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"Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19

Tag: Free Will

Fading Out

September 8, 2022 /
Kendra Santilli

“He must increase, but I must decrease” –John 3:30.

The cycle of living can feel so exhausting. Wake up, eat, work, take care of the house, sleep, repeat. I think we can agree that at one time or another, we have all understood, related to this reference from Ecclesiastes 1:2 “Utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless.”

We try our best to be good people. Yet leaving a mark on the world feels like a futile effort many days. In the Gospel of John, we are presented with an example that exemplifies a counterintuitive approach to fulfillment. John the Baptist (not to be mistaken with John the apostle who penned the Gospel of John) is introduced in John 1. “There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light [Jesus] so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light” – John 1:6-8.

John was Jesus’s cousin, a prophet who lived in the wilderness. John wore clothes made from camel hair and ate wild honey and locusts. Since his ministry was to prepare the way of the Lord, he would come to the people telling them to repent, to water-baptize them, and to declare there was one to follow after him (Jesus). You can read all about this in Mark 1:1-9.

I imagine John the Baptist would have been perceived as an odd man, but then again, God often moves through those we’d least expect Him to use. For John the Baptist, his ministry was fulfilled by the coming of Jesus.

And John’s purpose? Pointing everyone to Jesus Christ.

In New Testament Scripture, John’s ministry is our first example of a person testifying of the person of Jesus. The Bible says of Jesus, “He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” –John 1:10-11. And while the rest of the world didn’t recognize Jesus, John recognized Him instantly.

God was using John to prepare the hearts of those who did not know Jesus. Although the Old Testament is full of prophecies of Jesus and the entirety of the Bible points to Jesus, John is perhaps one of the first to see Jesus—physically. John gave his whole life to tell the world about the person of Jesus.

There is a great lesson we can learn from John the Baptist about pointing the world to Jesus.

John the Baptist was selfless. While the world teaches us to focus on ourselves, God’s Word teaches us to love others even when they do us wrong. The culture of this world is one of selfishness. It looks inward for its fulfillment instead of allowing its Creator to fill and fulfill its every need, including its unseen needs. The world is centered on self-gratification instead of loving thy neighbor. And as more of society has welcomed the idea of self-centeredness, it has also drifted away from the One who can deliver them from the mental prisons that hold them bound. The result? A society that has increasingly accepted depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation as normal. And while taking care of yourself is essential, it shouldn’t be our sole focus. We were created to love and exist in fellowship. Loving and serving God and one another.

Throughout the Gospels, we don’t read of John focusing on himself. There is no evidence in the scriptures of John focusing attention on himself. Instead, he readily released his disciples when they wanted to follow Jesus. When John saw Jesus passing by, he quickly said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus” – John 1:36-37. John didn’t get offended that his disciples went to Jesus, no. His attitude was one of rejoicing. “My joy is complete” – John 3:29.

Is Jesus enough to make your joy complete? Or is your joy made whole by your job, family, or ministry? While each gives us a sense of well-being, Jesus must be first. Everything else is just extra. Our prayer and deepest desire should be that Jesus fills us more than we thought possible. And, for that to be enough.

John the Baptist baptized with water, but the Bible says that Jesus baptizes (present tense intentional) with the Holy Spirit. – John 1:33.

It is impossible to live a life of faith without the help of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus gives us His Holy Spirit without measure. “The man whom God has sent speaks God’s message. After all, God gives him the Spirit without limit” – John 3:34.

Our human nature is bent on us taking care of ourselves first. So, it is counterintuitive to put others before yourself, including Jesus. The work of the Holy Spirit in us gives us the grace to manifest His love supernaturally. So, I’m not talking about us manifesting love by our own power. The True Source of supernatural love is Jesus Christ, manifest and evidenced by the Holy Spirit at work in us.

The Holy Spirit does not make us do anything or possess us to do anything, however. But He does lead us. Scripture clarifies, “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” – Romans 8:13-14. The choice is yours.

