Love it, Learn It Live It!
I wanted to share with everybody what one of our Renovation Strategic Team Members is helping us with during these 40 Days… Terri has been a part of Renovation from almost the beginning days and has contributed in many ways but we asked her to be our Prayer Coordinator for the 40 Days In the Word initiative and so she has been writing and encouraging our facilitators and team members each week… here is this weeks words of encouragement. (awesome job Terri!)
Dear Faciltators and Connection Teams
As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, …So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. – John 8:30-31, 36 ESV
I have heard many praise reports of the time spent in prayer and bible study blessing individuals both inwardly in their relationships with Christ and outwardly in their families and work lives. On the other hand I have also heard accounts of the frustration that many are facing with creating new habits in their lives. Collectively as a church body, we are tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, and grabbing a hold of a vision of what Christ wants to do in our lives and how He wants to use us, but yet in many cases we are not yet obtaining the promise, the abundant life in Christ and the answered prayer that we are seeking after.
Frustration in our spiritual lives can take many forms, whether its temptations we can never seem to overcome or an addiction that always seems to get the best of us or even a struggle with having that discipline to pray, study the bible, and live out the scriptures you are reading. The apostle Paul in the bible expressed this same frustration in the book of Romans.
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. … So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. – Romans 7:15, 17-19 ESV
Now contrast this with what Paster Brek talked about this past Sunday. We looked at John 14 and talked about our lives producing fruit when we abide IN CHRIST.
What then does it mean to abide in Christ so that we can produce this spiritual fruit? And how can we possibly get past the frustration and sin that we recognize is still in our lives even though we do not want it to be?
We can take comfort knowing that we are not alone in our frustration, every believer, even the apostle Paul had this same process going on in his soul that we do today. We can praise God that He does not change and that the answer to this struggle is found in the word of God.
3 Key Truths that relate to abiding IN CHRIST and gaining victory over the sin in our lives are as follows:
1. I am crucified with Christ
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. – Rom 6:6 ESV
è Just as Christ was crucified, we too, our old sinful selves are crucified. Why? So that we will no longer be slaves to sin and trapped by sin. This part of us needs to die so that the next truth can take root.
2. I am resurrected unto newness of life – in the resurrection of Christ
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. – Rom 6:4 ESV
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Gal 2:20 ESV
è This is the new life that we are then given. In this new life we no longer serve sin, but now we are able to serve God because Christ lives in us.
3. I am seated in heavenly places IN CHRIST
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, – Ephesians 2:4-6 ESV
è When we are seated in heavenly places in Jesus Christ, we are positioned ‘IN CHRIST’ meaning all of the power and holiness available to Jesus Christ is available to us. This is what we need to have the life of God being evidenced in our lives, or the fruit that we talked about in service.
These concepts definitely are deep truths, so I encourage you to put into practice the bible study methods that we have been learning by reading & studying Romans 6 line by line so that this makes more sense.
Once you know and understand these truths, how then to you turn what is in the bible, the seemingly impossible life that God has called us to, into practice?
You can think about it as 3 Steps:
1. Knowing the truth: Intellectually understanding these truths
2. Reckoning the truth: Believing it is not only true, but true for you individually
3. Presenting your body: Presenting your life to Christ, surrendering your old life in exchange for a new one
It is my desire and prayer that each one of us will go through the process of believing these powerful truths for themselves and as a result experience the fruit, answered prayer, and abundant joy that comes from truly being IN CHRIST and freed from sin.
Praise God for His Truth that sets men, women, and children free from the stronghold of sin!!!
Terri
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Terri Zelasko, PMP
UB Full Time MBA Student, Class of 2012
Statistics PMBA TA
VP of Business Development, Buffalo MBA Consulting
Bond-servant of the Lord Jesus Christ
275 Jacobs Mgmt Center , (716) 645-5236
Buffalo, NY 14260
e-mail: terrizelasko@gmail.com
