Trust and Godliness

The more we trust God, the more we act like we trust God. Trust grows as we get to know Him better. This isn’t only knowing more about Him, but knowing Him intimately and relationally. As we see Him work in our lives and the lives of those we know, we see that He is trustworthy. That helps us trust what He says is true of us. For example, He says we are righteous, holy, and blameless. He says we are completely new creatures, which means we have no past beyond the moment we were baptized into Him. He says we are completely forgiven—even for the sins we haven’t yet committed.

The more we believe these things about God and about ourselves, the more ungodly attitudes and actions fall away. They are replaced by upright and godly desires and behavior. Philippians 2:13 tells us that He is working in us to desire and to do godly things. Titus 2:11-12 says that Grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and live an upright and godly life in the world.

The more we believe these things about God and about ourselves, the more readily we are able to ignore the accusations of the evil one about our past conduct. Clarity about the truth and intimate knowledge of the Lord Jesus gives us clarity about the schemes of our enemy as well.

As we come to trust in Father’s goodness and faithfulness we find it more natural to take our thoughts captive to Christ and stand in the face of our enemy’s fiery darts.

He is at work in you, Saint. May He strengthen you by His Spirit in your inner self and may worldly fleshly things fade from your life.

Grace and peace to you.
Larry

Do Christians Have Superpowers?
What if Christian superpowers look like foolishness and weakness?

Is God righteous?
Is God just?
Let's explore that for a couple of minutes.

🎥 Credits
Special thanks to E3 with Larry Eiss https://www.youtube.com/@e3larryeiss/videos for the amazing content!

🌐 Official Website Learn more and explore their content at
Visit: https://www.larryeiss.com

Sin and Godliness

Sin is attitudes and actions that are ungodly.

Scripture tells us that whatever is not of faith is sin—so living a life characterized by faith would be godly.

Scripture tells us that sin is transgression of the law—since we are not under the law, sin is not counted against us.

The root meaning of the word sin is “missing the mark.” The mark is perfection, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:48) “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.

We all sin. Even after salvation.

Godliness is attitudes and actions that are like the attitudes and actions God has and does. Conduct that reflects Father’s character.

Godliness includes all the nine listed aspects of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

It also includes the attributes of love that you can find in 1 Corinthians 13.
Each of these things describes God’s character and His attitudes and actions are always consistent with these.

Since you have been made righteous in Christ, you too have these attributes, and these things describe your character. You are righteous, holy, and blameless, just like Jesus.

Grace and peace to you.
Larry

Do you feel inadequate to tell others about the Lord Jesus? Are you worried you don't know enough, you can't counter the arguments, or you just can't think of anything to say?

Here's help that has been useful to me.

🎥 Credits
Special thanks to E3 with Larry Eiss https://www.youtube.com/@e3larryeiss/videos for the amazing content!

🌐 Official Website Learn more and explore their content at
Visit: https://www.larryeiss.com

Covenant Overview

In Genesis God related to people based on faith. That’s why we read things like “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” God made a Covenant with Abraham in which He promised an inheritance to Abraham’s children. The Covenant was ratified (put into effect) by blood. It was a unilateral covenant. Abraham had no duties under this Covenant. Keeping the covenant was God’s duty alone.

Eventually, the Israelites decided it would be easier for them if they could have some rules to follow. So, Father entered into a new relationship with them. He did this by giving them the Law. The Covenant of the Law was ratified in blood. This was a bilateral covenant. Under this Covenant the Israelites had duties. Their duty was to obey all 613 rules and ordinances of the Law. If they didn’t, there was judgement. God’s duty was to bless the Israelites if they kept the covenant.

Finally, Jesus the promised Lamb of God came. Because no one could keep the covenant of the Law and because the Gentiles were excluded entirely, Jesus instituted a New Covenant. This Covenant was ratified in His blood. The terms of this Covenant are very much like the Covenant He made with Abraham. It is a unilateral Covenant under which only God has duties.

This is the current covenant between God and humanity.
Under this covenant, to obtain the blessing of eternal life, you must do NOTHING.
Under this covenant, to remain in Christ, you must do NOTHING.
Under this covenant, to remain acceptable to God, you must do NOTHING.
Under this covenant, to remain in fellowship with God, you must do NOTHING.

The Lord Jesus has provided you with a gift. Not only has He paid all your debt, and served your sentence for you, He put His entire inheritance into your account.

By believing Him, taking Him at His word, you receive all the benefits of His wonderful gift.
Complete forgiveness.
The very righteousness of God.
Eternal Life.