If we belong to Jesus—have professed Him as our Lord and Savior, His Spirit leads us. Yet, given that Jesus has also afforded us free will, we are allowed to obey or disobey His Holy Spirit’s leading us. Even though the Holy Spirit will always lead us in the way of Truth in Christ Jesus, to abundant life. Not only eternally but also on this side of eternity.

I pray that you invite the Holy Spirit to lead you in living a selfless life that points to Jesus and loves others unconditionally. If you don’t know Jesus, invite Him to your heart today and ask Him to help you live with purpose and fulfillment as He makes your joy complete.

You Are Mine.

September 3, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out” –Ezekiel 34:11.

God knows them that are his and can call his own sheep by name; he knows the places where they are; for he has fixed the bounds of their habitation, and was delighting himself in the habitable parts of the earth, where he knew they would be, even before the world was. –Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible.

It started in the Garden. God’s searching out His own, that is. Draw to His image and likeness; He sought communion with His creation. He’s seeking fellowship with you now, Beloved, even as you read this. God has always desired to be one with you through Christ Jesus. That started way before the Garden. Somewhere in eternity past. When Eden was but a seed yet planted and you, a mere sketch, some faint intersecting lines in God’s mind, waiting to be created.

Yet be sure of this one thing, God knows where you are.

Nothing and no one are hidden from Him, even when we think we are, especially when we may want to be. “When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God” –Genesis 3:8.

We serve a God whose very nature is Love. He is relational—desiring intimate communion with His children. To walk and talk with us, talk with you, friend. God’s love is personal. He knows you by name. And God loves you. Jesus lived as a man and died as one, just for you. The fact that the Sovereign God of the universe, Holy and blameless, desires to know us, be in a covenant relationship with us, with me, borders on incomprehensible. Something just too good to be true. Yet as mind-blowing as that is for this writer to take in at times. I know it to be true. God, Himself has told me so.

He is an intimate, personal Father. One who desires an open-door invitation into our hearts and lives that He might walk through them at will. Listen to how John Eldredge states this truth: Jesus came to reveal God to you. He is the defining Word on God—on what the heart of God is truly like, on what God is up to in the world, and on what God is up to in your life.

Tell me, friend, have you dared to ask God what He’s up to in your life?

Have you afforded God, His Son, Jesus, and His Holy Spirit an open-door invitation?

Have you invited them in—made room for them?

Do you seek, want to know more of, or at all, this God who thought it not too great a sacrifice to send His only Son to die in your place?

Has it crossed your mind that no one else but Jesus ever made such a sacrifice just for you?

“Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for Love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord GOD” –Ezekiel 16:8. As surely as God’s covenant with Israel stands—and it always will. So it will be with you, child of God. Having been grafted into His everlasting promise of Love and devotion, your loving Father will continually fight for you. Woo, you. Desire you only.

God wants, more; He chooses to be active in your life. He longs to be the center of your every waking moment, invited into and consulted about your dreams and decisions.

“Even those decisions I may consider far too dull, too trite to “trouble” God over. Isn’t it too much to ask of God that He help me make decisions? Listen as I talk about my dreams. Bring clarity to my confusion and doubt. After all, He’s God! Isn’t He too busy overseeing the entire planet, to say nothing of knowing the heart and thoughts of every single person—simultaneously? Doesn’t God have too much going on to be bothered with my thoughts and troubles,” you ask?

The answer, friend? Absolutely, emphatically, No! Nope. Not at all. Never.

Psalm 139 makes it plain God already knows everything about you. He’s just waiting on you to bid Him welcome into your life, heart, and your “boring” daily concerns. “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely” –Psalm 139:1-4.

You are not faceless, nameless, nor aimless in God’s eyes, Beloved. God created you on purpose, for a purpose. “As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything” –Ecclesiastes 11:5. You are no mistake. God sees you. God’s way is so much higher than our own. So far beyond our finite ability to take in, friend. You’ve been created to touch lives no one else can. Why? They don’t carry in them what God has placed in you alone. You are as unique as your fingerprint!

