Blog Archives - TheNewU

GOD - OUR FATHER

2/27/2023

February 27, 2023 GOD – OUR FATHER
Acts 1:12-13 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
From Psalms 139 “For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb.” “My frame was not hidden from Thee; when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thou book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”
One of the greatest life-changers ever is to come to know in the deepest part of our being that God is our real Father. For many years, as a believer, I fully believed in my mind that God was my Father; but one particular night, God revealed in my spirit that He was my Father-and how amazing that was. God used our earthly father and mother for our physical birth, and we can thank God for that, but God is our Father. God knew us eons before we were born physically, and not only did He know us even while we were still in our mother’s womb, He ‘formed our inward parts;’ He even saw our ‘unformed substance.’ We cannot fully grasp such wonderful truth and such amazing power-it’s beyond our comprehension. Sadly, many have unpleasant memories of their earthly father, and some do not even know their earthly father. Even though that is true, one can come to know their real Father who knows them and who loves them with an unfailing and unending love. (Briefly said-God knew us before the foundation of the world; He knew we would be born in sin; He sent Jesus to redeem and restore back to Himself-our true Father! He has been our Father all along. Jesus called us brothers-that’s who He came for!) I said above that truly knowing that God is our Father is a life-changer. That night when God let me see in my spirit that He was my real Father, I immediately had the thought that “What do I have to fear-I do not have to fear death, loss, bad health, bankruptcy-or you name it-not since the God who created the universe was MY FATHER. I came to know that no matter what I experience here on earth, my Father is watching over me and He is more than sufficient for anything I face. There is much freedom in truly knowing God as our Father. Perhaps you are like I was, believing with my mind that God was my Father; if so, read the scriptures that are about God being our Father, and ask God to somehow make it know to you in your spirit that He is indeed your real Father.
1 Corinthians 8:6 “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”
Blessings,
Buddy

A LIVING LETTER

2/25/2023

February 25, 2023 A LIVING LETTER
2 Corinthians 3:2-3 “You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
Hebrews 13:15-16 “Through Him, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
1 Timothy 6:12 “Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
The life we are currently living is a letter being written; and our letter will be read by all. This letter is not written on occasion, but is continually being written 24/7. At one point in our life, we were separated from Christ; but now, if we have trusted Him as our Savior, we have been joined to Him and made a new creation. Because we have been joined to Him and have received the Holy Spirit and are now new creations with new natures, our life is far different from what it used to be. (It is true that a believer can revert back to living according to his old nature and live according to the flesh, thereby grieving the Holy Spirit-that is a choice one can make.) Our life is expressed through our action, by our responses, by our attitudes, by the words we speak, by our thoughts, by our priorities, by what motivates us, and by the spirit we project. It’s a great and accurate analogy to see the life we live as being a letter read by all. It is awesome to think that we are a ‘letter of Christ;’ our letter can be all about the greatness of our God and how He has forgiven us and made us new; our life can reflect the attributes of Christ. We are called to fight the good fight of faith; let us not neglect our calling, but be diligent in daily turning our hearts to the Lord and seeking to live in such a way that is pleasing to Him. We are now in Him, and He is in us; He is now our life. Let all we do, let the life we live flow out of who we are in Him. Our letter is being read today, and when we pass from this life, others will still be reading the letter we wrote with our life-the letter we left behind.
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Blessings,
Buddy

