to know the Father, and His son Jesus, to know who we are and how to live a life for him.  It has been my passion for God that has been my victory in this life.  Looking back it has been the very factor that helped me make choices that kept me from disasters in my life.  Religion has taught us that it is the church we need to live in victory, but history can show that has been a complete failure.  We have thousands of churches today; still they are filled with people who cannot live in victory.  Religion has produced thousands of writings telling us what the Bible says and how we should live yet we are still struggling.  We need to turn back to God and with passion follow His teachings and His son Jesus.

(Phil 2:12-16 NKJV)  Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; {13} for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. {14} Do all things without complaining and disputing, {15} that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, {16} holding fast the word of life,(this was not the Bible) so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

We need to workout our own relationship with Him and follow the message of Jesus.  What did Jesus say and how did he live before his father?  There are many who have miss read the first part of this scripture but let’s read what it says.

(Phil 2:5-11 NKJV)  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, {6} who, being in the form (image) of God, did not(would not consider equality with God)consider it robbery to be equal with God, {7} but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. {8} And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. {9} Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, {10} that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, {11} and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (emphasis mine)

Jesus was a man, (1 Tim 2:5 NIV) For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,) God has exalted him to a higher position and He will return to rule as king.  This is the man we need to follow and this is exactly what Paul was telling us.  So we need to be like Jesus in our thinking and lifestyle walking in a way that serves God and pleases Him.  You do this and you will need no one to judge you in life.

The kingdom of God is yet to come and it will arrive at the appearing of Jesus to rule.  Until then God is at work in us to produce His will in us to bring us to His desired completion.  (Phil 1:6 NIV)  being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Through the spirit (the manifest power of God in us) we have what it takes to follow Jesus and live a life of victory knowing who we are and to whom we belong.

(Col 4:12 b NIV) that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.  You see God wants you to be confident in truth, knowing who you are and that you can live a life of freedom. The Gospel message can set you free and give hope that will not disappoint. Religion and a wrong understanding of God’s word only produce bondage. When you put you trust solely in man and man made systems you can never grow past the limits they put on you.  If you completely cast your life on Jesus and the work of the new covenant, he will equip you with the ability to live it.  (Heb 13:20-21 NIV)  May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, {21} equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

God does have a purpose for us in this life and the Kingdom to come.  We have to develop a passion for Him and for His desire to be done in us.  Jesus laid this out in the model prayer for the disciples.  Then Paul tells the churches he writes to that they can have confidence in knowing who they are and what God’s purpose for them is. That in this life we do have struggles and pains.  There are defeats and failures, we do make mistakes and wrong choices, but God does not throw us out because we do.  We are His sons (this is not a gender statement) through Jesus and grace is at work in us.  We must have a made up mind to serve God with all that is in us. Make it our life plan to follow Jesus, refusing to give up until we see the kingdom of God fulfilled in or life time or in the resurrection. 

(James 1:2-4 NASB)  Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, {3} knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. {4} And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

(Rom 8:28-31 NASB)  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. {29} For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; {30} and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. {31} What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

(Eph 3:11-21 NASB)  This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, {12} in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. {13} Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. {14} For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, {15} from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, {16} that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; {17} so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, {18} may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, {19} and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. {20} Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, {21} to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

(2 Tim 1:9-10 NASB)  who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, {10} but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

I will have to continue this next time.  I will sum up this topic with the simple message of Jesus and the coming Kingdom of God in a nut shell.  Over the years we have made the Christian life so complicated, yet Jesus said it was simple so anyone could do it.  God does want us to know him and His son Jesus.  In Jesus we have life and it more abundant (John 10.10).  Taking the words of Jesus let’s find balance in our walk with Dad, let’s not over analyze it or complicate it. 

 (John 14:23-24 NIV)  Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. {24} He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

Do You Love Him?