We are Free
So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11
God opened my eyes to this in a way that I never understood before. For awhile now I have been understanding that there is incredible potential for the Christian to do anything because of who God made us to be. To be a Christian is to be indwelt by the Spirit of the God (John 14:17, Rom. 8:9). Literally that means that God is living in the Christian and the Christian’s body becomes the temple of the Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). If God has taken up resident in our lives as Christians then God can do through us anything that he did through Jesus and greater things (John 14:12).
I have been learning that to walk in the Spirit is simply a choice by faith to allow the Spirit to fill us and lead us. When we are lead by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the old sinful life (Gal. 5:16). I have been realizing that the Christian life is impossible to live by our own effort, it must be the life and living presence of God flowing and working through our life. This is what I believe Jesus meant when he talked about our need to abide in him (John 15:5).
But it hit me in a way today that I had never grasped before. If Jesus is living in me by the Spirit and his life is at work in me, then I am dead to sin when I am walking in the Spirit. It has no hold on me. There is nothing that can hinder Jesus living in me. He is greater than everything, nothing can hold him back. I am completely free from sins hold… it has no power to control me or influence me unless I choose to give it the opportunity. This is what Paul was trying to say in Romans 6.
The mistake we often make is to interpret scripture based on our experience and reduce it to what we experience. We think that it is impossible to be completely free from sins grip in this life because we have never experienced life without the war of conflicting inner desires. But Paul was saying that we can be completely free because Jesus is living in us with all his power. It is no longer me living but Christ living in me (Gal 2:20).
This is the path to revival. Understanding who lives in us and all that he is able to do. When we choose not to hinder his working through us by choosing to sin, then he can begin to move in power through our lives and do anything he wants. Do not believe the lies of the enemy who will say that this cannot be so. Do not reduce the power of God to the limits of your previous experiences. Do not choose to love the pleasures and comforts of this life and quench the working of Gods mighty power through your life. Cast off the sins and things that so easily entangle us, and release your life to be used by God to accomplish incredible things for eternity in the years ahead. Reckon yourself dead to sin. Jesus has freed you by coming to live in you. Choose now to surrender all to him and let him guide you.
For more insight into how to practically release your life;
www.transferableconcepts.com.
Labels: Jesus, Revival, Spirit-filled
A Purpose Driven Life
I have been taking a class with Shane
Spannagel and reflecting on my own past experiences about sharing the good news that God loves people and wants to help people experience wholeness and fullness of life as He originally created it to be. It is not God's desire that people suffer without hope and die physically to experience an eternity of torment in a place of darkness apart from Him outside of heaven. This reality of being
separated from God is what our ancestors chose for us when they rejected a relationship with God and we experience this
separation from God because of the human condition of self-
centeredness (sin) that we inherit.
Read here for what God desires for people.
I have been processing the passive tendency I have observed in some who wait for God to "speak to them" about sharing about Christ's love. Do we need to sit around and wait for God to tell us to go teach people about who He is or has God already told us and doesn't need to repeat the command? Matthew 28:18-20. What we need to ask is who do you want us to help today and go with a listening ear for God to direct us in the going?
Whenever I have sought the Lord for opportunities to share the good news, He has always provided them. Why? Because God loves people and it is his will for us to "seek and save the lost" just like Jesus did. Jesus lives in us through the Spirit of God and Jesus is intentional about reaching out to those who need God. We also need to be intentional and plan for time to share God's love with people through words of hope and actions of helping meet genuine needs.
What you plan for, you will do. We plan to make time to pray and read the Bible, why don’t we plan to share the
message of hope. Is it less spiritual to plan to share with people than to plan to have time to meet with God or to serve others in ministry? We plan to teach every Sunday and ask that the Spirit of God will lead us in what to teach, therefore we should also plan to reach out and help people who need the hope and help that Jesus is offering them asking God to direct us to those who most need that today.
Faith equals action. If you
believe something you will do it. If you truly
believe Jesus is continuing his work to rescue the lost world through his body, the church, then you will start acting in ways that anticipate that will happen. It has always been my experience that God give opportunities and saves people when I actively seek the opportunities to share the gospel. Why? Because god loves people and wants them to go to heaven.
That's why he sent his Son to die on a cross in
order to take away the sins of the world.
Labels: Jesus, Priorities
Counting the Cost
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
I have been reflecting on the beginning of Romans 5:3-5 this week. I have been taking a Spiritual Leadership class with Richard
Blackaby and he made the following observation. Success often develops pride in our lives whereas failure and trials drive us to our knees and humble us. If God wants to keep us walking closely with him, which would he send into our lives?
We want God to do great things in our lives and take us to the next level, yet whenever God brings a cross of adversity into our lives the first thing we cry out is, “God take this out of my life!” We have to decide if we want to be more like Christ or be comfortable.
