“DEATH? THE DOOR TO HELL’S WORST OR

THE DOOR TO GOD’S ETERNAL GOODNESS?”

IT WAS AN ANONYMOUS WRITER THAT YEARS AND YEARS AGO WROTE THE FOLLOWING: “SOME DAY THE BELL WILL SOUND, SOME DAY MY HEART WILL BOUND, AS WITH A SHOUT THAT SCHOOL IS OUT AND LESSONS DONE, I HOMEWARD RUN.” WHEN I READ THAT COMMENT, I HAD TO ASK, “HOMEWARD BOUND TO WHERE? TO ‘NO-MAN’S LAND’?” TO SOME FLESHLY DREAM-WORLD, AFTER LIFE IS OVER THAT ONE ENVISIONS FOR HIMSELF, OR TO AN UNCERTAIN DESTINATION, OR THE CERTAIN DESTINATION OF A GRAVE-SIGHT, AND THERE IS NO MORE”?

ANOTHER STATEMENT I READ ONCE SOMEWHERE, WRITING DOWN ONLY THE WORDS, BUT WHAT I READ STIRRED SOMETHING IN MY HEART AND MIND TO TRULY EXAMINE ‘DEATH’S REALITY’! THOSE WORDS? “SOME DIE WITHOUT HAVING REALLY LIVED, WHILE OTHERS CONTINUE TO LIVE, IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE DIED.”

GODLESS LIVING,WHETHER THE DECEPTION OF AN ATHEISTIC MIND OR THE DESIRE AND MIND AND HEART OF SELF-WILL, SELF-PLEASURE, AND SELF-GOVERNING,LIKE PSALM 14 THAT DAVID SANG ABOUT: “THE FOOL HAS SAID IN HIS HEART, ‘THERE IS NO GOD’. THEY ARE CORRUPT, THEY HAVE DONE ABOMINABLE WORKS, THERE IS NONE THAT DOES GOOD, (WHICH I’M SURE IS GOD’S ANOINTING OF DAVID IN EXPOSING THE FUTILITY OF ‘SELF-DETERMINATION’, ASSERTING, “WHO NEEDS GOD?”) CONTINUING DAVID SANG:

THE LORD LOOKED DOWN FROM HEAVEN UPON THE CHILDREN OF MEN, TO SEE IF THERE WERE ANY THAT DID UNDERSTAND, AND SEEK GOD. (BUT),VERSE 3, “THEY ARE ALL GONE ASIDE, THEY ARE ALL TOGETHER BECOME FILTHY: THERE IS NONE THAT DOES GOOD, NO, NOT ONE. VERSE 4, HAVE ALL THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY NO KNOWLEDGE? WHO EAT UP MY PEOPLE AS THEY EAT BREAD, AND CALL NOT UPON THE LORD?”

NOTICE THAT DAVID SANG PUBLICLY, ANOINTED OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, SAYING, “WORKERS OF INIQUITY WITH NO KNOWLEDGE”? WHAT DOES PAUL DECLARE, ALSO ANOINTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHEN IN ROMANS 3:23, HE SAID, “FOR ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.” SIN, THE SIN-NATURE, SIN, THE DEVILISH DECEIT OF SATAN HIMSELF, SIN, THE BIRTHING IN GODLESS HEARTS OF ALIENATION AND SEPARATION FROM HOLY GOD, SIN, THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT OF SELF-WILL, SELF-PLEASURE, SELF-DETERMINATION “WITHOUT GOD’S INTERFERENCE IN MY SELF-SERVING LIFE”, HUMANITY’S ‘DEATH-NAIL’; AND THOUGH HUMANITY LIVES ON PHYSICALLY ALIVE BUT SPIRITUALLY DEAD, “GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD”, HE DESIGNED ONE’S DELIVERANCE FROM SPIRITUAL DEATH THROUGH THE SHED BLOOD OF JESUS, THE SACRIFICIAL “LAMB OF GOD”!

