Transformation

Today is a huge prayer day in our country, praying for transformation is what it is called- and do not get me wrong, that is exactly what we as a nation need! One of our great rugby teams played in the Super 14 final yesterday, and as I saw everybody dressed in blue, it felt good to be "one". Partly because of this team being the one I support! But this is a small picture of, what I believe, how God sees us in Christ. The only thing standing in the way of this being experienced in full, is our inability (because of the flesh) to see the way God sees. What a day that will be!

Back to praying for "transformation"- I was thinking on this early morning, and was reminded of a specific Scripture where this word is used:

2Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The word "changed" in the original Greek is "metamorphoō" and it means to transform (literally or figuratively “metamorphose”): - change, transfigure, transform.

So the point I want to make here is the following- if we are to see transformation in our country, it is time to focus on Him, and what God has finished in Him- from Him, through Him and to Him are all things, according to the Bible in Romans 11:36!

Romans 8:26 So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.

What a God we serve! Everything He expects from us, He also supplies! Focus on Him, and pray today as you are being led by His Spirit, and expect tranformation to take place, even in your own house!

So that.....

In the past few days, my family and I had to deal with a challenging situation. A situation bearing striking resemblance to the picture we were looking at in the previous posts; where the spies were confronted by giants in the Promised Land. But the Lord is good! He had prepared us for this. I was overwhelmed by His all-encompassing peace and I continuously had my mind set on remaining in His Rest. Nothing in our picture changed; nevertheless, we had perfect peace.

From time to time we all find ourselves in these situations; where we do not have all the answers to the questions, where we are no longer the ‘captains’ of our lives and where we need to trust on Someone else. Sometimes these trying times are due to illness in our bodies, broken relationships or crossroads we encounter on our life journey. This is normal. It’s part of life. Even Jesus said that we will have these tough times. BUT He went on to say “do not let your hearts be troubled, I have overcome this world”. Can you see? He has already ensured your victory!

I would like to share with you three portions of Scripture that can help you through this tough spot in your journey:

John 9:1-3 (1) As He passed along, He noticed a man blind from his birth. (2) His disciples asked Him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind? (3) Jesus answered, It was not that this man or his parents sinned, but he was born blind in order that the workings of God should be manifested (displayed and illustrated) in him.

How many times have you heard: “why?”, “Why did this happen to me?”, “What did I do to deserve this?” Countless times I’m sure. Haven’t we all felt it at one stage or another? Guess what? The people of the Bible weren’t too different from us. In this portion they were asking the same question we ask, namely “why?” Did you note Jesus’ reply? There is no why, there is only a so that.

You see, my friend, it is not about how we evaluate things in the physical that is going to bring us to the place of God’s Rest, but an understanding of the Truth that it is all about Him. God decided to expand His Kingdom to the earth (through us) and it is still His plan to fill the earth with His glory (Rom 8:30; 2 Cor 3:18; Col 1:27). In other words; God is still working in us to reveal His Son to us and in us. This is in order that He might be revealed through us. According to Romans 8:19 this is exactly what all of creation is longing for; it’s longing for the revelation of God’s children!

Now don’t get me wrong, there are situations in life that has everything to do with us, the things we do in the flesh, but as Paul says, we are not of the flesh anymore, but of the Spirit, and now we also walk by His Spirit (Rom 8:9; Gal 5:25).

Be encouraged today; God loves you very much! He has great plans for you. The giants you are facing are your bread (for your nourishment); we will grow when we see how He works in us and through us (in our difficult situations). Remember: all of creation is waiting for you to see who you are, namely God’s own child!

A New Perspective (4)

No grasshoppers here! We have been straightened out in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ! We are sanctified; holy and without blame before him in love (Ephesians 1:4)! This is settled! It is what it is! This is who we are in Christ! Isn’t this just awesome?