Richards comment was that it is not safe to follow Jesus. The world needs courageous men and women, who are willing to die to do what is right, not legions of complacent followers asking for God to bless them and keep them safe. When followers of Jesus actively do things that establish justice (or righteousness; making things right), peace, and joy in our world … many self-serving agendas will be threatened. People who pursue their own desires for power, pleasure, and riches often do so at the expense of those they oppress, abuse, and steal from. People who are on fire with God’s passion for justice will be attacked in order to protect the status
quo. Consider Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of the most recent martyrs for opposing the status
quo of racial oppression and injustice.
This brings me to my reflections on Romans 5 over the past few days. Paul starts out saying Jesus Christ brought us peace with God. I did a study on the Hebrew term for peace; shalom. It’s meaning is far deeper than simply an absence of conflict or some inner tranquility. It has the meaning of completeness of life, experiencing the fullness of life, or wholeness (like a stone that never has been marred or cut… it is perfectly whole). This is God’s desire for us. We have lost the full and abundant life He originally intended for us. Sin has entered our experience and now we experience pain and suffering as people oppress, steal, deceive, abuse, use, hurt and attack each other. Jesus came as a King to reestablish a world order where selfish living is overthrown and people begin to obey God’s commands to love others and do what’s right. As people follow Jesus Christ as
their King, obeying his commands and doing his work will bring them in to conflict with the established social order. Suffering is
inevitable even for those committed to peaceful reform.
Affliction and suffering produces the opportunity to either give up or turn to God to call out for help. God has a long documented track record of delivering people who call on him for help. When people persevere into doing what is right when the pressure of affliction comes, it develops a strong character. A weak character gives up when pain comes because all that person wants is personal comfort and gratification. So they retreat from the suffering until the pain goes away. But the person of conviction will endure pain and loss to stand for what is right. They will also call on God in the midst of suffering and trust that God will help them to have strength to get through the suffering or to deliver them from the suffering.
I have noticed in my own life that when persistent afflictions come, it often initially
causes me to be angry at God because he does not seem to be answering my initial prayers. But then I remember the faithfulness of God through the past eighteen years and all that I know of Gods love and desire for our good. So I do not stay angry, instead the fire of my anger moves me to seek God with a fiercer sense of urgency. It is in those times that I meet with God in a deeper way than I would have in times of comfort and ease.
Labels: character, God, Jesus, Revival, suffering
My Journey So Far
Wow. 2006 is over and I am half way through seminary now. And I am creating my own blog to chronicle my ongoing adventures in my life of serving Jesus Christ. I am hitting the halfway point in life as well, for in a few days I will be 39 years old.
To briefly recap the adventure so far... I was born in Rhode Island to Robert and
Christy Colebank in 1967. I grew up as an only child in a very artistic family. My Dad is an architect and my Mom is an illustrator/graphic designer. They met while going to Rhode Island School of Design and I was born while they were in college. I followed in their footsteps and went to college at R.I.S.D. too. I graduated in 1989 with a B.F.A. in Industrial Design.
While at R.I.S.D., I discovered that God really did exist through seeing the difference He made in the lives of my friends; Nick
DeLuca, Steve Brock, Dan Fergus and Eric
Holter. In September, 1988 during my senior year I asked God to come into my life and began to follow Jesus. After I graduated, I decided to make God my first priority by focusing on growing in my relationship with God, so I stayed in RI and took a commercial art job. I began asking God to lead me in my career and give me a soul mate.
In 1996, I sensed Gods leading to change careers and got into web site design right as the Internet began to take off. This proved to be a great career to be in over the next decade. I love computers, so I had a lot of fun as I dove into programming and database design. God was faithful in leading me into a career that was perfectly suited for my interests and abilities.
In November, 1996 I heard Henry
Blackaby speaking on a Fresh Encounter with God and heard God calling me to serve Him full time. Six months later I met my wife, Lynn, and we were married in August, 1998. Lynn was serving on the staff of Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts and had just completed her Masters in Counselling at Gordon
Conwell when I met her. Once again God was faithful in providing a soul mate for each of us who was perfectly suited to complete the other. I am a thinker and Lynn is a feeler. I love to spend time alone getting deeper into things and Lynn loves to connect with lots of people. I love to
strategize and plan and Lynn loves to be spontaneous and have fun. God is so good and loves to give us the best. We have discovered great joy in exploring life together as a couple comparing our unique perspectives. And God has been faithful to help us move through and beyond the times when those differences caused us to clash.
We settled in to establish our home and in 2000 we began our family. We asked God to provide for us so Lynn could stay home with our children and several months later I had a new job with a 50% salary increase which allowed Lynn to stop working. Our son John was born in September 2000. Over the next four years God blessed us with two more children; Sarah and Jenna.
By the summer of 2005, we were ready for the next step and moved to
Cochrane, Alberta in Canada to go to the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary to prepare for what God wanted us to do next. The last year and a half has been a tremendous time of spiritual growth and my heart is increasingly on fire for God as I continue to experience his faithfulness to us. God is truly good to those who put their trust in Him. I hope that the chronicles of Gods faithfulness in this blog will encourage many others to be wholeheartedly follow Jesus as well.
Labels: biography, God, Jesus
