Nate Danser testifies to his own journey at Pure Life and the work that God did in him to give him a new heart. He shows from Scripture that this is what regeneration in Christ is all about, and that freedom from sin does not come without that new heart.

Jim: Nate Danser is with me in the studio today. Nate is Media Outreach Director here at Pure Life, and we're going to talk today about the gift of a new heart. Nate, I want to begin our time together by reading the Scripture, three passages from the prophet Ezekiel.

He writes in chapter 11:

When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it.  And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God. Ezekiel 11:18-20

And this one is from chapter 18:

Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord GOD. “Therefore, repent and live. Ezekiel 18:31-32

And finally from chapter 36:

For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:24-28

In every one of these passages the prophet is talking about dealing with the sin and rebellion of Israel in exile by God giving them the gift of a new heart. Nate, what is your immediate reaction to these wonderful passages of scripture about the gift of a new heart?

Nate: Well, I can keep it really short and really simple. This is extremely good news. That's the way it strikes me, and these kinds of passages have been of tremendous encouragement to me personally, because anyone who begins to understand that sin comes from within, and really gets a sight of the fact that it's the heart that is the problem, then the promise of a new heart is really encouraging.

Jim: Now before we talk about the gift of a new heart, and we will get there, I want you to share with our listeners how is it he'll dealt with a particular issue that was brought to him over and over again by the children of Israel they had a saying, and you're going to share with us what that is, but it was their way of blaming their situation, blaming their problem, and even blaming their own sins on the actions of their fathers before them. How did Ezekiel deal with this issue?

Nate: Well, he had a word come to him from the Lord, and God said, “What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers eat the sour grapes, But the children’s teeth are set on edge’? “As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die. (Ezekiel 18.1-4) And one thing I'll just mention, because I think it's maybe helpful. There is a sense in which it was very natural for the children of Israel to think this way, for a couple of reasons. One, because God had said that He would visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation, and He had also demonstrated that at times the judgment that came about because of a particular person's sin was postponed and dealt with at a different time on a different generation. And so, it wasn't as if they had no precedent for this. But the problem was, as you mentioned, they were using it to excuse their own guilt and to put an accusing eye toward God, as if He was not righteous or just.

Jim: And, of course, the situation that you're in, in exile, is the children who are born in exile say, “We didn't get here; our father's sin is what brought us here! It’s not my fault! It's my father's fault that I do what I do. How does that show up in our culture today?

Nate: Well we don't use this proverb ourselves, but the heart of it still shows up in the lives of many people, because it is absolutely human nature to think highly of ourselves and to think lowly of other people -- as if, “Oh, I would never do this on my own! Something must have happened to me that would cause me to be this way.” And so, we see this in the whole nature vs nurture debate in the psychological community. We see it in people who are always pointing towards a father wound or a mother wound, as if the way that their parents treated them made it impossible for them to turn out any different than they have. And I do want to say that I understand that there is a very real effect upon a person's life when they are mistreated, misunderstood, neglected, abused, abandoned -- those things are very, very real. But as Christians, we have to be very careful that we don't excuse our own sin by blaming someone else, and the most compelling example that I've ever heard was to look at the life of Jesus, because there's no one who's ever been as mistreated, as misunderstood, as neglected, as abused as Jesus was, and He was sinless. And so, what it shows is that there is the real possibility of living above our circumstances, living above the way we've been treated, and we definitely see that in our world today people constantly wanting to blame someone else for their own sin.

Jim: Regardless of what happened to you in the past, regardless of what kind of parents you had, what kind of upbringing, what kind of socio-economic background you have, there comes a point when you have to stand up and take responsibility for your own behavior.

Nate: Yeah, that's right, and what is tragic is that many people spend years and years, decades, focusing on someone else to excuse their own sin, and they only become more and more bound, more and more enslaved, and so, when we blame someone else, what we're really wanting is, we're were hoping that by blaming someone else we will get out of the situation that we're in. “If I can just figure out the root cause, which is this person, then I should be free,” but what happens is the absolute opposite. The more you blame someone else, the more you excuse yourself, the worse off you become.

