We hear it a lot, “It ain’t all about you!” We hear that it’s all about God and Jesus and His great epic story and making His name famous in the nations. My son, Chase, attended PASSION 2010 in Atlanta and their vision posted on their website reads:

God created us in His image for a love relationship. From creation to redemption to the great wedding feast of heaven, He’s all about us! He is about our being free to be ourselves the way He intended from the beginning. Free from addictions and delivered from the grievous affects of molestation and all sorts of immorality, of depression and of other chronic self-consuming mental slavery. He wants us cleansed from the dirt that has ruined the virgin snow (Psalm 51:7; Isaiah 1:18). He wants us to come home (Luke 15:20) He wants to live in us! John 14:23: Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” He wants us alive!

We see this in our kids…especially teens! (As of this month, we now have 3!) They think it’s all about them. It erks me when I see the pursed eyebrows and hear the smack of entitlement. “We don’t owe you anything,” Kelli and I remind them. Yet we spend most of our energy providing, guiding, loving, correcting, parenting THEM! So much of what we do IS about them. And in doing these things, we also receive our benefit: a satisfaction that they are prepared for life, encouraged, “loved-up,” equipped.

“Ministry Update”

Discipleship-Counsel Sessions in October: InYou: 4; Homes for Life: 5; New Life BC: 0; Anderson Mill Road BC: 1; Grace Pointe: 0.

Web Radio Show: Listen to Scott LIVE each Monday @ 9:03 pm EST on www.talkshoe.com.LISTEN 24/7 www.gracewalk.org (click GW Radio) “Just Speak Life” Mission Experience Journal and wristbands! JSL t-shirt ($15); JSL M.E. Journal ($5), JSL wristband ($1). All 3: $17.95!NEW “Brand New Me” discipleship materials are $5 for 3-booket set.

December started with a bang with a big turkey fry at the house. We enjoyed the Homes for Life boys and friends from church who helped prepare food for prisoners. Chase performed well in a couple school and church plays and has also been offered a small scholarship for running at Wofford. He also ran 2.4 miles with a football thru downtown Greenville, shirtless and police-escorted in 36 degree weather toward the Shrine Bowl in Spart. He also totaled his 2^nd car L but he and Carson were safe. Carson got a 94 Chevy truck for Christmas and plans to fix it up. He is still battling poison ivy (8 months now)! Cooper got the lead role as JoJo in Suessical at Spart. Theatre coming up in March. Scott qualified for the 2011 Boston Marathon by 74 seconds at Kiawah Island marathon (3:28:46) on Dec. 12, and the family enjoyed Charleston and the beach villa. We have also enjoyed time with family in Columbia (Scott’s G-Ma turned 101) over the holidays and Kelli’s sisters came in from TX and AR this year for Christmas! The boys have been a big help to Scott painting during the break.

Do you ever feel that way? Glad someone came to visit, to share a gift or a word or a deed that just lifted you, met a need and inspired you to do the same for someone else? My brother-in-law did that for me this Christmas. After four years of frustration with internet access in our home, he took me to Best Buy and bought a wireless router that actually works. By that evening our kitchen island bar looked like a Starbucks with four laptops wirelessly connected and cousins enjoying picts and Facebook and surfing the web.He also went with me to Academy Sports and came out with new pool balls for the pool table someone in our church gave us. I didn’t expect it, didn’t ask for it, planned to buy them myself, but before I could find them, he was at the counter with them checking out. And the conversations we had over three days reminded me that we are here on earth for more than ourselves. We are tools of God, uniquely fashioned to cultivate the hearts of people and plant the seed of truth by all means possible. My vision was rekindled, passion restored, resolve deepened and conviction recovered. I’m so glad he came!Then a young man coming out of a homosexual lifestyle sent me a Christmas card that reminded me why God came to earth. He came for me and for you. He came to visit, to share a gift and a word and a deed that lifts us out of ourselves, and He came to meet a desperate need we couldn’t meet in ourselves and to inspire us to do the same for others…that is, share of His great deed! The card reminded me that we need Someone so much bigger than ourselves to reach in and pull us out of ourselves. That Jesus would disrobe and enter into my world reminds me again that we are here on earth for more than ourselves. I’m so glad He came!

More needs will come this year. More frustrations with relationships and jobs and things that break down. We will feel afresh our neediness and be tempted once again to look to our own resources for the solutions. We’ll feel empty again. But let these times be a reminder that we are broken and needy and that we cannot fix ourselves. Remember this is why He came. He is everything we are not! He sees our needs and has the resources to meet them in ways we do not expect, with things we don’t even ask for, and at times when we planned to do it ourselves. I am SO glad He came!

