What is Righteousness and How Do I Get It? February 21, 2023
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The first part is easy. Righteousness is the ability to stand in the presence of God as if we’d never sinned. When we stand in righteousness before God the Father it’s without any sense of fear, condemnation, or inferiority. We have this righteousness because we are now children of God through Christ and as children, we are members of the family and have a rightful place.
Just think of Buckingham Palace as heaven. If you walked up to the gate and said, “Let me in” the guards would turn you away. If Prince William walked up and said, “Let me in” the guards would open the door and bow as he walked past. It’s the same way with heaven. If we show up covered in our sin, we will get turned away. If we show up in Christ, as a member of His body the gates will swing open and glory to God, we will at last be home.
This was promised to us through the prophet Isaiah long ago, “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.”
As natural men we have a sin consciousness. We inherently know that we’re not worthy to stand in the presence of God. We have knowledge of our own weakness to the sins which so easily overtake us. This has kept us slaves to sin. This consciousness of our own sin and weakness destroys our abilities and short-circuits our ability to live as God intends.
That is why we must be born again. For in our re-birth, our re-creation in Christ we acquire righteousness. Without it we could no more be children of God than an ant could be a man. For without righteousness the Father could take no pleasure in us as His children we’d shrink away from the fire of His love since it would then be the fire of His judgement, for it is the same fire.
This righteousness is the gift of God. It’s not something we could have ever earned for ourselves. Before we’re born again, we were without Christ. We were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. We were bankrupt, sold out to sin, and without the ability to help ourselves.
This is why God laid our sins upon Christ. This is why Christ died upon the cross. He paid the penalty demanded by justice. The penalty for sin had to be paid before a fallen mankind could be re-created and, in His death, the substitutionary death of the sinless for the sinful the penalty was paid in full. And not only did Christ pay our penalty He descended into Hell, defeated our advisory stripping him of his authority over humanity. Then He rose again to give us the promise of eternal life re-created in union with Him through faith.
In the Old Testament Israel had righteousness reckoned to them but in the new creation it becomes our very nature because Christ Himself is our Righteousness.
He is the vine, and we are the branches. Since the vine is righteous, so are the branches. And so should the fruit of the branches be worthy of the price paid. We should produce the fruit of righteousness in this world and be a blessing as we are blessed. And we can bear a type of fruit that Christ could not when He walked this earth. He could heal the sick, raise the dead, and calm the storm. But He could not lead people to salvation for He had not yet paid the price. He had not yet opened the way for us to be re-united with God erasing the sin debt of Adam’s fall.
So that is righteousness, right standing with God, the ability to stand in God’s presence as if we had never sinned. We get it through confessing with our lips that Jesus is Lord and by believing in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead.
And once we have it, we are tasked by Christ to share our witness so that all mankind has the opportunity to have it too.
This is an excerpt from the book Faith by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 18, 2023
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He lived a life of love and perfection. He died a death of hate and rejection. He rose to share joy and perfection. Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 17, 2023
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Praising God for what we can’t see is thanking God in advance for what will only makes sense when seen from the other side.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 16, 2023
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The unthinkable becomes tolerable then legal then accepted then praised.
Location of the Third Temple Revealed February 15, 2023
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Do you think we’re living in the End Times?
If you spend much time with Evangelical Christians, you’re bound to be asked this question. Perhaps, more times than you’ll be able to remember. I know I have.
Those who believe that the Revelation of John found in the New Testament foretells future evets are constantly looking for signs that the End Times have begun. They’re always on the lookout for the birth of the Red Heifer, the discovery of the Ark of the Covenant, and the building of the Third Temple.
News flashes from around the world:
1. The writer of the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament tells us that the end times were already upon us back in the first century when he said, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…”
2. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem announced in September of 2018 that the first red heifer born in Israel in 2,000 years “was certified by a board of rabbis as fulfilling all the Biblical requirements.”
3. According to the Smithsonian.com the Ark of the Covenant may not have been lost at all. “Through the centuries, Ethiopian Christians have claimed that the ark rests in a chapel in the small town of Aksum, in their country’s northern highlands. It arrived nearly 3,000 years ago, they say, and has been guarded by a succession of virgin monks who, once anointed, are forbidden to set foot outside the chapel grounds until they die.”
