Author: Joshua Maynard

30 Days of Truth

Day 25 – no one is “good”

There is no one that is “good” but God Himself.

Think of the nicest, kindest, most thoughtful person that you can think of.

Now remind yourself that in God’s eyes, they are not “good”.

They may help every person they meet, give endlessly and expect nothing in return, and yet God says that they are not “good”.

God calls His workmanship “good” but we should never think that we are “good” in both word and deeds according to what God calls “good”. We simply do not qualify.

The only thing that makes us “good” is to be reborn in the image of Christ Jesus spiritually, nothing else.

“Good” behavior doesn’t bring about our salvation or keep us saved, and it doesn’t change God’s love towards us at all.

On the contrary, trying to keep the law to “be a good Christian” causes us to increase in sin.

God gave man the ability to choose from the beginning.

Does this make the garden of Eden into a “setup”?

Did God intentionally set us up to fall into sin?

It might seem like that is true, but we must remember that GOD IS Love. Love would not wish sin or death upon anyone, or intentionally cause them to sin or lead them to death.

God merely gave us the choice between life and death, and we foolishly chose death.

With every choice, we either strengthen sin in our lives or strengthen our faith in God.

As sin increases, so God’s grace increases to cancel it.

Does this mean that we should increase our sinning so that we receive more grace from God?

Of course not!

The grace of God is not cumulative and its benefit for us does not ever increase or decrease.

Grace cancels out the debt of sin, but many times, we are left to deal with the consequences of our choices.

Some of those consequences can ruin our lives or the lives of others.

Sin is cumulatively damaging but grace was a one-time atonement for all sins, forever.

How then are we to be “good” if we don’t follow the law?

No one has been under the Law since the New Covenant began.

Yet everyone has the law written in their hearts and knows right from wrong. Their conscience accuses or excuses then in every choice they make.

The grace of God doesn’t excuse our sin, but it also does not accuse or condemn us for it.

The Holy Spirit reminds us that His righteousness is in us, and cleansing us from all unrighteousness, even as we struggle with sin.

There is a belief in the church today that once we are born again, we must live holy and perfect in order to remain saved, and yet Jesus never taught this.

In fact, there is nothing in the Bible that says we must live without sin. The Bible warns us to abstain from sin, to hate sin, to run from the very thought of sin, but it also reminds us that are sins were paid for and that they are not counted against us because of what Christ accomplished on our behalf.

If you have believed on Jesus, then spiritually you are as holy as you can be while you are still in a corrupted fleshly body. You cannot make yourself more holy to God by your acts of “goodness” any more than you can make yourself more unholy to God by your acts of sinful behavior.

You did not make yourself Holy and you cannot make yourself become unholy. The holiness in you is the work of God’s grace and the finished work of Christ at the cross.

Your belief merely appropriates in your spirit what Christ did for you over 2000 years ago.

Your unbelief cannot change your born-again spirit, because when you believed, Christ made the change in you.

If you could have changed yourself apart from Christ, then we would not have a need for a Savior.

No one can change their base spiritual nature and save themselves.

Only God can change the spirit.

So, stop worrying about your sins and your relationship with God, because God has chosen to have a relationship with you despite your sins, and He will never leave you or forsake you.

30 Days of Truth

Day 26 – emotions reflect the heart

This is the shortest scripture in the Bible, and yet no matter how many times I read it, it continues to be a powerful statement about Jesus.

Jesus was not only God made flesh, but He was also human!

He experienced the human condition without the tragedy of experiencing our sinful nature.

He was happy just like we are happy.

He was angry about injustice and those things which kept people in both physical and spiritual bondage.

He was kind and generous.

He was sad and He wept, just as we do when we are sad.

People have often asked, “Why did Jesus weep, when He knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead?”

He wept because He empathized with those that had experienced the death of Lazarus, and their emotions touched Him profoundly.

He wept because they had lost hope when they expected Jesus to arrive on the scene in time to heal Lazarus, but He didn’t come.

