November 29

“For nothing so gives victory over sin as to reckon one’s self to be dead to it, and nothing so enables the soul to walk in righteousness as to realize its resurrection life in Christ.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 11/7

As I read non-Christian books on spirituality I often see parallels to what I’ve read in scripture.  I believe part of the lack of appeal of Christianity today is because religious leaders often convey the concept that God is out there somewhere.  On the other hand, the non-Christian books on spirituality leave out the fact that we can only be restored to the “God within” by Jesus Christ’s payment for our sins.  Today’s spirituality has hit upon the truth that God never separated from us, but instead it’s our belief that we are separated from God that has caused us to live our lives without God.  They practice the belief that they are one with God better than many Christians, and because Jesus paid for their sin whether they know it or not they are enabled to reconnect with God because the Holy Spirit is in them bearing witness to His Presence (Romans 8:16).  I even believe that many of these people will arrive at the gate of Heaven and be admitted while many so-called Christians will not because God looks at our hearts.   I believe the work of Christ on the cross can be received into our hearts by acknowledging that God is our creator and Father and that without His life in us we are nothing.  It is in this dying to the self-life--that part of us that thinks of us as separate from God and from one another and thereby sins against God and others--that enables us to be one with God and He with us, just as Jesus prayed.

“That they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us...”  John 17:21a