And there are scholars who agree with the Ethiopian Christians. “While the idea that the Ark was taken to Ethiopia is not new there has been renewed interest after evidence was unearthed by the Bible Archaeology, Search & Exploration Institute (BASE). In a blog post on the organization’s website, it said: “As unusual as this may sound, the BASE team has uncovered compelling evidence that the Ark may well have been spirited up the Nile River to an eventual resting place in the remote highlands of ancient Kush–modern-day Ethiopia.
According to their research the Ark was taken out of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the reign of Manasseh where it was first taken to a Jewish colony on Elephantine Island in Egypt.
After that it is thought it was taken down the Nile to Lake Tana in Ethiopia and in particular Tana Kirkos Island, which is considered to be a holy island only populated by Christian monks.”
4. And in this article, I will reveal the location of the Third Temple.
Let me digress:
When I gave my life to Christ and was born-again into a new life. In my old life I was an alcoholic drug addict.
I’d never thought that was a bad or unusual thing, either before I was born-again or immediately afterward. Let me explain. You see I thought everyone was an alcoholic drug addict except of course for those bland bobble-heads I called squares or citizens, and they meant no more to me than the gravel under my feet. Everyone who was anyone in my life was someone who either helped me get alcohol and drugs or enjoyed them with me.
I didn’t think there was anything wrong with using and abusing alcohol and drugs because where I came from everyone did. At least everyone I knew or interacted with. The local priest had his own stool at a local bar and was famous for his capacity to drink people under the table. The pastor of the church my parents attempted to make me attend was a notorious drunk. I knew police officers who got high and arrested people just to seize their drugs. I sat in police cars drinking with on duty officers. My best connection for weed was a Chicago police captain. In my neighborhood teachers, judges, doctors, everyone self-medicated.
I figured the only reason drugs were illegal was because the government had to throw a bone to the mob when they made alcohol legal. And besides in my mind the government made more money running people through the system then they would if they just taxed drug sales. I figured the presidents and others running the country got high they just had the real good stuff.
After I was born-again, I was consumed with reading the Bible. As much as possible that was all I did. I would walk around my house reading the Bible drinking whiskey while chain-smoking cigarettes and joints. I just figured I was getting a spiritual high to augment my religious devotion to a self-medicated continuous life buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
It was beautiful.
Then I ran headfirst into I Corinthians 3:16-17, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”
This brought me up short. “I’m the temple of God!” I thought. Looking at the eight-ounce tumbler of whiskey in one hand and the cigarette in the other I thought, “What am I doing?”
Right there and right then I set down that glass of whiskey, put out that cigarette looked at the bag of weed lying next to my hands on the desk and gave them up. That was it. No withdrawals. No regrets. God did all the heavy lifting and He made me clean.
Since that day I’ve never been drawn off course by anyone wondering about when the Third Temple was going to be built because God makes it clear that we are the temple of God. In I Corinthians 3:16-17 He says it straight out, “you are the temple of God.” And if that wasn’t enough there are other references to this fact in the Bible as well. Such as I Peter 2:4-5, “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
What is the Temple besides God’s house? What is it for? It is where the priests offered sacrifices. In the new world, the New Earth we inhabit when we become a new creation the sacrifices are spiritual and they are offered up in God’s house, His Holy Temple, which temple we are.
Secret revealed:
Where is the Third Temple? It is right here right now … it is the body of Christ made up of all believers collectively and individually.
So don’t be drawn off base looking for that which has been revealed. Our Father God calls every Christian to be Christ to the world around us. To see with His eyes, hear with His ears, touch with His hands, and love with His heart. He told us that we will do the same kind of works He did while He walked among us only greater. Let’s not waste our time navel gazing into a reflecting glass of superimposed meanings when Revelation tells us clearly; Jesus is God, God wins in the end, and no matter how bad it gets we should pray, “Even so come Lord Jesus.”
This is an excerpt from the book Faith by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 14, 2023
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Sometimes it feels like prayer is all we have. Luckily, prayer is all we need.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 11, 2023
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Sometimes life seems like a long time. It always feels like we have hours to kill but not a moment to spare.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 10, 2023
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It’s never too late. Until it is.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 9, 2023
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How can we hear the Lord when we spend so much time listening to the world?
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 8, 2023
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The mistakes of our past don’t have to be the blueprint of our future.
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 