AND DEATH, SPIRITUAL DEATH,HOW DID PAUL EXPLAIN THIS IN 2 CORINTHIANS 5:14-21? “FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONSTRAINS US; BECAUSE WE THUS JUDGE, THAT IF ONE DIED FOR ALL, THEN WERE ALL DEAD: AND THAT HE DIED FOR ALL, THAT THEY WHICH LIVE “SHOULD NOT HENCEFORTH LIVE UNTO THEMSELVES, BUT UNTO “HIM” WHICH DIED FOR THEM, AND ROSE AGAIN”.

WHETHER HENCEFORTH KNOW WE NO MAN AFTER THE FLESH: YES, THOUGH WE HAVE KNOWN CHRIST AFTER THE FLESH, YET NOW HENCEFORTH KNOW WE HIM NO MORE. THEREFORE IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATION; AND THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY; BEHOLD, ALL THINGS ARE BECOME NEW. AND ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD, WHO HAS RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF BY JESUS CHRIST, AND HAS GIVEN TO US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION;

TO WIT, THAT GOD WAS IN CHRIST, RECONCILING THE WORLD UNTO HIMSELF, NOT IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM; AND HAS COMMITTED UNTO US THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION. NOW THEN WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST, AS THOUGH GOD DID BESEECH YOU BY US: WE PRAY YOU IN CHRIST’S STEAD, BE YOU RECONCILED TO GOD. FOR HE HAS MADE HIM TO BE SIN FOR US, WHO KNEW NO SIN, THAT WE MIGHT BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS IN HIM.”

ARE YOU AWARE OF THAT? DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT? EXAMINE CAREFULLY 1 JOHN 3:7-10! HOLY GOD’S WORD SAYS, (THOUGH ‘MODERN-DAY’, ‘ILL-INFORMED’ DISCIPLES FOOLISHLY SAY:”WE CANNOT DO ANYTHING BUT SIN UNTIL WE GET TO HEAVEN?” PHONY-BOLOGNA!), “LITTLE CHILDREN, LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU: HE THAT DOES RIGHTEOUSNESS IS RIGHTEOUS, EVEN AS CHRIST IS RIGHTEOUS. HE THAT COMMITS (PRESENT TENSE) SIN IS OF THE DEVIL; FOR THE DEVIL SINNED FROM THE BEGINNING. FOR THIS PURPOSE THE SON OF GOD WAS MANIFESTED THAT HE MIGHT DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL.

WHOSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD DOES NOT COMMIT SIN (PRESENT TENSE GREEK, “COMMITS-AND-KEEPS-ON-COMMITTING SIN” AS A ‘WAY OF LIFE’!”); FOR GOD’S SEED REMAINS IN HIM: AND HE CANNOT SIN, BECAUSE HE/SHE IS BORN OF GOD. IN THIS THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE MANIFEST (UNVEILED), AND THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL; WHOSOEVER DOES NOT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT OF GOD, NEITHER HE THAT LOVES NOT HIS BROTHER.”

“DEATH? THE DOOR TO HELL’S WORST AS ONE LIVES IN SELF-SATISFACTION THAT THE SIN-NATURE REMAINS, EVEN AS A BELIEVER,(“ENJOY IT”!), “OR”, AS PAUL EDUCATES US IN 2 CORINTHIANS 1:8-12, “FOR WE WOULD NOT, BRETHREN, HAVE YOU IGNORANT OF OUR TROUBLE WHICH CAME TO US IN ASIA, THAT WE WERE PRESSED OUT OF MEASURE, ABOVE STRENGTH, INSOMUCH THAT WE DESPAIRED EVEN OF LIFE: “BUT” WE HAD ‘THE SENTENCE OF DEATH IN OURSELVES (DAILY)’, THAT WE SHOULD NOT TRUST IN OURSELVES, BUT IN GOD, WHO RAISES THE DEAD: WHO DELIVERED US FROM SO GREAT A DEATH, AND STILL DELIVERS; IN WHOM WE TRUST THAT HE WILL YET DELIVER US; YOU ALSO HELPING TOGETHER BY PRAYER FOR US, THAT FOR THE GIFT BESTOWED UPON US BY THE MEANS OF MANY PERSONS THANKS MAY BE GIVEN BY MANY ON OUR BEHALF.