Discipleship-Counsel Sessions–

January: 15. Homes for Life. 6 group and individual sessions.

LIVE Web Radio:

Pre-recorded shows @ 2:30 pm daily on www.gracewalk.org (click GW Radio) Listen to Scott LIVE each Monday @ 8:30 pm on “Living Truth” counseling call-in show; then “InYou Ministries” Show following at 9:30 pm EST, by visiting www.talkshoe.com (search “grace walk”).“Living in the Now.” Book project.

The family enjoyed a weekend in AR after Christmas, day-skiing in NC in January, and then Disney World on MLKJ weekend! It was great just being a family together in a little warmer climate. The boys began track (even Cooper is managing this season) and all did well in school last semester. Chase is in another play, Carson’s riding his unicycle and Cooper is getting ready for a talent show at school.

Your spirit never produces the work of God, but rather responds to what God says He will do. The way the spirit of man responds to God is generally through trust, belief and faith (There is also abide, rest, yield, surrender, etc.). The meaning of all three of these words stems from a common Greek root word which means “assure.” Have you ever thought about how you really know anything for sure? Eventually mind, emotions and will break down or hit a wall and the spirit must break forth. Ultimately, it’s through faith, believing, and trusting that we know anything. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:1,3). Who on earth today was there at the beginning of the world to know for sure? No one! The assurance of what we know comes through faith, believing and trusting God and His word, who God is and what He has said. But how are these three words different? Why do we have three different words for assurance? Although believe, faith and trust are intimately intertwined, they may differ in some of these subtle ways: We believe God because of what we know He has done in the past. We have faith in who God is in the present, and that God is able and can do what He has promised or commanded, even when we cannot see it yet. We trust God, that He will in the future accomplish His promises by His power alone .

Believe

Believe is used 259 Times in the NASB Bible (39 OT, 220 NT). To believe God is to find assurance in who He is and what He has done in the past. “So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus has spoken” (John 2:22). The disciples were asked to believe in what they heard and saw and touched and witnessed. Their beliefs were rooted in historical facts and revealed prophecy.God has made Himself known and never asks us to believe in the unknown or unseen. Rather than our coming up with our own works for God, God desires that we simply believe in the work that He has done for us. “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him who He has sent” (John 6:29). “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We believe in the facts of what God has done for us.

Faith

Faith is used 228 Times in the NASB Bible (4 OT, 224 NT). Faith is finding confidence in God’s presence by acting on what God has said through obedience and choice. Faith is present tense, in the NOW, yet relies on the past performance of God. Faith is only good for the moment and it only benefits the one who exercises it. “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). In view of God’s demonstration of faithfulness, faith acts in the assurance that the “not yet” will become, that the unseen will one day be. Faith is “the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). In the gospels, Jesus often said, “Your faith has made you well!” He’s looking for those who are confident that He is and that He is able to move mountains by a mere mustard seed-sized faith; it’s the object of faith, not the faith itself, that moves the mountains. There is no such thing as “blind faith.” God never asked anyone to have faith in nothing, or in something or in just anything. He asks us to believe in Him. He speaks, He promises, He commands, He reveals who He is and what He intends to do, then He says, “Now act on what I’ve said to you.” We walk by faith and not by sight.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).

I want to make 3 observations from Deuteronomy 30:15-20a:

Obsrv. 2: Our hearts turn FROM God before we ever turn TO an idol. The peace of God, then, is relinquished before an idol is sought; therefore, that idol has no chance of satisfying the need for the peace which comes from the presence of God. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23) and this never changes, for it is the nature of sin. We are always free to choose, but we are not free to choose the consequences. Obsrv. 3: Everything works for God. Heaven and earth tell of God’s ways and point us toward Him. Refuse to love God and you will hate the world…and eventually disown yourself. Refuse to obey God’s voice and the world, circumstances, even your own body will work against you. Let go of God and run and you will be running from life! Let the rebellious child go, for Life will bring him back.Every day is a choice! But it can only be a choice if there are options. God grants us options. If we choose sin, we’ve chosen death, and death becomes “choice-less.” Why? Because sin is also slavery (John 8:34), so it has relinquished its choice. Slaves don’t choose. Sin is then unnatural because it has lost its freedom to choose.However, Jesus has set us free from sin through His death “for he [the believer] who has died [crucified with Christ] is freed from sin…therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (Rom. 6:7,12). Now we have options again. Options are only for the free!

