Page 188 - Ephesians

successful exchange with Satan in the wilderness. We arm
ourselves with topically relevant scriptures, then throw them like
spears. Hoping to kill enemies, and destroy situations. Only
failure, and an honest look at ourselves, can spare us from a life
of denial and hypocrisy. “Whom the Lord loves, He
disciplines.” The reality of our weakness, is our best gift from
God. It crowds us to loving surrender, as it did so effectively,
with Job and Paul. It is the lot of every man or woman in the
Bible, who really desire to know God.

We look at people and situations and think we know what is
needed, or what is supposed to happen. Isn’t that just eating from
the “Tree of the knowledge of good and evil”? That’s spiritual
death. No wonder thousands of Christians have no joy, and no
real peace. Once again the book of Hebrews points us to God’s
heart in 4:7-11,

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have
spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a
Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters
God’s rest also rests from their own works, just as God did
from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that
rest,
The work of faith is not to imitate Jesus. It is to “Enter His rest”.
Remember the problem of legalism is not keeping too many laws.
You can’t keep too many laws. It’s trying to keep the laws of God,
by your own strength and understanding. That’s why Jesus
excoriated the “Law Keepers (Pharisees) saying, “If you were
blind, you would see. But because you say ‘We see’, your
blindness remains”. The Lord Jesus lived our life for us, and
continues to live His life, through us. We died with Him on the
cross so we could join Paul and say,

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for