Our Righteousness in Jesus Christ..Craig Denison Ministries

 Our Righteousness in Jesus Christ

Craig Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

Living an unveiled lifestyle is the way in which we experience the fullness of what’s available to us in our restored relationship with God. It’s a powerful lifestyle of faith, direct encounters with our heavenly Father, and life transformation. It’s when we live our lives in light of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus that we begin to experience all his death was purposed to bring us. God longs for his children to walk in intimacy with him directly connected to his wellspring of love for us. May you experience a more tangible, loving, and powerful connection with your heavenly Father this week.

Scripture:“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” - >2 Corinthians 5:21

Devotional:

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 describes one of the most powerful outcomes of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross. Scripture says,

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus’ death on the cross defeated the power of sin and darkness and set us free to walk in the glorious light of righteousness. You and I have been transformed by the power of Jesus’ death. He took every sin we would ever commit and bore the entirety of their penalty. Through the death of Jesus, you and I are now free to live as new creations formed in the righteous and holy image of our heavenly Father.

When God tore the veil, he demonstrated that our sin and depravity couldn’t hold back his presence any longer. Thousands of years of pent-up longing for restored relationship burst forth proclaiming the newfound nature of God’s people who would choose to accept and follow Jesus.

There is no more important way to end this week of pursuing a greater connection to our heavenly Father than accepting our new standing before God. Even though Jesus defeated the power of sin in our lives, our great enemy continues to tempt us, lie to us, and steal from us the abundant life God intends. He continues to try to rob God of what he so fully deserves: unencumbered relationship with his children.

Satan lies to us and tells us that sin still causes God to withhold himself from us. We allow condemnation that is not of God to creep in and cause us to believe that our heavenly Father doesn’t want to be with us. But the truth is, God always wants to be with his children. God runs out to us, calls us his beloved, wraps us with honor and his righteousness, and leads us into his glorious embrace.

Take time and renew your mind to your righteousness in Jesus. Ask the Spirit for fresh revelation of your freedom from sin and allow your longings to be satisfied in God rather than the world today.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on your new nature given to you in Christ. Receive a new perspective for yourself and your relationship with God.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” - >2 Corinthians 5:21

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” - >2 Corinthians 5:17

2. Confess any sin or lie that has been keeping you from walking in the fullness of what’s available to you with your heavenly Father.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” >1 John 1:9

3. Spend time taking your longings before God and asking him to satisfy them. What desire is burning within you? Do you long for intimacy, purpose, or friendship? Do you long to make an impact or to be enjoyed? Come before God and spend time allowing him to love you, fill you, empower you, and satisfy you.

Praise God that he is a loving Father who loves to be with and satisfy the needs of his children! God longs for us to bring to him all our problems, insecurities, sin, and shame so he can cover them to overflowing with his merciful love. May you find rest, satisfaction, and healing in the arms of your heavenly Father today.

Extended Reading: 2 Corinthians 5

A New Reservoir of Love..SARAH GERINGER

 A New Reservoir of Love

SARAH GERINGER

“I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.” Isaiah 41:18 (NIV)

The afternoon before the birth of my second child, I snuggled with my 2-year-old firstborn son.

My firstborn had brought me pure joy every day since he was born. As I kissed his honey-colored swirls of hair while we read a picture book, I tried to imagine loving his baby brother as much as I loved him. At the time, it seemed impossible.

I treasured those last few hours when my first son was an only child. As the baby turned in my tummy, I doubted if I had love just as strong, tender and fierce inside my heart for this new child.

While driving to the hospital to be induced that evening, I reflected on a radio broadcast by a Christian speaker. He comforted a mother who was calling in with the same fears I had. The speaker explained that when each of his children was born, a new reservoir of love opened in his heart and provided an abundant avenue for loving the new child.

He said that since God is love, (1 John 4:8) and we are made in God’s image, (Genesis 1:27) we have great capacities to love others. Previously untapped reservoirs of love exist in our hearts, and God opens them up at just the right time.

Here is a beautiful expression of this biblical truth:

“I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs” (Isaiah 41:18).

Whether God is speaking about physical or spiritual rivers — or both — in this passage, it shows us God’s ability to create rivers in barren places, to change the nature of things to bring about abundance where there is barrenness.

When we feel like our capacity to love has run dry, God can open new reservoirs of love we are meant to share.

He causes rivers of love to flow in places once barren, and He waters the parched deserts of our souls with generous springs. Where we once felt like nothing more was possible, God fills a giant underground pool with love to bless us and others.

The new reservoir of love for my second son burst open the moment I heard his first cry. Nothing could have stopped that instant surge of love from deep in my heart. And I discovered another wellspring of love hidden in my heart when his baby sister was born two years later.

Maybe you are in a season where your heart feels barren. Perhaps love has seemed out of reach in the parched ground of your soul. If hurt, grief, sorrow or betrayal have haunted you in the valley, it’s possible you believe you’ll never love again.

I encourage you to consider that God has hidden reservoirs of love inside you. Ask God to give you courage to love again and for Him to open these reservoirs.