Although our world is utterly lost and filled with dark and disturbing elements, I believe that God is calling us to be what He recreated us in Christ to be, so that the world may see Him! Christ is the only answer to all of man’s questions and all of humanities difficulties; but they can only see him through us, His Body.

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].”

Continuing with our discussion on perspective; I’d like us to have a look at a few challenges in terms of our new perspective:

Philippians 3:20 “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ”

When the Bible talks about heaven, it is not a far off planet, or a place, or somewhere in the air, it is the dimension of the Spirit, which is more real than that which we see with our natural eyes. When Paul writes to the Corinthians he talks about the invisible which is deathless and eternal (2Corinthians 4:18). The Bible also says that we are seated with Christ in this 'invisible' dimension (Ephesians 2:6) and here in Philippians he declares that our conversation is in heaven! Wow, can you see how wonderful this is?! And that is why our perspective is from there; literally through His eyes! So let us have a look at the two spies’ perspective and what they saw in comparison to what the other ten spies saw.

Numbers 14:6-10 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: (7) And they spoke unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. (8) If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. (9) Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. (10) But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

Did you hear that? The land is an exceedingly good land, this is God’s heart right there, He came to give us Life in abundance! And then he says something that we tend to miss: “for they are bread for us”. These giants, these enemies, the stuff that makes you feel like a grasshopper, is called our bread! When he speaks about bread, he is speaking of nourishment; literally the stuff that makes us grow.

This is such an important principle and I’d hate for you to miss it! We need to see that there will be giants in our lives, but they are there so that we can be nourished and grow (in the revelation of His power in and through us).

2Corinthians 1:9 “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead”

It is never 'because of', but always 'so that' Christ would be revealed in us and to us, so that He can also be revealed through us. The giants in the picture were there so that God could show Himself strong on the people's behalf! That the world would see that He is God! So also in your case my friend, He has shown Himself Strong so clearly in Christ; receive His Word and live in His victory! Look at your circumstances, situations and enemies from where you are in Christ! It is not possible to see yourself as a grasshopper when God sees you as His Own!

2Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.”

Please feel free to write a comment, even ask a question, in the space below. You do not even have to leave your name or be a follower- it is just my passion and desire to help you to see the impact of the Finished Work of our Lord Jesus Christ in your life! And help you to be the best you, you were made to be in His Grace.

Remember: God loves you intensely!

A New perspective (3)

Previously we had a look at the 10 spies from the Old Testament who did not mix what they saw with faith, but with ‘dust’ (Please read Hebrews 4:1-2 in the previous post). Now the Bible goes on to say: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).
When confronted with this thing ‘faith’; we need to have a look at what the Bible says about faith. In Galatians 2:20 Paul said that he lives by the faith of the Son of God, in the book of Ephesians we see that faith is a gift from God, Hebrews 11 says that it is the Spirit who teaches us that faith is to see the Unseen (v. 27) and to be convicted by what God has already finished in Christ. What is this finished work? It refers to everything that Christ had completed on the Cross, in His death and resurrection, and in his ascension. It is in this finished work that we must have faith; a faith that is of Christ, a faith that is a gift from God, a faith that is worked in us by God’s Spirit. When we have this faith in the completed work of Christ, we can enter into God’s Rest (our Promised Land). Can you see that nothing here can be obtained by performance? It is His faith that He works in us so that we may live in His peace!

On this road called life, we will find many distractions aimed at keeping us from enjoying His Rest. Which brings us to the other two spies who went to scout out the Promised Land; “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it (Numbers 13:30). “We are well able” is the same as the New Testament Truth: “I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me”(Philippians 4:13). This was the attitude of Joshua and Caleb; they heard the Word of God, they heard what God said and there was no argument in their hearts. They said: “let us go and posses it”. But still the voice of the others carried on and on:

