Dana's Christian Journey

musings of a thankful cancer survivor

Author: Dana

  • access

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    Dana

    “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the Blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in His flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the Cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the Blood of Christ. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:13-18)

    The Father, Son, and Spirit love unity and want all human beings, Jews and Gentiles, to enjoy the same ‘Oneness’ they experience. ‘Let them be one, Father, as You and I are one.’ (see John 17)

    Man is incapable of bringing about such unity… it can only exist through the love of the Father, the sacrifice of the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit. As we humble ourselves at the foot of the Cross we see our desperate situation. By God’s mercy, the Blood of Jesus was shed to bring our forgiveness and the Holy Spirit was poured out to be our Helper.

    Now, in Christ, we have access to the Father. Whatever trouble we are in, whatever circumstance seems overwhelming, whatever care weighs us down… we have access to the Father. The Creator of the universe beckons us into His presence. If we understand this invitation, there will be no flippancy, no disrespect, and no arrogance. If men and women of old trembled in the presence of angels, how do we approach the One who created the angels?

    The writer of Hebrews says to come with confidence. No matter what the situation, a son or daughter can come before a good parent knowing there is grace, mercy, provision, and sacrificial love. In Christ, we come to the Father believing nothing is impossible for the One who is above all. As children, we have access! “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!” (I John 3:1)

    “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet He did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16

  • aging

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    Dana

    agingWilkes and Macy celebrated their hundredth day of the school year this past week by dressing up as one hundred-year-olds. Macy seems to be aging well, but Wilkes looks a little worried to me. I should probably tell them getting old is not for the faint of heart.

    Most of us have access to pictures from birth to now. Take a little time and look back a decade or two or three… and be reminded of God’s faithfulness. He is a good, good Father. Birthdays, baptisms, graduations, travels, family, friends, highs, and lows… God is present.

    As He walked the earth, Jesus wanted people of all ages to know the character and love of the Father. So many misrepresented God, but Jesus revealed Him perfectly by His words and actions. ‘Don’t you know? If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father…’ (see John 14)

    Surely this is one of the most important missions of the Body of Christ: to reveal the Father. We can only truly do this through the Holy Spirit He has given us. The Spirit points us to Jesus; Jesus takes us to the Father. There is no rivalry or disunity in the Holy Trinity. Rather, there is perfect harmony and perfect love. The Father has placed us in the Son and has placed His Spirit in our hearts. “It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus…” (I Corinthians 1:30)

    May we offer ourselves to Him daily as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable because of the Blood of Jesus. This is our act of worship as we call others to follow the Good Shepherd… who helps us in our aging.

    “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” II Corinthians 1:21-22

    “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1

    “Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:32

  • stand

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    Dana

    “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.” (Luke 22:31-32) If Satan knows “without faith it is impossible to please God,” (Hebrews 11:6) it is no wonder he wants our faith to fail. If the enemy knows “the work of God is this: to believe in the One he has sent,” (John 6:29) Satan, of course, will try to keep us from truly believing in the One.

    In March of 1952, eighteen years after marrying Charity Chang, Watchman Nee was arrested on false charges, then tried and imprisoned. During his captivity, Charity was the only person permitted to visit. She passed away six months before he died on May 30, 1972. With no fanfare, his body was cremated and the family was notified. When Nee’s sister-in-law and grandniece arrived to gather his ashes, an officer showed them a note found under his pillow. Written in large letters with a shaky hand, this may be the last thing Watchman Nee wrote before meeting his Savior: “Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ. – Watchman Nee”

    This Chinese disciple finished his race with the message he taught others: Christ is everything. Because Jesus overcame, we overcome. Because He lives, we live. ‘Even though my freedom is taken away, my loved ones are banished, and my life on earth is ending… by God’s grace, I stand.’

    In the final chapter of his short book on Ephesians titled ‘Sit, Walk, Stand,’ Watchman Nee focuses on Paul’s instruction to stand against the enemy who hates God and all His children.

    Christian living begins with sitting and leads to walking, but it does not end with these. Every Christian must learn also to stand. Each of us must be prepared for the conflict…

    Only those who sit can stand. Our power for standing, as for walking, lies in our having first been made to sit together in Christ. The Christian’s walk and warfare alike derive their strength from his position there. If he is not sitting before God he cannot hope to stand before the enemy.

    Satan’s primary object is not to get us to sin, but simply to make it easy for us to do so by getting us off the ground of perfect triumph on to which the Lord has brought us. Through the avenue of the head or of the heart, through our intellect or our feelings, he assaults our rest in Christ or our walk in the Spirit. But for every point of his attack defensive armor is provided, the helmet and the breastplate, the girdle and the shoes, while over all is the shield of faith to turn aside his fiery darts. Faith says: Christ is exalted. Faith says: We are saved by grace. Faith says: We have access through Him. Faith says: He indwells us by His Spirit. Because victory is His, therefore it is ours.

