Father's Day - A Day of Grace

How are you remembering Father's Day? 

Everyone has a father and a corresponding story because of the man we call dad. For some it is a blissful story of excited recall of pleasant memories but for others a painful recollection of hurts and sorrows. Often, whether it is a positive or negative memory can be summoned up in the fact that your dad was either "for you" or "for himself."  But why was the man we call dad who he was? It all comes down to character expression, good or evil. So what made dad who he was and then how should we remember him or Father’s Day? Is Father’s Day a "report card of performance" or a day of grace? Do you view your dad on Father’s Day based on his performance of character expression and how good he was or wasn't toward you? How should "Father’s Day" be remembered? Is it based solely on the positive or negative memories of the man we call dad? Regardless of how flawed or flawless the man we call father was or is, Father’s Day can and should be a day of remembering the heritage that our Heavenly Father has given to all of us. Father's Day is a day of grace.  No man has the ability to be a loving dad apart from a relationship with his Heavenly Father.

Pictured

Four generations of Burzynski, left to right, Don, Ralph, Blake and Donald.

 

All true fathers have learned what it means to be called dad by encountering an intimate relationship with Abba (daddy) Father. HE, not our talents, not our effects, not our successes or failures, not our unique journey or story becomes our heritage and legacy as we choose to embrace His love for us. Fatherhood as God designed is the "outlived life" of our Abba Father. As we take His lead and allow for His graceful character expression to be manifest through us then and only then can we be the fathers God intended us to be. As you celebrate Father’s Day honoring your dad or laminating the father you never had, never lose sight of your FATHER.  How are you remembering Father’s Day? Today is a day of Grace. You are loved with an everlasting love of your Father.  "Look around you: Everything you see is God’s—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. But it was your ancestors who God fell in love with; he picked their children—that’s you!—out of all the other peoples. That’s where we are right now. So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded. God, your God, is the God of all gods, he’s the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing" The Message Bible Deuteronomy 10:14-18. 

Don Burzynski is the Director of CrossLife Counseling in Vero Beach, Florida and is the father of eight children and four grandchildren. www.cross-life.org 

 

To Tithe or Not to Tithe?

Believe it or not, a local pastor was preaching on the importance of “tithing” telling his congregation that tithing was old covenant teaching. (Some of his people had begun to understand grace and that tithing was not a New Covenant teaching.) He asked, “What would you rather have to give 10% (Old Covenant) or have to give it all, 100% (New Covenant)? His logic for suggesting this was that Jesus asked the rich young ruler to “sell everything,” to give it all, 100%.

Imagine the confusion this congregation is experiencing. Not only a distorted understanding of covenant teaching but the promotion of the lie of independence – that it is okay for you to decide what to do with your money or your life apart from who you are in Christ.

So what about tithing? Tithing is never mentioned in the New Covenant and is not a New Testament concept. In the old covenant tithes were levied or taxed to support the priesthood, but in the New Covenant every Christian is a priest (I Peter 2:9). Christians are not under obligation of Old Testament laws including tithes! “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” Romans 10:4.

Religious leaders who are honest enough to admit that tithing is not a Christian obligation are quick to suggest that we have a responsibility or duty to give.  They want their members to feel a sense of guilt, a sense of "you should" or "you ought to," pay the expenses of the instructional church. So they refer to a “new law of giving," which is defined as “love-offerings."

It is sometimes even proposed that Christians are to "pay God back” and He will then “payback” you, “a give and it shall be given you.” This concept is more of an invest idea than true giving which has no thought of getting something in return.  Once again this is performance minded rather than grace initiated.

What is a Christian’s attitude toward giving?  "God loves a cheerful giver." In 2 Corinthians 9:7 the Greek word for "cheerful" means "hilarious." A Christian understanding of giving is to simply participate “hilariously” with Christ as our life, which is to truly give ourselves to God’s intended desire for us and through us to the glory of Himself. It is not a matter of percentage, 10% vs. 100% but the joyful privilege of experiencing Christ.  God is our provision and as a result our incentive is to give our all, not just our money but our lives as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2).

Religion is always focusing on man’s performance to please and appease God. Religionists have traditionally regarded wealth and prosperity as a sign of God’s blessing and approval. Jesus however challenged religionist to follow Him, which meant they would have to surrender their independent perspective and choose to function dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ and discover the true Kingdom of Heaven within. When performance and possessions are the priority it is impossible to understand our basic functional design which is to derive all from the indwelling presence of God. Until a man is willing to “sell all” that he thinks he has and come to the One who is Savior, Lord and Life, he will experience the “ministry of death” and “ministry of condemnation” that Paul referred to in 2 Cor. 2:7, 9.  

