My morning was planned around two scheduled grocery pick ups. Many of the retailers who transitioned to pick up during pandemic half a decade ago have continued to offer this option. I first used it during my cancer treatments but have continued because of the convenience. Also I am an inefficient shopper. I go too seldom to keep up with the ever changing store layouts but more importantly, I avoid impulse purchases by scheduling my order ahead of time.
I met my daughter and two grandkids to shop the first club store, feeling thankful I’d remembered my cooler bags as the temperatures were in the nineties. We divided our parcels and I left just before the pick up window for my second order. After jockeying for a space in the appropriate aisle, I attempted checking in with their app. No luck. I knew there would be a wait based sheerly on the number of cars in the pick up area. No problem. I’m a patient person.
After several other orders were
delivered, a young lady with a large cart approached my car. At a glimpse, it was obvious this was not my order. I asked her to check for my name. She insisted she was still learning the new system but she would ask. Half an hour later, I drove to a nearby convenience store for a bag of ice to save my frozen items.
Long story short, I returned and walked inside where, in circuitous fashion, I discerned that my order had not been picked yet. One helpful young man cancelled that order so I could quickly shop the bulk of my items before driving the half hour home. So much for convenience.
We have so emphasized ease and convenience in all of life that gradually, unavoidably those same lies have found their way into our faith. Nowhere does the Bible envisage ease or convenience either in the lives of great men and women of faith or of those entrusted with spreading the gospel. Nowhere does Jesus promise ease and convenience in Holy Scripture.
We do see God’s present protection and guidance, often miraculously portrayed. Jesus does promise His peace that surpasses understanding, His comfort that multiples to comfort others, and the power of His Spirit within individual believers, but we are mistaken if we assume faith means our lives go on according to our plans with all the inconveniences and wrinkles ironed out. Hear Jesus’s own words.
““Perhaps you think I’ve come to spread peace and calm over the earth—but my coming will bring conflict and division, not peace.
Because of me, A son will turn against his father, a daughter her mother and against her mother-in-law.
Within your own families you will find enemies.
Whoever loves father or mother or son or daughter more than me is not fit to be my disciple.
And whoever comes to me must follow in my steps and be willing to share my cross and experience it as his own, or he is not worthy of me.
Those who cling to their lives will give up true life.
But those who let go of their lives for my sake and surrender it all to me will discover true life!”
Matthew 10:34-40 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/mat.10.34-40.TPT
We’ve gone far beyond making the gospel accessible to making it cheap. We assume more people will buy into the stellar benefits if the cost isn’t too high but this is not God’s message of salvation. Only God, the Lover of our souls, can draw people to Himself and by His own admission He is a jealous Lover. He will accept nothing less than pure devotion. By removing surrender, by embracing self rather than denying it as Jesus commanded, we’ve preached another gospel. Paul warned against this in no uncertain terms everywhere he preached.
“I am shocked over how quickly you have strayed away from the One who called you in the grace of Christ.
I’m astounded that you now embrace a distorted gospel!
That is a fake “gospel” that is simply not true.
There is only one gospel—the good news of Christ!
Yet you have allowed those who mingle law with grace to confuse you.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel different than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!
Let me make it clear: Anyone, no matter who they are, that brings you a different gospel than the gospel that you have received, let them be condemned and cursed!
I’m obviously not trying to flatter you or water down my message to be popular with men, but my supreme passion is to please God.
For if all I attempt to do is please people, I would fail to be a true servant of Christ.
Beloved ones, let me repeat emphatically that the gospel entrusted to me was not given to me by any man.
No one taught me this revelation, for it was given to me directly by the unveiling of Jesus Christ.”
Galatians 1:6-12 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/gal.1.6-12.TPT
“For you seem to gladly tolerate anyone who comes to you preaching a pseudo-Jesus, not the Jesus we have preached.
You have accepted a spirit and gospel that is false, rather than the Spirit and gospel you once embraced.
How tolerant you have become of these imposters!”
2 Corinthians 11:4 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/2co.11.4.TPT
Paul spoke of Jews who pushed circumcision on Gentile believers, favoring tradition over grace. He did not want these fledgling believers to doubt the sincerity of their faith because of legalism but neither did he cast aside the Law of God. Paul championed salvation by grace alone, calling himself chief among sinners, but he did not end with grace. He held with the testimony of Jesus who said, “if you love Me, obey my commands.” (John 14:15,21) The Passion Translation rearranges the if-then statement of Jesus into a conditional challenge, one that assumes the presence and power of God’s Spirit in the life of a believer.
“Loving me empowers you to obey my commands.”
John 14:15 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/jhn.14.15.TPT
“Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God.
The best invitation we ever received!
We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.”