FOR OUR REJOICING IS THIS, THE TESTIMONY OF OUR CONSCIENCE, THAT IN SIMPLICITY AND GODLY SINCERITY, NOT WITH FLESHLY WISDOM, BUT BY THE GRACE OF GOD, WE HAVE HAD OUR CONVERSATION IN THE WORLD, AND MORE ABUNDANTLY TO YOU.”

‘DEATH’ IN YOUR PRESENT LIFE NOW AS A BELIEVER? 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 DECLARES, “FOR GOD HAS MADE JESUS TO BE SIN FOR US, CHRIST WHO KNEW NO SIN (IN HIMSELF), THAT WE MIGHT (THROUGH HIS DEATH, RESURRECTION AND REIGNING PRESENCE WITHIN YOU) BE (BEING) MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM!”

DO YOU REMEMBER THAT “THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH”? IN 2 PETER 3:9-11, SAYS, “THE LORD IS NOT SLACK CONCERNING HIS PROMISE, AS SOME MEN COUNT SLACKNESS; BUT IS LONGSUFFERING TOWARD US, NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH, BUT THAT ALL SHOULD COME TO REPENTANCE.

BUT THE DAY OF THE LORD WILL COME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT; IN THE WHICH THE HEAVENS SHALL PASS AWAY WITH A GREAT NOISE, AND THE ELEMENTS SHALL MELT WITH FERVENT HEAT, THE EARTH ALSO AND THE WORKS THAT ARE THEREIN SHALL BE BURNED UP. SEEING THEN THAT ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE DISSOLVED, WHAT MANNER OF PERSONS OUGHT YOU TO BE IN ALL HOLY CONVERSATION AND GODLINESS”

OH! DON’T FORGET 2 PETER 2 VERSES 19 & 22!. “WHILE THEY PROMISE THEM LIBERTY, THEY THEMSELVES ARE THE SERVANTS OF CORRUPTION; FOR OF WHOM A MAN IS OVERCOME, OF THE SAME IS HE BROUGHT INTO BONDAGE. VERSE 22,BUT IT IS HAPPENED UNTO THEM ACCORDING TO THE TRUE PROVERB, ‘THE DOG IS TURNED TO HIS OWN VOMIT AGAIN; AND THE SOW THAT WAS WASHED TO HER WALLOWING IN THE MIRE.”

ARE THERE ‘DISCIPLES’ TODAY WHO,AT TIMES, BETRAY THE LORD WITHIN, AND WILLFULLY CHOOSE TO PLAY AGAIN IN THEIR ‘POOLS OF SIN-VOMIT’? THERE ARE SOME WHO ARE TOTALLY UNAWARE OF SPIRITUAL DILIGENCE, AND IN THEIR CHILDISH STATE OF FAITH STILL, AT TIMES, WILL INDULGE IN THE ‘DIRT’ OF GODLESSNESS, YES, DECEIVED BY THE DEMONS, THE WORLD, AND THEIR OLD SIN-NATURE!

DO YOU AS A BELIEVER NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THE DIVINE, HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN YOU IS THERE, NOT TO EXTINGUISH YOUR “NEW LIFE IN CHRIST”, BUT TO INTERCEDE IN YOU TO “TAKE THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY TO YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE, YOUR OLD LIFE THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE CONTINUALLY MANIFESTED IN YOUR MORTAL FLESH?

