"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."

                                 - Colossians 3:1, 2

We are born with a sinful nature. Nobody has to teach us how to lie, cheat, hate, etc. Those things come naturally to us. Likewise, our affections are naturally for the things of  the Earth. We don't have to make any effort whatsoever to be carnally minded, but it does require effort to be spiritually minded. That is why Paul admonishes us in this passage of Scripture to set our affections on things above.

"My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God."

                                 -Proverbs 2:1-5

Notice how many verbs are used in these verses: receive, hide, incline, apply, seekest, searchest, find, etc. Being spiritually minded requires a lot of effort,  but that effort is anything but wasted

"....to be spiritually minded is life and peace."

-Romans 8:6

Even though it requires a great deal of work to become spiritually minded, it only makes sense that we should be so. After all, our lives are but a vapor. How much more then are the things of this life! Why would we spend our time working for a treasure that will one day vanish away?

"For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out."

                    -Timothy 6:7

If we spend our life being carnally minded, we are in essence building our castles in the sand, for material possessions and earthly achievements are only temporary. One day the "...earth...and the works that are therein shall be burned up." (II Peter 3:10) Any castles that we have built in the sand will then be destroyed. We will have to give account for the way we have lived our life and what we have made our treasure.

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

                    -Luke 12:34

If our treasure is on the earth, then we are carnally minded. But, if our treasure is in heaven, we are spiritually minded. We ought to strive to remain spiritually minded, remembering that, "...the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Romans 8:7).

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"

                            -Matthew 5:44 

Loving your enemies is probably one of the hardest things Christ has asked told us to do, but at the same time I'm not sure there is any way to be a better witness for Christ than to "do good to them that hate us." When somebody does us wrong, oftentimes it is hard for us to keep from blowing up and doing something to "get them back", let alone trying to love them and do good to them. But, regardless of how hard it may be, it is a must if we are going to call ourselves followers of Christ.

Something we should keep in mind is that Christ rarely calls us to do something that He has not already done Himself. Jesus showed us the ultimate example of loving our enemies when He prayed for those that Had just crucified Him (Luke 23:34), and when He washed the feet of Judas Iscariot, even though He knew this was the same man that would soon betray Him (see John 13:2-5). Though He had the ability, and the right, to send those people to hell right then and there, He loved them too much to do so. He gave them opportunity to repent of their evil deeds, and apparently it paid off because the Bible says that one of the centurions who took part in the crucifixion finally came to the knowledge that Jesus was the Son of God (Matthew 27:54).

Let us learn to love our friends, as well as our enemies,  "for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour." (I Timothy 2:3) God be with you as you endeavor to do so.

"And God spake all these words, saying,
I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

             -Exodus 20:1-3 

When we hear the word ''idolatry'', our minds almost immediately drift to third world countries at the other end of the globe, where people bow down and worship graven images and things of that nature. However, when I looked up the word in the dictionary, one of the definitions I came across simply defined it as, "Blind or excessive devotion to something." That puts a whole new light on the subject, doesn't it? That means that anything in our life can become an idol. It doesn't have to be a wooden figure with hands and feet; it can be a monitor, a book, or even a person that we esteem too highly. Basically, an idol is anything that takes our devotion away from God and toward that particular thing.

"And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction."

                            -I Corinthians 7:35 

Though Paul wasn't necessarily addressing the issue of idolatry when he wrote these words, I think that they are very fitting nonetheless. As Christians, we must serve the Lord wholeheartedly if we intend to make heaven our eternal home; in other words, we must serve Him "without distraction." The author of Hebrews wrote, "...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1) If any of you have ever watched professional swimming (Michael Phelps, maybe?), then you know that there is not a single hair visible on a swimmers body. Why? Because it slows them down. Even if it means gaining just 1/100 of a second, to them it's worth it (and if you watched the 2008 Olympics, then you know that 1/100 of a second can make all the difference in the world). Now if they are willing to go to such lengths to win an earthly contest, how much more should we be willing to sacrifice in order to win the "race" that is set before us as Christians? After all, "...they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible." (I Corinthians 9:25)

Christians must constantly be on guard against idolatry in their lives. In fact, it often sneaks in with such subtlety that we don't even realize it's their until the Lord Himself shows us. Let's each seek the Lord today and ask Him to show us if there is anything distracting us from Him, and that if there is, He would give us the strength to let it go.

"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

                            -I Corinthians 10:12 

As Christians, a lot of times it is easy for us to think that we are beyond making a mistake, or turning our back on the Lord. We get in our heads that we are too righteous to become unrighteous, too holy to become unholy, and too perfect to ever mess up. However, it has been my observation that such an attitude is usually an indication that we've already faltered, in that we have succumbed to the sin of pride, and thus aren't as close to God as we think we are anyway. Rather than encouraging the Corinthians to hop up on their high-horses and look down on everybody else, the apostle Paul urged them  to "take heed lest they fall." He realized that nobody is so close to God that they are beyond messing up.

