Thoughts on Walking as Sons
Here are some thoughts for walking as children in the family of our Father. Hope you enjoy them.
Eph 1: I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Eph 5; Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma
1 John 2 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
1 Thes 2 You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
1 John 1 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
3 John Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Col 1 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Eph 5 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Eph 4: This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Grace on your journey.
Love
Doug
16 Back To Basics: Audiobook Podcast
The original recordings from the retreat where Doug Roberts, Ben Pasley, and Tim F. Thornton recorded their conversations on "eight kingdom foundations for kingdom living." See http://www.timewithdoug.com for more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
15 Back To Basics: Audiobook Podcast
The original recordings from the retreat where Doug Roberts, Ben Pasley, and Tim F. Thornton recorded their conversations on "eight kingdom foundations for kingdom living." See http://www.timewithdoug.com for more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Thinking Out Loud
Sitting in a hotel room in Alicante, Spain, I am thinking about the family of God. I can't go any further than first knowing that He is my Father, because He chose me to be His son. It gives me great joy in knowing that He loves me. Everything that the Father has for me to do has already been done for me in Christ. That is great news. I can enter Christ's rest, and rest from my labors and watch what He does though me. It is not I but Christ working though me to accomplish the Father's will. So as He is, so now am I on the earth. I am the radiance of Him who has called me and appointed me to bear fruit on the earth, and to establish His kingdom everywhere I go.
I am laying hold of that which Christ Jesus laid hold of me for in each place that I find myself. If I will only trust in His faithfulness, I will see the land which He has promised to the heirs of Abraham. I am thinking how blessed I am, because of what the Father has predestined me to do in Christ my Lord. Walking in faith in the finished work of the cross--what joy it brings to my soul. Even as I must decrease He will increase. I am longing to see every person fully complete in Christ the Lord and walking in the full understanding of the kingdom of God and the grace in which they have been called.
Grace on your journey my friends.
Love,
Doug
14 Back To Basics: Audiobook Podcast
The original recordings from the retreat where Doug Roberts, Ben Pasley, and Tim F. Thornton recorded their conversations on "eight kingdom foundations for kingdom living." See http://www.timewithdoug.com for more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Walking in a manner worthy of your calling.
Paul encourages us in Ephesians 4 on how to walk worthy of our callings. I think that most believers miss the understanding of what Paul is telling us. We try to make everything religious and miss the simple truths of what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach us. Here are a few truths that we need to walk worthy of our callings:
1. The Father chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He predestined us to adoption as sons. Eph 1:1-5; John 15:16
2. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which the Father prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Eph 2:10
3. Grace has been given us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Eph 4:7
4. The Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth. John 16:12-15
We think that we have to be in the ministry to really please the Father and do His will. I believe that is true. But what we think the ministry is has been the problem.
If you are a farmer, lawyer, plumber, teacher, doctor or whatever, that is your ministry. You have been called to walk in the fullness of what the Father has for you in whatever field you find yourself in. Bring honor to the Father and draw from the resources the Father has given us in Christ and walk with the Holy Spirit. Then you will see the Father build His kingdom on the earth. Do what you can, where you are at, with what you have and see what will happen.
You can pastor people without having to be a "pastor" as the world thinks. We all have been called to make disciples; our lives are the teachings that the people around us are watching. That is why Paul is encouraging us to walk worthy.
Food for thought.
Grace on your journey.
Doug
13 Back To Basics: Audiobook Podcast
The original recordings from the retreat where Doug Roberts, Ben Pasley, and Tim F. Thornton recorded their conversations on "eight kingdom foundations for kingdom living." See http://www.timewithdoug.com for more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
12 Back To Basics: Audiobook Podcast
The original recordings from the retreat where Doug Roberts, Ben Pasley, and Tim F. Thornton recorded their conversations on "eight kingdom foundations for kingdom living." See http://www.timewithdoug.com for more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
11 Back To Basics: Audiobook Podcast
he original recordings from the retreat where Doug Roberts, Ben Pasley, and Tim F. Thornton recorded their conversations on "eight kingdom foundations for kingdom living." See http://www.timewithdoug.com for more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Abide in Christ’s Love
John 15:10
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
Jesus seems to be making a differences between His Father's commandments that Jesus kept and His commandments He wants us to keep.
I don't believe that Jesus is talking about us keeping the 10 commandments that the Father gave under the law, but His commandments that are under grace.
Jesus fulfilled the law by keeping the commandments that man could not but that Jesus did.
We are not children of the bond woman, but the free woman. We are not orphans, but sons.
I think that there are basically 5 commandments that Jesus gave us.
1. To believe on Him who was sent. (Jesus)
2. To love one another the way we have been loved. (not love your neighbor as you love yourself, but love the way Jesus and Father has loved you.)
3. To be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
4. To preach the Kingdom.
5 To make disciples.
Think about it, what is the devil fighting against?
Believing, loving, Holy Spirit, Kingdom of God and making disciples (bringing people into Christ).
Food for thought.
Grace on your journey.
Doug