IN “THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS”, (BY EDITOR, FRANK S. MEAD, PUBLISHED BY FLEMING H. REVELL COM., WESTWOOD, NEW JERSEY),ARE WORDS WRITTEN BY EDMUND VANCE COOKE ENTITLED “HOW DID YOU DIE?”, SAYING, “DEATH COMES WITH A CRAWL, OR COMES WITH A POUNCE. AND WHETHER HE’S SLOW OR SPRY, IT ISN’T THE FACT THAT YOU’RE DEAD COUNTS, BUT ONLY, HOW DID YOU DIE?”

“HOW WILL YOU DIE?”UNAWARE OF ETERNAL REALITIES-FLESH OR SPIRIT, HELL OR HEAVEN, SATAN’S WELCOME OR KING JESUS WITH OPEN ARMS?

I MUST SHARE THIS MESSAGE FROM ROMANS 8:1-14!! PAUL SAID: “THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION TO THEM WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, ‘WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH (OR OLD SIN-NATURE!)’, BUT AFTER THE HOLY SPIRIT. FOR THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE ‘IN CHRIST JESUS’ HAS MADE ME FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH.

FOR WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO, IN THAT IT WAS WEAK THROUGH THE FLESH, GOD SENDING HIS OWN SON IN THE LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH, AND FOR SIN, CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH: THAT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW MIGHT BE FULFILLED IN US, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT.

FOR THEY THAT ARE AFTER FLESH (CELEBRATING THEIR OLD SIN-NATURES!) DO MIND THE THINGS OF THE FLESH; BUT THEY THAT ARE AFTER THE SPIRIT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT. FOR TO BE CARNALLY (FLESHLY) MINDED IS DEATH; BUT TO BE SPIRITUALLY MINDED IS LIFE AND PEACE. BECAUSE THE CARNAL MIND IS ENMITY AGAINST GOD: FOR IT IS NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW OF GOD, NEITHER INDEED CAN BE. SO THAT THEY THAT ARE IN THE FLESH CANNOT PLEASE GOD.

BUT YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH, BUT IN THE SPIRIT, IF SO BE IT THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU. NOW IF ANY MAN DOES NOT HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE OF HIS. AND IF CHRIST BE IN YOU, THE BODY IS DEAD BECAUSE OF SIN; BUT THE SPIRIT IS LIFE BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. VERSES 11-15 FOLLOW, HEAR IT!!

BUT IF THE SPIRIT OF HIM THAT RAISED UP JESUS FROM THE DEAD DWELLS IN YOU, HE THAT RAISED UP CHRICT FROM THE DEAD SHALL ALSO QUICKEN YOUR MORTAL BODIES BY HIS SPIRIT THAT DWELLS IN YOU. THEREFORE, BRETHREN,WE ARE DEBTORS, NOT TO THE FLESH (OR YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE!), TO LIVE FOR IT.

FOR IF YOU LIVE AFTER THE FLESH, YOU SHALL DIE; BUT IF YOU THROUGH THE SPIRIT DO MORTIFY THE DEEDS OF THE BODY, YOU SHALL LIVE. FOR AS MANY AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THEY ARE THE SONS OF GOD. FOR YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF BONDAGE AGAIN TO FEAR; BUT YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION, WHEREBY WE CRY, ‘ABBA,FATHER’.”

I CLOSE WITH HYMN WORDS WRITTEN BY ISAAC WATTS THAT SAYS: “ALAS! AND DID MY SAVIOR BLEED? AND DID MY SOVEREIGN DIE? WOULD HE DEVOTE THAT SACRED HEAD FOR SUCH A WORM AS I?

WAS IT FOR CRIMES THAT I HAD DONE THAT HE GROANED UPON THE TREE? AMAZING PITY! GRACE UNKNOWN! AND LOVE BEYOND DEGREE!

WELL MIGHT THE SUN IN DARKNESS HIDE, AND SHUT HIS GLORIES IN, WHEN CHRIST, THE MIGHTY MAKER DIED FOR MAN THE CREATURE’S SIN.