The gospel is the message of God’s grace which allows us to be “made safe” from the dysfunction of humanity “doing things” on our own and allows us to participate with the Saving Life of Jesus Christ deriving all from Him.

Paul testified to the Philippians in 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ.” And wrote the Corinthians reminding them who they were in Christ, 1 Corinthians 7:23 “All of you, slave and free both, were once held hostage in a sinful society. Then a huge sum was paid out for your ransom. So please don’t, out of old habit, slip back into being or doing what everyone else tells you. Friends, stay where you were called to be. God is there. Hold the high ground with him at your side” (Message Bible).

God never intended giving to become a numbers game of percentages where man could maintain control but desired that we experience the truth of Acts 20:35 “…remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” 

Don Burzynski  

www.cross-life.org 

© Copyright 2013  

How free are you Christian?

The Apostle Paul declared in Galatians 5:1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free”.

As a Christian, under New Covenant Grace, do you have the freedom to do anything you want, and yet not sin?

It depends on how you answer the question. 

Does God or man have absolute freedom? No! Neither God nor man has absolute freedom. God cannot do whatever He wants! You might say, “Blasphemy!” But consider that all freedom has a context, even God’s. Although God can do whatever He wants (“with God nothing is impossible”), yet what He does is always consistent with who He is; and He therefore always acts consistent with His character for He can do nothing contrary to His own character.

God is a Free Being. God is an Independent Self. God has Free-will. God is absolute. His character is that of absolute holiness and purity. He acts consistent with His perfect character. God is absolute but He will not, He cannot, act contrary to His character. The context of His freedom is always Love. God is free to be who He is; God is Love and therefore always consistent with His character. Absolute freedom would imply that God could do something inconsistent with His loving character, and thus deny Himself.

What about man? God did not create us to be like Him. He created us to receive from Him. In order for man to understand who he is and how he was intended to live and function as God designed, we must always start with God. He is always to be man’s point of reference.

Does man have freedom to do whatever he wants? Yes and No! If you answer the question from an either/or mindset –you would be wrong to answer “yes.” However, if you answer the question from a both/and perspective and answered “yes,” you would be correct. As we have seen, freedom always has a context, both for God and man. What is the context of freedom as God intended man to be?

We could say that freedom has responsibility. Please don’t misrepresent the word ‘responsibility’ as something you have to do. We might say that, a person who is responsible has responded to an ability, “response-ability.” Freedom is responding to His ability. Christian ‘responsibility’ is our faith response to God’s ability. Faith is our receptivity to God’s activity.  A responsible Christian only does or acts in freedom when he or she acts in harmony with what the dynamic life of Christ is initiating in them.  Anything more or less would be sin or license. 

I can hear someone ask at this point; well what will this kind of freedom look like in real life? I am often asked, “How do I live like that?”

My answer is usually, “I don’t have any idea.” However one thing I can say with certainty is that it will look unpredictable, as unpredictable as God Himself.

Any behavioral expression outside of God’s functional design for man is not freedom but license. Many Christians have never understood their intended functional design. Christian religionists have taught that man was responsible to try to live the Christian life with the help of God. Their primary focus has been on the performance of obedience, devotion of love or service “for” God.

However, God’s purpose from the beginning, as seen in Adam, was the indwelling presence of God’s “breath of Life”.  God’s highest purpose for man was “the outlived life of God”. For man to choose to live in loving dependence on God, deriving all that man needed from God, in a beautiful experience and expression of the “abundant life” of God in/as/through man. God’s purpose for man was to experience and enjoy the fullness of the dynamic Life of God through His grace activity through man trusting and believing day by day.

Christians are volitionally free, but not free “to do” anything that comes to their mind if they are to function in the freedom that God designed for man. Religion often views freedom predominantly as freedom from something but Christian freedom is the freedom to love and serve others.

The context of freedom always loves because God is love, and our behavior as Christians is to be a loving expression of His loving character through us. God is “for others” and therefore the attitude of freedom is never focused on oneself but others.

Too often the focus of man has been on performance rather than function. God’s functional design was that man would be receptive, which is what faith is, receptive to all that God had planned and purposed for him even before the foundation of the world. It is the very life of the risen Lord Jesus living and reigning in the Christian that allows him to experience the freedom of grace that God had desired for man. Freedom is never found or experienced outside functionality as God intended.

The Christian therefore can choose to do whatever he or she wants, and not sin as long as the expression of character or behavior has been initiated by Christ as one’s life.  So Christian, you are as free as Christ has made you to be.  “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God,” 1 Peter 2:16.