Numbers 13:31-33 But his fellow scouts said, We are not able to go up against the people [of Canaan], for they are stronger than we are. (32) So they brought the Israelites an evil report of the land which they had scouted out, saying, The land through which we went to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. (33) There we saw the Nephilim [or giants], the sons of Anak, who come from the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Fear. It is fear that drowned out God’s voice in the ten spies’ hearts. The people of God listen to their words and it also struck fear in their hearts. They were afraid to enter into the unknown and desperately desired to go back to what they knew (even though it meant going back to a land of slavery). We are not so different from these Old Testament folks; we too are afraid of entering into the fullness of Christ. We tend to get to caught up in the things of the world (the giants of our societies) that we miss out on the fullness of God in Christ, which He so freely bestowed on us. Do we even realise that there is no way back, but back to slavery?

Romans 8:15 For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father!

We are the sons and daughters of God, crying out “Daddy”. When the Bible talks about the ‘good life’ (Ephesians 2:10), it talks about the life God prepared and prearranged for us in His Son, a life where we are God’s children and exist in the Father’s Rest.

I want us to distinguish a very important principle from our Old Testament picture; the way you see yourself, is the way in which the enemy sees you! A ‘dust’ perspective makes it impossible to see yourself in Christ, which gives you a ‘grasshopper’ perspective. It is time to stand up straight and look at your enemies (the giants) from His perspective!

Though you live in giant country- don't be deceived- God is on your side and nothing will seperate you from His love for you in Jesus Christ- you are His!

A New Perspective (2)

Previously we touched on how to live practical holy lives through the Grace of God, through Jesus who lives in us. We saw that our only way to a holy life was to ‘see’ that it is Christ, the Holy One, who is holiness in us. Holiness isn’t something we are able to work in ourselves, even the Law we could not keep. Furthermore, it doesn’t make sense to want to work towards something which we have already received as a gift. Christ in us is everything needed for us to be what God intended us to be! So, you may ask: “How does this actually work? On a practical level, what do I do now?” All that remains for us to do is to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in us to keep on revealing Christ to us, who is the Truth of our lives. This doesn’t imply that we may do whatever we want. The Roman church was stuck at the same spot, and Paul said the following:

Romans 6:14-18 “For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God's favor and mercy]. (15) What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God's favor and mercy? Certainly not! (16) Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)? (17) But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed. (18) And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).”

The more we come to know Him, to see and understand our union with Him, the more we will want to read our Bibles and spend time in prayer. Now we find ourselves no longer interested in sinning, but with the desire to be what God had made us to be! According to the Psalmist (Ps 139:14) we are wonderfully made and we are marvelous in His eyes! This is why God placed us in His Son (the illustration of the vine) – so that we may be what He intended us to be; perfect and without blame! And because we now are in the Son, our perspective has completely changed and we are no longer ‘dust-conscious’, but Christ-conscious! Naturally we will now look at others in a completely different way, which also applies to the way we see our ‘enemies’. When we speak about enemies, we are referring to whoever or whatever forms a distraction; something that vies to steal our focus away from Him. The Hebrews writer mentions this in:

Hebrews 12:2 Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

In the Old Testament, from the book of Numbers, we find a fitting picture to illustrate this. It tells the story of when the People of God had come to the border of the Promised Land; Moses (the leader) sends twelve men from the twelve tribes of the Hebrews to go and spy out the land. This land that God had given them was an amazing land and it literally was overflowing with milk and honey. However, ten spies came back with a negative report, saying: “But the people who dwell there are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, there we saw the sons of Anak [of great stature and courage].” (Numbers 13:28)

Do you see the big BUT? They report that it is a wonderful land and that God has greatly blessed this land, BUT.... This big BUT cancelled out everything they have just said! These ten spies, from their ‘dust-perspective’ saw only giants and fortified cities! They had forgotten what God had said! Did God not promise them this land? These ten spies were there during the Passover meal in Egypt, they came through the Read Sea on dry land, they enjoyed God’s miraculous provision for them in the wilderness (water, manna, meat) and have seen His wonder working power on numerous occasions. Did they forget the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night? These men were not ‘worldly’ men (ignorant as to God’s existence), they were the children of God and had seen His Hand at work many times! These men knew better (who God is), but they chose to look from a natural perspective, they chose to walk ‘bent over’. The Hebrews writer goes on to say:

Hebrews 4:1-2 “THEREFORE, WHILE the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching] it. (2) For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; neither were they united in faith with the ones [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe).”