BUT DROPS OF GRIEF CAN NEVER REPAY THE DEBT OF LOVE I OWE; HERE, LORD, I GIVE MYSELF AWAY, IT’S ALL THAT I CAN DO.”

DO YOU ACCEPT, LIVE IN, AND SHARE WITH OTHERS OUR LORD’S VICTORY OVER THEIR SIN AND DEATH IN ORDER TO “SET THE CAPTIVES FREE”? IN ISAIAH 12:2-3 THE PROPHET SAID: “BEHOLD, GOD IS MY SALVATION; I WILL TRUST HIM, AND NOT BE AFRAID; FOR THE LORD JEHOVAH IS MY STRENGTH AND MY SONG; HE HAS BECOME MY SALVATION. THEREFORE WITH JOY SHALL YOU DRAW WATER OUT OF THE WELLS OF SALVATION”. HAVE YOU “TRUSTED THE LORD”?

VERSES 4-6 FOLLOW SAYING, “AND IN THAT DAY SHALL YOU SAY, (IS THAT SAYING TO OTHERS AROUND YOU?), PRAISE THE LORD, CALL UPON HIS NAME, DECLARE HIS DOINGS AMONG THE PEOPLE, MAKE MENTION THAT HIS NAME IS EXALTED.SING UNTO THE LORD; FOR HE HAS DONE EXCELLENT THINGS; THIS IS KNOWN IN ALL THE EARTH. CRY OUT AND SHOUT, YOU INHABITANTS OF ZION; FOR GREAT IS THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL THAT IS IN YOUR MIDST.” – CAN YOU SAY,RIGHT NOW: “I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST: FOR IT IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION TO EVERY ONE WHO BELIEVES.” BUT HOW CAN THEY BELIEVE IF THEY NEVER HEARD, AND IF YOU AS CHRIST’S SERVANT AND ASSIGNED MESSENGER NEVER SHARE THE GOOD NEWS? DO YOU SEE THAT YOU “IN CHRIST” ARE A DEBTOR TO THE LOST WORLD AROUND YOU AND THAT WHAT YOU HOLD AND POSSESS OUT OF GOD’S LOVE, WAS GIVEN FREELY TO YOU TO JOYFULLY SHARE WITH OTHERS? “RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD!BE DONE WITH THE FOOLISH”!

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, SEPTEMBER 6-7, 2018

There was a quite-shocking news’ release on my computer recently from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association saying, “Nearly 20 million Americans struggle with depression. Over 42,000 commit suicide each year.” It also highlighted Psalm 34:18 (ESV), “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Have you witnessed the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit without any concern, compassion, or care for, yes, the “needy” right in front of you, or next door?

It was a heart-breaking news’ release, but then I read a Sarah Palin statement on, what at the time under ‘Obamacare’, she quoted that 21,904 people had DIED on waiting lists! And you’re certainly challenged by ‘life desperation’ in many – most unaware of God’s presence, God’s help, God’s ministry, God’s Son, yes, sent by the Father as life’s Savior and Lord, a life’s needy ‘the GREAT PHYSICIAN’, and life’s conqueror over sin, over sickness, over death, over world domination, that is godless and heavily injures body, soul, and spirit, by blindness to Satanic interference!!

“Living by pathetic decisions”? Just consider the ‘atheistic community’ world-wide or even locally around you! “There is no god!”, and so they “choose” to willfully live in the choice of ‘the suicide of the soul’, closing the door of heart and mind on the Truth of Biblical Hope in Christ!

It was Sir Francis Bacon, in his writing, “Essays: Of Atheism” XVI, who wrote, “A little philosophy inclines a man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy brings men’s minds to religion”, but, sadly, religions as well as man’s philosophies, often are blinding men rather than opening their eyes, minds, and hearts to Christ Jesus’ KNOCK on their hearts’ door!