Don Burzynski © 2013

Christian living – Function vs. Behavior

People’s lives are full of challenges and problems i.e. Dysfunction. Often they look for solutions to solve their troubles, believing that if they find the right answers, things will be “fixed” or will at least get better.  

Behavioral modification is the popular belief of our day secular and sacred.  The truth is God is not a problem solver, a “spiritual bellboy” or even the answer! There is no formula, method or Biblical principle for living the Christian life, there is however a purpose or “function” for living in Christ as God designed!

What is God’s functional design for man?

Christian living must always begin with God (our point of reference). We are totally dependent on God and the only way to experience God is by deriving everything from God.  It is impossible for man to “live like God” and in fact that was the lie that Satan suggested to Adam.  “The Being and character” of God is demonstrated in Christ’s functioning as a man dependent and derivate by the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to manifest Himself and to function as God, intended man to be or live. To do so, Jesus, “emptied Himself” (Phil. 2:7) of functioning as God, and functioned as a man 100% dependent upon the Spirit of God in Him.  For thirty-three years Jesus never did His own initiative (John 5:30; 8:28; John 8:42; 10:18; 14:10) but only did what He saw the Father doing in Him. Jesus,” was never less than God, but never more than man and as such the Savior of the world.

Man needed a savior because man had no life (Romans 8:2; 5:10) and a functional death (Hebrews 2:14). Salvation is not just deliverance from sin but to be made safe from the dysfunction of human activity which is a result of man’s spiritual condition, by birth (John 3:6; Rom. 5:12; 15).  

It is only as man is born anew or born again (John 3:3) that the Saving Life of Jesus Christ indwells man (Rom. 8:9) and man can then participate with Christ’s life which makes us safe from dysfunction.

I Do Not Want To Be Like Jesus

Have you ever felt wronged, badly rejected, disrespected? Of course, we all have been rejected, for we live in the rejective system of the world governed by the “ruler of this world” (Eph. 6:12). When we experience rejection from another, if you’re like me, you may have felt angry? Come on, be real with me, you know you’re tempted as I am, to respond by, saying, “this is not fair, I deserve to be treated with respect.” As Christians, we typically have a discussion with God. It's a testing time. It's obviously a time of temptation, where you and I will decide whose ‘solicitation’ we give ourselves too. If we are wise, it is a time to fully express what we are feeling and thinking.  It is a time to share our dislike and disgust, regarding the circumstances that we are facing and how we are being treated.  

Often when being tempted with an angry response, I will hear the suggestion that, “I am to be like Jesus! That Jesus doesn’t want me being angry and that it is my responsibility as a Christian to act like a Christian and to be Christian and that Christians are to be like Jesus when they are tempted.” The Liar-Satan is speaking and tempting me to contort what it means to be human. (Gen. 3:5)  As a human being I have a full range of emotions and volitional thoughts and there is nothing sinful about experiencing and expressing these God given thoughts and desires. Sin is only conceived when I act independently of God giving myself to the character of the Evil one (James 1:15). If my emotional expression is not derived from God it is sin.  Trying to be like Jesus would be an act of sin and an attempt to ‘cope’ or perform religiously, instead of being human and willing to feel angry which can be a very righteous expression.  Anger only becomes sin when I choose to act out fleshly character which is contrary to my identity in Christ (Eph. 4:26). The truth is Satan is tempting me with sin when he suggests that I should “be like Jesus” and behave like Jesus and not be angry.  It is an attempt to solicit me to “act like God” (Gen. 3:5).  To be like Jesus and not be upset and angry is an impossibility, and only tempts me to seethe with reactive rage.

Jesus has reassured me at times like these that it is not my responsibility to be like Him. No one can imitate God nor should they try to do so, but rather choose to allow Christ’s love and the control of His Spirit to control my response in the midst of this potentially explosive moment.

I have learned to say, “I don't want to be like Jesus!” In fact, I have a righteous anger that opposes such a thought!  I oppose the lying thought that kept me defeated for so many years of my Christian life, thinking I wasn’t measuring up.  Now I realize that this angry moment is a Jesus moment, whereI can experience the tested life of Christ as my life!  So, I gladly proclaim that “I don’t want to be like Jesus,” but I willingly choose to allow Jesus as my life to conform my behavioral experience to be anexpression of His character as He lives His life through me.  I am being conformed to the image of Christ-experientially! (Romans 8:29).  That which has already been accomplished by God in me at regeneration, through the new birth, (where I'm sealed with God's Spirit and complete in Christ), is now my faith choice to experience and express relationally the indwelling presence of God as my life (Gal. 2:20; 3:11).

