In this
issue:
i) Winning the battle - N.T.
Anderson
ii) How can we
strengthen Church Fellowship? - Larry Ondrejack
Winning the
battle
Neil T.
Anderson
Thanks
be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1
Corinthians 15:57).
In Romans
6:1-11 Paul uses the past tense to emphasize that we died to sin the moment we
placed faith in Christ. For example: "We who died to sin" (verse 2); "Our old
self was crucified with Him" (verse 6); "For he who has died is freed from sin"
(verse 7). Since these verses are past tense, indicating what is already true
about us, we can only believe them.
Here's a
wonderful example of what can happen to a Christian when the strongholds of the
mind are overthrown by God's truth.
Jeannie
is a beautiful and talented woman in her mid-twenties. As an active Christian
for 13 years, she sings in a professional singing group, writes music, leads
worship at her church, and oversees a discipleship
group.
Jeannie
recently attended one of my conferences. As I saw her smiling at me from her
seat at the conference, what I didn't know was that she was bulimic, having been
in bondage to the strongholds of food and fear for 11 years. When she was home
alone she would be captivated by Satan's lies about food, her appearance, and
her self-worth for hours at a time. She had submitted to counseling without
success. All the while she believed that the thoughts prompting her to induce
vomiting were her own based on a traumatic experience from her
childhood.
When I
was talking during the conference about destroying strongholds, I happened to be
looking at Jeannie--quite unintentionally--when I said, "Every person I know
with an eating disorder has been the victim of a stronghold based on the lies of
Satan."
"You have
no idea how that statement impacted my life," she told me the next morning. "I
have been battling myself all these years, and I suddenly understood that my
enemy was not me but Satan. That was the most profound truth I have ever heard.
It was like I had been blind for 11 years and could suddenly see. I cried all
the way home. When the old thoughts came back last night, I simply rejected them
for the truth. For the first night in years I was able to go to sleep without
vomiting. The truth has set me free."
If you
think Jeannie's experience of finding freedom in Christ is unique, you're wrong.
Winning the battle for the mind is possible for everyone who is in
Christ.
Heavenly
Father, help me take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ today. I
choose to think upon that which is true.
---
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Providers. All rights reserved.]
How can we strengthen Church Fellowship?
Larry Ondrejack
“All the believers
were together and had everything in common.” Acts 2:44
In an essay entitled
“Afterword,” science fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut wrote about what he thought
was needed for true happiness. He began by looking back to an earlier time when
real communities existed in which people knew one another, helped one another,
visited one another, and shared what they had. He then contrasted those days
with the present: “Now this is rarely possible. Each family is locked in its
little box ... There aren’t houses where people can go and be cared for ...
Where have the old values gone? ... We’re lonesome.”
He concluded his essay
by proposing this solution: “Human beings will be happier when they find ways to
be more comfortable together, to have more attitudes and experiences in common.”
Doesn’t his solution echo the verse above? The big question, not answered by
Vonnegut, is “How can we accomplish this?”
Acts 2:44 describes
the attitude of the early Church. When Christians compare its beginning with the
present, they all conclude that something is lacking – not because there are no
fellowship meetings, but because fellowship has become a special activity rather
than a way of life.
Has fellowship been
reduced to a monthly meeting? Does our association with those with whom we
“fellowship” begin and end at the meeting hall door? Are our homes open to
fellow Christians? What about our hearts and hands? Do we have time for one
another? Members of the body should function together all the time, not just in
crisis times (1 Cor. 12:25-27).
The only way to
strengthen church fellowship is to “have more attitudes and experiences in
common.” Not because Vonnegut said it, but because God’s Word says it.
---
[Courtesy:
Grace &
Truth]