So regardless of what you’ve been told, think about yourself. Contrary to your feelings, God loves you and desires to have a relationship with you. Yes, you personally. He wants to make His home in you.

Now please hear my heart. I’m in no way trying to minimize your pain or any trauma you may have suffered at the hands of another. I remember the sting of such wounds all too well. I’m just speaking the Truth in love here, sharing something that can save you. The Truth that can and will heal your pain. With the full authority of one God has healed, I can say that healing from such wounds is possible—no matter how nasty or deep they are.

All things are possible with God.

Friend, God is so acutely attuned to His world. His creation, to you, personally, that even when a sparrow, some little chick somewhere, falls to the ground, it doesn’t escape His notice. “Are not two little sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s leave (consent) and notice” –Matthew 10:29.

God created you. He has a plan and purpose for your life. Still, despite the lengths this magnificent, Sovereign, Loving, relational God can and will go to reach you, the one thing God won’t do, can’t do, is violate the free will He’s given you, died to provide you. You must then choose to say yes and welcome a relationship with God.

The choice is yours. God has done His part. Ask Jesus into your heart today, as Lord, Father, and Friend. He’s waiting for you to say welcome, come in. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” –John 3:16-17.

We Must Choose.

June 25, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” –2 Timothy 1:7.

Amalgamation. For some Christians, it looks something like this: with one hand, we take the Hand of the One True God, confessing Him as our Lord, while with our other, we hold onto the god of our flesh, our habitual, sinful wants, and deeds; playing with dead things, we dip our hand back into our baptismal font, helping our “old man” step out to run amuck for a bit. “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out” –Romans 7:18.

Yet Jesus made it abundantly clear that no man can serve two masters—this spiritual principle, as true today as the day the Lord taught us that we cannot serve Him and mammon—Matthew 6:24. The Spirit and flesh will always be at war. Listen to how the Apostle Paul describes this ongoing battle: “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh” –Galatians 5:17.

So who wins this ongoing battle? Answer: Whomever we arm. And for this, I thank God for His amazing grace!

Beloved, we get to choose the victor; remember, Christ has already given us everything we need to win this ongoing war. So we defeat our flesh moment by moment, decision by painful decision; by choosing to put to death the old man with his sinful desires—its contrary-ness to the Most High God. We must be intentional, determined to choose Godliness. Being led, taught, and changed by God’s Holy Spirit, willingly surrendering our old man into God’s capable charge. The Potter then, spinning us afresh, reshaping and folding in, a new, pure, holy vessel birthed from the old. From an acorn, a mighty oak is born. “So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him” –Jeremiah 18:3-4.

“But you don’t understand. I’ve been this way for as long as I can remember.”

“I’m naturally a shy person.”

“I was born gay.”

“My father was an alcoholic. It’s in my genes.”

“I’ve never been comfortable around a bunch of people.

“I couldn’t possibly speak/sing/teach in front of others.”

And the list goes on…

I’m confident you would have no problem plugging in your own “I’ve always been” into this list.

Yet, Scripture makes clear there comes a time in our walk with God when milk must be exchanged for meat—least we stay spiritual children, stunted, never maturing into the fullness of Godly adulthood. A time when we must determine, choose, change over comfort, habit, and the familiar.

As Peter was approaching the end of his life, he shared the following wisdom with us—a parting gift, a spiritual building block, a sure foundation upon which we can build. “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love” –2 Peter 1:5-7. Peter is reminding us God has given us everything we need to live Godly lives; now keep going. Press on. Desire more of what you’ve been freely given. Hunger for more, more of God and less of you, more holy boldness, obedience, power, more of what God has for you. Our desiring to live and walk out our faith as Christ commanded, outweighing everything else. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” –2 Corinthians 5:17.

Question is, will we choose to believe this? To put legs under it, walking it out day by day? It is, after all, our choice.