What Satan had meant for evil, through his deceptive solicitation, God has worked for good (Gen. 50:20). Thank God “I no longer want to be like Jesus” but am learning to yield myself to His loving embrace being conformed to the image of Christ-experientially!

By Don Burzynski

CrossLife Counseling

© 2012 All rights reserved

Imitator of Christ or a Copycat?

Imitator of Christ or a Copycat?

Which are you?

Have you been trying to imitate God? Are we to imitate Christ’s behavior or functionality?

Is the Christian life a life of imitating or patterning my life after Christ? Should we be trying to imitate Jesus or anyone else for that matter? Are you an “imitator” or a “copycat” for Christ? Christian are to be imitators of Christ but we have interrupted imitation to mean "being a copycat"- “WWJD.”  Many well-meaning Christians have suggested that is exactly what scripture is instructing us to do.   Let’s first take a look at what scripture says in the following passages.
1 Corinthians 4:16 “Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.”

1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”

 Ephesians 5:1  “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”

1 Thessalonians 1:6 “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”

1 Thessalonians 2:14 “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews”

Hebrews 6:12 “so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Clearly scripture uses the word “imitators.” But does it really mean that we are to imitate Paul, Christ or anyone else? NO! Not in the sense that we are to “mimic” the external behavior of Christ, in an effort “to be like” Christ. In all the of passages cited above, Paul is not instructing us to “mimic” or “parrot,” in a kind of “aping” or “monkey see, monkey do” mentality.  Major Ian Thomas insightfully points out, “The capacity to imitate is vested in the one who imitates, and does not derive from, nor necessarily shares the motives of the person being imitated, who remains passive and impersonal to the act of imitation”  (The Mystery of Godliness).

 

To suggest that man has the capacity to do so, once again promotes the lie of independence and behavioral performance that is so prevalent in religion today.  The idea borders on insanity or the prideful arrogance of Satan and is laughable to suggest that man, who is finite could in fact imitate the infinite God of the universe. It is equally repulsive to think we can produce anything, as all character is derived from the “god” who has dominion over us, either God or Satan.

What the apostle Paul wanted the believers to understand is their functionality as a human being who is now in Christ.  Paul was a role-model or example of how God intended man to live dependent and derivative on Christ as his life.  What he is saying is, imitate the functional design or intent of what God intended man to be. Man lives by faith in the receptivity of Christ’s activity. Man does not produce but rather allows for the expression of Christ’s life. Paul tells the Christians in Jerusalem to imitate the faith of those who have led you or pointed you to Christ. They “pattern” how Christians are to function dependent on God working in them and though them. We were designed to function by faith-receptivity to God’s grace activity. That is what is to be imitated. Not a way of doing but a The WAY of being, being or functioning as God designed. 

 

We are not to imitate another’s external actions (neither Paul’s nor even Jesus), but are to allow for the manifestation of the character and activity of the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ as our life by simple faith receptivity. There is nothing else to imitate! Don’t be a copycat! Don’t try to be like Jesus – that is a diabolical lie of Satan, but rather imitate or pattern yourself after how God designed you to function, abiding in Him. Paul was a role model of what he learned by revelation from Christ. In John 5:30 Jesus said, “ I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. Again in John 8:28 “So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. Jesus is modeling what God’s intent was for man or how God intended man to live. We are to imitate Jesus in the sense that we are dependent on Christ in us in the same way that He was dependent on the Father in Him. It is an imitation of functionality not behavior. Don’t be a copycat, “be” who God designed you to be in Christ.

By Don Burzynski

STOP TRYING TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Are you frustrated and confused trying to understand how to live the Christina life? Many people are just like you. Often people find themselves struggling to understand how to live the Christian life. Whose responsibility is it to live the Christian life? Can you live the Christian life? If so, how is that working for you? Can you relate to any of the following popular formulas promoted today that it is your responsibility?

Our naturally developed mind-set and tendencies are opposite of God's ways. God told us that through Isaiah. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways’, declares the Lord. ’For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55: 8, 9).

As fallen, sinful persons we have all developed flesh patterns which are sinful tendencies to approach everything in life from a selfish perspective. The New Testament Scriptures calls it the "flesh".  Each of us has distinct flesh patterns of selfishness and sinfulness recorded in the soul. When we become Christians, we still have those patterned tendencies of the “flesh”. Paul explains to the Galatian Christians that "the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another" (Gal. 5:17). To the Romans, Paul wrote, "I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin...I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not" (Rom. 7:14,18).

