No Need to Respond to Noise in Our Minds

Yesterday, I received even greater revelations due to God's grace and growing wonder about the New Covenant.

Yesterday morning, I woke up, and I started getting angry, bitter about the negative experiences that I have endured on social media. I got angry about how I was treated in a very contentious debate. Then I read an article, in which I got immediately upset and insisted on fighting back, arguing with that person or the people who supported that person all over again.

For the longest time, I had gone through this roller-coaster of self-argument. I want to go back and have that argument all over again.

Instead of getting into the argument cyclone again, I started asking God questions: "Lord, why do I get wound about this issue? Why do I feel compelled to make these arguments again and again?"

The next minute, I went for a long walk in my neighborhood. It was great. I heard His answer clear as day: "You keep thinking that you have to correct the record, to settle the score, to prove people wrong for believing something that is not true. I am more than able to vindicate you."

In fact, before I went out for a walk, as I was putting on my shoes, I started to realize what I was really trying to do: correct the record, prove to people that I was not wrong, stupid, ignorant, etc; i.e. I was concerned about what people would think of me.

But really, who does, who should care what people think of me? I certainly should not care.

Then I realized another wonderful aspect of the New Covenant:

"I will be a God to you" also means that He is committed to vindicating my cause. YES! Amen!

"Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide." (Psalm 26:1)

and

"7And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." (Luke 18:7-8)

Then a larger revelation ensued for me. For the longest time, I have felt compelled to argue and think out loud on so many issues, and it would just waste so much time for me. I could not relent from wanting to engage in vain disputes with myself, in my home, or even when I went out walking.

Yesterday, I finally received the wisdom I had long sought on this matter. It was wonderful!

Then, last night, as I was lying down for the greater part of the evening, an intense revelation overcame me. I can ignore every invitation to argue and stir up strife because He is a God to me! And God is not going to go away or break off fellowship with me just because I lose my temper, have a bad thought, or engage in a negative feeling. Wow!

For the last few days, I have found myself thinking out loud less and less. I get into fewer mental tangents. There is less and less need to argue about matters that, well, do not matter. There is no longer this compulsion to keep pushing for my arguments, my responses to win the day. This sense of calm is really incredible.

For the longest time, I treated all the noise and nattering as something that mattered, something that I had to respond to. Now, I realize that all of that is hollow and empty. I do not have to be swept aside or going with the critical tide of thinking and feeling that overwhelms my emotions every other day.

This is just wonderful!

I have never felt so care for, so protected. This New Covenant is so wonderful, and God's promises for me, to me, and through me are not affected by the thoughts, feelings, or actions that are going for me, in me, through me, or to me. Amen!

It all makes sense now.

This is truly amazing. I have never felt so free, so at peace. I have never felt so cared for, so protected. There is no longer any doubt in my mind that God is on my side, regardless of what any demon, deacon, or dictator might do to me.

He is a God to me, and I am one of His people, because He is propitious to my unrighteousness, and my sins and iniquities He members no more!

The New Covenant: Not Contigent on Me

  I have written about this subject so many times. My mind is resting like never before.

There is new meaning to this verse for me:

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26:3)

Yesterday, after 6pm, I pretty much decided to rest for the rest of the evening. I decided that I wanted to catch up on rest. If I am tired, there is no need to fight against it. Just rest. That's OK. No condemnation.

I was resting and receiving greater and greater revelation about the New Covenant.

Here's the text of it in Hebrews 8:

"10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

"11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:10-12)

What enforces the New Covenant is not something that we do, but something that He has done:

"I will be merciful (literally, propitious, provide a payment) for their unrighteousness, and I will forget their sins and iniquities." 

Every bad thing that we have done, wilfully or otherwise, God will not hold against us. He will not bear a grudge against us. He will not use against us. Our sins and inquities are gone forever. That is all sin. If anyone has a problem with that revelation, consider that when Jesus died for all our sins, all our sins were temporally in the future! All means all! Amen!

There is nothing in the New Covenant which dictates that we must do something to make it happen besides believe it.

None of these conditions are contained in the New Covenant:

1. As long as you keep your thoughts clean and pure.

2. As long as you keep your mind fixed on Jesus in some way, form, or fashion.

3. If you go to church every Sunday

4. If you confess your sins once a week to the local priest.

5. As long as you do not have lustful thoughts or feelings.

For the longest time, I bought into this horrendous, painful set of distractions, that I had to think, feel, imagine certain ways to ensure that God would be with me. A sense of doubt, panic, and fear would ensue every time my mind would waver or I would get distracted by angry, bitter, or lustful thoughts or feelings.

For years, I have been listening to Pastor Joseph Prince, and I have been learning more and more about the wonderful New Covenant which the Lord Jesus has cut for us.

Yet, it really is true: it takes a great deal of time for all of us to understand how fully forgiven we are. It was so difficult for me to rest in the truth that Jesus is taking care of me every step of the way, every step in the day.

So much has been changing in my life over the last year. Yes, there was the COVID-19 pandemic, and yes, there were ridiculous, brutish lockdowns which hurt businesses of all sorts across the country. Many lives were shaken to the core, and families which had coexisted peacefully had to learn to get along with each other more deeply, more intimately, for better or for worse.

I say without any evasion or suppression that my life went very well throughout the year 2020. No matter how bad things were turning out in the world, my life was getting better. Much better.