Remember, Christ Jesus has assured us everything we need to live out this “new life” in Him was accomplished on His Cross. Nothing else is necessary—on God’s part, that is. “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. –2 Peter 1:3-4. Any work left to do then is ours; it starts with our first believing in Christ Jesus and then agreeing with Him, allowing Him to change how we define ourselves—from the inside out. Taking God at His Word that we truly have been born anew, spiritually speaking—whether we feel new or not. Choice is the lifeblood of faith—believing in what we cannot see—trusting in it, partnering with the power and ability of the One who has called us out of darkness into His glorious Light. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”–Hebrews 1:1.

We must choose to trust that we have been set free from our “old man with its carnal lust” and are “free indeed” to begin our new life in Christ—with Christ. “For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death” –Romans 8:2.

Living a life of dependence on Jesus now, a life fueled by His every promise. Confident that Jesus cannot lie, we must choose to place the full weight of our trust in God, day by day, living as the new creations we are, or, conversely, we can choose to keep going back, dredging up our old man, dead in his watery grave. Placing our faith instead in “I’ve always been this way.” “My mother/father/ fill in the blank—told me I’ll never amount to anything more than this.”

Yet to mature spiritually, live, and move as God intended, we must allow God’s Holy Spirit unrestricted access to every inch of us.

And yet, amazingly, God has afforded us free will because of His great love for us. This means we can say no to Jesus or His Holy Spirit. Jesus has afforded us the choice to stay stuck in our pain, living fractured, half-lives while on our way to heaven, missing out on the whole, rich, depth of relationship His life, death, and resurrection has provided those who trust Him.

Remember, God’s Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He will not force Himself upon you (even though He is God and can do whatever He wishes). We must bid God welcome. Affording His Holy Spirit unrestricted freedom to walk in and out of the “chambers of our heart,” as jacked-up and messy as they may be. Bid Him welcome into our deepest hurt, that He might roll back that massive stone we placed over our hearts when we were four, twelve, twenty—or yesterday; that instant we swore to ourselves no one would ever hurt us/ have access to our hearts in that same way, ever again.

Yet, to walk in this fullness of Jesus Beloved, in all He has destined for us, to walk in love as He is love, we must choose to live holy, un-comfortable.

Will you join me today in saying yes for the first or maybe the hundredth time, choosing God over self?

And fear not! None of us are worthy of being chosen by God, friend. Isaiah, Job, the Apostle Peter, and Paul have each attested to this truth. Still, you must decide for yourself to choose Jesus over your “I’ve always been.” So, if Christ Jesus is bidding you to leave yourself behind, with all the comforts of the familiar, that you might live in the fullness of all He has for you, which will you choose?

Remember, the choice is yours to make. I encourage you, friend—choose Life. “Jesus said to him, “I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” –John 14:6.

And if you have yet to ask Jesus into your heart as Lord and Savior, choose to do so today, friend. Scripture assures us no man is promised tomorrow—Truth remains Truth, even when it makes us uncomfortable. So please, don’t let today pass without choosing to ask God into your life.

Clean As A Whistle! Ephesians 5:27

May 26, 2018 /

 “… so that [in turn] He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy [set apart for God] and blameless.”

He’s doing a new thing in us! There’s not one of us who doesn’t have an unsteady stone in their foundation. Not one. We all have some area, that one area, that needs shoring up. We’re all in need of a little more mortar…

If you are a Christian, you are undergoing this process daily—moment by moment. This cleansing, this washing away of the “you-you’ve-always-known-yourself-to-be.”  This being made ready. This transformation.

The moment we are saved, (brought into right relationship with God through the saving works of Jesus Christ) in the blink of an eye we are made righteous—in right standing before God—in that same moment however; we are also propelled into a lifelong journey of transformation. One filled with moving ever forward—closer to, giving up and over to, this newness of life in Christ. All the while simultaneously surrendering those aspects of ourselves that aren’t aligned with this new life.