O.A. Battista, in his writing, “Power To Influence People”, (copyrighted in 1959 by him), says: “An atheist is a man who looks through a telescope and tries to explain what he can’t see.” So true! Spiritual blindness in atheism is a deadly disease, AND a deadly ‘dis-ease’ living one stranded on a ‘sinking ship’!

In my early days, I lived with my grandparents because my mother divorced my father then took me to live with them while, for a number of years she lived a care-free, Christ-less life, strapped in her ‘flesh nature’! I still praise God at 82 years of age because my grandparents and my mother’s two sisters ‘blessed me spiritually’ from my three years of age until at about twelve years of age when my mother married Frank Callaway who became my step-dad! (In all my years of life my dad never came to see me, never –but I’d travel 30 miles to his parents’ home, and he’d drop by or I’d go to his office.) But my mother’s parents, my grandparents and my two aunts, one just two years older than me and the other about six years older, basically, ‘discipled’ me faithfully! Some, in a situation like mine, often ‘choose’ to “turn away from God” because, how could He allow such irreverence and shunning of His eternal purpose in every life? But, thank God, though without mother and father, I WAS BLESSED! I didn’t turn to ‘atheism’ because I heard, saw, witnessed, believed in, and trusted the “Lived-Out-Trust-in The Loving Lord and Savior” through the family and our local church blessed with a large number of true disciples who, yes, also nurtured me in the faith!!

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Fears in Solitude”, he wrote: “Forth from his dark and lonely hiding place, (Portentious sight!) the ‘owlet’ Atheism, Sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon, Drops his blue-fringed lids, and holds them close, And hooting at the glorious sun in Heaven, Cries out, “Where is it?”

I love what Alexander Pope once said! “Atheists put on a false courage in the midst of their darkness and misapprehensions, like children who, when they fear to go in the dark, will sing or whistle to keep up their courage.”

Worldly intelligence often so deceives ‘unbelievers’, and at times ‘intelligent mind-believers’, that, all of a sudden, they think, “There is no God!’, opening the false door to one’s ‘self’ as the “best god I know”, and willfully ‘lie’ to themselves, “There is no god!”, choosing, yes, a godless life or a godless pretense! Others catch the “dis-ease” of recognizing their need of God, but unwilling to submit to His commands, they find it easier, though deathly, to determine for themselves, “I don’t need YOUR GOD!”

There is a spiritual disease called ‘atheism’ that is a repressed ‘religion’ that captures some hearts and minds, but has not, cannot, will not ever produce the miracle of new lives, new hearts, new minds, recognizing only ‘human intent of honoring ‘any god’ by, at least, being ‘honest’(?) with themselves’, but opening the ‘door’ to eternal death! It was Mary Ann Vincent who once said: “An atheist’s most embarrassing moment is when he/she feels profoundly thankful for ‘something’, but can’t think of anybody (or anything) to thank for it.” So true!

And, guaranteed, there ARE, for some atheists, dark, dark, tragic, tough moments when they stop and think, “If God is real, would He be willing to help me when I need Him the most?”

Oh, and then there are the “agnostics”. The Random House Collegiate Dictionary of 1975, published in a Revised Edition, says of an ‘agnostic’, “a person who holds that the ultimate cause (God) and the essential nature of things (though real) are unknown and unknowable.” So, of course, the agnostic refuses to trust, relate to, submit to, or obey the One he/she has no desire to know, though He exists!

And, though, at times, many ‘agnostics’ are ‘intellectually wise’ in their worldly philosophies, their arrogance deceives them in thinking, “Though ‘God’ exists, He has no ‘genius’ about ‘fleshly creation in the human heart and mind’ but certainly His world, created by His Word, is sure beautiful! I can accept that!” ,but will deny “Amazing Grace, Love, Truth, and Mercy”, and especially ‘God in Christ’!”

