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Good Morning. We have finished one week on our three week evangelistic tour and God has been glorified thorugh much adversity. But it has come through our teams willingness to die to self in many areas. Unfortunately, I am learning that a dead Steve can still cause himself some problems that need to be rectified by being mortifed. Here is my personal lesson today that I gladly share with you.

A limit is that which bounds or restrains. When we say that Christ should be the One Who determines our limits, we are saying that Christ should be the One Who determines our boundaries and the One Who restrains us from violating those boundaries.

Many Christians enjoy the life of sacrifice that Christianity suggests through the many standards and rules that "organizational structure" often brings. I grew up in a generation that taught that if you didn't go to movies, if the women didn't wear britches, if you rejected all music except 17^th Century Anglo Saxon music that you were well on your way to becoming a good Christian. My wife grew up in a church just like mine, but they had a few more "rules" on them. They were not even ALLOWED to own a television. Matter of fact, their preacher one time had to confess before the entire church congregation that he had been "caught" by a church member watching television on a couch at the local Montgomery Wards department store. How humbling to set a "man made" boundary that you are unable to keep yourself. That's not God's design.

Now, I am NOT abdicating Hollywood movies, (though some Christian's willingness to be first in line at the DVD store has just about made that argument a moot point). I am not advocating women should reject Biblically based modesty standards or that we should allow ourselves to embrace bad music standards. As a matter of fact I am all for "man made" standards. Why, goodness, if McDonalds can have a dress standard for their staff, why can't a Pastor impose a godly standard of dress on his own church or volunteer staff? It ought to be so!

With that said, I feel as if I best make my point when I remind us that the Bible tells us that when we are exercising the nine fruits of the Spirit in our life that "against such there is no law!" That word law means "rule of conduct". If I live my life walking after the Spirit, then I won't need a set of rules in order to follow rules. For it will not be me obeying the rules. It would be HIM!

You can give me all the rules you want, but if I don't want to obey them, I wont, eventually, at least. As a matter of fact, though we appreciate the fact that Christians obey rules on the outside, Scripture teaches that we must obey them on the inside in order to please God. External obedience may please human authority, but it has never impressed our Superhuman Authorities, for it is flawed flesh fully exhibited.

Paul taught this many times, here is one such reminder: "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." When we "obeyed from the heart" we ceased to be a servant of sin. Notice that he said "but God be thanked"? Why? Because when we obey from the heart, God does the work in our life and deserves His thanks!

We don't thank God when we obey the "rules as men-pleasers", but when we obeyed in our "meditations as God-pleasers"! So what is the end result of obeying in our meditations? The next verse tells us by saying because we "obeyed from the heart" THEN! Which means at that time we are . . . "made free from sin, [and we] became the servants of righteousness.

Our ability to be free from the power of sin is found IN, which is to say within! It is the internal obedience to the righteousness of God that gives us freedom from Sin. When I choose to allow Him to set my limits and choose to follow His Self imposed limits on me, then I will live more Holy than any rules could ever encourage me to live.

But I have to do this exercise in my heart, not in deed alone. It is the will of God. What leader wants his people to obey his rules but despise them or even him at the same time? Paul covered that point quite well also when he told us to "be obedient to them that are your masters . . . in singleness (sincerity) of your heart, as unto Christ." He indicates that by serving them in sincerity we are treating them as if they were Christ. Why is that? Because that is the ONLY way we can serve Christ. If we serve Christ outwardly but fail to serve Him inwardly then we are not serving Christ. For He does not look on the outward man, He looks only upon the heart.

Paul goes on to say that this is "doing the will of God from the heart." It is God's will that we do these Spirit led things from the heart. If I do things in my power it is no more Christ that doeth them. Eventually I will choose to disobey externally because I have chosen to disobey internally.

Paul said it best when he said "For to me to live IS Christ". If I am going to live the life that God has designed for me, it must be the Christ life. The life that IS Christ will look to Him to set the limits, expects Him to obey the limits, allows Him to get the glory and enjoys the great fruit as our reward for sweet submission in the heart to Him. That's not entrapment. That's empowerment! But the very next verse after Paul proclaims that His life IS Christ indicates that Paul realized that "if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I wot not.

Paul tells us that when he lives in his flesh (that's not bad flesh, that's his good flesh; that is to say doing good in his own power) then that self satisfaction of sorts is the fruit or outcome of HIS OWN labor. It was without the labor of Christ. Paul did the work, he gets his own reward. But he concludes the statement by saying that what he will get by his choice he "wants not"!

My friend, I have been guilty of this myself lately. I have allowed myself to become so absorbed with teaching the Christ life that I have mistakenly lived at times the Steve life. It has left me feeling powerless and a bit empty. I confessed my sin this morning as the Lord revealed it to me as I studied for the writing of this blog.

So what is my failure? Is it deep sin? No, at least not yet. But my sin may be your sin today. I received from the Spirit a God given limitation and I resisted internally until I eventually rejected it externally. Thus, I conclude that when I choose to allow Him to set my limits and then reject those limits or His restraints in violating those limits then I have eliminated Him from doing His work in me.

The Steve life is sure to follow and what it produces I want not for I have surely seen it's product before and it's not pretty.

A QUESTION FOR TODAY'S MEDITATION: "Am I making provision for my flesh in any way? If so, then why?"