Fully Alive!

2Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,

VIRTUE - The word virtue in the Greek is a very interesting word. It actually means “manliness in the sense of valor coupled with excellence.” In modern terms one might say it is the equivalent of saying, “Man up.” Or in the ladies case, “Pull up your big girl pants.”

Virtue is the confidence to be and to do.

Jesus walked this earth and went to the cross with virtue. There has never been a more manly man than Jesus who gave Himself for others. Jesus took on the form of a servant and humbled Himself even to death on a cross.

I've been made a divine partaker of His nature! He calls me to let my faith be activated into action in this life.

I’m not wanting to only have great thoughts, theories and ideas about what it means to belong to Jesus. I want to live my life fully aware, fully activated and fully enjoying who He is in my life.

Jesus gives life and He gives it more abundantly. That means He gives it to be lived in a sense that it takes over.

I want to live fully from the place of who He says I am and do all that He says is mine to do. You have a faith to add virtue to as well. You will grow in what you know when you step out in faith on what He has shown you. Today is a new day with new opportunities and possibilities before you. Seize the day by faith and let Him reveal Himself to you in astounding ways! Let the adventure begin!

Friend Friday with Timothy McConnell

Joy in Everything

James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Our need for Jesus extends well beyond just initially getting saved. We need Jesus every day of our existence here on earth. We need His life, His love, His help and His wisdom. But receiving it will require us to take captive our thoughts about what we are going through and bring them into submission to the obedience of Christ. Jesus completed the work so we can live by faith. The Just shall live by faith!

I am not the source of my help, God is. That is why it is good to get to know God! I am wisest when I am seeking wisdom from the wisest Being of all.

Please allow me to encourage you today to look to Jesus who is the author and the finisher of your faith and be encouraged by His unfailing love for you. He will never leave you nor will He ever forsake you.

You may be having a difficult time right now but He is with you in whatever storm or situation you are in and He will lead you through it to the other side.

Victory is already prophetically yours my friend. You are in Him and He lives in you. This test of your faith is going to produce a heaven born patience after His own likeness in you. That is why growing in knowing Jesus is actually good news for you!

If a sparrow can’t fall to the ground without Him knowing it, and you are worth more than all the sparrows, then I am convinced you are not alone and He is very aware and very much with you today!

Never Separated

Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, He called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. 31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. 35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You and I are loved by God no matter what might be happening right now in the world or in our own personal lives! We are loved with an everlasting love because Christ is in us and we are in Christ by grace through faith!

I believe therefore I speak this good confession of faith. I encourage you to make a similar confession.

Connected

I was reminded recently of how a vehicle can sometimes act erratic and it seems like a dire situation when in fact it is something simple.

I had a car that whenever the battery terminals got a little corroded it would run like it needed a major repair. The engine ran rough, lacked power, and the power windows would often act up as well.

But the cause was the connection to the battery wasn’t working like it should! A good connection would always fix the problem.

You know, Jesus came to fix our connection with God the Father. That is what being saved really is about. Jesus came to reconnect us because when Adam sinned mankind’s connection to God was broken.

My car couldn’t fix itself. The car needs a good powerful battery but even if it has one it needs to be connected to that battery to function. My car needed me to make a good connection to the source of power for it. The same is true of us. We were disconnected and couldn’t fix ourselves we needed Jesus to do it.

Jesus didn’t come to make us able to keep the law so we could be good enough to get God to like us. Jesus came to reconnect us to God in real relationship. Jesus came to reconcile man to God. He did not come to connect us more deeply to the law, the law doesn’t care about us, it only cares about right and wrong behavior and justice being applied to it.

Jesus came to give us life with God by making us right with God by grace through faith! The just shall live by faith! You are right with God not because of anything you have done but only because you put your faith in what Jesus did. Now your relationship with the Father is connected at all times not based on your behavior but based on Jesus’ obedience. This is where our power to live comes from! God loves you and has made a way for you to belong to Him and have fellowship with Him! I encourage you to live your life connected today knowing that Jesus did everything needed for you to experience it.

We Need Power

I have watched as the recent record freeze hit Texas and wreaked havoc on thousands of peoples lives. The loss of power led to such hardship and misery for so many. Life threw a curve ball at them and they were not equipped to handle that type of situation because they never dreamed it would ever happen to them.