Even though Jesus knew He would be able to raise Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus’s loved ones had experienced a great loss.

It is important for us to recognize the human expression of Jesus.

We sometimes imagine a Jesus that never got frustrated or angry or sad because we only see a glimpse of His life in the Gospels.

Nevertheless, the scriptures that we do have about Jesus show a complex individual that experienced the complexity of human emotions.

Jesus got angry, but He didn’t sin.

When a parent scolds a child, they don’t stop loving the child, but they are upset because the child is not obedient or is doing something that is dangerous. Their love for the child is constant and everlasting despite their momentary emotional state.

It is taught in some Christian circles that we are to be passive and peaceful. While peace should always be our goal in anything that we say and do, being peaceful and passive is not something that we learn from Jesus.

Jesus was bold and made no excuses for His beliefs.

He didn’t shy away from intellectual confrontations, and He didn’t restrain from using harsh language at times.

Christians that believe in such a passive lifestyle are often weak in the faith and are trod upon by anyone that disagrees with them.

Their beliefs are half-hearted, and they tend to change with whichever way the wind/trend is blowing.

We must stand firm in our beliefs without wavering, and we cannot be passive.

Let’s review:

Having emotions is not sinful.

Being angry is not sinful in and of itself.

It is how we express emotions that reveals the state of our heart.

If our heart is overflowing with Godly intentions and meditations, our emotions should reveal love, even through occasional anger.

If our heart is sidetracked from meditating on God and His Word, our emotions can be particularly damaging to both others and to ourselves.

We cannot control our emotions or our tongue without first dealing with the intentions of our heart.

That is why keeping our mind and focus steadfast upon God is so important.

When we operate under a renewed heart/soul/mind, our emotions should reflect that renewed nature.

People often say, “That person makes me so angry!”

Really?

Jesus said that it is what comes out of our heart that defiles us.

No one can “make” you angry, or “make” you sin.

Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, you have the Holy Spirit living in you!

A lack of self-control reveals the need to retrain our focus on Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to change our responses and habits.

Who we are in Christ is wrapped up in who Christ is in us, and Christ not only understands but expressed the same emotions that we have.

As believers, we should not fear our emotions, but we must learn to control them. Emotions do not define or change who you are in Christ.

We must not get caught up in worrying about showing emotion, or what other people might think about us. People want someone who can empathize with their situation, not someone that appears unemotional and callous.

God is not angry with us, nor will Ge ever be angry with us again, because there is peace between God and man through Christ Jesus.

We may lose our temper, and we may fail to forgive, but God has chosen to forgive us in advance and forget that we ever sinned.

God created emotions, but while we may experience emotions that are not “lovely”, God IS LOVE!

God IS Love!

He IS the most perfect, beautiful, passionate, head-over-heels lover of our souls!

He is not willing that any should perish.

He does not steal from us, kill us or destroy us.

He does not afflict us with sickness or allow suffering to come upon us.

God loves us with an everlasting love.

He wants the best for us, always!

30 Days of Truth

Day 27 – love the sinner, period

This is a scripture that you may be familiar with, and yet I believe that many Christians who know this scripture are missing the point of it.

Paul is talking to believers and telling us that our love should be genuine for one another. We should hold tight to what is good and hate what is evil.

This has given rise to “Christianese” statements like “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”

While this statement may sound good on the surface, Jesus never intended for us to live this way and we have a really hard time separating the “sinner” that we are supposed to love, from the “sin” that we are supposed to hate.

How then should we interpret both New Testament and Old Testament scriptures that seem to support the “hate the sin” mentality?

It’s not as hard as you might think.

The focus of this “hate for sin” should not be on the sin of others as much as it should be on hating how sin operates in us.

This doesn’t mean that we should be self-absorbed with our sinful mistakes.

The Holy Spirit is constantly reminding us of who we are in Christ, and His righteousness that we are clothed in. We are righteous and irreproachable before God, because of what Christ has done for us, not because of anything that we do or don’t do.