This is a mystery…

Perhaps it’s also a peek into the unfathomable mercy and grace of a God whose goodness and love we can scarce take in. “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.” –Ephesians 2:8-10

Conversely however, our “hard drives” aren’t wiped when we say yes to this salvation—to Jesus! We don’t become super spiritual, squeaky-clean, individuals who have every wrong learned behavior immediately taken from us. It is our “Spirit man” that is made instantaneously new.

Our flesh—the “you-you’ve-always-known-yourself-to-be”, our hearts, minds, and habits—our learned behaviors and choices, our sin; these all need renewing.

And, this renewing is a life-long process.

It’s one of mistakes, and missteps. Of getting it wrong before we get it right. Of midnight prayers and sleepless nights of surrender. It will involve tears, letting go of, and, letting in. Changing. Always changing. It’s a willingness to die—a wanting to be free of, far from, those sins and habits and choices we’ve made, and may be making still. Choices we know displease God. It’s those tears that stain our cheeks as we cry out to God in our weakness, “save me from myself oh God! It’s a hunger for holiness—a wanting of so much of God in you—there’s no room left for the “you-you’ve-always-known-yourself-to-be.”

It’s the complete surrender of our wills in exchange for His. It’s saying yes to God before He even asks the question or makes the request. And that’s just fine—perfect actually.

The moment we said yes to Jesus—rather the moment He said Yes to us, chose us, our lives and sin were imputed, charged to Him and His righteousness was imputed, credited onto us. A holy exchange took place. One far too great for this finite mind to fully take it in! “It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption” –1 Corinthians 1:30.

So how do we define this “clean as a whistle?” This set apart-ness? This ongoing process of transformative emptying that we might be filled again.

What does it mean for us to be without spot or wrinkle?

Let’s start at the beginning…

Firstly, we cannot achieve this state outside of Jesus Christ. Only a life in Him—one that has been washed in His shed Blood can ever be made blameless because He is blameless. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” –Ephesians 2:8-9.

God imputes or credits the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to the believing sinner while he is still in his sin.

The purpose of this? Romans 3: 23-24 explains it: “…since all have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God, and are being justified [declared free of the guilt of sin, made acceptable to God, and granted eternal life] as a gift by His [precious, undeserved] [a]grace, through the redemption [the payment for our sin] which is [provided] in Christ…”

Plain speak: there’s not chance for any of us to be reconciled—reunited with, have a genuine relationship with God, nor to hit the mark He has set for the eminent standards of His righteousness outside of Jesus. Ever. Jesus alone is sinless and perfect. Therefore, He alone is the only One worthy to offer His life in exchange for ours that we might be reunited, re-membered with God. Re-membered through His works, and not our own. “Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people’s sins.” –Hebrews 7:27

And, though we must do all that we are able to do to rid ourselves of those corrosive, immoral, sinful habits and choices, our crude speech, and the ungodly relationships we’ve made friends with over the course of our lives. Those lifestyle choices we’ve preferred, up to now, over God; it is ultimately, solely, the work of the Holy Spirit—the power of the Living God within us that will “root out of us” all of these—if we are in fact truly His.

You cannot have a genuine relationship with the Holy Spirit and remain the same. It is impossible. Nothing can encounter the Living God and remain unchanged…

The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 3:12 that the fruit—the byproduct of our salvation is in part: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

So, now, as we endeavor to be like Christ, to model in our everyday lives after all that He has commanded. To take His character on as our own—model His righteousness in our lives; it remains that it is Jesus who both wills and works in our hearts to produce a life that is worthy of a Holy God. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” –Philippians 2:13.

As Jesus continues to will and work in us, may our voice of assent be as that of our Brother Paul’s’. “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.” –Philippians 3:8-10

Friend, if you’re reading this it’s no accident. If you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior I’m certain it’s why He has you here now. Please, take a moment and ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior. No big prayer,  no “churchy” words needed. Just a sincere heart asking Him in is all He’s looking for. He’ll do the rest. God bless you today. I’m praying for you…

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