Jim: The bad news is that your sin is your problem and it's your fault. The good news is that once you take ownership, then God is able to do something about it in your life.

Nate: Yeah, and isn't it amazing how many times we see that in the Residential Program? That as soon as a person says, “It's my fault,” then the healing and the transformation begins to flood in.

Jim: Alright, now, God intends to solve our sin problem through giving us a new heart. How does he do that, Nate? Tell me from the New Testament, how God gives us a new heart?

Nate: Well, before I go there, let me mention something about the heart. because in Scripture the heart is essentially the very center of the person. And so, like I mentioned at the very beginning, when you begin to realize that your heart is the problem, what you are saying is that the very core of my being is the problem. And when that begins to become a reality, well, it can be pretty traumatic for people because they begin to realize that there's no help, there's no hope inside of me, because to the very deepest level that's where the corruption is coming from. There's nothing below that to reform. I can't get down there deep enough to really change things around. I need something completely brand new, and that is what God promises to give us. He promised us to make the change at the deepest part of our being, at the very center. That's where the healing is going to come from, not from the outside in but from the inside out, and that's what regeneration is all about: receiving a very new supernatural center of our being. And when you study out the Scriptures, what you find out is that, that is the Holy Spirit. That's what he's promising to give us is the Holy Spirit at the center of our being, so that from our inmost being, rivers of living water are springing out of us. Instead of corruption flowing out of us, now there's living water, there's a healing, there's a spiritual life flowing out from the center of our being, and that's how he solves our sin problem, is by removing the center of that corruption and putting in that place spiritual life in the Holy Spirit.

Jim: Well, Nate, I want you to make this personal for us in just this way: you were raised in the church, came from a Christian family, went to a Christian college, you were active in church, you were a worship leader; you had all the outside trappings of a good Christian kid. You were just hooked on pornography. And when you came to Pure Life, you experienced a radical conversion. Walk through that experience for us, and describe how that happened for you here.

Nate: Ok. I came to Pure Life high on myself, there was no question about that, thinking I was a great guy, and couldn't wait to get through this program in 5 months and become even greater. And so, at about month four (this is going to be the super Cliff Notes version), I started to entertain the idea that maybe I wasn't as great a person as I thought I was and that I probably needed something inside to happen. Ad so I just simply asked the Lord, “Please move into my life,” (essentially). Now what I expected was, I expected that I would go from great to greatness, but what happened was, my spiritual eyes came wide open to the sinfulness of my life, the sinfulness of my heart, the depravity of my character. I could suddenly begin to see God in His holiness and His righteousness, His purity, His love, His humility, and I started to realize that I was the opposite of all of those things.

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Jim: You were none of those.

Nate: I was none of those, and I didn't know how to become those things. What I did at first was I tried, I tried to become more righteous, more holy, pure, humble, all those things, and instead of getting any better … it seemed like I was only getting worse and worse and worse as I tried to become those things. And so, after about a 4 or a 5 month period of, at times, terrible anguish of soul, I finally let everything down, all the facades, all the effort, and I just came to God as simply as I knew, and I said, “I have no idea how to even have a relationship with You.” And that is when the cross became real to me. That's when I understood why, why the cross, because His nature and my nature were so opposite that there was no possibility of a relationship, there was no possibility of fellowship or communion, and the cross was God's solution. It was His way of saying, “I will become what you are, so that we can have a relationship, and you can become like I am. And when He revealed that to me, in just such a simple way I could finally understand it, and for the first time I put my faith in that thing that He had done. That that was my answer, and I don't know how to explain it exactly, but when I woke up the next morning, everything was new.

Jim: That's right. Now Nate, I think when the average person and even the average Christian in the church today listens to that story, that sounds like a pretty radical conversion to them. Doesn't it also occur to you like it does to me, that that is the exact experience that God wants every person to have, that should be the normal experience of coming to Christ.