Maybe God has a new person in mind for you to love, like the babies He gave me. It’s also possible He wants you to draw from a fresh reservoir of love as you start over in a marriage, family relationship or friendship.

Whenever you need more love to share, ask God to help you love others with the love He has shared with you. Then you’ll always have a supernaturally abundant supply of love to spill over onto others’ parched and barren places. You may even get the opportunity to be the pool of water in someone’s desert, sharing God’s love where it is most needed.

Heavenly Father, thank You for creating me to love as a reflection of Your image. When I feel l have no more love to give, open a new reservoir in me. May Your love pour into me so I can freely pour it out like fresh water onto others’ dry places. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The Reason We Serve..Dr. Charles Stanley

 The Reason We Serve

Dr. Charles Stanley

Colossians 3:23-24

In His Word, God commands us to serve one another. However, there will inevitably be difficult people in life who make this mandate challenging.

Thankfully, a biblical definition of service can help us obey the Lord's instruction, no matter who the recipient may be. And the reason is that God is actually the One whom we serve.

When we have this motivation underlying everything we do, it will impact the quality of our work and keep us from becoming discouraged. Then, whatever our task--whether we lead a country, teach children, or do something that seems unattractive--if our goal is to glorify God, we will do our best in His strength. And we trust Him to use us for His purposes, even if our labor should appear fruitless to us or to others.

When I was a child, I had to wake up before daylight to deliver newspapers. Even in rain or snow, I still had to complete the job. This was hard for me to do. Then the Lord impressed upon my heart that I was not merely bringing papers to people in my town; I was serving Jesus. As I understood this truth more, waking up and working was purposeful and doable. Truthfully, I still did not always feel like facing the work, but feelings were no longer relevant. I was serving my Maker.

Whomever God calls us to serve, and whatever He tells us to do, we can obey with joyful hearts when it's done for Jesus. If this is our motivation, we won't need worldly approval or evidence of impact. We need to know only that God is pleased and promises to reward those who serve Him (Heb. 11:6).

When We Are Slowed to a Stop..Meg Bucher

 When We Are Slowed to a Stop

By Meg Bucher

“I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.” - Galatians 2:2b NIV

The empty pages of my running journal smelled like a slice of heaven. I couldn’t wait to fill them with miles and routes, splits and workouts. But it wouldn’t be that way, not this time. This time, my twenty-year-old running injuries would catch up to me, resurfacing and lingering.

Today’s verse speaks of running, a hobby close to my heart, a very big part of who I am. It was only in learning to let it go that I realized I could survive without it. I’m learning, as I walk with Christ, that I can survive without anything but Him. In Greek (the language the New Testament is written in), “to run” is the word “trecho.”

According to Strong's Concordance, 'trecho' means to exert one’s self and strive hard. The word occurs in Greek writings to denote extreme peril, which requires the exertion of all one’s effort to overcome.

This kind of striving is the opposite of passivity. In Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary, trechō means “to run” in both a physical sense and a figurative sense. Trechō is used several times to picture the Christian life in the sense of running toward a goal (1 Cor. 9:26c; Gal 2:2; 5:7; Phil 2:16; Heb 12:1). Passivity is not a virtue in the Christian life. 

Passivity is taking all of the wisdom God’s given us throughout our trials, and suppressing it. Barreling on with one solution after the next …none of them working. While Jesus waves His hand in front of our faces to stop, passivity is thinking that we can fix everything without Him.

Walking with Christ is hard. We get knocked down, stripped of things that we identify with and felt once identified us. People leave our lives. Death is an everyday reality. And if we can’t find God in those situations, we have fallen victim to a passive attitude about who God is and what He promises.

He is good. And He knows what’s good for us. His plan for us is good. The way we identify ourselves is not always the same way He sees us. Being open to His version of who were made to be and what we are here to accomplish starts by believing in Jesus. Walking with Him doesn’t always make sense to us, but we can trust that we are being made holy, one stride at at time, until we break the tape in heaven.

Father, Praise You for our losses and our trials. Thank You for the things You strip from us that we think we need more than You. Forgive our flipped perspective of control, and bless us to lift it entirely up to You.

 In Jesus’ Name, 

Amen.

A Prayer When You Need Freedom from Fear and Worry..Betsy de Cruz

 A Prayer When You Need Freedom from Fear and Worry

By Betsy de Cruz

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” - Hebrews 2:14-15 

I claim to trust God, but fear grips my mind at random moments. Like the other night when my husband was 10 minutes late, I started imagining He’d had a terrible accident. I knew a hundred reasons could cause his delay, but I kept picturing his wrecked blue car on Highway 75.

Does it happen to you as well? Your child has a headache, and you wonder about brain tumors. Your boss calls you to a meeting, and you envision yourself in an unemployment line. Fear can be irrational, yet sometimes bad things actually do happen, which is why we experience fearful thoughts in the first place.

Hard circumstances may come our way in this world, but God’s children don’t have to fear them beforehand because we can trust our Father will show us His faithfulness in all situations.