My prayers are with those who have suffered through this surprise weather event. I pray they recover well and become better equipped having gone through this trial and now knowing it could happen again.

There’s a lesson for all us in what we witnessed. A loss of power proved to be very dangerous in such a vulnerable situation. All it took was the perfect storm.

As believers we will go through storms that catch us by surprise. They may hit us in an area and in a way we never would have expected they could hit. We need to know that we will never lose our power because our connection is sure. If our connection depends on our performance it is not sure.

The Holy Spirit is our supernatural power supply. Knowing what keeps us connected with Him at all times is of great importance. We know we will go through trials, tribulations and hardships. Some will come as surprises, others we might even expect. But to push through and persevere well weened to know that we are connected.

The key is to being certain is knowing you are in Christ and Christ is in you and He is your continual source for unbroken and unhindered connection. Your ability to go before the throne of grace and find mercy to help is not based on your own performance it is based on the performance of Jesus which was perfect and complete. That is why we bring every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus. Not our own obedience but His! By reminding ourselves of His performance on our behalf we can rise above our mistakes and failures and even in times of great challenge and difficulty discover we have a connection and the power necessary to thrive, not just survive.

This is why we can count it all joy when we go through diverse trials. When we learn to rely on the finished work of Christ we discover the ever present always available power of the Holy Spirit to carry us through the toughest and most dangerous storms of life. Jesus will never leave you nor will He ever forsake you. Once you are His, He will forever be for you. The Holy Spirit is the One who makes this our reality. He is always present to help if we will just let Him.

A Good Confession

Thanks for dropping by for a listen today! I trust you've been encouraged as you listened. I hope you will subscribe to my podcast and please feel free to leave a voice message letting me know what you think. It's a wonderful way of encouraging each other along the way.

I remember every time my wife became pregnant. Every day I would speak to her belly to tell the child inside her womb how much I loved them. For the first pregnancy I didn’t know I was speaking to two of them until two weeks before they came forth. But as a dad, even without being able to see them or to know whether they would be well behaved or not, I loved them and wanted them to know it simply because they were mine and they were wanted.

God as a Father loved us before we were ever born again. I’m not making this up, it says so in the Bible.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit all Three in One loved us in eternity past.

We were targeted for God's love before coming to know Jesus. How loved by Him are we now that we’re His?

Ephesians 1:3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

Jesus did not die for us because we were morally good or were even trying hard to be good. I know I wasn't morally good and neither was I trying to be. I was a rebel without a cause not even thinking about God.

Jesus died for us because we were greatly loved by the Father and deemed worth rescuing before the foundation of the world. His love is an everlasting love so it hasn’t diminished over time!

The life we live now, we live by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for us. So go live that beautiful abundant eternal life you have received and rejoice in Jesus today! It’s your privilege to do so.

A Loving Father

Thanks for dropping by for a listen today! I trust you've been encouraged as you listened. I hope you will subscribe to my podcast and please feel free to leave a voice message letting me know what you think. It's a wonderful way of encouraging each other along the way.

After many years and having raised four children and being a grandfather to seven I’ve come to realize just how amazing my late mother really was. I respect her for surviving being a single mom to five boys. At times a memory of her will pop into my mind and it’s a like a little kiss of affection to my heart. Loving parents are a real gift.

When we were young my mom would make us take a dose of “Geritol.” It was wheat germ oil that was awful but supposed to be healthy for you. I thought she was mean for making us take it but now I know that, like any loving parent, she wanted us to be healthy and hated the idea of us becoming sick.

I have never met a loving parent who wished their child would get sick or prayed that their child would be stricken ill so they might learn a lesson. Loving parents are characterized as always desiring good health for their children. I personally believe that God is no exception as our Father. The Bible appears to agree.

Psalm 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

So that we understand that this proclamation of rejoicing isn’t just a sentimental moment of emotional overflow, God put a plan in place for our health and well being involving Jesus long before He ever arrived on the scene in history. God prophesied His desire for us to be healthy and this desire is revealed in,

Isaiah 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Even the Apostle Peter acknowledged this prophetic unveiling of the character of God and the work of Jesus in 1Peter 2:23 where it says, “By His stripes you were healed.”

