The Truth About Believers

People often tell new believers to "do the best" they can. This is absolutely unbiblical and a piece of totally useless advice. This is the kind of advice that turns us all in the wrong direction.

A believer is identified as a child of God. We have access to the Father, through prayer at any time, and we can have His full attention for as long as we want or need it. Can you grasp the magnitude of that sentence? We can have the complete attention of the Sovereign Lord of the universe who created everything that has been created for as long as we want. It sort of leaves you breathless, doesn't it? And what's more we have every reason to expect that He will stand faithful to every one of His promises. What's more, we are no longer called "sinners," because that's a term describing those who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. We've been transformed into "saints" ... holy persons, set apart for God's purposes, and by God's amazing grace. Saved by the grace of God and set apart by His command, we stand reconciled to God. Sin and temptation will continue to plague us for as long as we're on this earth but since our transgressions have been pardoned and set aside, our new identity as saints cannot change.

A believer is positioned in Christ. God's Spirit dwells in us so we can live righteously, as Christ did. When Jesus described this relationship, He used a grapevine metaphor. The Lord is the vine and we are the branches, connected to Him and drawing on His power (Jn 15:1-5).

A believer's mission is to reveal Christ to the world. Our vine is to bear in us the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). When our character and conduct reflect these aspects of Jesus' nature by the power of the Holy Spirit, we help others to see the beauty of a right relationship with the Lord. The truth about believers is that we don't have to "do the best we can." God works in us and through us, His children, to accomplish His purposes. That's pretty awesome to know that God uses us in His efforts; we share in His glory. Just as we are identified and positioned in Christ, so we reveal Christ to the world around us. What an incredible role we play in God's plan for this world. We are honored by our submission to the Lord and Jesus will use us to call the believing from the unbelieving. But it's important to understand that we aren't "winning souls for Christ." He does the calling, we're here just to support His efforts.


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Once again we are blanketed in thick smoke this morning. I went ahead and had my quiet time and my coffee out on the deck but I didn't sit out with Michael and enjoy the morning. It's just too smoky and there's no sense in sitting out there breathing all that in unless you really have to. Perhaps the cooler temps over the weekend will clear the air for us for awhile at least. (I think they said on the news last night that it would be a little cooler over the weekend.) We just need the wind to blow in the opposite direction for a while and take all this smoke out of here.

It's only noon but Michael is out grilling Yoshida chicken for our dinner. He's grilling early so he won't have to be doing it during the hottest part of the day. Even under our big oak tree it is well over 100. We'll just eat our big dinner early and nibble on something later tonight when we get hungry.

For the past week, I have been suffering an allergic reaction or something on my head. My scalp is covered in red, itchy welts and so far I haven't found anything to help. I have a doctor appointment scheduled for next Tuesday afternoon to see if there's anything he can do for me. This is terrible stuff. It itches and drives me absolutely crazy! But the worst of the whole thing is that my hair is falling out at an alarming rate. I'm almost bald around the crown of my head. I switched to a medicated shampoo and that hasn't helped it at all. Also I've been rubbing a lot of psoriasis lotion all over my head before I go to bed at night and sleeping with it that way. Then in the morning, I shampoo it all out. I haven't gotten any relief for my efforts, in fact it could be making things worse. I've never had anything like this. I haven't even ever had dandruff. So I'm just flying by the seat of my pants on what I'm doing for it. It does look like it's going to take prescription strength something to make this better. I sure don't like my hair falling out and I mean it's FALLING out by the handfuls and the itching drives me right up the wall. I think I need a great big shot of steroids to start with. And then go from there. It's not just my scalp anymore. Today it's down my forehead and along the hair line all around my face. Oh, and behind my ears; let's not forget that it's all around on the the back of my ears!

My church had our Thursday night bar-be-cue last night and I forgot all about it. Again!! I was reminded when I tried to locate our assistant pastor, and his wife told me he was at the bar-be-cue. RATS!! I really wanted to go to that. I think that's the third bar-be-cue that I've forgotten about and missed. My sister always says if you forget about something it must not have been very important to you, and that's just not true at all. Not with me anyway because I have wanted very much to go to every one of these!

After we eat, I'm going to go do the mail. I did up all our "We Miss You" and "Thinking About You" cards for the church last night and I need to get them in the mail before it gets any later in the month. I think there were 16 cards if I remember correctly and I didn't have enough stamps so I'll need to buy another book. I could just buy a roll but I hate to put out that much money at a time. The only thing you save by buying by the bulk is convenience. And even that's kind of silly because I have to go to the post office to mail them anyway so I may as well just buy a book at a time. If I had home delivery and pick up it would save me a trip but since I have to go anyway I may as well buy in smaller lots.

Yesterday, out of the blue, it occurred to me that I haven't been doing my Weirsby study in Romans. That's the way my mind works. Forget something as if it never existed and then suddenly remember it again. So I will try again next week. And now that I think about it, this is Friday and I'm supposed to be fasting. But I can't fast today. It would kill Michael after him going to all the trouble to grille that chicken and corn on the cob. I think I'm just going to have to forget trying to fast on Fridays because I just can't ever seem to remember to do it. Maybe I should just fast on any day I think about it instead of locking myself onto a certain day. I think that would be better. I've also given up praying for my nation every night at 6:00. It was a great idea, and really truly a good one. But I've remembered to do that one time! One time!! But that's been even harder than the fasting because I'm not locked into a particular day but I am locked into a specific time. Now I pray for my country when I think about it. But I do get discouraged being so forgetful. And I've brought this up to the Lord so I feel that for me, for now, they were just additional clutter in my all-ready cluttered life and I'm better off just doing things when I feel called to do them. And God does call us to pray so I will lean on Him to be my guide.

The last couple days have been noticeably cooler with all the smoke in the air. We still got to 105 degrees yesterday but nothing like the 116 we were having. It has been much more tolerable. I hope we get out of this heatwave and it be the only heatwave of the year. We've only had one heatwave in the month of July for the past two years but they have happened at the end of July, not the start. So we still have plenty of July left for another heatwave.

Just took a break and feasted on our grilled chicken, corn-on-the-cob, and roasted garlic potatoes. Very good dinner. Now when we get hungry this evening, we'll eat leftovers. A cold piece of Yoshida chicken is a treat for the palate. M and I both prefer our chicken cold. It is all I can do to eat a piece of chicken while it's still hot. For some reason it triggers my gag reflex and I've never been able to figure out exactly what causes that, but that's what happens. I do indeed think cold cooked chicken is delicious though. (Lucky for me.) One of my favorite picnic menus includes cold fried chicken. It will taste so good tonight especially with a little side of Yoshida on the plate for dipping. That's out of this world.

I guess I should get to the post office before it gets any later. Pray and pray hard for the Gjerstads in Liberia West Africa. They are all over there serving our Lord in the field ministry and since they have been over there (about 8-9 months by my calculations) at least one of them has been sick. Of course that's more understandable when you learn that Dan and Stacy have ten children so that's just about right to keep something running through them one after the other. Stacy commented that Steven (visiting for the summer break) has been the only one that has survived any length of time at all, without coming down with something. Serving there without running water or electricity is hard enough. I just can't image the toll illness is taking on them. Like I said, I think they just keep passing it around and around and around! You can check up on them on their blogsite at (http://loveforliberia.blogspot.com I think). If that doesn't work for you, leave a comment and I'll research the blogsite and put it in my next blog. Okay, this is going to be it. See you next time...