Nate: Yeah, absolutely, because what was so real to me, when I woke up the next morning, was not that I was new, but that there was someone new in me, and it was as if I could see Jesus inside my soul. I don't know how to explain that, but I knew that a person was there. It wasn't that I became something great; it was that there was a person there that was pure and holy and righteous, and that was completely new for me. I had never experienced anything like that.

Jim: Regeneration, a new beginning, a new heart, becoming a new creature: it's all described in the New Testament. It's supposed to be the experience for every person who comes to Christ. Why does it seem like it's so unusual these days?

Nate: You know the thing that preceded that, was the horrifying reality that I was all wrong. Not just certain behaviors, but me, to the core, all of that was wrong. And I knew that something had to change. I just wasn't sure what it was. And so those months of crying out to God, that was crucial for me, because that experience didn't come because I realized, “I've made some mistakes, and who hasn't, and I want to go to heaven.” That experience came from a deep yearning to have something other than me in place of me. And that was God's answer was to give me Himself as the solution for my sin.

Jim: Okay now, you not only testify, but you give evidence of the fact, that you have been truly converted. God the Holy Spirit has invaded your life and taken over, praise God. But you also have said to me on a few occasions, and publicly here at Pure Life on many occasions, that when you came to Christ as a new creature, that’s when the battle started. That's when life started to get tough. Talk about that. Why did the battle start once you were saved?

Nate: Well, even though God gives us a new heart, what is still very, very real, is indwelling sin and a corrupted nature. So, God takes out the center of the corruption, and puts inside something new, but that something new is still dwelling within a flesh that is corrupt, that hates righteousness, that hates God, that would be happy to go to hell. And so. that's why the battle begins, because now, you actually have something that's righteous and holy that wants heaven, that wants purity, that wants holiness, and it is surrounded by a nature and a flesh that wants exactly the opposite. So, it's like the children of Israel going into the Promised Land; they took possession of the land, and yet there were all of these enemies that had to be driven out. There were all of these things in that land that stood against the things the children of Israel were created to stand for, and so that opposition always means war. They’re mortal enemies, there is no peace between the new heart and the flesh nature, there can be no peace, and we were not called to peace we're called to war.

Jim: The Bible calls it enmity; the flesh hates the spirit, the spirit hates the flesh, and they're always at battle with one another. So tell me, you're still in the battle.

Nate: Yup.

Jim: What does victory look like?

Nate: Well, you know one thing I've been so encouraged, from people who have been in the battle a lot longer than me, because I'll tell you, there were days I was so discouraged that I felt like I just going to quit. “This is too much, I can't handle this. There's so much pride; There's so much self-centeredness; There's so much apathy, There's love of the world; there's lust. There’s envy...”

And I mean it's when I became a Christian, that's when I became so even more aware of the sin that was in me, not less aware. And I would be very discouraged at times just I can't fight all of these enemies and there's no way I'm going to overcome all this stuff. And I was so encouraged from people who had been in the battle longer than me. “Nate what God is looking for is that you never quit never, you never stop identifying those enemies, you never stop putting those things under your feet by an act of your will. ‘I will not let you dominate my life,’ and you never stop seeking to live the life that is laid out for us in Scripture.” And so, victory looks like every single morning, in my heart, getting on my face before God: “I'm a sinner! I'm in need of mercy! I'm in need of strength and communing with Him and then going out into that day with just a general heart attitude that “I want to live for You today Lord; I'm not going to be satisfied to live self-centeredly, selfishly, sinfully, but my life – “I'm going to do war today. I'm going to do battle today. I'm going to grow. I'm going to be the less focused on myself today than I was yesterday. I'm going to be more eternally-minded today than I was yesterday.” And each day, just having that kind of heart-attitude, and I can say, “Yeah, I'll say gladly, that I have had periods of my life where I was regressing; where I did give in, where I did allow my flesh nature to get the upper hand, and God, in His mercy has, year after year, drawn me back to Himself and said, “Nate, I've called you to higher things; I've called you to live a life that's worthy of the Gospel.” And He's just, man, He's been so good to me in that way, to remind me of what the Christian life is really all about, and to give me conviction when I need it, to chasten me when I need it, encourage me when I need it, strengthen me when I need it. He's just done a lot for me in that way, and that is that new heart. That's the way He works. He works in the new heart. The flesh is good for nothing. It is destined to be put off and swallowed up in life, and the heart is the thing that will remain forever. The new heart living with God. In eternity forever.