Before going to the cross Jesus was tied to a whipping post and given 39 lashes with a whip and many years long before that moment God spoke through the prophet and declared that the reason for it was our healing. To me that describes a loving Father who looks out for His children.

I commit the promise of His word to any listening that might need healing and stand in faith on the basis of His character as a loving Father. My encouragement is to remind you that we have a very loving Father who cares about you and loves you very much and that by Jesus’ stripes you were healed.

Safely Covered and Hidden

Thanks for dropping by for a listen today! I trust you've been encouraged as you listened. I hope you will subscribe to my podcast and please feel free to leave a voice message letting me know what you think. It's a wonderful way of encouraging each other along the way.

When I was a small boy, like most boys, I had a vivid imagination. I would watch monster movies with my older brothers and then go to bed and get scared in the dark. I imagined that if I covered myself with my blanket pulled over my head that whatever was in my room couldn’t see me. Being hidden beneath my trusty blanket gave me the peace I needed to go to sleep. I would almost bet you’d be able to relate to that experience in your own childhood story.

Believe it or not in the Bible there is call for us as God’s children to use our faith and imagination to realize we have been safely covered and hidden. If we get hold of this revelation is can really help us in our times of anxiousness and fear. It can also help us in our times of temptation.

Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

The reality of being hidden with Christ in God is everything! What can see us in that place and what could possibly get past God to get to us?

Even better is the idea of what we can discover about our God as our Father from being hidden with Christ in Him. There’s a lot of love to discover in that place.

It is from our position of being hidden with Christ in God that we discover who He is, what He has done and who we truly are and what we are to be.

You know, without the security of my trusty blanket as a kid I would have had many a restless nights and it would have taken a toll on me physically and mentally.

When it comes to spirit and soul true rest belongs to those who have the revelation of what it means to be in Christ. Our heavenly identity is inalterably tied to your position in Christ.

Today we are victorious not because circumstances will end the way we want but because despite circumstances and fearful challenges our life is hid with God in Christ!

Our security is in Jesus and we are citizens of His kingdom which is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Having a tough time? Try to remember that you are under a powerful covering today.

Podcast Episode #01 Transcript - Love Guaranteed

Thanks for dropping by for a listen today! I trust you've been encouraged as you listened. I hope you will subscribe to my podcast and please feel free to leave a voice message letting me know what you think. It's a wonderful way of encouraging each other along the way.

Have you ever found yourself thinking about the reason Jesus came and what He was really saying to us?  I personally do not believe that Jesus came to say, "Why can't you be like me so the Father will love you?" 

If Jesus had said that He would have made the Father’s love for us conditional with an unattainable standard applied.  

Many years ago I was someone who thought that way and I was often discouraged as a result because I knew how much I wasn’t like Jesus.  Thankfully the Holy Spirit revealed the truth of the good news to me.

I believe Jesus came because we were nothing like Him and even on our best days we still miss the mark.  Thankfully we are told in,  

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God loved us even when we were not aware of Him and living in rebellion to Him.  

The Bible teaches us that Jesus came to give us a righteousness we could never earn.  A righteousness the Father would approve of and welcome.  God’s own righteousness.  This reality is our security.

The Bible says that God cannot deny Himself and since it is His Own Righteousness we now possess in Christ, He will not deny us.

The law of Moses was never a way of being made truly righteous before Him.  It revealed righteousness very clearly and as a result condemned us.  That’s why when it was in force regular sacrifices were required due to the fact that no one fulfilled its demands.  If the standard of holiness it required could have been attained there would have been no need for the shedding of blood for the remission of sins over and over again. 

The righteousness God was desiring from before the foundation of the world and the law of Moses is the righteousness we now possess in Christ.  It was the solution His Son Jesus would provide.

You see it was God’s plan all along that we be made righteous by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.

This glorious hope and promise cannot be found in any other person or method.  We need not add anything  to Jesus to have relationship with the Father and maintain it.  Jesus completed the work at the cross, He rose from the dead proving He was authorized by God and then He ascended on high to sprinkle His own blood on the real mercy seat of heaven forever cleansing our sin.

This means we are a people of great hope, promise and everlasting life!  Jesus finished the work!

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus sweetest name I know!