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father” (John 14:12).I have to admit, this verse has caused me a great deal of anxiety in my life. During my college years, I served in a youth ministry summer internship program in Winter Park, FL, where I was introduced to some charismatic teachings. The testimonies I heard that summer from young men “delivered” from homosexual lifestyles and demonic activities awakened my appetite to the works God could do through me. A deep desire to be a useful tool in God’s hand propelled me to want all that God had to offer me. I wanted to do “greater works.”Well, this past Sunday our pastor was preaching on the Holy Spirit and led us to John 14:16-18: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

I’ve been reading The Fisherman, by Larry Huntsperger, about the disciple Peter and I can “feel him.” He’s so over-the-top, like me at times. He’s one extreme or the other and seldom in the center. He’s a nothing-or-all-kinda-guy. Listen to him: “Peter said to Him, ‘Never shall You wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’ Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.‘ Jesus said to him, ‘He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean…” (John 13:8-10).Peter jumps from bold, fleshly, zealous defensiveness to bold, fleshly, zealous, self-surrender. First, his fleshly defense: ‘Never shall You wash my feet!’ Peter exudes a blind confidence in the current stream of thought flowing through his brain, impulsively acting on his own imperfect agenda from the gut, reacting to Jesus from his own perspective. But a subtle rebuke from the Master must have created an instant avalanche of “Stupid me, what was I thinking! Wait! I’ll make up for it. Watch this! I’ll see to it that I don’t make the same mistake twice and embarrass myself again. I am somebody. I’ll do something heroic!”This leads him to his second extreme, his heroic self-surrender: “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” If one rebuke was an avalanche, the second correction from Jesus must have snowballed him into a frozen state. “Oops! That was the wrong thing to say. I would back-track and cover my trail, and pretend this scene never happened, but I’ve already been seen.” Feeling caught, he reacted by resorting to his super-spiritual underwear. He mentally ducked into the nearest phony-booth, stripped himself of the blush-red, defensive coverage and popped out with a deeper layer of pseudo-spiritual success wear labeled “I surrender all.”

We’re supposed to fail. Isn’t that actually a comforting thought? How is that comforting? Because it takes the monkey of perfectionism off our backs and places it back in an environment where it can actually be enjoyed. I like watching monkeys frolic in their habitat at the zoo or on Animal Planet, but if those wild varmints got too close, if they started invading my space, like they do in India, I’d get a little uptight! While in Peru, we just couldn’t take our eyes off this cute little monkey from the jungle someone held in a crate. But we were warned not to get too close or he might bite.At some time or another I can’t help but believe that we all have gotten a little too close to perfectionism–to trying to become perfect. And I’d imagine a few of us have even been bit. We’ve failed and the pain of imperfection has left us licking our wounds, blaming ourselves and sometimes biting back with bitter rebellion. (I’ve realized we often rebel not just because we want our way, but because we cannot do it His way.) And I feel sure that if you haven’t failed then you’ve probably succeeded to a point of even greater misery.

This month began on August 1, at 12:00 am as usual, except me, Chase and Carson were in the airport in Lima, Peru (and it was my birthday)! Our mission group sang “Happy Birthday” to me, and to our surprise, were followed by a large group of Peruvians who sang their own version of “Feliz Compreanos???” (I have it on video!) We flew on to Miami, Atlanta, and finally Dallas, TX, for a nephews wedding. Since then, we have been running, painting and getting back to school. This year four Wolfe’s are at four different schools.