AS WE THINK-SO ARE WE

2/23/2023

February 23, 2023 AS WE THINK – SO ARE WE
Proverbs 23:7a “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:”
2 Corinthians 10:5b “and we are taking ever thought captive to the obedience of Christ,”
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Ephesians 4:23-24 “and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
Philippians 4:8 “Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, let you mind dwell on these things.
Everyone knows the power of thoughts. All action originates out of the mind. Even though we know, at least to some extent, how powerful the mind is, we often neglect, or fail to manage our thought life. The important truth we must embrace is that we must not allow our mind to be independent; our mind is to be directed by our spirit. In other words, we must tell our minds what to think. If we let our mind wander and go where it chooses, we err. Proverbs reveals an awesome truth when it says that we are what we think. The mind is to direct our spirit, but it is crucial that the Holy Spirit is directing and instructing our spirit. The mind, and how it works, is indeed amazing to say the least. Some say that we only use ten percent of our minds-that may or may not be true. Out of the mind can come expressions of evil or expressions of good. We can thank God that He has instructed us as to how we are to think and how we are to manage our minds; and His instructions are specific. In the verse above in 2 Corinthians, we are told to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ; we must choose to think thoughts that are in keeping with the nature of God. And here is the big deal-we must choose to think the right thoughts, even when circumstances are not what we desire, and when we don’t feel like thinking the right thoughts; often we have to go against our emotions. When we find ourselves being tempted to think in an incorrect and unhealthy way, we must at that moment be renewed in our mind and put on the new self-the new self thinks as God would have it to think. To think the right way is so much more than just being a ‘positive thinker.’ We all face difficulties, but even in the most difficult times our minds are to be reminding us that God is sufficient for whatever we face. The verse in Philippians gives us a good outline or guide as to what we are to let our minds dwell on-AND that list is doable! In light of how God has designed our minds, let us be diligent to manage our thought life; let us use our minds the way that God designed it to be used. The mind IS the battle ground.
Colossians 3:2 “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
Romans 8:6 “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”
Philippians 2:5 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.”
Blessings,
Buddy

ARISE

2/21/2023

February 21, 2023 ARISE
Ephesians 5:8-10, 14-16 “for you were formerly darkness, but not you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of light consist in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.” “For this reason it says ‘Awake sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
If we know the Lord as Savior and Redeemer, then we are not who we use to be-we are a new people; we are light in the Lord. A core message of the gospel is that because God has made us new, we are to live as those who have been delivered from darkness into His marvelous light. We have been joined to God, and now we can partake of His divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4. That means that we can-not be God-but be like Him in the life we live here on earth. The words we speak, the thoughts we think, the actions we take, the attitudes we adopt, and the spirit we project can all reflect the nature of God! Just as Paul did, we are to be doing the things that are pleasing to the Lord; we are not to ‘participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness.’ The above passage of scripture is a wake-up call for believers; we must not be found asleep on the job-on our calling; a genuine faith in God leads to a pro-active life. When we awake to the call of God and arise from our sleep, “Christ will shine on us.”(I don’t know about you, but I want Christ to shine on me-whatever that looks like.) We are to be careful how we walk; we are to walk as wise men and women, not following the ways of the world and not being distracted from what God has for us. So, let us awake and arise to the calling of God; let us being doing the things that are pleasing to Him; and let us live as the new creations that He has made us-and let His divine nature be expressed in and through us.
2 Peter 1:2-4 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificence promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
Blessings,
Buddy

RELATIONSHIPS

2/19/2023

February 19, 2023 RELATIONSHIPS
Galatians 5:13-17 “For you were called to freedom brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bit and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”
Whether in the family, the work place, the church, are socially, many experience conflict; and most conflicts arise out of selfish ambition. Believers can walk according to the flesh, or according to the Spirit. Walking according to the flesh leads to conflicts, dissentions and discord. We must live, remembering that we have two distinct possibilities; to live according to the Spirit within us, or live according to our flesh. Paul makes it clear that there is a battle that takes place within us; the flesh battles against the Spirit, and the Spirit battles against the flesh. The good news is that we do not have to yield to the flesh; we can die to our ways-to who we use to be-and yield to the Spirit. The power of sin has been broken; if we sin, we do so by choice. When we live by the Spirit, we will not carry out the deeds of the flesh. Christ has set us free, and we are not under law; however, in our freedom, we are to relate to others out of the love that God has poured out into our hearts-preferring and blessings others. Here is the mystery: when out of God’s love we serve and bless others, we are blessed and fulfilled more than if we go ‘our’ way and do ‘what we want to do.’ The ways of the flesh lead to death but the ways of the Spirit lead to life. There will always be many opportunities for us to respond in a wrong way, according to our flesh, but by living according to the Spirit and out of the love of God at work in us, we can respond in a way that honors God. If we love one another and serve one another, there will be peace in place of conflict-it’s just that simple.
Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than your selves.”
1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
Colossians 3:13 “Bearing with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive.”
Blessings,
Buddy