There is a physiological aspect to all addiction. We get addicted to things that at first are very pleasurable.

The hormone released in the brain that causes us to feel pleasure can be quite intense, but diminishes in intensity over time. So we keep repeating the behavior, seeking the high, but with diminishing return.

This is the nature of addiction. Steve Gallagher teaches us that Behind Sexual Addiction Lies the Pleasure Hormone.

In this episode we look at the psychology of sexual addiction, what the experts say, and what the Bible says about sexual sin.

There is a surprising agreement that sexual sin is the epitome of insanity. We also talk to a counselor about how he deals with men who have been heavily psychologized.

We want to talk today about a letter that you received from a wife who’s husband was involved in sexual sin and she has just absolutely lost respect for him. What help do you have for her and others like her?

Well, it’s a very difficult thing to overcome. And I would say that this was probably the thing that kept me in chains for some time regarding my relationship with Steve. The lack of love wasn’t killing the marriage, it was the lack of respect; because a woman has to be able to respect her husband. When we see our husbands doing degrading and perverse things, or doing destructive things to themselves, you lose respect for him. And it’s just a very hard thing. For a wife to lose respect for her husband creates all kinds of ugly dynamics in a marriage because he senses that. He knows because she’s probably saying and doing things that obviously are emanating from her that she does not respect him; and he’s going to respond to that. It’s just not a good situation.

Does the wife usually - when she's dealing with that - conclude in her own mind and in her own heart that the answer to that or the fix for that is for her to fix her husband?

Well I think a lot of women try to do that, yeah. They will try to badger their husbands into doing things the way that they want them to do them. They try to...fix them. That’s a very good way to put it. For different types of women, they respond differently. With me, I just left. I couldn’t handle it. I could not handle not being able to see Steve with eyes of respect. Even though he was a cop in LA and a ‘macho guy’, I just had zero respect for him. Other women try to fix their husband, so there’s all kinds of ways that we deal with it. But the Bible talks to women about respecting their husbands, and that is the command to wives. We don’t have any loopholes with that - it’s wives, respect your husbands.

So what I have told women over the years is that God is asking us to respect the position and not the person. If we can get ourselves to see it that way, then it would become easier for us to treat that man with respect in the sense that we’re not degrading, we’re not putting him down, we’re not rubbing his nose in what he’s like; but we’re respecting the position that he holds in our life. Whether or not he’s doing everything exactly the way that we want it, we’re still commanded by the Lord to respect him. And I know that’s very hard for us women. I understand what that's like to esteem someone who is doing horrible things.

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Someone who’s not worthy of the esteem that you’re giving them...

Yes, yes, it’s very, very difficult, and yet we’re commanded to do so.

Well, you mentioned feelings. Now you’ve said that the word of God says that you must respect your husband. But what do you do about those feelings?

Well they are just that. They are just feelings. If we live by our feelings we will do all kinds of stupid things. We should not live by our feelings. Even though those feelings are very legitimate, you can still treat that person with reverence. And that is the greek translation. The Greek word translated is “reverence”. We can treat them with some amount of honor and with some amount of dignity. It’s an action. It’s something that we can do. It doesn’t require a feeling. If we wait for our feelings, it’s never going to happen.

It’s the same thing with love. Love is an action. It’s something you do to someone else. Love is what God has done to us. It was something he poured out on us. And the feelings follow behavior. If you do the right thing, eventually the feelings are going to follow. Now, whether or not we ever actually have our feelings of respect restored - that will happen as the person repents. I don’t know that we can ever be expected to actually have feelings of respect for someone that stays in a habitual cycle of self-destruction. But we can treat them with respect and with honor. We don’t have to necessarily have those feelings.

