Morning Moments

Let's continue our thoughts on John 10:10 - "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they(His sheep) may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

Look at the text again and notice the ONLY reason the thief comes. He does come for dinner or to admire your home. He doesn't come to commend you on how well your children are behaved or how impressed he is that you pray and read the Bible. NO! NO! NO! He may come while you are doing those things but he does not come to commend and encourage, rather to confuse, create conflict, doubt and all the other negative things we experience when we are out of fellowship with the Lord.

HE ONLY WANTS TO TAKE AWAY FROM YOU! Now notice the contrast: "I have come that you may have life and that more abundantly. Let's ask a couple of questions.

1) Imagine a corpse lying before you. Now scream at it. What is the response? Praise the corpse. What is the response? No matter what you say or do to that corpse, the response is the same - NO RESPONSE. Now read the verse again and think about it this way: Who needs life? Only the dead! WE ARE ALL DEAD - either IN trespasses and sin or TO trespasses and sin.

Now Pinch yourself. Can you feel it? Hmm then you must not be dead. Enough of this, Phillips, get to the point. Okay here is the deal. When Christ died, physically, I died with Him positionally. It was for SIN He died so if I am "in Christ" it means I am dead to sin that I may no longer live in it (Romans 6). So that when Christ was physically raise from the dead, I was raised with Him (positionally) to new life. THAT life is ETERNAL LIFE. It is what Paul meant when He said, "I am dead and my life is hid with Christ IN GOD..." NOW GET THIS! If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ, God created once again from nothing, a new man in righteousness and true holiness after the image of God. So, as Paul also says, the thief can't touch me, he can only tempt me - BUT CAN HE FIND ME? Where am I? HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD! So that now CHRIST IS ALIVE IN ME! HALLELUJAH!

One final thought: If this is true, and it is, then why do I face such temptations? May I illustrate it? Years ago, they use to have a house of horrors at the fair. When you entered it was dark (as the world in which we live) and suddenly there would be a scream, then a skeleton, then all sort of stuff to scare you, BUT NOTHING COULD TOUCH YOU. It was only to create a fear that you could be touched and hurt. The problem was that though they could not hurt you, you could hurt yourself by falling, running into someone, etc.. S T O P hurting yourself and blaming it on someone else. You are the one who does it and you, by the power of the Holy Spirit can stop it.

I will have to continue this, but GOD has done this for us and we just won't believe HIM about it.

PRAYER: Lord, the entrance of Your Word gives light. Many of us are so terrifed by the shrill screams and threats and the skeletons in this world that we will not open our eyes to the truth. Help us to not just see, but to believe with all our hearts that we are dead to sin and Christ has become our life.