Wounded Spirit

Why do I have a crushed spirit?  Cares of my world are getting worse as I get older.  Financial circumstances continue to pile up, health issues increase, relationships get difficult, unsatisfying, church is less fulfilling than ever before.  My spirit is crushed by the circumstances of my life. 

But these circumstances that get me so down are irrelevant and I get down because I focus on them.  They are irrelevant to the life I have been given in Christ.  Paul learned to be content in all circumstances because good or bad his ultimate focus was on Christ and the goal of eternal life with him.  What occurs here is just temporary and a training ground for our faith.  Nothing in this life is ever going to give us the satisfaction we desire because nothing in this life is going to live up to the fullness of life we will find ultimately in the next world.  We want something that can't be had in this world.  Everything you look to to give you satisfaction doesn't and will not.  So be content with what God has given you, orient yourself to the truth of the gospel and what He suffered for you to give you this fullness of life that is coming, you will then find the joy beyond the walls of this world - a foretaste of the tree of eternal life.

New relationship to God

Christ brought to us the right relationship with the Creator that had never been possible in this world before.  Even those before Christ came to this earth had a relationship with God based on what Christ was to do. All we were, all our attempts to reach Him were rubbish but Christ provided us the ways and means to establish the right relationship with God.

You have given us Him that we may know You.

NT replacements for OT rituals

God always has and will deal with his people through covenants. 
God deals with peoples and not individuals.
In the OT we see the Passover celebrated
in the NT we celebrate Easter the resurrection
in the OT we circumcision as the sign of the covenant through families/heads of households
in the NT we see baptism as the sign of the covenant expanded to all
Pentecost - the promise is to you and your children Acts 2:39, 1 Cor. 7:14

God has made a covenant with his people.  Baptism is the sign of the covenant and replaces circumcision (Col. 2:11) Our children have a portion in the covenant and therefore they have the right of baptism.

Saving souls

Evangelizing is often pictured as saving lost souls.  But none who respond were "lost."  They are His that come at his chose time - his chosen ones.  He came to destroy the works of the devil through their faith.  He plants the seed of truth in them, waters it, and allows us to harvest his crop - bringing it into his kingdom.  There are none out in the world that were lost to Him but diverted to heaven.  All who respond are our brothers and sisters who were chosen before the foundation of the world.  We are just there when he calls them so fear not to proclaim the gospel - his chosen people will hear.

He doesn't call us to serve the world (who reject him) but to build up the body of Christ.  Eph. 4:11ff.  We were given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers to equip the saints...for the building up of the body of Christ.

[the lost - is this a term the bible uses?  Are they really lost?  This term gives us the idea we have to rationalize people into the kingdom when really we are just finding brothers.]

In the acceptance of God's sovereignty in my life I must translate that into my dealings with ____ forgive and forget the damage done.  Can I do this?  No.  The Holy Spirit must empower me to do it and I must not give myself any credit.

The renewal

This world was in its infancy and God worked through Israel alone.  They became an example of the ways of people and the way they would choose to go left to make their own choices.  Then God choose to enter the world he created as Jesus and the world changed. It was filled for the first time with real life, love, hope, justice, mercy, etc.  The renewal had begun.  First his chosen children were being redeemed and renewed through each generation and, then finally creation so that the devil will have will have not conquered any area of the creation as his own.

The reason He came...

The reason He came was to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).  I never noticed this before and always thought he only came to save us his children.  But he did destroy the works of the devil by redeeming us and then he will again when he redeems all of creation.  Hebrews 2:14:  ...he himself likewise partook of [flesh and blood] that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death ...the devil.

Gal. 1:15 he ... had set me apart before I was born, and ... called me by his grace...

From the foundation of the world God gave Him children Heb. 2:13:  "Behold, I and the children God has given me."  Mankind was destined for hell but in the right time he came to change the destination of his children by destroying the one who had the power of death over them that they might  no longer fear death but think of death as a pleasure - a going home.