Take the story of Peter, for example. When Jesus told him that he (Peter) would deny the Lord three times before the cock crowed, Peter immediately claimed he would gladly die with Jesus and would never deny Him (Matthew 26:31-35). How quickly that changed when Jesus was dragged before Caiaphas, the High Priest, to be put to death and Peter stood on the sidelines saying nothing - that is, until he was asked if he knew Jesus, at which time he denied Him with curses and swearing (Matthew 26:69-75). Not only did he mess up, but he made himself look terrible considering his previous claims of loyalty and faithfulness.

Let's take a lesson from Peter's failure and always retain a spirit of humility before the Lord, "...for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." (I Peter 5:5) The fact is, humility makes us much less likely to fall as opposed to being prideful; not to mention the fact that when a prideful person falls, they usually make a fool of themself in the process.

"A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit."

                            -Proverbs 29:23

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

                            -Romans 8:1 

For those of you who don't know, this blog was inspired by these words (notice the URL). Actually, I would have to say that this is probably one my favorite 10 verses in the entire Bible. It's one of those verses that you've really got to meditate on in order to fully appreciate it, but I'll do my best to put into words what it means to me.

If we want to understand what it means to be without condemnation, we must first understand what it means to be under condemnation. As sinners, we were all under the wrath of God; so much so that the apostle Paul referred to us as having been "the children of wrath." (Ephesians 2:3) That's pretty blunt, but it's absolutely true. All have sinned (Romans 3:23), and have thus placed themselves under the wrath of God, for "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men..." (Romans 1:18) We were like Damocles (430-367 B.C.) at Dionysius' banquet, where a sharpened sword was hung over his head by a single horse hair. We were in a dangerous place, and judgment was fast approaching.

That's what it means to be under the wrath of God. Now lets look at what it means to be under the grace of God...

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

                            -John 3:16-18

The state of being without condemnation can be summed up in one word: justified. The Lord looks on me Just-As-If-I'd (read that again) never sinned. He takes our righteousness, which is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), and instead clothes us in robes of white. When He sees us, He doesn't see our sin; He sees the blood. He has removed the "...handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross" (Colossians 2:14), and they are as far from us "...as the east is from the west." (Psalm 103:12). No longer must we carry around the weight of our sins, for the Lord Jesus Christ has borne that weight for us (Isaiah 53:4). Now, instead of being His enemies, we are His children (Romans 8:15), and He loves us as such. When the devil, the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10), brings up our past sins to the Lord, I can imagine our heavenly Father answering and saying, "Sin? I see no sin when I look on my child. He is without condemnation." Truly, there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Praise God!

"The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver."

                            -Psalm 119:72

Though he was human, and thus made mistakes from time to time, it is obvious from verses like this that David had his priorities straight. Gold and silver are two of the most precious materials on earth, and yet he said they were nothing in comparison to the law of God. Despite the fact that all he had at this point was Genesis through Deuteronomy (and the psalms, of course), he valued those words more than many of us value the Bible in it's entirety today.  Verses such as John 3:16 and Revelation 21:4 had not even been penned yet, but yet he realized the importance of what he did have.

How many of us feel that way? What if somebody offered you $100 to tear out those first few hundred pages of your Bible? What about $10,000? $1 million? I know that I would not accept any amount of money to abstain from eating for the rest of my life, but didn't Job say that he esteemed the Words of God to be more necessary than food? (Job 23:12) The Bible, from cover to cover, is inspired by God, and nobody can put a price-tag on it.

Let us come to the place where it can be said of our generation, "...and the word of the LORD was precious in those days;" (I Samuel 3:1)

By Request:

 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast."

                            -Ephesians 2:8-9 

The Bible lets us know that salvation through Jesus Christ is a gift from God; and just like any other genuine gift, it is not earned or deserved. It is not earned or deserved, because it can't be earned or deserved. As humans, we are incapable of earning our salvation because we are all sinners and thus are unable of living a holy life apart from Christ.

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."

                            -Jeremiah 13:23

Just as it would be a hopeless endeavor for a leopard to try and wash away its spots, or for a person to try and change the color of its skin, likewise it is impossible for humans to do good who are accustomed to doing evil. Even a sinner's most "righteous" actions are usually tainted by impure motives and pride, both of which are an abomination in the eyes of God.

"For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD."

                        -Jeremiah 2:22 

Many people mistakenly assume that if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds, then they will be alright. But as God said in this passage of Jeremiah, no amount of personal effort can erase our sins; they are "marked before the Lord", and they must be punished (that is, unless we accept Christ's offer of salvation, in which case God will accept Christ's death on the cross as atonement for our sins). Just as a judge would not pardon a murderer because, other than killing someone, he was a relatively good person, God will "...not at all acquit the wicked" (Nahum 1:3) based on their good works. Their sins must be dealt with.

Paul said that we were all dead in our sins apart from Christ (see Ephesians 2:1). A dead person cannot possibly bring himself back to life - no matter how hard he tries. How wonderful that through the death of Christ, we can be made alive!

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

                            -I Corinthians 15:22