He gives. You receive.

Grace and peace to you.
Larry

Our enemy often uses a subtle and insidious scheme against God's people. He insinuates earthy fleshly ideas into our thinking. Since these ideas are everywhere in this domain of darkness, it is easy for us to fall prey to them. Even more, his sneaky tactics include using the very Scriptures themselves to support his destructive doctrine. This should come as no surprise to us. He did the same things when he tempted our lovely Lord Jesus a couple of millennia ago.

Saints, don't get mixed up. Listen to the Spirit. He is leading us in the path of righteousness. Just lean on Him.

🎥 Credits
Special thanks to E3 with Larry Eiss https://www.youtube.com/@e3larryeiss/videos for the amazing content!

🌐 Official Website Learn more and explore their content at
Visit: https://www.larryeiss.com

Why Not Sin

As a boy, I understood that the reason I should not sin was so that I would not be punished. I observed that when I misbehaved, my parents punished me. I learned in church that God was much the same.

The result was predictable. I tried to be good, but I failed often and sometimes spectacularly. I could have benefitted from a different motivation for avoiding sin.

This is a statement that I think would have helped me.
Sin is bad for us.

As those in whom Christ dwells, the reason we shouldn’t sin is not so that God will be happy with us and withhold punishment. Neither is it so that He will let us into heaven. The reason we shouldn’t sin is so that we do not suffer the negative earthly consequences.

Those consequences are not just the inner turmoil and misery we feel. They also include damage and possible total destruction of our relationships. We might lose jobs, acceptance, even health. All of this would cause us even more misery, yet we would still end up in heaven.

Father wants what’s best for us and that’s why we are urged to do godly things and Love one another. So, we are best advised to do all we can to avoid sin. At the same time, we do not need to beat ourselves up when we fail. We are going to fail, but our failure isn’t changing our relationship with God in the least.

Jesus took our sins away and Father has promised not to remember them anymore. He is guiding us in the direction of godliness, but just as we as adults do not punish little children for falling while learning to walk, so our Father does not punish us when we miss the mark and fail to express godly attitudes and actions.

Grace and peace to you.
Larry
LarryEiss.com

The third part of my recent conversation with Rick and Lori Fry is available now!

Be sure to check it out.

https://youtu.be/vMkg9RTpn3E?si=YCdnjDyRih_LUYbn

God is often misunderstood to be an angry old man in the sky, or a demanding task master.
What if God is really not like that at all? How might that impact your life?

I have good news for you. That portrayal of God comes from the enemy of our souls. To know what God is like, who He really is, look at the Lord Jesus.

🎥 Credits
Special thanks to E3 with Larry Eiss https://www.youtube.com/@e3larryeiss/videos for the amazing content!

🌐 Official Website Learn more and explore their content at
Visit: https://www.larryeiss.com

God IS First

All I’m saying is that once we have believed and are in Christ, He is our life. He is automatically prioritized above all else. No further actions designed to prove we have given Him enough preeminence in our lives is necessary. The life we now live in the flesh we live by faith in Him (see Galatians 2:20).

Now we are free to live the life of faith, fully dependent on Him to be our Lord and our Source. Now He in continually working in us, aligning our desires with His perfect character of Love (see Philippians 2:13). He continually teaches us to deny ungodliness and to live upright holy lives in this world (see Titus 2:11-12). As He does these things, we increasingly demonstrate to the world His great power and glory in us.

We no longer need to subject ourselves to religious self-examination to ensure that Father will continue to be pleased with us. We want to behave in godly ways so that the name of Christ will not be maligned.

There is certainly nothing wrong with us correcting things that we find are not aligned with the character of God. We are well advised to do that, but we do it willingly and out of Love, never out of a sense that by those actions we are earning His favor.

“[I am] confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6, NIV)

Grace and peace to you.
Larry
LarryEiss.com

None of us like it when others bring up our past failures. Our enemy loves to do just that. He's constantly accusing us and trying to make us believe that Father is upset and disappointed with us.

🎥 Credits
Special thanks to E3 with Larry Eiss https://www.youtube.com/@e3larryeiss/videos for the amazing content!

🌐 Official Website Learn more and explore their content at
Visit: https://www.larryeiss.com

Don’t Get Mixed Up 4/4

Saints, there is nothing we can do to cause Father to turn away from us in disgust. If we fail to behave in godly ways, He doesn’t bring calamity to teach us a lesson. If we don’t live up to a moral standard, blessing is not withheld.