This is not a problem restricted to the ten spies from the Old Testament, unfortunately this is a huge problem still prevalent amongst God’s children today! The Message of the Good News has no benefit, because it is not mixed with faith, but mixed with ‘dust’! Our ‘dust perspectives’ are nullifying the Message; it’s watering down the absolute power of the Cross to a mere crutch!!

Yes, there will be many things in this life, in our daily walk, which has the potential to steal away our perspective/focus. BUT we need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit Who constantly reminds us of what God had taken care of (finished) in Christ! God’s rest (the Promised Land) is ours! Focus on Him and see that He is seated in Heavenly Places – the work is done, it is finished, all has been completed! According to Ephesians 2:6, we have been placed in Him! We are seated with Him (in Him) in the Heavenly sphere. There is no more 'work' for us to be done, we may now live Life through His Spirit, and stop wasting time on trying to reach a place where we already are in Him!


This does not mean that we are now to sit back and do nothing, God has also placed you in a specific place in the 'earthly sphere', to 'be' what He has given you in the heavenly sphere- you are the best one for the job at hand, and He has given you everything freely to be just that!


May your day be filled with the intimate realization of His Love for you!

A New Perspective

Thank you for your patience. Or is it His patience in you that needs commending? I would love to post something every day, but I’d hate posting a message just for the sake of posting something. This BlogSpot is a result of His Spirit’s prompting and everything that I write has the same source (His promptings and His promptings alone). What I write, I am deeply convinced of, is His message for you. I’d hate giving a watered-down message of what the Father’s heart is for you.

Today I’d like to address the issue of perspective; i.e.: in what way are you looking at life, at life’s challenges… and in what way are you looking at God?

Luke 13:11-13 “And there was a woman there who for eighteen years had had an infirmity caused by a spirit (a demon of sickness). She was bent completely forward and utterly unable to straighten herself up or to look upward. (12) And when Jesus saw her, He called [her to Him] and said to her, Woman, you are released from your infirmity! (13) Then He laid [His] hands on her, and instantly she was made straight, and she recognized and thanked and praised God.”

Can you imagine being bent over for 18 years? Not being capable of seeing anything else than dust the whole day through. All of that potential wasted!

In this picture, the woman represents the Church – the Bride of Jesus. The woman represents each and every one of us, she represents you and me. We were also bent over like she was; sin and its consequential death crippled us and the only thing we could see was the dust of this earth. The dust is symbolic of everything that is natural or carnal. Do you remember the Philistines of the Old Testament? They were the enemies of God’s people and incidentally the word Philistine means ‘to roll in the dust’. Isn’t this where we also found ourselves? We were ‘rolling in the dust’ before we came to knowledge of Christ. To the Ephesians Paul writes the following:

Ephesians 2:2 “In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God].”

We might not have been bent over physically, but we only saw the things of this world and were focussed solely on the pleasures of the flesh. This is a ‘dust-consciousness’. BUT when Jesus laid His hands on her she straightened out, she was pulled up to her rightful place of existence! Christ not only healed her infirmities, He changed her perspective! Now she was no longer doomed to see only dust and gravel, she now could gaze upon the sweet face of Jesus.

We have been made to walk tall. We are the sons and daughters of the Most High God. We were not destined to be stuck in the dirt and dust of this age. We were made to be conquerors and co-rulers with Christ! When He was crucified, buried, raised from the dead and when He ascended, He finished all needed for you and me to be adopted as the children of God. In this complete work of salvation and redemption you and I were included. Jesus ‘straightened’ us out. Never will we be bent over again, forever our perspective has changed!