The New Covenant, in which God is very much a God to me, and I am one of His children, has played out more than ever. For all that hurts, pains, and setbacks which I have faced, life is good!

Even if I am tired, God is still a God to me. His grace, His power in my life is not contingent on what I do, or how I feel. It's all about Him!

Everything that Pastor Prince has been preaching, now all makes sense to me.

When I think about my struggles with sexual temptations, I see at its core, my deepest fears, and the most profound source of condemnation, was that those perverse sentiments were cutting me off from my loving Father, and that they were frustrating God's grace in my life.

The bondage, the pain, the deception is so strong. Today, thank you Jesus, I understand fully that all of that is lies. ALL OF IT!

For the longest time, I would get worried upset, frightened, tense if what I was thinking was wrong, bad, negative, etc. Now I understand that the New Covenant, the grace and peace which God promises to me, is not dependent, not contigent on how I feel, what I think, or even what I do.

Keep Preaching the New Covenant, Kevin Durant!

I like Michael Brown.

I appreciate his fervent advocacy for God’s Word against the secular, dying culture.

When it comes to distinguishing the Old Covenant from the New (2 Timothy 2:15; Hebrews 8:10-12), Brown throws a brick.

He criticized Golden State Warriors Kevin Durant about his new faith in Christ.

Dr. Brown

Check out his stellar interview in Gentlemen’s Quarterly:

He was raised to think: "If I do something wrong, I’m going to hell." Then he met Carl Lentz, who ministers to Justin Bieber and sometimes leads prayers before Knicks games. Carl taught him God was about love. Before, "I felt like I had to follow the Ten Commandments. But we don’t live by that no more. We live by the blood of Jesus. That’s how I feel."

Durant has passed from death to life—“Don’t call me the Slim Reaper”.

This basketball star is learning that God is LOVE!

A three-pointer out of the Word:

“And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)

Love does not mean that God accepts our sin, though!

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

Love means that God the Father has provided freedom from our sins and deliverance into His Life:

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:12)

Dr. Brown faulted Durant’s “theology”, although he offered him the benefit of the doubt:

I truly hope  … that he wasn’t saying, “Because Jesus died for me, there’s nothing left for me to do, since God forgives me no matter what.”

Kevin Durant

Yet indeed, that is exactly what Jesus accomplished for us at the Cross:

 “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2: 13-15)

Many are shocked to hear the fullness of the Gospel. Paul the Apostle wrote to the Romans:

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:1-4)

Michael Brown dismisses Durant’s righteousness enthusiasm:

Unfortunately, for many professing Christians today, they have forgotten the words of Jesus who said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” and, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me”.

What commandments was Jesus talking about?

Not the Big Ten handed down by Moses.

They contain the ministry of death:

“But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:” (2 Corinthians 3:7)

Trying to keep the law brings forth sin in us, the same way a spoon stirred in polluted water will manifest the dirt:

“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20)

These are the new commands which Jesus gave said to His disciples, and to all of us:

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13:34)

John—the disciple whom Jesus loved—affirmed:

“And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” (1 John 3:23)

Believe on me. Love one another.

Like many, well-meaning Christians, Brown believes that once we are saved, we live under the Ten Commandments.

Sorry Dr. Brown, but the basketball player scored a slam dunk on this one.

We do not—cannot—live by the Ten Commandments.

Ever read over Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount?

“If you get angry without a cause, you have committed murder.” (Matt 5:21-22)

“If you lust in your heart, you have committed adultery.” (Matthew 5:27-28)

These absolute standards expose our need not just for behavior modification, but for heart transformation, a new life!

We receive that through the perfect blood of Jesus, in that all our sins are put away – forever!

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

“And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

Sorry, Dr. Brown, but Kevin Durant is right.

We no longer live under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

We live by His life, which we receive by His blood:

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)

So I say to Kevin Durant: Keep preaching the New Covenant!

Kevin Durant: Preacher of the New Covenant

Golden State Warrior and Olympian Kevin Durant preaches the WORD!

He knows the New Covenant!


Kevin Durant, Basketball

Not just playing for the NBA—on the Golden State Warriors—Durant is an Olympian and a Christian!

He was baptized at Hillsong New York City by Pastor Carl Lentz:

“When I came out of the water, I was just different. After that, I was just so positive. Showing God and His grace! I felt like I had to follow the Ten Commandments. But we don’t live by that no more. We live by the blood of Jesus. That’s how I feel.”

We don't live by the 10 Commandments.

None of us can.

It's a ministry of death, not life:

"And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 6Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (2 Corinthians 3: 4-6)

We do not, cannot live according the 10 Commandments,

We need a new life:

"But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)" (Romans 5: 15-17)

We have this new life when we recognize that all our sins have been forgiven, that there is no condemnation in Christ:

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8: 1-2)

and

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2: 13-15)

Notice that "dead in trespasses" portion.

Man was dead, but now in Christ he as life!

And the life we receive because of the Blood of Jesus, which cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1: 9)

We are called to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Jesus came to give us life, not teach us how to live (John 10: 10)

In fact, He is our life:

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3: 1-4)

He is our life!

And we reign in His Life, and we enjoy His blessings under the New Covenant:

 "10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

"11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

Kevin Durant should be applauded for preaching the fullness of the Gospel, sent free from sin, and sin condemned in the flesh, and given a new spirit, a new life, guided by the grace of God! (Titus 2: 11-14)