by Author Unknown

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will l hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land”. - 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Another key similarity between revival and nuclear fission is a strange phenomenon that occurs right before the atom splits. The nucleus actually depresses. Scientists observe that the neutron bombardment which seemed to be changing the nucleus, now shows no sign of reaching critical mass. Nothing seems to be happening.That is also what happens right before a manifestation of God’s glory. The revival core will be praying and sensing a rising tide of power and expectancy. All of a sudden, you hit a brick wall. The power is gone. God’s presence seems to have lifted. Your prayers feel trapped in your mouth. A deep despair settles in. You feel physically drained.This is the dark night of the soul. This is where every revival pioneer has been before you and now it’s your turn. It will take everything in you to keep moving. The sobering fact is that many who have reached the dark night of the soul have retreated. Eternity will reveal a long, sad history of revival near-misses.Let me state emphatically that 90% of revival is getting to the point where an unshakeable resolve is born. Everything you have done before you reach this dark night will seem unimportant. It is what you do now that makes or breaks your heart’s desire.At no other time does God express love more than when He allows this time of total emptiness. God risks being misunderstood. He faces the potential of one of His children walking away frustrated and confused, but He believes the good it will produce is well worth the risk.What do you do when this cloud of darkness settles on you?Scientists respond to a depressed nucleus by intensifying the neutron beam, and resolve to do so until fission occurs. They commit to keep moving, not relying on any physical signs. That is precisely what we must do to see the end of this night.Why does God allow this dark night? I strongly believe that our Father realized that those through whom He works to bring revival receive great praise from the church and awesome attacks from Satan. A person lacking humility won’t survive the praise of men. A person without perseverance won’t overcome Satan. The revival core must realize this and stand the test.Just as a scientist turns up the force of the neutron beam even though he sees no result, so true revivalists will turn up their prayer during the dark night of the soul. If the children of God demonstrate that they won’t go by what they see or feel, God will know that He has vessels that will not rely on circumstances or feelings to keep them on a straight course.If the prayer of the revival core continues during this dark night, their true motive surfaces. The only thing that will hold us when the nucleus depresses is a pure heart of love for the lost and a true desire to see God glorified. God wisely observes that anyone who survives this night is rightfully suited to invade enemy territory.Again we see this fifth stage in our key verse, 2 Chronicles 7:14, “…will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways…’It would seem that by this stage, God would know we have abandoned our sin. The issue, however, is something deeper; it deals with our ways. Our repentance has dealt with what we have done; now the purification focuses on what we are.The psalmist distinguished two aspects of God: His acts and His ways. “He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel” (Psalm 103:7).The children of Israel only knew God from miracle to miracle, but Moses knew the deep intentions and the long-range plan of God. Moses understood the essence, heartbeat and direction of God.To turn from our wicked ways doesn’t just mean to repent of our sins. Hitherto, we have repented of our acts, now we need deliverance from our ways.Gethsamane was the dark night of the soul for Jesus Christ; it was the test of His ways. You wonder if Jesus had to repent. The answer is no, but He had to be examined in His Father’s court of justice.The dark night of the soul is a very baffling test, for it comes at a least expected time and with special conditions. The inner nature must be surprised, caught off guard, in order to be exposed and conquered.In the many records of revival, there is an almost uniform description of this crucible… on the mountain top one moment, feeling run over by a train the next.Joseph, barely recovered from a glorious dream, is thrown into a pit by his brothers. David, still hearing the chant of the throng saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands,’ wakes up in a cave being hunted like an animal.Even Jesus, with the hosannas still ringing in His ears from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, now prays alone, cold, tormented, sweating blood, and surrounded by sleeping disciples.The battlements of heaven are waiting for that unmistakable ring of genuine obedience where the dragon of human nature has been met and beheaded. “Not my will but thy will be done!”Before the crown comes the bitter cup. It must be swallowed to the bitter dregs.So then, what is the Lord really looking for? A servant who knows that the cup cannot pass. Take heart if you wish that it would pass. Even Jesus asked if it was necessary to drink. But He did not ask to escape because of fear of pain or selfishness. He asked because, for the first time in eternity, He would be separated from His Father. He knew that the plan to save man would have to break His Father’s heart. Only Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah could begin to understand the grief.Herein lies the truth that releases the glory. In repenting of sin, we rid ourselves of evil but in the dark night of the soul, we surrender the things we dearly love, things we can’t readily identify as being in conflict with God.Here the issue is not right and wrong, but high and low purposes of living.Spiritual awakening is not simply getting rid of sin, it is giving God what He wants.Again and again I have tried to stress that we must conclude with iron resolve that there is no substitute for revival. It is the higher ground we must reach because the flood is rising. No point of return can exist, no alternative can be considered.For fire to fall and consume the sacrifice, it must be innocent and without blemish, but, most of all, it must be on the altar to stay.Under every other circumstance our nature can hide, but in this dark night it screams for its way, and its many tentacles are exposed.The protest was immediate. “Why this waste?” screamed the apostles, led by Judas Iscariot. Their outrage was almost convincing. The ointment was worth a year’s salary (maybe $12,000 today). It could have been used to have fed the poor, they argued (actually, Judas wanted to steal it).This is the entire issue with revival. They wanted to do something for God. Mary knew it was time to do something to God.The time has come to pour out our best on God. Jesus said, “The poor you have with you always.” Good deeds are always available.America is spiritually dying because God has sales reps and not channels of His glory. We feverishly do the right things, almost as a bribe to postpone the needed pouring out of ourselves as a living sacrifice.Again we must no longer see the bad things as barriers to revival, but the seemingly good.We can’t dole out precious ointment to the poor in doses that don’t cure them or honor God. We must be poured out on God!Spiritual awakening means that the faithful become fiery, the decent become dynamic, and the acceptable become excellent. But, most of all, we become disgusted with our evil, and totally dissatisfied with our good.We realize that now is the time to pull out all the stops. No program is sacred, no worthy project is worth enough. None of the ointment can be spared. It is revival or death!As I said before, the nucleus of the atom depresses right before fission and in that lies another key parallel to revival… the nucleus explodes from that depressed condition. It does not split when it looks inflated and energetic but rather when it is shrunken and lifeless.Revival comes out of nowhere by sovereign timing. The prayer core is ready to fall from exhaustion but hangs on by its confidence in the faithfulness of God.Jehovah detects that special quality that can be rewarded with revival.An eviction notice falls with a loud crash on the porch of the local satanic supervisor. Angels receive their invasion orders. The prayer core looks up and sees the glory coming. The roar of God is about to be heard in the land once more…