Remember 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!”

No longer are we moved by natural circumstances. We are moved ONLY by His Spirit. Do you want to know what the saddest thing is in all of this? So many Christians have been ‘straightened’ out by Christ, yet they still walk bent over. They read the Word from their ‘dust-perspective’ and see so many rules and laws to be kept. They are missing out on so much! When we read His Word from a ‘straightened out’ perspective we see only Him who is the Living Word. And as we behold Him, we are being changed into His image; now we walk like He does, we speak as He does and we think like He does!

Now we see our wives through His eyes, we see our husbands, our children and colleagues from His eyes. Strangers are no longer strangers; His love abides in you and it is an unstoppable river that flows through you to all who is around you. The time has also come for you to see yourself through His eyes. You are the righteousness of God, you have been made holy just as He is holy; the Son lives in you (1Cor 1:30; 2Cor 5:21)! The only way to live a holy life is in seeing His Grace; His Son, Jesus Christ. Holiness and righteousness do not come from observing laws and regulations or from doing good deeds. Receive Him who is righteousness and holiness and be changed by His life in you!!

The Bible further declares that you are not of the dust, but of and in the Spirit: Romans 8:9 AMP “But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. “

If you have not received Christ as your personal Saviour before, please leave your contact details in the comments column, and I will contact you as soon as possible! There is no Life but His Life!

No performance necessary

In the previous post we looked at Salvation as being all His work and His gift to us. Still on the topic, I’d like to share another portion of Scripture with you: 1 Peter 1:3 “Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope,”

We tend to read portions of the Bible, as the verse in 1 Peter 1:3, with our own glasses on. We read about the free gift of salvation and redemption, of a brand new (undeserved) life and yet we think we need to work to obtain it – can you see the paradox? We want to work our fingers to the bone in order to deserve something which we have already received, for free! When we think on our performance based way of life, it makes perfect sense to have to work in order to obtain. Unfortunately we tend to forget that our real life (the spiritual) works according to rules of its own, the natural laws do not apply! No, there is nothing wrong with a performance based way of life in our physical lives, but the same does not apply to our spiritual. Our salvation, and everything that follows after that, from start to finish, is all based on Jesus’ performance!

Have you ever woken up and thought to yourself: “Today I am going to do my best not to sin!”? Then, as you drive to work, you keep repeating to yourself: “Today I will not sin, today I will do my best.” We tend to think that we can think ourselves out of sin – the whole ‘positive thinking’ thing. Unfortunately this method only brings us closer to these, much feared, sins... Think on this: are we not what we think? And if we think, constantly, day and night, on sin... will we really avoid sin? Christians the world over fill their precious hours with thoughts on... sin... they fear it because they think they will lose God along the way if they err. Did we forget that He said that there is nothing that can separate us from His Love?(Rom 8:35) We allow ourselves to be sin-conscious, when He (Christ) did everything so that we can be the righteousness of God.

Reminding ourselves of sin the whole day through will only put our focus on sin... which makes it so much easier to fall... for sin. There is a better way... (John 14:6)

Christ is the better Way. In 1 Corinthians 1:30 the Bible declares: “But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, [revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as] our Righteousness [thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God], and our Consecration [making us pure and holy], and our Redemption [providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin].”