You see, Paul was addressing believers in the church concerning how THEY were supposed to live.

The focus was never supposed to be on the sin(s) of others.

No, Paul is dealing with matters of the spirit in the context of believers.

We have somehow taken scriptures like this and twisted them to make us believe that we are the judges of others and their behavior.

We have excused ourselves to such an extent that we have supported shunning and separating ourselves from those who “sin” instead of embracing them in the love of Christ.

All the while, we have become hypocrites, operating under the Old Covenant which was never our covenant to begin with.

We have placed ourselves under the very laws and traditions that blinded the Pharisees to the truth of God’s love, mercy and grace towards mankind.

We have looked at the sins which are exposed in the lives of others, and we have passed judgment on them.

We have labeled those based on their behavior, instead of looking at them the way that God sees them.

Our religious traditions have taught us that God sees them as filthy sinners that are bound for Hell.

But God doesn’t see them that way.

God sees the potential in them.

He sees the sacrifice of His Son on their behalf.

God sees them with loving eyes, and while God hates what sin is doing in their lives, God doesn’t turn away from them. He gently and lovingly invites them into relationship with Him.

God sent His Son to take care of their sins. He has already forgiven them and forgotten their sins.

It is only their rejection of Him that separates them from being one with Him.

God hasn’t called us to be separate from the world physically, but to be separate spiritually.

We are to be in the world but not of the world.

He wants the love of our soul to be Him alone.

Christians today don’t understand this truth, so they struggle to live in a world that they believe God wants them to be separate from.

The struggle to love a sinner that they believe God is disgusted with.

They struggle to keep themselves holy, when God already told them that they were ALREADY made holy in Christ.

It is truly this quest for holiness that keeps them exalted in themselves; haughty. It is this haughtiness that makes it frustratingly impossible to separate the “sin” from the sinner, and to “hate the sin” but “love the sinner”.

In order to love the sinner, we must look past their sin and see their potential. This doesn’t mean that justice must not have its day when they violate the laws of man.

Yet we condemn sinners that are not criminals. We condemn mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters and co-workers.

We condemn them and believe that we are better than them.

We so easily forget our own sins, and the life of sin that God brought us out of.

We so easily forget that we were once lost.

People that live in a lifestyle of sin, don’t need us to look down on their behavior.

They need us to look at them the way that Christ looked at us; the way that Christ looked at all of mankind.

Love the sinner, period.

John 8:10-11 KJV

[10] When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? [11] She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

30 Days of Truth

Day 28 – sin focused or god focuseD?

Why do believers focus so heavily on the sins of others? Jesus did not consider the sins of others, except to heal what sin had done to us and try to point us in a better direction.

Believers have this concept that forgiveness is relational, and that without relationship with God, there is no forgiveness for individual sins.

We’ve grown so comfortable with this belief that it shapes how we relate to other people.

We shun and condemn those that sin around us.

We avoid relationships with people that do things that we consider sinful, even when there is no scriptural precedent for such a belief.

We believe that God wants to stay separated from those who sin, so we also separate from them, and we try to live as holy as we can, in the hopes that they will see how holy we live and feel convicted about their own lack of holiness.

We have become the Pharisees that Jesus reprimanded instead of conforming to the likeness of Jesus.

We try to apply law to our own lives instead of applying grace, and we judge others according to the law instead of recognizing that God looks at them in love.

When you separate yourself from the world, you are separating yourself from where Christ wants to go.

You are His hands in this world. He lives in you!

When you don’t go, Christ doesn’t go.

When you don’t share the Gospel by living it out, the Holy Spirit doesn’t confirm it with signs and wonders.

You can’t separate yourself from God by avoiding the world, but you can separate Christ from reaching those in the world through you.

I’m not saying that we should live like those in the world and act like we are no different. We are different.

We are a new spiritual creation.

Are we sin-focused, or God-focused?

If we allow garbage into our minds, we become less effective at releasing what is pure in Spirit and can find it harder to resist evil.

