SPIRITUAL 1 CORINTHIANS 2:9-15
MAINTENANCE TITUS 3:8
NEWSLETTER
MARCH 2008
WEB ADDRESS: spiritualmaintence.org
E-MAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]
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The Spiritual Maintenance Newsletter is a monthly study of scripture and matters that deal with our spiritual life and our growing in grace and knowledge of the nature and character of God. It is not a lecture or a sermon but practical help and insight for our faith walk in this tired busy world. You are invited to e-mail responses, AGREEMENT IS NOT REQUIRED. Some print out the newsletter and share it with others, and some study it over a month in small segments from their computer. It is not necessary to read in one sitting, but in parts over the month, for thought and meditation, at ones own pace. We are not so concerned with who is right but what is right, not what we believe as much as whom we believe.
Acts 17:11 / 2 Timothy 1:12
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SIN AIN’T WHAT YOU THINK!
ROMANS 5:12-13 / 3:1-20 / 3:23 / 6:23 / JEREMIAH 17:9
Throughout human history man has spoken the word “sin” in ridicule and frustration. Most people accept the word “sin” but deny it’s reality or personal application, or at least what it really is. The natural man “who does not understand the things of God”, mocks it, denies it, and refuses the Biblical declaration of “lostness”. We as believers are forever plagued with its reality and as we grow in grace we develop an even greater awareness of our “absolute spiritual inability”. Our victory is always “His Victory” in us and through us. We must never forget that “WE SIN BECA– USE WE ARE SINNERS AND NOT SINNERS BECA– USE WE SIN”! Sin is not murder, rape, adultery, greed, etc., in other words not what we do or don’t do but rather a condition or disease of the human heart or experience. All the behavior that misses God’s purpose, misses the mark of His plan for our lives, whether it is to be found in what we do or what we fail to do. Thus murder, rape, adultery, greed, drunkenness and so on or the by-product of the “sin nature” and the human condition. It simply put, declares that we have “missed the mark” or “come short” of the glory of God. I grew up as a kid hearing the following cuteness in response to the idea of sin and how we saw it, “I don’t dip, dance or chew and I don’t run with folks that do, or date girls who do.” This I might add does not describe SIN in the Biblical sense but rather human behavior as it relates to a given human value, or personal opinion. Sin is indeed a malicious cancer in the heart of all mankind.
Jesus Christ is our righteousness and our only hope, a gift of grace.
SIN DEFINED!
All have SINNED and COME SHORT of the glory of GOD. ROMANS 3:23
S SHORT of GOD’S plan we “MISSED THE MARK of HIS
RIGHTEOUSNESS – WE WEAR MASK / WE PLAY GAMES / WE HIDE WE RUN / Isaiah 64:6 / Matthew 6:33 / Romans 5:17 / Titus 3:3-7 / James 1:13-15
GOD FINDS US NOT US FINDING HIM. Genesis 3:8-10
I “I” is me at the center of the universe / ME – MYSELF & I
OUR COVERING IS SELF / I AM MY OWN AUTHORITY / THUS WE FEEL
INADEQUATE / INSECURE AND WE ARE / OUR SELF IS LOST!
Romans 3:10-18 / Jeremiah 17:9 / Job 14:1-6 / Proverbs 3:5-6 / Luke 19:10
LOST WE ARE: L lonely O opposing S salvations T treasure / 2 Corinthians 4:7
OUR GREATEST SIN AS BELIEVERS IS IDOLATRY / SELF TRUST v GOD TRUST
WE GROW IN GRACE BUT DAILY CONFRONT SIN FROM VICTIM TO VICTORY!
N NAKED and afraid / fears and anxieties / we hurt
THE NATURAL MAN SEEKS AN IDENTITY / COVERS EMOTIONAL NAKEDNESS
WITH SCHEMES / RELIGION / PHILOSOPHIES / DEFINED BY PSYCHOLOGY
Mark 7:14-23 / 2 Timothy 1:7 / Philippians 4:4-7 / 2 Corinthians 5:21
Genesis 3:8-10
Life is short / death is sure / SIN the cause / Christ the cure!
SIN IS!?.
LEGAL GUILT BEFORE GOD
Romans 3:9-12 / 23
SIN is an actual legal standing before GOD whereby we are declared guilty and condemned of not accepting His gracious payment of the death, the burial and resurrection of HIS SON, the LORD JESUS CHRIST in our behalf. John 3:18 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Ours is inherited human sinfulness and
inability because of Adam’s transgression. Romans 5 Thus all men are dead in sin and totally corrupt in all parts and faculties of both soul and body. Therefore we all inherited a polluted, corrupt nature. We are conceived in sin and by nature children subject to God’s anger against sin, the servants of sin and subjects of death. We as all men are now given up to unspeakable miseries, spiritual temporal and eternal unless the Lord Jesus Christ alone sets us free. Psalm 51
SINS ARE!?.