2 Peter 1:3-4 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/2pe.1.3-4.MSG
The gospel is a new covenant initiated by God in the person of Jesus. (Hebrews 12:24, Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20) Jesus also condemned legalism, accusing the religious leaders of missing God’s kingdom and keeping other out as well but Jesus also expressly stated that He did not come to do away with the Law but to fulfill it. Legalism has to do with manmade rules and traditions, extra-Biblical practices designed to manipulate. Scripture has another word for heartfelt obedience to God’s Law. Holiness. Holiness is not only demanded by God but empowered and lauded.
“So roll up your sleeves, get your head in the game, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives.
Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing.
You didn’t know any better then; you do now.
As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness.
God said, “I am holy; you be holy.”
You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way.
But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living.
Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.
It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in.
He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know.
He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb.
And this was no afterthought.
Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you.
It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.”
1 Peter 1:13-21 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/1pe.1.13-21.MSG
“For if we continue to persist in deliberate sin after we have known and received the truth, there is not another sacrifice for sin to be made for us.
But this would qualify one for the certain, terrifying expectation of judgment and the raging fire ready to burn up his enemies!
How much more severely do you suppose a person deserves to be judged who has contempt for God’s Son, and who scorns the blood of the new covenant that made him holy, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
It is the most terrifying thing of all to come under the judgment of the Living God!”
Hebrews 10:26-27, 29, 31 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/heb.10.26-31.TPT
“Our faith in Jesus transfers God’s righteousness to us and he now declares us flawless in his eyes.
This means we can now enjoy true and lasting peace with God, all because of what our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, has done for us.
Our faith guarantees us permanent access into this marvelous kindness that has given us a perfect relationship with God.
What incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep on celebrating our hope of experiencing God’s glory!
But that’s not all!
Even in times of trouble we have a joyful confidence, knowing that our pressures will develop in us patient endurance.
And patient endurance will refine our character, and proven character leads us back to hope.
And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!
And there is still much more to say of his unfailing love for us!
For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in my sight.”
And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God.
So if while we were still enemies, God fully reconciled us to himself through the death of his Son, then something greater than friendship is ours.
Now that we are at peace with God, and because we share in his resurrection life, how much more we will be rescued from sin’s dominion!
And even more than that, we overflow with triumphant joy in our new relationship of living reconciled to God—all because of Jesus Christ!
So then, the law was introduced into God’s plan to bring the reality of human sinfulness out of hiding.
And yet, wherever sin increased, there was more than enough of God’s grace to triumph all the more!
And just as sin reigned through death, so also this sin-conquering grace will reign as king through righteousness, imparting eternal life through Jesus, our Lord and Messiah!”
Romans 5:1-5, 9-11, 20-21 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/rom.5.1-21.TPT
“So what do we do, then?
Do we persist in sin so that God’s kindness and grace will increase?
What a terrible thought!
We have died to sin once and for all, as a dead man passes away from this life.
So how could we live under sin’s rule a moment longer?
Or have you forgotten that all of us who were immersed into union with Jesus, the Anointed One, were immersed into union with his death?
Sharing in his death by our baptism means that we were co-buried with him, so that when the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead, we were also raised with him.
We have been co-resurrected with him so that we could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life.
For since we are permanently grafted into him to experience a death like his, then we are permanently grafted into him to experience a resurrection like his and the new life that it imparts.
Could it be any clearer that our former identity is now and forever deprived of its power?
For we were co-crucified with him to dismantle the stronghold of sin within us, so that we would not continue to live one moment longer submitted to sin’s power.
Obviously, a dead person is incapable of sinning.
And if we were co-crucified with the Anointed One, we know that we will also share in the fullness of his life.
And we know that since the Anointed One has been raised from the dead to die no more, his resurrection life has vanquished death and its power over him is finished.
For by his sacrifice he died to sin’s power once and for all, but he now lives continuously for the Father’s pleasure.
So let it be the same way with you!
Since you are now joined with him, you must continually view yourselves as dead and unresponsive to sin’s appeal while living daily for God’s pleasure in union with Jesus, the Anointed One.
Sin is a dethroned monarch; so you must no longer give it an opportunity to rule over your life, controlling how you live and compelling you to obey its desires and cravings.
So then, refuse to answer its call to surrender your body as a tool for wickedness.
Instead, passionately answer God’s call to keep yielding your body to him as one who has now experienced resurrection life!
You live now for his pleasure, ready to be used for his noble purpose.
Remember this: sin will not conquer you, for God already has! You are not governed by law but governed by the reign of the grace of God.
What are we to do, then?
Should we sin to our hearts’ content since there’s no law to condemn us anymore?
What a terrible thought!
Don’t you realize that grace frees you to choose your own master?
But choose carefully, for you surrender yourself to become a servant—bound to the one you choose to obey.
If you choose to love sin, it will become your master, and it will own you and reward you with death.
But if you choose to love and obey God, he will lead you into perfect righteousness.
And thanks be to God, for in the past you were servants of sin, but now your obedience is heart deep, and your life is being molded by truth through the teaching you are devoted to.
And now you celebrate your freedom from your former master—sin.
You’ve left its bondage, and now God’s perfect righteousness holds power over you as his loving servants.