We look at Jesus who said “love your enemies.”

Yeah, and it’s the same principle. That’s impossible. Humanly speaking, it’s impossible for us to love our enemies. It’s divine. It has to come from heaven - the ability to love your enemy. I think it’s the same thing with respecting our husbands when they don’t deserve respect. It’s an act of the will. It’s just an obedient act before God. And that’s tough, but we do it. We do it by grace and we do it by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. As we obey, he gives us the grace to do it.

For those who are coming out of sexual sin it is very difficult to separate temptation from sin. When someone is living a life of rebellion against God, temptation and sin seem inseparable. So, is there really a difference between the two? Can someone be falling into temptation and still fight through to avoid sin?

There are many examples in the bible of those who avoided temptation and never gave into sin. We are told that Jesus himself was tempted, yet he never sinned. For those who are seeking freedom from the bondage of sexual sin, this is a very important and very pertinent topic.

In this episode, Jim Lewis leads us through the lives of a few biblical characters and points out the differences in both their responses to temptation and what, for some, lead them from temptation into sin.

In Proverbs 7 King Solomon warned his sons to beware of going near the house of the prostitute.

He was telling them to stay away from the place where foolish boys wander into temporary pleasure and eventual destruction. Steve Gallagher teaches this valuable truth to today's sex addicts.

In this Christmas episode, the staff at Pure Life tell the Christmas story from Scripture, and give testimony of the work of Christ in their lives. Host Jim Lewis shares a Christmas devotion from John chapter 1.

From our Christmas episode, host Jim Lewis shares a message from John 1, looking at the incarnation of Christ and its impact on our lives. Jesus is God over us, for us, with us, in and through us.  (From #365 - A Christmas Podcast)

John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word

and the Word was with God

And the Word was God;

He was with God in the beginning.

Through Him all things were made;

Without Him nothing was made that has been made.

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men

The light shines in the darkness

And the darkness has not understood it.

He was in the world,  

And though the world was made through Him

the world did not recognize Him.

He came to that which was His own,

But His own did not receive Him.

Yet to all who received Him

To those who believed in His name

He gave the right to become children of God

The Word became Flesh

And dwelt among us

We have seen His glory

The Glory of the One and Only

who came from the Father

Full of Grace and Truth.

This marvelous and beautifully poetic passage of Holy Scripture, in its own unique way, tells the Christmas Story. True there is no manger in John’s telling. There is no star, no shepherds, no wise men. He does not mention Joseph or Mary. He doesn’t even call Jesus by name. But we all know Who the passage is about. He is the central character in God’s salvation story. He is the focal point, the star, if you will. And so He should be. Jesus is the “Glorious One and Only.” And we need to keep Him first and foremost, not only in our Christmas celebrations, but in every day of our lives.

The Word of God puts forth several truths in this passage today, truths about Jesus: who He is, why He came. These are Truths that, if we receive them, accept and apply them to our lives, will transform us. The Truth will change you. I want to use the prepositions, “over,” “with,” “for,” “in” and “through” to see the person and work of Jesus Christ. These are Christmas Truths that Transform.  

Christ Jesus is God Over Us

The first three verses teach us about Christ’s Supremacy. He is God Over Us.  

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him; and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (John 1:1-3)

John clearly teaches here the preexistence of Christ; that is, that before there was a Virgin mother and child, long before there was a manger in Bethlehem, indeed, long before there was a universe and a planet earth and a human race, Christ, the Word, was with God and was God. The construction of the Greek gives this verse even more force. It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was face to face with God, and God was the Word.”  

Christ Jesus and God the Father are one. The baby Jesus we worship at Christmas is not a mere mortal baby. The picture of the baby Jesus in the manger is a picture of God becoming man. We call it the Incarnation: God, Who is Spirit, putting on human flesh. Before Christ came to the manger, He existed in eternity as God.  

In fact, John tells us that it was through the preexistent eternal Christ that this universe and everything in it came into existence. He is the Creator God. “All things came into being by Him.” The Christ of Christmas is the God of eternity.  