Then, beyond what we’ve seen so far, there are still, yes, many, many people who are not atheists or agnostics, but individuals who have a ‘mental awareness of the reality of God’ but no desire to be reconciled to Him, be transformed by Him, or even consider that He could and would, having “birthed them into an eternal spiritual relationship”, be used by Him to extend His Kingdom, express His love through them, and demonstrate through them His Power! But…they willfully say, ‘no; there is no God’, He ‘knocks’, but they refuse to open the door of their minds and hearts because they are content with their worldly wisdom, their fleshly ambitions, and their own entertainment, yes, without any need of Calvary’s Savior, Lord, and Master of eternal life and blessing!

Also there are many in our highly educated, self-centered world, bound by that ‘world philosophy’, by ‘Satanic deceit’, and by the “I do it ‘my way’,” godless, brain-dead and heart-diseased, state of only inward allegiance and ‘self-fulfillment’, that they have no time to even consider a relationship with a loving, merciful and caring God! That’s like Napoleon Bonaparte who once said, “You think you are too intelligent to believe in God. –I am not like you.- Not every one who wishes to be is an atheist,” denying His desire to be Lord over your life as you ‘fend’ for yourself, denying Him His eternal desire to be Lord, Savior, Master, or Ruler in and over your life, turning ‘existence’ into Holy Presence!

Are YOU “living under” the pretense of your thoughts, your turning, and your ‘self-inflicted’ torture of “Godless living”? Thomas Carlyle once said, “There is but one thing without honor, smitten with eternal barrenness, inability to do or to be, and that is unbelief. He who believes nothing, who believes only the show of things, is not in relation with nature and fact at all”, like, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’!” So true!

Oh, and then there is the “later-crowd”, the “sometime, but, ‘not-now-crowd’” who ‘believe’ but not to the point of trust or surrender or allegiance to His “Amazing Grace”!!

Oh, and also, there IS the “wilted-flower-‘fan’” that Alfred Lord Tennyson described in his writing, “Flower in the Crannied Wall” theme: “Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies, I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,

Little flower – but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.” Also, so true!

BUT, also, there IS the spiritual tragedy of the fallen man easily distracted by the worldly influences, by the, yes, demonic distractions and devilish influences, AND by that ‘all-out-allegiance to satisfy one’s sin-nature and self-centered allegiances’! THEY ALL ARE EXTREMELY POWERFUL, BLINDING, AND EFFICIENT IN THEIR FRAMES OF REFERENCE!! In 1 Corinthians 13:11 Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” That was Paul, but certainly there are young children who latch on to Holy God, and they won’t let go! Not all, but some!

I read a small article by Eric Metaxes and Stan Guthrie on my computer this morning entitled, “Beware of Apatheism” that I found so appropriate for this message. It said: “With apologies to Richard Dawkins, the New Atheists are old news. But we’ve got a bigger problem. You remember them, don’t you? Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Bennett, and Sam Harris?

These so-called “New Atheists” drew crowds with their bombastic and occasionally clever attacks on God and theism. For a while their books were best sellers, “The God Delusion,” “God Is Not Great,” for example. But as atheist and evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson recently wrote, “The world appears to be tiring of the New Atheism movement…

However, that’s not necessarily good news. Writing in The Public Discourse, Paul Rowan Brian and Ben Sixsmith warn of something even more insidious than atheism. APATHEISM – that is, answering the “God question” with a shoulder shrug and a calm, “Whatever.” Again, “Whatever,” Brian and Sixsmith write, “With roots in the practical atheism and deism of the Enlightment, ‘apatheism’ is embodied in French philosopher Denis Diderot’s famous remark that ‘it is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.”

They cite K. Robert Beshears of Southern Baptist Seminary, who says the West suffers from an “unholy trinity of apatheism”: a lack of ‘reason’ to believe, supposedly because of science; a lack of ‘motivation’ to believe, because someone else will worry about it, and a lack of ‘will’ to believe, because religion “is just too much drama.”