Nothing external will make us filthy. Despite popular belief, Sin does not rub off on us.

We can abstain from sinful choices and still have meaningful relationships with those in the world and have these relationships we must!

It is essential that we realize that true humbleness comes from sharing our lives with those in the world, not appearing to be “better” and separate from them.

Christians focused on homosexuality, abortion and other things that the church considers “sinful” are blinded to the truth of God’s love, forgiveness and grace. They do not represent Christ. They represent a set of rules.

Christians focused on the sins or “perceived sins” of others are unable to live for Christ, because they are too busy living for Moses.

God is concerned about what sins do to a person’s life, but He is infinitely unconcerned about their sins keeping them from having a relationship with Him. He has chosen to forgive their sins before they even commit them, and He has provided a way for them to enter into a relationship with Him that is free from the requirements of the law.

We need to realize that the people of this world don’t need to clean themselves up and stop sinning in order for God to accept them and love them and bless them and save them. They only need to believe.

Their belief will enable the Holy Spirit to work with them on anything else that is detrimental to their physical and spiritual health.

Do you live for Moses, according to all the laws of the Old Covenant, or do you live for Christ, representing only the law of love?

30 Days of Truth

Day 29 – Satisfaction or stagnation?

The disciples had walked with Jesus for several years and still didn’t understand that Jesus and the Father were “one”.

Jesus explains to them that if they’ve seen Him, they’ve seen the Father.

“Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?”

What a statement this is!

The disciples had been with Jesus closely and still didn’t really know Him.

Despite all the miracles they had witnessed, they could not seem to get past Jesus’ human exterior and see the glory which was the Father living in Him.

People today are not much different.

There is a point at which each of us must examine ourselves and decide if we are “satisfied” with Jesus.

Jesus has imparted His Spirit into all who believe, and His Spirit is the same as the Father.

Have we seen the mighty hand of God moving in our lives and in the lives of others, while failing to know Him?

Have we attributed His power working through us to our own efforts and denied that He is the source?

Have we become unsatisfied with the God that we know to the point that we must constantly search for the next vision, word of knowledge, dream, confirmation, miracle or sign?

Remember, the signs and wonders that Jesus performed and those which the disciples performed didn’t satisfy them. Why should we believe that these manifestations of God’s power will satisfy us?

What does satisfy?

How do we keep ourselves satisfied with God?

Psalm 17:15 KJV

[15] As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

David longed for a time when he would awake from the deadness of sin and be re-shaped spiritually into the image of God’s righteousness and holiness.

With the New Covenant, this is not a wishful dream of things to come, but a reality.

We have been born again!

We have been raised up from the deadness of sin to new life in Christ Jesus!

The disciples could not satisfy the hunger for life in their souls because they had not yet been born again.

Like David, they only had the hope of a future time when they would cast off their sin and be spiritually restored.

We have the realization of their hope in us right now.

When we focus on manifestations and external stimuli to bring a sense of satisfaction with God in our lives, we are not really satisfying ourselves.

The disciples walked with Jesus and may have seen miracles that we have never seen or heard of.

How arrogant can we be to believe that more manifestations must equal more satisfaction?

Satisfaction with God comes from the revelation that we have been restored to oneness and relationship with the Father.

Satisfaction with God comes from understanding that God is always pleased with us, loving us, speaking to us and wanting us to love Him and others.

John 14:18 KJV

[18] I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

Jesus has come to us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Do not mistake satisfaction for stagnation.

Stagnation is when we settle into routines and practices which seem to satisfy, but do not.

Jesus was trying to show the disciples that the signs and miracles are evidence of the Father working in Him.

The signs that are supposed to follow believers are also meant to show the Father working in us.

How do we know if we are satisfied with God?

When we know Him, we will stop searching for Him and stop searching for the next big “move” of God, or the next “word” or “vision”.