Jesus shared our humanity, yet He never worried because He knew His Father was in control. Even when Jesus faced death, He turned His thoughts to His Father and prayed. Jesus died to break the power of Satan over us, and by His resurrection, He defeated death, setting us free from slavery to fear of death.

Think about it. Isn’t death the worst thing we fear? When someone gets cancer or has a car accident, we fear they will die. Yet Jesus conquered death when He rose from the grave, and His promise of eternal life to all who believe in Him means we need not fear death. In a strange turnaround, for those who place their faith in Jesus, death becomes not our worst day, but our best, because it is the doorway to beautiful, forever life with Jesus.

If we don’t have to fear death, maybe we don’t have to fear smaller things either. If Jesus has power over death, he also has control over the financial problem that keeps us up at night. He knows the end of the story, and He works all things for our good.

What is worrying you today, my friend?

How about turning your attention to Jesus, the Savior who is able to deliver you from every trial? What if you surrender your fears to Him and consider them in the light of biblical truth? One day your death will be the entrance into eternal abundant life, and the problem you face now is a doorway to see more of God’s power and experience a closer relationship with Him.

Let’s draw near to Jesus in prayer. 

Let’s pray:

Jesus, I praise you today because you have won the victory over sin and death. I praise you for the power of the resurrection, which demonstrates your power over all things. Lord, thank you for the gift of everlasting life. No matter what happens today, Lord, I need not fear because I have the hope of eternity with you.

Jesus, forgive me for doubting instead of trusting you. Thank you for having mercy and compassion on my weakness. Lord, I surrender the situations that worry me into your loving hands. Put my fears to rest as I see them in the light of my Heavenly Father’s great power and love. Help me fully believe you are working out your good purposes. You have the last say over my circumstances today. Give me the grace I need to rest in your arms and trust your care over me and my loved ones.

In Jesus’ name, amen. 

How to Hang On in Prayer..Lynette Kittle

 How to Hang On in Prayer

By Lynette Kittle

“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” - John 14:14

There it was finally available in my online shopping cart after weeks, which had turned into months of checking and rechecking to see if it was available, fueled by my face like flint (Isaiah 50:7), don’t give up, kind of faith.

Although some may roll their eyes and discount my quest as a highly unspiritual, worldly, frivolous, and unimportant kind of thing to pray about; highly resistant to the notion that a backpack purse could be an acceptable thing to even pray about; I’m going to risk their scorn by writing I knew God had answered my prayers the minute I saw it reappear in my cart.

Some may think I crossed a line and went too far in wanting this bag, but it had become more than something I just wanted. It became a training course of learning how not to give up in prayer, of not letting go, or losing hope when things look improbable.

Completely Sold Out
Sold out for months, here it was available again and I was certain it was because I had prayed, hung on, and refused to remove it from my cart, even talking to the bag online at one point in my effort to follow Jesus’ instructions to talk to the mountain (Mark 11:23).

Sounds far fetched, yet look what finally happened after literally months of not letting go. Still for a brief flash of a moment, surprised to see it available again, my heart was tempted to wonder if my eyes were seeing correctly, or if it was just an online shopping mirage.

Likewise the story thickens as immediately after ordering it, I tried to order another one, not because I wanted two bags, but just to see how many bags were available. But when I tried to order a second one it was sold old, with no more available.

Back-Story of a Bag
It started when the bag was originally available, marked down to clearance price. I hesitated in ordering it and ended up missing out on it. Then the enemy taunted me about it, trying to convince me I had lost my opportunity to buy it, that it was too late and I had missed my one and only opportunity. But the enemy is a liar (John 8:44) and his taunting backfired because it turned me to action. 

In my disappointment, I turned to God for help and set out to prove the devil a liar. Some may say God doesn’t care about a backpack but He does care about me. His Word says He gives us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4), and also to ask anything in His name (John 14:14), so I did. Others say not to take what Jesus said literally, but He said it and He knew how people would take it to heart. God doesn’t limit us in our asking but gives us room to grow.

Believing God over the Devil
So the challenge began of believing God over the devil. During my waiting I kept praying the online store wouldn’t remove it from my cart like they usually do once items are sold out. Remarkably as month after month passed by, the bag remained in my cart.

So when I routinely checked my cart as I did on regular basis, there it was showing up as available to order. I knew in that instance it meant more than an item just reappearing. It was God encouraging me to not give up in prayer even when it looked like all opportunity was lost, to keep praying, keep confessing God’s Word, and keep looking with expectation for His answer.

Now when I grab my new bag for an outing, it’s so much more than a wished for item, it’s a reminder to not give up in prayer. It’s God confirming what His Word says is true, of how He hears my prayers and He answers. “And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him,”(1 John 5:15).

Intersecting Faith and Life:
If there is something you’re believing God for in your life, a hope, or a dream much bigger than a bag? If so, be encouraged to not give up, but rather to keep asking, keep confessing God’s Word, and keep looking with expectation for God to answer.