Ephesians 2:8–9 tells us that we, “are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast” (CSB). We all know this, and most of us do not struggle with it.

Like many of us, however, some who have gone before us did struggle with what happens after salvation. In Galatians 3:2–3 the Apostle Paul heard that people in the church were falling prey to the temptation to add something to the work that Jesus finished at the cross. Here’s what he said to them, “I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?” (CSB)

This speaks loudly to us today.

We cannot mix a little religious rule keeping with depending on Holy Spirit in us.
We cannot mix a little meritorious performance with trust in Father’s love for us.
We cannot mix a little Old Testament religion with New Covenant freedom.
We cannot mix a little striving to please God with the rest and peace Jesus has given us.

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that godly behavior has no value. On the contrary, the grace of God teaches us otherwise, and Holy Spirit within us is continually bringing our desires more in line with Father’s desires and prompting us to live lives characterized by godliness (see Titus 2:11-12 and Philippians 2:13).

I am not saying that sin is not sin. The most basic meaning of the word translated sin in the Bible is to miss the mark. The mark is perfection. Apart from Jesus we all miss the mark.

Because sin is in this fallen world, everything around us exerts an kind of gravitational pull indicating that we should live by our senses. Our senses tell us that things that feel good are the key to happiness, joy, and a fulfilling life. That's the earthy, or worldly, way to live.

Scripture talks about this as "fleshly desires", or "the lusts of the flesh" and these desires are not limited to the things we think of as being evil. If we are performing laudable activities so people (or God) will think more highly of us, that misses the mark. But which of us always acts out of pure motives?

The earthy way of reacting to what life throws at us may feel good for a moment, but sin is not good for us. It's destructive to our relationships, it hurts us, it hurts others, it causes illness, and it results in mental anguish.

Father desires better for us.

We are no longer in bondage to the power of sin. This is a statement of fact. It is not something to strive for or attain. It is our current condition. Our role is one of complete dependence on God. Our role is to receive from Him and then out of that overwhelming supply, live lives of love.

Let’s not mix any religiosity with the grace of God. Let’s just trust Him like little children and allow Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth and reshape our desires to be like Father’s.

Grace and peace to you.
Larry

Laws can never make anyone righteous. We have clear and unassailable evidence of this in the governments of this world.
So what's the answer?

🎥 Credits
Special thanks to E3 with Larry Eiss https://www.youtube.com/@e3larryeiss/videos for the amazing content!

🌐 Official Website Learn more and explore their content at
Visit: https://www.larryeiss.com

Don’t Get Mixed Up 3/4

Mixing a touch of self-effort, a little merit-based performance, or just a sprinkle of legalistic service with the grace of God messes up the entire thing. We lose the rest, peace, and contentment of simply trusting Father, and we diminish the lasting fruit we bear, along with the joy and blessing it yields.

We don’t have to live like that. We can remember that Father has set up a system that works with no work from us. We can turn our focus away from the futility of trying to impress God and others with our performance, choosing instead to set our minds on the Lord Jesus and His incredible work on our behalf.

Hebrews 10:1–4
“Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (CSB).

In this chapter of Hebrews, we find that Jesus took care of our sin, our imperfection, our failure to hit the mark, our inability to live up to the perfect standard of God.

In verse two we see an incredible statement There we are told that if the Hebrews had been purified once for all they would no longer have had any consciousness of sins. The reason they were still conscious of their sins was that the sacrifices were being given every year and reminding them of their sins.

The work Jesus did was far better. Not only did He take away our sins, but His one-time work was effective for all time. Once for all. Consequently, we no longer need to worry about sins. 2 Corinthians 5:19 tells us that because of what Jesus did God was not counting our sins against us. In 1 Corinthians 13 we read that love keeps no record of wrongs. In several places, including Hebrews 8:12 we are told that God promised not to remember our sins.

Hebrews 10:10, 12, and 14 underscore and bolster this truth. Here is what they tell us:
“By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.”
Hebrews 10:12
“But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.”
Hebrews 10:14
“For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified” (CSB).

What can we possibly hope to add to this wonderful truth?

The Lord Jesus has made one sacrifice for sins for all time.
The Lord Jesus has taken our sins away.
The Lord Jesus has sanctified us (made us holy, set us apart).
The Lord Jesus has perfected us.
The Lord Jesus has done all of this, and He did it once for all time.

So complete was His work that He sat down at the right hand of God the Father. Indeed Hebrews 10:18 caps these thoughts by telling us, “Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin” (CSB).

Grace and peace to you.
Larry