CONSEQUENCE OF A CONDITION
Romans 5:18-19 / 3:26
We SIN because we are SINNERS! Once we have received God’s pardon in Jesus Christ “BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH”, we are no longer looked upon by God as SINNERS
But rather Children of God, and “joint heirs with Jesus Christ”. We then have a whole different relationship to sin. Sin is no more out master, but we are under command to “refuse sins reign in our “corrupt mortal bodies”. As a believer God never views us as “SINNERS”, rather as His children who struggle with “our earthly bodies”, that is our “old natures”, with their desires, resulting in sin. James 1:13-16 We will often move in our growth from victim to victory and stand continually in conflict with our old nature of the flesh.
Romans 7:14-25 / Galatians 5:17 Our position in Christ never changes as we confront and conflict with our old nature, but our condition changes and our joy is disapated. John wrote “DON’T SIN, but if you do, you have an ADVOCATE with the Father, JESUS CHRIST the righteous”. 1 John 2:1-3 As in the human relationship between a parent and a child we must moment by moment repeat the process of renewal of intimacy and fellowship between us and our HEAVENLY FATHER. 1 John 1:9-2:2 Our relationship is not broken by our sin but our fellowship is. At our physical death “this mortal puts on immortality and this corruption puts on incorruption.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58 / Luke 15: 11-32 / Romans 8 The renewal process is:
CONFESS – 1 John 1:9
REBOUND – 1 John 2:1-3 / Philippians 2:12-13
FEED YOUR NEW NATURE / DON’T FIGHT THE OLD! 1 John 1:7
2 Timothy 2:14-15 / Hebrews 4:12-13, 5:13-14, 12:1-3 / Psalm 51, 119:9,11, 89
James 1:13-16 / Romans 6:12-14 / 2 Peter 1:2-8, 3:17-18 / 1 John 2:27
We live in mortal, corrupt bodies that are not redeemable, thus Paul declared that, “flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, and this mortal must put on immortality, and this corruption must put on incorruption.”
1 Corinthians 15:50-53 This happens at our physical death when
redemption is complete for which we were sealed at the moment of our salvation. Ephesians 1:13-14 Thank God that our condition of sin, in our natural lostness, is remedied only by
receiving at a moment in time, His “LEGAL RIGHTEOUSNESS
AS A GIFT”, by which we are covered, redeemed and sealed until the day of redemption. Never forget, “CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY.” Colossians 1:27 / Galatians 2:20 / Romans 5:17
EASTER IS BASICLY A PAGAN HOLIDAY BUT WE AS BELIEVERS CELEBRATE THE RESURRECTION TO NEW LIFE IN CHRIST 24/7. THE CROSS CELBRATES THE DEATH OF THE LAW IN OUR LIVES WHICH CANNOT GIVE LIFE BUT RATHER IS THAT WHICH BRINGS US TO CHRIST AND HIS RESURRECTION LIFE. “CHRIST IN US THE HOPE OFGLORY!”
READ: GALATIANS 3 / COLOSSIANS 2 & 3 / 1 CORINTHIANS 15
Amazing GRACE how sweet the sound
That saved a WRETCH like me
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see.
JOHN NEWTON
Heart to heart
Life has been very busy these days and God is faithful. Every generation has it’s own pain and struggles. Our world is so given to technology that often separates us rather than drawing us together. We are often removed from closeness and intimacy but we must determine to make ourselves available to one another in order to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. I ask you to pray for me and my family as we pray for you. Pray for Grace Fellowship that meets on Sunday and Wednesday, for our Sunday evening Bible Study in Mooresville every other week, for the Voice of Reason worldwide radio ministry that I share with John Anderson twice a month. Finally pray for the monthly ministry of Spiritual Maintenance, the newsletter and the one to one discipleship ministries. I am
home schooling Elizabeth our 9 year old, 4th grader and she is precious and we both are growing and learning. Pray for Diane my faithful wife, her work and her mom and dad who are having physical problems. Their names are Ralph and Doris. Thank you for your many letters, emails and phone calls. Feel free to call for prayer or to discuss some need or Biblical truth. I love you each one and am grateful for you being in my life. Pray especially for our country, our world and our leadership, and the many faithful who walk daily with the Lord.
I LOVE YOU IN HIS GRACE danny griffin
Feel free to call me 704-497-7126!