Masterpiece Biblical Counseling
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Testimonies
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • Events
    • Classes
    • Seminars
    • Sign Up
  • Resources
    • Counseling Forms
    • Videos
    • Recommended Reading
    • Products >
      • Scope Ministries Materials
    • Affiliates >
      • Network220
      • Scope Ministries International
      • Creekside Christian Fellowship
  • Contribute

Inside Out

3/16/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
“God keeps creation both good and new—which means always going somewhere even better or, in a word, evolving. God keeps creating things from the inside out.”
Richard Rohr

There is a birthing, a release of the Christ-life from within us to external manifestation and experience. 

It’s the baby learning to crawl or the bird learning to fly. The potential and ability were ALWAYS there but they had to be harnessed and trusted and experienced. 

This process of His life, more and more becoming the experience of our life, is like the woman in childbirth. There is expectation (Lord, you say, “be holy as I am holy” – that means it’s possible, probable and will happen, or You say, “I have given you everything you need for life and godliness” and I can’t wait to experience that), there is anticipation (“Lord, I’m hungry to know and share unconditional love, when will it happen?”) and there is manifestation (“Lord, where did that reaction, response, thought or feeling come from – it wasn’t from me?”, or, “Lord, I hate this thing I keep doing” [the fact that you hate what is ‘ungodly’ speaks of the fact that you know it isn’t the real you and that you are in fact, godly]). 

We must acknowledge that the outer manifestation of ourselves is not the full truth about us. There is a seed within us, that WILL grow, that WILL produce, 30, 60 or 100-fold. 

Living this new life, this Christ-life, evolving into the fullness of who we are requires us to remove duality. We must acknowledge that the carnal person we see is not the truth and fullness of who we are. We must realize that our outer wrapper can be shed, in fact must be shed, in order for the fullness of who we are to be released and experienced. 

Too many embrace the outer as the truth of themselves. Too many are thwarted in manifesting and experiencing their perfection (in Him) because they don’t know this truth. They are looking outside of themselves for a solution to their issues. 

The eternal answer, however, if found in “Christ-in me”, that lives the hope (1680 elpís (from elpō, "to anticipate, welcome") – properly, EXPECTATION OF WHAT IS SURE (CERTAIN); hope) of glory. 
Crustaceans, amphibians and even some mammal find their skin/shell abandoned as they grow, naturally. May we all, children of God, trust Him in the timing of our shedding the old (over and over) and the every expanding revelation and living the new until all that remains is Christ – our life hidden in Him; our sense of who we are apart from Him totally abandoned. It’s an evolution of the inside out, where flesh, ego and self are swallowed up as we trust His timing, and rest as He births from within us the wonder of the Godhead bodily. 

Col 2:6-7 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

0 Comments

Suffering

3/15/2019

0 Comments

 
Reviewing a students answer on the Christians and Suffering final. The question, 'Is suffering beneficial or detrimental to the life of a Christian? Explain your answer and give examples.'
A thought came to me, I find myself assessing what my answer to this question is today in my walk and God brings a tidbit to ponder.
We are told by Paul, James and Peter that suffering has value (Rom 5:3-5, Ja 1:2-5 and 1Pe 1:6-8) in a Christians life - God's love poured out in our heart by the Holy Spirit, the fruit of righteousness and our faith being able to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
What IF trials/struggles/difficulties serve to separate the Christian (living His life) from the people that are with the program but not yet of His life - perhaps through no fault of their own. There are Christians that have never really heard about the Spirit filled life. Many heard that it is for those 'charismaniacs' and is not Biblical. Many do not know that they actually ARE a new creation with HIS life living in them, that their life died 2000 years ago on a cross when Christ drew ALL MEN into Himself. Maybe they have been introduced to the Holy Spirit but do not know how to live His life, this life that costs them EVERYTHING. 
What if suffering, in part, serves to help these people come to the end of themselves? What if it reveals their place and struggle? NOT for condemnation but for the correction that the Holy Spirit brings that they CAN live this new creation life that is now theirs not in their power, ability or strength but in their simple trusting Him who brought them here to walk them through.
I think those that struggle apart from His life within, when faced with trials may turn from Him. They may see Him as demanding. May find a way to medicate the pain of the reality of their inability. I think some may not hang on in the trial and may turn away. I know that in these times there is opportunity to actually meet the God of the Bible and His ability.
So what if the struggles, the refining fire, the crucible brings some to LIFE as they embrace their self-death in His Life in them and brings others to consider their spirit as dead as they embrace their self-life? What if the purpose of suffering is truly to cost US (me, my flesh, my desires, my expectations and standards) EVERYTHING. It costs every remnant of the flesh, the life that WAS lived so that His new life within is the ONLY life manifest through us?
Am I there yet? No! That is an emphatic 'no'. Yet I am further along at identifying those self-life lies that cause me to protect self and prevent His life from being released. The I cant's I wont's, I don't wanna's, the it's not fair, the why me God voices that derive from my flesh. Yet, am I on the way and do I see the value of suffering in causing this growth to take and flourish? Yes, I do and I believe that is why Jesus said that 'in this world you will have tribulation yet I have overcome the world.' KNOW trials come. KNOW they have value. I think 2 Cor 2:14-16 pictures it well... Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place, for we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death and to the other the aroma of life leading to life."
Lord, as You bring me to the end of myself may I learn to trust Your life within. May I submit to it. May I put off the desires of the flesh and walk only in the newness of life, by Your ability. Teach me Lord, for Your child is listening.
0 Comments

Two Sides of the Faith

3/5/2019

0 Comments

 
Perhaps you have been here. You attend church. You study the Bible. You listen to teaching, preaching and take copious notes. You read constantly. You purchase and study the latest, most brilliant Christian authors and books and attend every advanced discipleship, marriage, and deeper life conference you can find. Yet your Christian life isn’t working for you. You are stressed, anxious, feel guilt and lack joy. 
What if we have had it wrong. If we do-to-be…accepted, holy, righteous and approved we spend our days on a treadmill with a never changing view. 
It is when we function from be-to-do, when we know our identify, when we know we are His kids, accepted, loved and cherished by God that we develop a rich life of intimacy with God. When we know Him and know that He loves us and do not have to cower in fear, guilt or shame, we GET TO choose where we place our attention and what we put our focus on. 
The outer appearance looks the same, but that is the only similarity. It’s been said before, “Know God, know peace…no God (no true, intimate relational knowledge of God), no peace.”
Masterpiece Biblical Counseling and many others are eager to turn things inside out with you. 
(The first paragraph was adapted from a Dan Camp post)
0 Comments

    Author

    My heart's desire is to walk with people until they believe every good thing that God says about them. This happens as they are introduced to intimate relationship with the lover of their soul. 

    I love living in Utah with my husband and know a Broadway song appropriate for every occasion in life. I  typically get jokes two minutes after they are told.

    Archives

    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All
    Christ In Us
    Fruit Of The Spirit
    Identity
    Isaiah 40
    Masterpiece
    Tired

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.