For just as you surrendered your bodies and souls to impurity and lawlessness, which only brought more lawlessness into your lives, so now surrender yourselves as servants of righteousness, which brings you deeper into true holiness.
For when you were bound as servants to sin, you lived your lives free from any obligation to righteousness.
So tell me, what benefit ensued from doing those things that you’re now ashamed of?
It left you with nothing but a legacy of shame and death.
But now, as God’s loving servants, you live in joyous freedom from the power of sin.
So consider the benefits you now enjoy—you are brought deeper into the experience of true holiness that ends with eternal life!
For sin’s meager wages is death, but God’s lavish gift is life eternal, found in your union with our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.”
Romans 6:1-23 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/rom.6.1-19.TPT
“And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life.
Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”
John 3:36 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.3.36.NLT
God’s judgement and His wrath remains on all who won’t believe and He knows who those are even now in the same way that Jesus knew who would betray Him before choosing the twelve. He has always known but His knowledge does not mean we are without free will. We remain free to choose and our words and actions are the best indicators of our choice. God’s knowledge is not bound by physical constraints like time. Neither are His power, His love, His goodness, grace, or mercy. God is consistent with His Word in its entirety. Therefore it is wise for every believer to be intimately acquainted with God’s Word.
““For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life.
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but that the world might be saved through Him.
Whoever believes and has decided to trust in Him [as personal Savior and Lord] is not judged [for this one, there is no judgment, no rejection, no condemnation]; but the one who does not believe [and has decided to reject Him as personal Savior and Lord] is judged already [that one has been convicted and sentenced], because he has not believed and trusted in the name of the [One and] only begotten Son of God [the One who is truly unique, the only One of His kind, the One who alone can save him].
This is the judgment [that is, the cause for indictment, the test by which people are judged, the basis for the sentence]: the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. [Is 5:20]
For every wrongdoer hates the Light, and does not come to the Light [but shrinks from it] for fear that his [sinful, worthless] activities will be exposed and condemned.
But whoever practices truth [and does what is right—morally, ethically, spiritually] comes to the Light, so that his works may be plainly shown to be what they are—accomplished in God [divinely prompted, done with God’s help, in dependence on Him].””
John 3:16-21 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/jhn.3.16-21.AMP
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to Me on that day [when I judge them], ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done many miracles in Your name?’
And then I will declare to them publicly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me [you are banished from My presence], you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].’ [Ps 6:8]”
Matthew 7:21-23 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/mat.7.21-23.AMP
“It is the Spirit Who gives life [He is the Life-giver]; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it].
The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life.
But [still] some of you fail to believe and trust and have faith.
For Jesus knew from the first who did not believe and had no faith and who would betray Him and be false to Him.”
John 6:63-64 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/jhn.6.64.AMPC
God always knows.
““I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors.
Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’
Don’t be like your ancestors who would not listen or pay attention when the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’
Where are your ancestors now?
They and the prophets are long dead.
But everything I said through my servants the prophets happened to your ancestors, just as I said.
As a result, they repented and said, ‘We have received what we deserved from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
He has done what he said he would do.’””
Zechariah 1:2-6 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/zec.1.2-6.NLT
All are tested. Faith does not exempt you from being put to the test. Rather it guarantees it.
““Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat.
But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail.
So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.”
But Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something.
Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.””
Luke 22:31-34 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.22.31-34.NLT
“For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household.
And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?
And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?”
So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.”
1 Peter 4:17-19 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1pe.4.17-19.NLT
“Since we are approaching the end of all things, be intentional, purposeful, and self-controlled so that you can be given to prayer.
Above all, constantly echo God’s intense love for one another, for love will be a canopy over a multitude of sins.
Be compassionate to foreigners without complaining.
Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many-colored tapestry of God’s grace.
For example, if you have a speaking gift, speak as though God were speaking his words through you.
If you have the gift of serving, do it passionately with the strength God gives you, so that in everything God alone will be glorified through Jesus Christ.
For to him belong the power and the glory forever throughout all ages!
Amen.”
1 Peter 4:7-11 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1pe.4.7-9.TPT
Lord, forgive us for cheapening in any way, by our words or actions, Your indescribable Gift. May we study Your Word of Truth, eager to show ourselves mature ministers of the gospel. (II Corinthians 9:15, II Timothy 2:15)
“Empty hands held high
Such small sacrifice
If not joined with my life
I sing in vain tonight
May the words I say
And the things I do
Make my lifesong sing
Bring a smile to You
Let my lifesong sing to You
Let my lifesong sing to You
I want to sign Your name to the end of this day
Knowing that my heart was true
Let my lifesong sing to You
Lord I give my life
A living sacrifice
To reach a world in need
To be Your hands and feet
So may the words I say
And the things I do
Make my lifesong sing
Bring a smile to You
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Let my lifesong sing to You”
© 2005 Be Essential Songs (BMI) (admin. at EssentialMusicPublishing.com) / My Refuge Music (BMI) (admin. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com)
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