A popular song by last year’s American Idol winner, Jordan Sparks (with Chris Brown), is called “No Air.” It speaks of being so crazy in love that you can’t breathe! It reminds me of the Mt. Everest Guy who, for the lack of the very thing he desperately needed, refused to place his oxygen mask on his nose and breathe! He was found dead with his salvation right around his neck.All you really need is Jesus. I am pleading with you to simply breathe in the Life that is found in Him! He is near!

Discipleship-Counsel Sessions: 14

Whatever is not of the fullness of God’s Spirit, is from self and for self. If I serve others out of a need in me that needs to be met, I am serving myself. I am using others to make me feel complete. I met a woman who became angry to the point of tears because other people wouldn’t prioritize or put the same emphasis, time and energy into her ministry. I met a pastor who scolded his staff for not doing enough to make the church grow. (Unfortunately, I’ve met quite a few!) This is self-serving. Instead of giving out the overflow of God’s love, they are sucking the life out of others.In ministry, as with any relationship, if I look for something in someone else to fulfill something in me, I am in great danger. If I look to others to validate me, I am self-seeking. \Love “does not seek its own” (1 Cor. 13:5). This is the essence of immature dating relationships and is still evident in many marriages. It‘s also very present in ministry: “For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so they may boast in your flesh. But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:13-14).

I spoke this month to a group of SC state records employees. I couldn’t wait to show-‘n-tell my jar of waterfall! That’s right, I was able to capture just a piece of that beautiful, majestic, powerful waterfall I saw the other day in a simple, glass Mason jar. As I stood before the group, I whipped it from behind my back and cried “Look! Isn‘t it amazing!” No one seemed impressed. I shook the jar and said, “See!“ But still no ooo’s or aaah’s. It died!Anything removed from it Source dies. How about you? Are you living today? I know you’re alive, but are you living? Are you living life or is life living you? Have you lost your Source of life today?You are no longer living if…

The question of a man’s heart is “Do I have what it takes? Am I enough? Am I adequate for the task?” Feelings of failure often plague most men. Whether it’s the absence of “the blessing” from their father, the regret of poor, critical choices in life, or just the nature of man to find his identity in what he does (his work) rather than who he is (beloved of God), many men never feel they measure up. Married men especially feel the pressure to be adequate at home, able to lead their children and to satisfy their wife’s often unspoken expectations. (Truthfully, many of these expectations are our own–what we think our wives expect.) Although spoken jokingly, men know “Ain’t nobody happy unless momma’s happy.” Children, finances, job security, personal relationships, and ministry opportunities add to the list of reasons to feel ill-equipped for the demands of life.