    In Christ we stand.

    “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Ephesians 6:10-17

    ‘Sit, Walk, Stand’ by Watchman Nee; Gospel Literature Service; ©1957; Bombay, India

  • walk

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    Dana

    “God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are His.’” (II Timothy 2:19) To those who began to follow Him, Jesus once said: “There are some of you who do not believe.” (John 6:64) Faith is not just a mental ascent to something that is true. Even the demons believe Jesus is the Son of God. We are called to bank everything on who Jesus is and what God has accomplished through Him. “Trust Me completely and do what I say. Commit yourself to Me… and you will experience true life.”

    In the parable of the sower, Jesus explained that temptation, distraction, and difficulties will oppose those who hear the Word. “But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)

    The fruit is in Christ. “I am the Vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) No surprise Paul prayed we could see our position in Jesus ‘in the heavenly realms’ and ‘grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge…’ (Ephesians 3:18-19)

    In his short book, ‘Sit, Walk, Stand,’ Watchman Nee points out the wonders of our blessings in Christ revealed in the first three chapters of Ephesians. Paul prayed that we can ‘understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.’ (1:19-20) And we are seated with Him! (2:6)

    Paul uses the last three chapters of his letter to show how our position in Christ leads to victorious living. Watchman Nee writes: “Though the Christian life begins with sitting, sitting is always followed by walking. When once we have been well and truly seated and have found our strength in sitting down, then we do in fact begin to walk. Sitting describes our position with Christ in the heavenlies. Walking is the practical outworking of that heavenly position here on earth.”

    As the old hymn says: “When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

    “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3

    “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2

    “At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).” Ephesians 5:8-9

    ‘Sit, Walk, Stand’ by Watchman Nee; Gospel Literature Service; ©1957; Bombay, India

  • sit

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    Dana

    God’s servants, through whom He chooses to help us better understand all that He has accomplished through His Son’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension, point us to true hope. It often seems impossible to imitate the courage or service or wisdom of the great heroes of faith. “I’m not too courageous or industrious or wise…”, but thank God, Jesus is. To find Him as my wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption is the goal. (see I Corinthians 1:30)

    Watchman Nee (Nee To-sheng) was born in Foochow, China in 1903. After putting his faith in Christ as a teenager, he began to see Jesus as our only hope. Though an exodus of foreign missionaries began taking place in the first half of the 1900’s culminating in full expulsion in 1953, the Gospel was not silenced in China. Multitudes put their faith in Jesus and scores of ‘illegal’ house churches sprung up across the nation.

    After the Communist government came to power in 1949, persecution of all Christians increased and in 1952 Watchman Nee was arrested on false charges. He died in 1972, having spent the last twenty years of his life in prison. Many of his writings and translated messages were published and spread throughout the world. His bold exaltation of our Lord Jesus as revealed in the Bible has helped disciples better understand God’s amazing gift.

    A short book on Ephesians entitled ‘Sit, Walk, Stand’ has strengthened the faith of Christians since its publication in 1957. Below is a section from the chapter entitled: ‘Sit’.

    The Christian era began with Christ, of whom we are told that, when He had made purification of sins, He “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). With equal truth we can say that the individual Christian life begins with a man “in Christ” — that is to say, when by faith we see ourselves seated together with Him in the heavens.

    Most Christians make the mistake of trying to walk in order to be able to sit, but that is a reversal of the true order. Our natural reason says: “If we do not walk, how can we ever reach the goal? What can we attain without effort? How can we get anywhere if we do not move?”… But Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE. Thus Ephesians opens with the statement that God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (1:3) and we are invited at the outset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us; not to set out to try to attain it for ourselves.

    Walking implies effort, whereas God says that we are saved not by works, but “by grace… through faith” (2:8). We constantly speak of being “saved through faith,” but what do we mean by it? We mean this, that we are saved by reposing in the Lord Jesus. We did nothing to save ourselves, we simply laid upon Him the burden of our sin-sick souls. We begin our Christian life by depending not upon our own doing, but upon what He has done… “I can do nothing to save myself, but by His grace God has done everything for me in Christ” is to take the first step in the life of faith. The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus.

    May we see where God has placed us!

    “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated him at His right hand in the heavenly realms…” Ephesians 1:16-20

    “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-7

    ‘Sit, Walk, Stand’ by Watchman Nee; Gospel Literature Service; ©1957; Bombay, India

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