Colossians 1:16-18 gives us another graphic picture of the supremacy and preeminence of Christ. He is Lord of Creation, and more especially, He is Lord Over His Church. “For by Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers, or authorities — all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.”  

There is no doubt what the Bible teaches about Christ, that He existed as God, that by Him all things were created, and that He is the head of the Church. He is over all things. It is Christ who is supreme. He is God over us.  

The bottom line for you and me is simple. He is Lord. It is to Christ we owe our allegiance. He is the God before Whom every knee should bow. He is the God to Whom our worship is due. Is Jesus Lord in your Life?

Christ Jesus is God For Us

Second, the Word of God teaches us on this Christmas Sunday that Jesus Christ is our Advocate. He is God for us.

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of men; The light shines in the darkness, And the darkness has not understood it.” (John 1:4-5)

For some people, the thought that Jesus is the reigning Lord of the universe, that He is God Over Us, might be a frightening thing. And indeed, the Bible does teach that Jesus will also be given the task of judging us at the end of time. The Judgment has been assigned to Jesus; it is before the Judgment Seat of Christ that we will all one day appear.  

But Jesus is a King who loves His subjects. He is the Lord who came to save us. He is not only God Over Us; He is God for us.

We see in Christmas just how much God is for us. In the birth of Jesus, we see God becoming a man. And the whole reason He was made a man was so He could die for us, that we might have eternal life. Doesn’t it say in John 3:16 and 17, “For God so loved that world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him”? The birth of Christ should testify to us of the love of God. He loved us enough to come to this earth and be made a man; and then to die for us on a cruel cross, that we might be set free.  

The Cross of Calvary is the greatest testimony of God’s love. “But God has demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus revealed His love for us through the greatest act of self-sacrifice a man could perform:  He gave His very life for us. What more could God do to prove He was for us?  

Jesus left a heavenly throne to endure the death on the Cross. He gave up His eternal glory to be born in a stable. And then He gave His life to set us free. He is God for us.

Christ Jesus is God With Us.

The third word is about the incredible humility of Jesus. Christ Jesus is God With Us.

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)  

Verse 14 tells us that Christmas is all about the Eternal Word, equal in every way with God and God Himself, putting on human flesh. Jesus became one of us to live as one of us. He did it, as foreshadowed in Isaiah, by being born supernaturally through the borrowed womb of a virgin girl.

Matthew, chapter one, verses 21-23: “‘And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.’ Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’”  

Jesus is Immanuel; He is God with us. God has come to be one of us. Christ has identified with us. That is what the babe in the manger is all about.  

One of my favorite Christmas illustrations is an explanation of why Jesus came. I’m sure many of you have heard it, but I share for those who haven’t because it explains the incarnation of Jesus so well.

The story is told of a man who wanted to believe in Christmas but couldn’t. It made no sense to him. His heart was untouched by the story of the babe born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger. He was home one bitter cold December day when he heard a strange noise at his picture window. The sudden chill had threatened some small birds, who saw the warmth and light of his fire, and they were hopping about his window sill, and some were flying right into the glass, trying to get where it was warm. His heart was touched by their plight. The snow covering the ground was frozen solid. No food. The bitter chill would surely kill them. He went into the yard, and tried to shoo them into his barn. His waving only frightened and scattered them. He tried to lure them into the warm barn with crumbs. They ate some, but did not follow. He soon ran out of ideas. How could he help these pitiful creatures from sure and agonizing death? He thought, “If I could only speak their language. If I could only, for a brief time, become a bird, and show them that I mean them no harm, that I only want to help them and to care for them - if I could become like them, then I could save them...” At that moment, the bells from a neighboring church began to ring out a Christmas carol. And then He knew. Suddenly Christmas made sense. That is why Jesus came. To be one of us. To speak our language. To show us God’s love. And to save us.  

He is Immanuel. He is God with us. That’s the message of Christmas.  

Christ Jesus is God In and Through Us.

Finally, there is the truth of Christ’s Indwelling. He is God in us and He is God living and working through us.  

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came unto His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:10-13)  

This God who is over us, for us, and with us, came to live in us and through us. Here we see Christ’s potentiality, that He is God in and through us.  

Major Ian Thomas, founder of the Torchbearers of Capernwray, England, used to say, in his British accent and characteristic zeal: “The purpose of the atoning death of Jesus Christ, the goal of the Gospel, is not to get any man, any woman, any boy or any girl out of hell and into heaven. The goal of the Gospel is to get God out of heaven and into you.”

The indwelling Christ. Jesus on the inside, living in your heart and restoring your inner nature from the inside out. And he used to use three illustrations.

An oil lamp is created functionally to give light. It has a reservoir wherein one puts oil. It takes oil in the lamp to make the lamp behave like a lamp. Oil makes the lamp do what it was designed and created to do. Without oil in the lamp, it’s still a lamp, but good for nothing, except to be used as a doorstop or a paperweight. Oil in the lamp makes the lamp behave like a lamp.

Gas in the car - same thing. Without gas in the tank it’s still a car, but not much of one. If you forget to gas up and you run out, which many of you have done, the car stops behaving like a car - and you’re stuck. It was designed and created to function fully like a car only when there is gas in the tank.

God created you uniquely among all creation to be the physical, visible image of the invisible God. He said, “Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness” so that when the rest of creation looks at mankind, they will know what God is like. That’s your function; That’s why you were created.  

But man sinned. Lost his way. Forfeited the inner Holy Spirit that completes him and makes him different from the animal kingdom and makes him fully human.

So Jesus came. His death purchased our forgiveness. His atoning sacrifice cleared the way for us to receive Him. When a man surrenders in faith to the Lord Jesus, accepts His death by faith, receives Him as Lord, then the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us. The Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit of God returns to restore us to our true, fully human nature.

Now it takes oil in the lamp to make the lamp behave like a lamp - like it was created to function. It takes gas in the car - and it takes God in you to restore you to relationship - give you abundant life, and make you fit for heaven. Oil in the lamp, gas in the car - God in the man. That’s the Gospel, and that’s why Christ came - to get God out of heaven and into you. Listen:

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” We have the privilege of having the Son of God live His life in us and through us.

Martin Luther’s favorite analogy was of an iron poker placed in the fire. You put the iron in the fire, and as it abides in the fire, soon the fire abides in the iron. The metal begins to glow hot and red, and the fire exists within the metal, fire and metal together become one.

As we place our faith in Christ, as we receive Him, we become children of God. His Spirit indwells us. He becomes the fire within us. He gives us our lives. He restores us to God. He saves us from evil and He saves us into glory. He is God in us.

All of this is Jesus Christ. He is God over us. He is God for us. He is God with us. And He is God in and through us.

Sexual Sin comes with a price. Steve Gallagher continues to teach us the 20 Truths that Helped Me In My Battle With Porn Addiction.

We deal not only with the high cost of sin in relationships, finances and separation from God, but we also share the hope for restoration that is found in the Cross.

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Sexual Sin is a Liar. That’s the plain truth of it. It makes promises it cannot keep and will let you down and disappoint every time.  Today we are beginning a new series based on a series of teachings by Steve Gallagher called 20 Truths that Helped Me In My Battle With Porn Addiction. One of these insightful, biblical teachings will be featured as a segment in each new episode. This first segment is about the lies and deception that are all a part of sexual sin.

Host Jim Lewis offers a biblical definition of mercy, looking at the "mercy words" of the Old and New Testament, and describes how being a recipient of God's mercy and then a giver of God's mercy makes all the difference in the life of a man who needs freedom from sin. (From #360 - What Role Does Mercy Play in Freedom from Porn?)

Mercy isn’t a complicated theological concept. Most people understand that when God bestows mercy, He is withholding from us the wrath or punishment that our sins deserve; or He is bestowing something that we desperately need but feel undeserving to ask. When we hear the afflicted in the New Testament Gospels cry out, “Son of David, Have mercy on me!” we understand what that means. Please deal with me compassionately.

There are three interrelated concepts in Scripture that describe the merciful character of God. The Hebrew chesed is mercy, Chen is grace, and RuCHam is compassion. That these words are related is clearly seen in the many places they appear together in Hebrew poetry as parallel and complimentary concepts. This is nowhere more clearly displayed than in Psalms 51.1 where David cries out, “Be gracious to me , O God (the verb Chanan, extend grace) According to your loving kindness (the noun CHesed, mercy) According to the greatness of You Compassion (the noun Ra

CHam, tender compassion) blot out my transgressions. David assigns to God these divine character traits: that He extends undeserved, unmerited good favor upon those who do not deserve it and cannot earn it. He is gracious; He not only withholds deserved judgment, but in love He meets the desperate needs of a man’s condition: physical, emotional and spiritual. His provision of needs from food to forgiveness, and even chastisement and discipline, are all expressions of His mercy. And God is compassionate. While this is true of the Father it is clearly more visible in the Son, who demonstrated His Father’s character perfectly, in that when Jesus was moved with compassion He responded with tears, with weeping, and then also with works of healing. The three corresponding Greek words of the New Testament are eleos for mercy, charis for grace, and splagxnon for compassion. All are used to describe Jesus and so all reflect in Him the character of God.

There is absolutely no difference in character in the members of the Godhead, so that the Father, Son and Spirit are absolutely alike in their attributes. So if the Father is merciful, gracious and compassionate, so is the Son, and so is the Spirit. Each is a perfect reflection of the other. So if God brought punishment upon Israel, or if the Holy Spirit brings conviction upon us in our sin, that is not an absence of His mercy but an expression of it. He disciplines in order to produces holiness, which is a very kind and gracious thing to do, regardless of how painful it may be in the moment.

Every man who passes through Pure Life came here deep in habitual sin. And every man who leaves free from his sin has come to realize that he has been the recipient of great mercy from God. His process of gaining freedom at some point hinged on him coming to the Cross of Jesus Christ, making a thorough repentance of his life of sin and his depraved soul, and throwing himself on the mercy of God, seeking a real forgiveness and cleansing of all sin. This is not the typical cheap prayer offered up by the man who only wants enough absolution to assuage his conscience until the next time he gives over to his sin. This is life-changing, bone-shaking repentance that repudiates sin and turns from it once for all. And he experiences a flood of mercy that he knows comes from a heart of grace, because seeing his great need, he knows beyond doubt he is unworthy and undeserving. In compassion, God is gracious and merciful.

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After his true conversion at the Cross, things really begin to change for him. Now, having the Holy Spirit directing his life from the inside, he begins to display the character of God towards those around him. His long-standing habits of anger, selfishness, pride, fear, and lust begin to be replaced with the fruit of the Spirit. And he begins to show mercy to those around him.

In his parable about forgiveness in Matthew 18, Jesus has the king saying to an unmerciful, unforgiving servant, “‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’” When our men come to apply that verse to their lives, that as recipients of great mercy, it is now incumbent upon them to be bestowers of mercy, their lives change even more. They begin to look for opportunities to do mercy. They go out of their way to be merciful. It’s quite wonderful to behold. Man who were completely selfish and self-consumed, nothing but takers, now prevent in their desire to bless others by giving. We call it “reversing the flow.” From being a taker, to being a giver. God does this in the lives of men whom He saves and sets free. And He does it through pouring His mercy into their hearts.

Paul wrote to Titus, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:3-7

We are the recipients of great mercy. It is now our task and our great joy to extend His mercy to others, to family, to friends, to our brothers and sisters in Christ, and to a lost and dying world who needs a Savior.

In today's episode we interview April Cassidy, a Christian and author of The Peaceful Wife. She describes for us her journey from being a very disappointed and unhappy wife to being someone who is joyful, peaceful and fulfilled.

She discovered that the source of her discontent was her own disobedience to God, and that when she began to repent and put into practice the teaching of Scripture concerning her own life in Christ, that made all the difference in her marriage as well.