“If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more” the Apostle Paul claimed. In Philippians 3, he backs up his boast with his list of religious accolades. As with Paul, somewhere, someone in our life defined for us what was successful–a dangling carrot–and like a wild donkey, we pursued the immeasurable, illusory goal. Complete this sentence for yourself: “I will be acceptable when…” or “I will know when I have succeeded when…” or even “I will be happy/fulfilled when…” For me it wasn’t so much about achieving my own goals as it was about comparing myself and competing with others (although I would never want to admit that). My measure was people, not a more objective standard. I lived to people and usually fell short of my own expectations, and then blamed others for letting me down and not sharing my vision for…umph…self-fulfillment. (I guess the world is just too self-centered to be thinking about me!) The very people I was supposed to be leading were seemingly in my way. (Well then, which way was I going?!) I remember thinking, “If it weren’t for people, I’d have a great ministry.” Ha! Suggestions were heard as criticism and correction felt like disapproval, condemnation and rejection. People-pleasing made me feel as though I was always leaving, but never arriving. I was chasing the wind. “By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you” (Matt. 7:2).
If I ever did catch the dangling carrot, I, like Paul, would find that “whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:7). Earthly accolades just don’t satisfy. I learned that when I looked to God to fulfill my hopes and dreams, I found that my hopes and dreams did not fulfill me. So from where does fulfillment come? In
another letter, Paul tells us: “Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who has made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:4-6).

The source of fulfillment and satisfaction is Jesus Christ, who makes us adequate by the new covenant, ratified by His blood! God the Father made this covenant in His blood, not dependent on our works, but His. The new covenant is His idea, His plan, His initiative, His sacrifice and His seal of approval. By His Life we are made complete, adequate for every good work! By His stripes we are healed. There is no longer the need to please man or live to people–living from the outside in, allowing what is on the outside of us to define us. Instead, we live to Jesus, finding in Him complete love and acceptance –living from the inside out, allowing Who is on the inside to define us. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God [not trying to gain approval] as a workman who does not need to be ashamed [because it’s His work, not mine], accurately handling the word of truth [not correct Bible study methods, but the correct understanding of the revelation of the mystery of Christ in you]” (2 Tim. 2:15).

As the “Lord’s Supper” reveals, His Life is in you, for you partake of His very Life! Jesus said every disciple must eat His flesh and drink His blood. That’s His Life living in you! Peter, who heard these words directly from the mouth of Jesus, later wrote: “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence [not mine]. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature…” (2 Pet. 1:3-4). You (the old you) have been crucified with Christ and He has become your very life. Your focus must shift from self to Jesus, from insufficiency to the sufficiency of Christ, from inadequate to “in Christ.” His Life is living and active and is dwelling in you. Christianity is not a new set of better rules or principles to live by, it is the very life of Christ abiding in you. It’s not about what you can do, but what He has done and is currently doing in you, for you and through you now. It’s not who you are, but Who He is in you. The core question of manhood is not answered in your intellect, abilities, or self at all, but in Christ. SO the question is: Are you InAdequate or InChrist? You cannot be both!

Counseling Sessions: 26  

Cooper attended his last Children’s Ministry bonfire this month–a sad milestone for Mom and Dad (boo-hoo)–and is still enjoying the FBC Spart. Children’s choir/mission ministry. He is developing a heart for missions. At a Dorman HS football game, Cooper walked the stands and filled a “rice bowl” with donations for orphans in India. He’s finishing up AYSO soccer, taking piano lessons from Granny.   Carson and Chase both continue to improve their PR’s in cross-country–Carson: 19:29, and Chase: 17:10. Dorman went undefeated in the regular season, won 1^st in County (both JV & Varsity; Chase finished 6^th overall in the race!) and 1^st in Region (Chase finished 8^th overall). The state meet is Nov. 3^rd.Chase performed 8 shows as Ramdass, an Indian servant, in Spartanburg Youth Theatre’s Little Princess, and competed as Matt, the main character in When Men Wear Skirts, in a school theatre competition in Rock Hill. His and Carson’s D-Groups (discipleship w/FBC) began again for the year and their desire is to “go deeper” into knowing Christ.Kelli turned our back porch into an outdoor living room. Perfect for the beautiful fall weather we’ve enjoyed!

What do you want? Do you want to have your cake and eat it too? (What does that mean?!) What I mean is do you want the presence and glory of Christ in your life while still holding on to your sin, self, and your own stubborn way? It doesn’t work that way. God is “pro-choice” in that He has permitted freedom of choice; but He is also irreversibly “pro-life” for He is Life! We are free to choose, but we are not free to choose the consequence, “for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life” (Rom. 6:23). Choose one.On Oct. 21, our pastor, Richard Smith, spoke on the verses which “fill in the blanks” between Hebrews 11:29 & 30: Numbers 13-14 (Listen online: www.hopepoint.org) I saw myself in that faithless gap, in the same downward spiral of those freshly-delivered Israelites. While the Promised Land (just as “the precious promises” of participation in Christ, 2 Pet. 1:3-4) stood before them, they couldn’t get their eyes off the obstacles and themselves: