What truth exactly?

Last week we started a multi-week break down of the blog that was posted on January 7^th.  We didn’t move real far, but what we looked at had the potential to become the foundation of a totally new way of life, a totally new way of understanding, a totally new kind of relationship between us and God and as such others. 

Today we are going to use John 8 as our basis of revelation.  In this chapter we find Christ talking with those who witnessed His handling the situation with the woman caught in adultery.  During that exchange He wrote something in the sand.  Those that were asking Him to judge the woman, to test Him, and to bring about their own purposes ultimately walked away.  We do not know what was in their hearts or how what Christ wrote impacted each of them.  What we do know is that He said "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone”.

Dear God, please open our hearts, minds, and souls to that which you are trying to reveal to us in your ultimate love of us.  Please give us the strength to approach you in a new and exciting way as we trust you with helping us answer these questions: 

1.  Why do we think the “older ones” were the first to walk away “hearing” what He wrote?
2. Have we ever thought something along the lines of “Christ will take care of them”?
3. Is there any difference between our thoughts in that last question and the attitude of the Pharisees?
4. Going back to what I prayed for your week: 
1. Were you able to let God speak to you through the conflicts of your life?
2. Were you able to “hear” what He wrote in the sand before you?
3. Were you able to hear how He was using the situations to point out to you your sin,
4. Were you able to hear how He wanted to use you to lead others, to be the “elder” more spiritually mature, and to lead those less mature away from the conflict so you could discuss what Christ showed you about YOUR sin?
5. Can we be honest with ourselves, can we see how many times in the last 7 days we let Him down, how we ignored what He wrote, how we picked up the stones, threw them, and continued on with our own agendas?

Continuing on with verses 23-35 there are a few key verses for this discussion: 

• "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 
• 33 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You will become free'?" 
• 34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. 35 "The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.

Let's pray that God open our hearts and minds one more time as we ask the Spirit to reveal the truth of the following questions:

1. Can we accept that we are “from below” and totally of this world?
2. What was the blind spot of those that said “We are Abraham’s descendants…..”
3. What is the connection between sin and being a slave?
4. What does Christ say about remaining in the house and remaining a slave to sin?
5. Does this help us understand why Satan feeds us such a constant stream of excuses that encourage us to ignore the voice of the Spirit and not see sin as sin?
6. When Christ says “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free”, is the “truth” simply the bible?  Or is it an understanding of “where we are from, what we are blind to, the bondage we are in, and who our master truly is”?

The simple revelation of these verses is this:  Satan wants us to remain His slave.  God wants us to be free from bondage.  Satan is perpetually attempting to convince us that our thoughts and actions are justifiable, reasonable, and in line with Christ’s teachings so that we are his for eternity.  The Spirit is perpetually attempting to convince us that our thoughts and actions are not from God but from below.  Christ is telling us that if we do not continue on a lifelong progression of seeing His truth and embracing His ways we will ultimately fail ourselves as we do not let Him free us of the bondage to Satan and his lies.  Ultimately this will force God to remove us from the house where Christ will remain forever based on our own choice to remain attached to what God is attempting to free us from.

Let's pray that God will open our hearts to these questions:

1. Being totally honest with ourselves and with God, what are the promises, pay offs, expectations, understandings, thoughts, and emotions that drive us to: 
1.  React to the storms of life as we do,
2. Make the financial decisions we make,
3. Spend our time how we spend it,
4. Work on what we working on,
5. The choices we make for entertainment, and
6. The thoughts we have when we are alone.
2. How many of those 5 questions did we answer as simply as “to understand how God is using the things of this world to show us how far from Him we truly are and who our master really is”? 

Keeping a focus that this journey is all about letting God make us, mold us, and prepare us to be the perfect bride for His son we have no choice but to make the following connections.

•  A proper bride does not entertain others, seek her own fame, or allow others to guide her way,
• If we allow Satan to seduce us into a relationship with him based on his worldly promises of fun, excitement, physical gratification, power, influence, or any other self-serving behavior we are allowing him to entertain us while in a covenant relationship with Christ,
• If we allow Satan to seduce us into a relationship with him based on his worldly promises of feelings of being right, important, or esteemed we are trading our humility to him while in a covenant relationship with Christ
• If we allow Satan to feed us the excuses that justify our walking, talking, living, or breathing anything other than Christ likeness we are allowing him to be our master while in a covenant relationship with Christ, and
• This revelation is what John 8 is all about.  God simply cannot allow anyone to remain in the house with His son if they are not totally committed, sold on, and faithful to Christ.  Understandably, this is a life long journey that is fulfilled within the heart, not action.

Can we open up our hearts and allow ourselves to be Job for a moment?  Can we picture God in the heavenly realms pointing us out to Satan?  Can we hear God saying to Satan, “look there, see my good and faithful servant ___________. “  Can we see Satan taking the bait?  “___________ isn’t committed to you.  Just watch, I’ll show you who his/her true loyalty is with”.  Can we hear God responding, “I don’t think so, take anything but his/her life and let’s see.”  Can we understand that God is doing this because He loves us?  Can we allow our focus to go out a little and come to understand that this is all a part of God’s plan of separating good from evil for all of eternity?

The evidence of where we are in that process is in the understanding of what goes on in our mind as we walk through the journey of life. 

•  What we believe determines the thoughts we have,
• The thoughts we have determine our emotional responses to what goes on,
• Our emotional responses are God’s keys to helping us see who our master is, and finally
• We cannot be one with Him if we choose to allow Satan to be our master.

Let’s take a moment and pray.  Dear God, as we move through the upcoming week help us to open up our hearts and minds to seeing and understanding our own thoughts.  Dear God, help us understand our thoughts as our emotions lead us through this upcoming week.  Dear God help us to see our emotional responses to:

1. Challenging people and difficult circumstances,
2. Our choices for entertainment and what we bring into our lives,
3. Our interactions with those we are spiritually responsible for,
4. What we decide to spend our money on or what we decide not to contribute toward, and
5. What we spend our time on or not dedicate it toward.

Dear God, help us trust you as we let you hold up a mirror before us.  Dear God, help us trust that as we see the truth of who we are and who are master is, you will come into us and free us from the bondage we are in.  Dear God, help us come to know the freedom of being one with you as you show us the freedom found in simply letting go.