BY THIS WE KNOW

2/16/2023

February 16, 2023 BY THIS WE KNOW
1 Peter 2:3-6 “And by this we know that we have become to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps is word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: but the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
These scriptures no doubt cause us to examine ourselves; and if misunderstood, can be condemning. This passage is not saying that we must be perfect and keep every commandment of God in order to know Him, and it’s not saying that we do not know Him if we fail in one commandment. (There are many admonitions in scripture to grow in our faith; not to walk in the flesh; and to confess our sins.) The red flag warning is that if one claims to know God and yet habitually ignores the commandments of God “is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” The clear message of this passage is about the power of the love of God; the love of God changes us from the inside out. We cannot experience the love of God and remain unchanged. Keeping the word of God is a by-product of knowing Him; and keeping His word is proof that the love of God has been perfected in the one who says he knows God. A sure tell-tell sign that we know God is that we keep His word. As alluded to above, there will be times when we fail in keeping His word, but the Spirit will bring it to our attention and we confess it and then continue in keeping His word. The absolutely amazing reality that we find here is that because we abide in Him, WE OUGHT TO WALK IN THE SAME MANNER AS HE WALKED! I think that many believers have a problem accepting this at face value; there is a tendency to say that we are heaven bound, but we are still human and the old sin nature is alive-I’m still a sinner. There is truth in that, but the underlying problem with such a belief is that of allowing sin to be a part of our everyday life. The liberating truth is that because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts, we ‘walk as He walked.’ How awesome is it that in our everyday life, we can respond as Jesus responded; we can be guided by love of God; we can be agents of hope and encouragement; we can live with purpose; we can comfort others; we can be conveyors of truth; and the list goes on. Let us discard the lie that says we cannot ‘be like Jesus’ in our conduct. We must ask ourselves ‘Has the love of God been perfected in us?’ If we are walking in His ways, then His love has been perfected in us.
1 John 4:16 “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.”
Blessings,
Buddy

JOY

2/14/2023

February 14, 2023                                                         JOY
Romans 15:13, 14:17 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”    “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”
1 Peter 1:8, 30:11 “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.”    “You have turned my mourning into dancing, you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.                                                                                                                                                            ”We hear a lot about how the current supply chain issues is affecting the availability of certain goods and services. (God has no supply chain issues; there is never a shortage in the kingdom of God!) Not related to this current supply chain problem, there certainly seems to be a shortage of joy. Yet, joy is one of the hallmarks of being a part of the kingdom of God; search the scriptures and you will be surprised how many joy verses you find. The joy we have as believers-the joy that is built into the kingdom of God-is not in any way dependent on circumstances. It’s true that we can and do celebrate with joy on those occasions when something great and good happens; but our joy is not to be dependent on ‘good things’ happening. The joy I am referring to is not self-manufactured; the joy of the Lord comes from Him; it is a by-product of knowing Him personally. If we are primarily focused on ourselves; if we are depending on our commitment and our best efforts to gain what we desire; if we do not know our true identity as sons and daughters of God; then we will not know and experience the joy of the Lord. Our posture is to be that of always seeking to know God in greater ways; of choosing to obey His word and to walk in His ways; of dying to ourselves; having our hope totally in God; and to be discovering who He says we are. Sometimes I find myself simply coasting through life, not really experiencing the joy of the Lord; but the Spirit is faithful to draw me back to the place where I experience the joy that only God can give. The word for us today is for us not just to live, or to survive, but to adjust our thinking, and be in tune with the work of the Spirit in us who is always drawing us to God; as we draw close to Him, we will experience His joy.
Psalm 16:8-9 “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells securely.”
Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.”
Blessings,
Buddy