These signs and wonders are important, but they should flow effortlessly as a byproduct of relationship with God, and not merely be consistent proof that we need to satisfy a longing in our soul for relationship.

He is in us.

We are in Him.

His will can be our will, and our will can be His will.

He is internal, not external.

He is closer to us than anyone in this world can be, and He has promised never to leave us.

When we search for Him, it isn’t because He has left us.

It is because we have cluttered our soul with garbage and need to refocus our attention on who we are in Him and get quiet before Him.

30 Days of Truth

Day 30 – Servant, Friend or Son?

In John 15:15, Jesus is addressing His disciples. He says that He will no longer call them “servants”, but instead He will call them “friends”.

It sounds good, doesn’t it?

Jesus, the Son of God is considering these men to be His friends!

This may be the source of “Christianese” phrases like “I am a friend of God” or “Jesus is my best friend”.

It might surprise you to learn that “friendship” with God is not the same as “sonship” with God.

“Friendship” with God is actually not a New Covenant way of relating to God.

Abraham was called “the” friend of God.

Moses was not called “the” friend of God.

Elijah was not called “the” friend of God.

In fact, from the time of Abraham until the time of Jesus and His disciples, there is no record of anyone else being called “the” friend of God.

“The” being singular, and exclusive.

Fast forward to John 15:15 and Jesus is now calling His disciples His “friends”.

Yet as ground-breaking as it is for Jesus to call His disciples “friends”, it is does not begin to compare with what we have as partakers of the New Covenant.

From scripture, we learn that while Jesus’ disciples were indeed His friends, they did not truly know Him when they walked with Him.

It wasn’t until after His death and with the illumination of the Holy Spirit living in them that they understood Fully who Jesus was and what He had done.

When they received the Holy Spirit, they also understood sonship.

While we may serve in many capacities, we are called beyond mere servanthood into the spiritual heritage of being adopted sons of God.

God didn’t call us sons and then give us no evidence that we are indeed His sons. The Holy Spirit has been sent forth to dwell in our hearts and is given as the down payment of our inheritance as heirs with Christ.

Friends are never as close as family and don’t know everything that goes on the family.

We are FAMILY with God as adopted sons. He treats us as sons, not as just friends.

This is fundamentally important in our walk with God; not only in how we perceive God’s relationship with us, but how we perceive ourselves.

Our faith can only operate through belief, and a lack of knowledge or a lack of proper understanding can hinder our faith from working.

When Jesus walked the Earth, friendship with God was the best that the disciples could have until after His sacrifice was complete, and their salvation was sealed at Pentecost.

We are co-heirs with Christ, and we have been made into sons of God by our spiritual adoption.

As sons, we have access into God’s best for our lives.

We have a relationship that transcends friendship, favors and disappointing answers.

Did you know that God doesn’t want to disappoint you?

Did you know that God doesn’t want to say “no” to good things that you want?

The key to understanding a relationship in which God answers every prayer with a resounding “Yes” is to understand what it means to pray according to His will and for your own will to be in alignment with His.

Jesus prayed to the Father saying, “Not my will, but thine be done.”

He also said that He did nothing of His own.

Living according to God’s won’t mean that we don’t do nice things for ourselves or make our own choices.

It means that we allow the Holy Spirit to place God’s thoughts and God’s will into our hearts in such a way that it becomes natural to do those things that God wants done.  His desires become our own desires insomuch that they are indistinguishable.

This isn’t saying that we become a God unto ourselves.

To an extent, we must have faith that God will give us the desires that He wills for us to have and have discernment to know what they are.

It is common for Christians to interpret Psalm 37:4 to mean that God will give us our desires when we delight ourselves in Him, but that interpretation also tends to feed a materialistic view of reality.

I can tell you from experience that God places His desires in your heart and His desires blend into and become your desires as you submit your will to His will.

When that happens, knowing and following His will is as easy as following your own desires.

As sons of God, we are closer than friends, and we are one with Him.

To the degree that believe that truth, we will see our relationship with God and how He operates in us and through us differently.