God has put us in Christ, remember the picture? He is the Vine and we are the branches; God has actually implanted us in Christ. Now it is His Life in us, it is His Life now flowing through us! This is the Good News and it’s no fairy tale! I understand the battles you are in on a daily basis, I also understand if you battle with the idea of just sitting, doing nothing (to contribute to your redemption). It would then come as a relief that I am not suggesting you sit back and just wait for death to creep up on you; yes, there is still much for us to do, but it has nothing to do with saving our own souls by works. We need to see that we now have His life, His provision and His initiative – we now walk in His blessings (Eph 1:3)

When you open your eyes in the morning, instead of focusing on sin, how about focusing on Him? Focus on what He wants to do in, and through you today. I’m sure that, by the time you get back in bed that same night, you would not have thought about sin for even a second! Now our prayers change from ‘me’ being helped by Him, to Him doing what He wants to do through me, Him being that Helper that He is, Him being my right standing with God, Him being Wisdom in me, Him being Holiness in and through me and Him making the best decisions through me at the office or even in our family. A 'small' change in focus; from me to Him!

There is no performance on our side necessary, only faith in His finished work (complete work on the Cross and in His Resurrection). Trust the Holy Spirit to ‘prompt’ you every moment of the day in guiding you to really ‘know’ Christ in you and among us all, as His Body. Here we are not referring to a cognitive form of knowledge, we are talking about an understanding of our union with Him, we are talking about an intimate and personal knowledge. The more you ‘know’ Him, the more you will live like Him! (John 14:20; 2Cor 3:18)

May you walk in His blessings today, and every day hereafter, like never before! Hey, and do not dare to forget: Father loves you more than you can think! (Thank you Belene for your editing input, I really appreciate it!)

It is all about Jesus

After a month of long weekends, fortunately things are back to normal again! I want to thank you for the feedback on the previous posts, and encourage you to keep on commenting and also contact me if you have any questions. It is a awesome privilege and joy to share the Word of God with you, and I want you to know that we are praying for you even though we do not even know you, or your circumstances.

My good friend Jacques, who is training for the Iron Man South Africa 2010, and I went for a training session this afternoon, which included a 20 kilometre time trial- that is riding as fast as you can for the whole distance. The purpose is to get as good, or rather as fast, over that distance as you possibly can, which in turn is a reflection of your fitness. So the harder you train, the better you become.
This is the way how everything in life works, everything is based on performance, what you put in, is what you get out, which is good in some areas of life, but it can be a problem in terms of how we understand our relationship with our Father.

We work hard at doing good, and we strive to 'sin less', and we sweat to become holy, and all of this is what being a christian is all about, according to the world's standards. Who you are, in the world’s view, and what you have, is defined by what you do. In other words: it’s all about you.
However, this is not the case in our lives, to be good, to be holy and to stop giving attention to sin, in other words, to be a ‘successful’ Christian, is to see that it is all about Jesus.

Listen to what the Bible says in Ephesians 2:8 "By grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast."

The Christian life is not about you and what you can do and not do, but it is the Life of Grace, where it is all about Jesus and His Finished work. So many people are convinced that our salvation depends on our choice, by us doing the ‘giving’ of our hearts or lives to Him- but the Word is very clear- it is a gift- and when it comes to gifts, the only thing we can do is to receive!

This is so difficult for Christians to understand. We naturally think that our relationship with our Father is defined by what we do for Him or have done for Him: our strenuous moral striving, our diligent pursuit of holiness and virtue, all our efforts at self-denial, but the Word clearly states the opposite- it is all about Him!
Look at how the Message translation explains it: "Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play a major role. If we did we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing!"

So what, you may ask, should we do? Except for working to enter into His rest, we need to have faith. Our Life is a life of faith, and nothing more than that- and get ready for this one- even this is from Him:

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

This is so important to see and understand, it is not about us, but all about Him, His Finished work and Grace in abundance (Romans 5:17). In the next articles we will look at this faith of the Son, and also at Him being everything we need, and needed, to please God. God has given us His Spirit to lead us into all Truth, keep on listening to Him on your inside, and live the Life which He prepared for you to live. I want to leave you at this stage with the following Scripture:

Romans 11:36 “ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. [For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things live through Him, and all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him.] To Him be glory forever! Amen (so be it).”

Remember to live loved- you are His, and He loves you very much!