THE HOLY SPIRIT

2/12/2023

February 12, 2023                                             THE HOLY SPIRIT
John 14:16-17,26-16:13a ““I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.”    “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”    “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth,”
1 Corinthians 6:19 “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”
Romans 8:26, 15:13, 8:9 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”     “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,”
Galatians 5:2-23a “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
Romans 5:5 “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Ephesians 1:13 “In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,”
What a blessing that God has chosen to send His Holy Spirit to live in each believer. Having the Holy Spirt in us lifts us above living according to our own understanding; the Holy Spirt empowers us and guides us according to the ways of God. It is no casual or small thing for us to be temples of the Holy Spirit; without the Holy Spirit living in us, we could never live the Christian life as depicted in the scriptures. Because we have the Holy Spirit, we can be conscience of the presence of God in us; we have access to the wisdom of God; we have discernment; we know truth; we have the fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:2-23; we know God’s will for us; we have the super-natural power of God at work in us; we have hope and joy that are not dependent on circumstances; we can understand the word of God--and the list goes on. Also, the Holy Spirit reveals to us our true identity as sons and daughters of God-and that is so important. So, let us not take for granted the presence of the Holy Spirit in us; let us learn to discern His voice and His leading; let us walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh. The Holy Spirit always leads us to life.
Romans 6:10-11 “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within you.”
Blessings, Buddy

ROOTED AND GROUNDED

2/10/2023

February 10, 2023 ROOTED AND GROUNDED
Ephesians 3:16-20 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God. 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.”
You could never accurately summarize the word of God; however, this passage does present to a great degree the over-all desire that God has for His people. What God desires for us and has made available to us is absolutely amazing; but Paul prays that we “may be able to comprehend” what God has for His people. What we must understand is that the things that God has for us to experience do not happen automatically. Our part of the process is to have a heart that seeks to know Him, to learn of His ways, to learn of our new identity as sons and daughters of God and because we love Him, keep His commandments. Even though we have a part to play, it is only by His grace that we know what He has for us and it is only by His grace that we can do our part. Once we understand and embrace what God desires for us, we are able to live life from a new perspective; we see that real life, abundant life, life that satisfies, comes only from God-not from our own doing. His life is not dependent on circumstances; His life always flows within us, ‘springing up as a well.” (John 4:13-14) God will strengthen us in our inner man, and because Christ dwells in us, we will be rooted and grounded in love. And it gets better-we can “be filled up with all the fullness of God.” I’m not sure what it looks like to be filled up with all the fullness of God, but that is what Christ desires for us and it the very thing that we can experience. Let us know that God loves us and He wants our lives to overflow with His presence-all the time; He wants us to know His ways and to walk in His ways. All that God has for His people is beyond our comprehension, yet, because of His great mercy and grace, we can experience all that He has for us. Do not believe the lie that says that we are merely human beings who must do the best we can; rather, believe and embrace all that God has said about the life He has for us to experience in the here and now.
1 John 4:16 “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.”
Colossians 1:26-27 “that is, the mystery that has been hidden from the past ages and generation; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God has willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Blessings,
Buddy

A FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST

2/8/2023

February 8, 2023 A FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST
2 Corinthians 2:14-16a “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God to those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to life, to the other an aroma from life to life.”
Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
Our life matters, not only to us, but to others. Life is so much more than us trying to find what makes us happy. As great as it is to know that we will go to heaven when we die because we know God as our Savior is just the beginning point of a journey that we are on as followers of Christ. God has specific plans for His people during their time on earth. One of His highest purposes for us is that the life we live day in and day out will be a reflection of the character of God. What a privilege it is for us to be able to be conduits of who God is not only to those who are lost, but also to those who know Him. How amazing that God desires to “manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” Let us embrace the reality that we can be a fragrance of God-in every place. We can be a message of salvation to those who do not know Him, and we can be a message of life and encouragement to those who do know Him. What we read in Ephesians above may sound unrealistic to us, but we, through the Holy Spirit working in us, can be, and should be imitators of God as beloved children. Because God is our Father, we can be like Him; our life can be a demonstration of His love and of His character.
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
1 John 2:6 “Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.”
PS: Sin does not have power over us, but if we find that we have sinned in some way, let us confess it to the Lord, turn from it, and continue our walk with the Lord.
Blessings,
Buddy