These patterned tendencies of the "flesh" can affect our ability to live as God intended.  Flesh patterns are sinful distractions which tempt us to express character contrary to Christ’s.  Some Christians approach the Christian life as a project, a proper cause to make a positive impact in their world.  

Then there are those who approach the Christian life as if it is something to “promote”. Their efforts are used to persuade everyone and to get everyone excited and “caught up” in the moment. The goal is to be enthusiastic (emotional) about being a Christian and to be on “fire” for Jesus, even better to “burn out” for Jesus. They want everyone get involved and to join in the exciting programs. Unless you excitedly participate your spiritual condition is question and considered to be lukewarm.

Still others approach the Christian life as a "religiously acceptable." They think that the Christian life should be pleasant and conventional. For them, security is found in that which is stable and status-quo.  “This is the way we have always done things before.”  Their fear of “change” demands that everybody “get along,” don’t rock the boat is a means of “control.”
The goal is to have a safe and consistent environment for properly approved fun and fellowship.

Some Christians approach the Christian life as “morality”. They view the goal of the Christian life as proper thinking and proper action, resulting in correct doctrine and correct ethics.  These Christians want to get everything figured-out accurately and logically to do the right thing. They "study to show themselves approved." They want everyone to think like they do, and to conform to their beliefs for life.  The goal is to "do it right," "keep the commandments," and "live by the Book."  They see life as a task to be completed and aim to please!  Results or performance (works) are the key focus in everything they do. Life is lived from the prospective of “right and wrong” (Gen. 2: 17).


All Christians have been influenced by one or more of these fleshly methodologies to live the Christian life. Every one of us has had a propensity to approach our Christian life from a selfish prospective. That is why for so many, the Christian life doesn't seem to be working, it was never intended “to work” by our "works" of self-sufficiency.

Every one of these fleshly tendencies has a deadly flaw which assumes that it is possible to live the Christian life. Can you live the Christian life? The answer is No! STOP TRYING TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
                                                                                          

Whose responsibility is it to live the Christian life? Our mistake has been to falsely believe that we can live the Christian life. This is due to “unbelief” which revolves around us! You are your own point of reference. It’s called self-centeredness. Are you trying to live the Christian life? How’s that working for you? You cannot live the Christian life. No wonder we have been confused. We have been trying to figure out how to live the Christian life.

If you can’t live the Christian life, who can? Would it surprise you if I said; that not even Jesus Christ could live the Christian life? That’s right, not even Jesus could… “Just hold that thought”, we will come back to it in a minute and explain.

None of us can live the Christian life! If Jesus Christ cannot live the Christian life, what makes you think that you can? What freedom! You can give up trying to live the Christian life! We can all testify what a colossal failure we have been at trying to live the Christian life. Can you relate… “FAILURE we can all understand.”

If Jesus Christ could not live the Christian life, than who can? God the Father lives the Christian life. Or should I say, He doesn’t live the Christian life but that He IS the Christian life. He is the highest life. He is eternal life!

The Father indwelt His Son here on this earth for thirty-three years. The Father lived the Christian life inside Jesus Christ. It was the Father's life, and the Father's life alone, which lived the Christian life inside Jesus. Jesus said in John 14:10, "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”

It is the Father's life, and the Father's life alone, that ever lives the Christian life. God the Father is eternal life and this life was manifested in the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is the Father's life, and Father's life alone, which will live the Christian life in you. Try to embrace a formula or a "to do list" in order to "live the Christian life" and you are doomed to frustration and failure.

John 14:7-13 (The Message)

Jesus said, "I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You've even seen him!"

Philip said, "Master, show us the Father; then we'll be content."

"You've been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don't understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, 'Where is the Father?' Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren't mere words. I don't just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.

"Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can't believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, (I) am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it.”

That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son.” What is the Father doing in you through Christ? Are you letting Christ live the Christian Life through you?

The Christian life is not a static historical past tense event. It is not something you or I can accomplish. It is not a crusade. It is not religious. It is not some spiritual plateau we are to reach. It is not a systematic, theological belief-system. The Christian life is the dynamic manifestation of the life and character of the personal presence of Jesus Christ, who is "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6).

In John 15:5 Jesus says, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing." Apart from Jesus Christ and His activity in and through us, we can do nothing that will affect the living of the Christian life. We must give up our naturally patterned approaches, and rely only on Him, totally dependent and deriving life from the only One who is Life!

The secret to living the Christian life is to participate with the indwelling personal presence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as our life. Start enjoying the Secret today!

By Don Burzynski

www.cross-life.org