Jesus said that the Father has life in Himself. He added that the Father has given to the Son to have life in Himself (John 5:26). And you must see what a grave mistake it would be to say, “And, yes, the Father has also granted me to have life in myself. Amen and amen.” No, no amen to that. The Father has not granted you to have life in yourself. He has granted you to have life. But that life is found in Him. It is His liveliness that is your life.

The great temptation that lurks in the marshlands, that temptation that would suck you down and snuff out your life, is the temptation to live apart from God. It is the temptation to go about your coaching, teaching, summering, purchasing, cooking, exercising, and all of your other ings in the same exact way unbelievers do. This can be tricky. Unbelievers coach, and teach, and summer, and purchase. You are doing the same activities, after all. But you must do them as what you are, which is one who has been brought into the life of the fully-alive Trinity.

If you attempt to go about your living severed from Him, you will have as much sweetness and flavor as one of those molded blueberries at the bottom of the container you forgot was in the back of the refridgerator. God has brought you into the bond of His covenant, and in that covenant He has given you life, a big wide world, an array of gifts and good works to enjoy. So resolve to never live outside of that bond of the covenant. The life you live, you live by faith. The life you enjoy is the life of the Trinity, which never grows old or stale.

Jared Longshore – May 26, 2024

Read Full Article

It really is something that Jesus Christ told his disciples that it would be advantageous to them if he left them (John 16:7). Take this truth in as if you were there with our Lord and you will see just how outrageous those words must have seemed to them. Jesus tells them, “If I don’t go away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you.” “Well, Lord,” they must have been thinking, “how can it be more advantageous for us? We have seen you walk on water. You have heald the sick. You’ve cast out demons. And then there was the time you raised Lazarus from the dead. We just don’t understand how your departure will make things better.” “Right,” our Lord responds, “you do not understand. But you can believe.”

Petecost reminds us that we live by faith not by sight, we live by faith, not by complete understanding. By all means, you can reason from the things Christ says. You can reason to your heart’s content from the Word. But you cannot sit in the swamp of unbelief and reason your way to the Word. Jesus smiles at one of the disciples, saying, “You don’t understand? Well, you’re definitely not going to understand if you don’t start by believing what I’m telling you.”

Pentecost kills the sin of stagnant, swampy unbelief. The Spirit is Living Water. And He will flow. It is not your job to keep up with Him. You could never do that. He’s not some stream running along beside you. He is a stream that has been poured out in your hearts. Your job is to trust the Word and ride the river.

Jared Longshore – May 19, 2024

Read Full Article

You can find at least three types of people. The first group is unmotivated and unambitious people. They are not raising money for start ups and they would be terrible in your college recruitment department, “Come join our college and we will make you, slightly below average.” 

The second group has the ambition. They are eager for knowledge and success, but their whole enterprise is fueld by the wisdom from below, the kind that is earthly, sensual, envious, bitter, devilish, and riddled with strife. It is full of the pushing and pulling that marks much of the American entreprenurial spirit and the men who abide by this wisdom go home needing a whiskey, or porn, or some bit of indecent entertainment to take the edge off of their work day.

The third group is what we are aiming for and it involves the people who live by the wisdom from above. James says that this wisdom is “ first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 1:17).

The trouble is, if we are honest, we would put most of those qualities in the first group, the unproductive one. We say to God, “We’ve got two roads, Lord, which would you like us to take? We can be mediocre, a bit on the lazy side, while being pure, peaceable, gentle, and easily intreatable. Or, we can get into the fight. We know how to hustle, but you have to understand, that we will show the competition no mercy, and gentle, well, that really won’t be in the equation.”

Those who talk that way are missing what it means to live by that wisdom which comes from above. “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?” James asks, “let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom” (James 3:13).

You say, “Look, that is impossible.” Well, it is not impossible. But it does require getting the wisdom that comes from above, where Christ has ascended.

Jared Longshore – May 12, 2024

Read Full Article

Jesus told us that in this world we will have trouble. So it is not a sin to have cares and concerns. But, it is a sin to hold on to those cares and concerns. The world deals them to you. And then you must deal them to God. The Apostle Peter has said so: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7). This is the plague of the prideful man: He’s doomed to carry around his cares. They are too important. And he is too important, to hand them over to any other.

Now there is a difference between casting your cares upon  mighty God, and simply unzipping your anxiety luggage before Him in prayer, only to zip it back up and take it with you after you have spoken with Him. “Why Lord, don’t I feel the freedom of being carefree?” “Well,” He replies, “That freedom would require you actually handing them over.”

You might object to this with something like, “Well, I simply want to be responsible. I want to make a plan. I like fixing problems.” That’s fine and good. The problem is not you taking responsibility. It is the weight, the stress, the worry, then the coping mechanisms, and the way you are trying to manipulate the people around you to solve whatever trouble you are all twisted up about. All of that goes away when you hand the care itself over to the Mighty One.

But, you cannot merely go to the Lord for advice about dealing with your worries. There must be an actual transaction. You must hand Him your worries, and He will hand you His peace.

Jared Longshore – May 5, 2024

Read Full Article

Back in the 1970s a man named Laurence Peter developed a theory called “The Peter Principle.” It claimed that, within hierarchical organizations, individuals are regularly promoted past the point of their compentency. A man functions well enough at a certain level. But then he gets promoted to a positoin in which he is relatively incompetent. This is obviosuly to be avoided. And one way to avoid it is to abide by the teaching of James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom let him him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).

Now you can lack wisdom because you are simply unwise. Or you can lack wisdom because you have matured and advanced to new levels of responsibility. You are a wise man who has never faced this kind of battle before, and it is time to level-up. James has this latter example in mind because he adds that God gives liberally and upraids not. He means that God is a generous giver of wisdom, who will not find fault with you when you keep coming back to ask Him for more. When you do so, God supplies that wisdom and individuals, families, organizations, and communities rise to new levels of virtue, dominion, sanctification, and glory.

Now, anyone who has spent a good bit of time considering organizations or hierarchies will likely say, “Steady now. There is a lot of truth to that Peter principle. It is rare that people actually enlarge thier capacity and competency.” Granted, it is rare. But it is only rare becuase it is equally rare that men ask God in faith to give them wisdom. God stands ready to give you that wisdom and liberally so. But will you ask?

Jared Longshore – April 28, 2024

Read Full Article