And one WONDERS: “How stupid, blind, and spiritually ignorant has ‘fallen mankind’ stooped to?” BUT…THERE IS HOPE!! In Hebrews 12:1-9 God’s Holy Word challenges us all! It says: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which SO EASILY BESETS US, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him, that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him.

For WHOM the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. IF you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father never chastens?

But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then you are bastards (illegitimate), and not sons. Furthermore we have had our fathers of our ‘flesh’ who corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” GOOD QUESTION!

I recently went back to re-examine Edwin Louis Cole’s book, “Maximized Manhood”, and I had to wonder, once again, “is that theme the opposite of “death to self in exchange for Christ’s Resurrection Presence after true repentance and faith in His finished work at the Cross and the empty tomb”, encouraging ‘best effort’ in place of “crucified with Christ, buried, then raised in the “newness of His Presence”?

ARE YOU: “Living by pathetic decisions”? Examine Luke 8:4-18!! And when much people were gathered together, and were come to Him out of every city, He spoke by a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

And some fell down upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. (Moisture of the Holy Spirit?). And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.

And others fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. When He had said these things, He cried out, ‘Hear that has ears to hear, let him hear.’ His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘What might this parable be?’ He said, “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear; then comes the devil, and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. No man, when he has lighted a candle, covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed; but sets it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.

For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how YOU hear; for whosoever has, to him shall be given; and whosoever has not, from him shall be taken that which he seems to have.”

What’s the Question of this very moment? Are YOU “Living by Pathetic Decisions OR Are YOU Overcoming by Divine Promises?" A few words I recently wrote that states this: “I once was lost, but now I’m found; I once was blind, but now I see; I once was dirty in the garment of sin, but now I’ve been cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb.

Darkness prevailed, and then came the Light; darkness distressed, and the Light offered “Rest”; darkness ‘tired’, but the Spirit “inspired” LIFE IN THE LORD that never retires!

Darkness’ ease is a deadly disease, but, the Great Physician brings “Heaven’s Release”! Darkness’ author is the Satanic Liar, offering release to a ‘lesser lair’.

Darkness’ song is an off-key chord, eventually bringing a life that is bored; but Jesus comes to offer His Light to free you from ‘the cellar of devilish might’!”

The question now is: Are YOU still living by ‘pathetic decisions’ OR are YOU overcoming by Christ’s and the Word’s Divine Promises? I TELL YOU:

Darkness shakes like a massive hurricane at Jesus’ Presence, darkness moves deeper under the Devil’s own fear of the Light, darkness trembles at even the mention of Jesus’ Name, and darkness looks to its ‘author’ and ‘inventor’ of all its own fears, faults, and feelings! Oh, but then comes King Jesus, the Light that dispels darkness’ soiled agendas and then King Jesus turns on the “Eternal Light” of His ever abiding Presence.

Where is YOUR life planted? In Satan’s darkness or the Savior’s Light? P.P.Bliss wrote a hymn published in the old “Broadman Hymnal” in 1940 entitled: “The Light of the World Is Jesus”, saying: “The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin, The Light of the world is Jesus; Like sunshine at noonday His glory shone in, The Light of the world is Jesus.

No darkness have we who in Jesus abide, The Light of the world is Jesus; We walk in the Light when we follow our Guide, the Light of the world is Jesus.

You dwellers in darkness with sin-blinded eyes, The Light of the World is Jesus; Go, wash, at His bidding, and light will arise, The Light of the world is Jesus.

No need of the sunlight in Heaven we’re told, The Light of the world is Jesus; The Lamb is the Light in the city of Gold, The Light of the world is Jesus.”

Tell me! Your “residence” NOW and Eternally? In the ‘darkness’ of fallen humanity under the domination of Satan and his demons? OR, is it “residence” NOW and Eternally in “The Light of the Very Present, Presiding, Perfecting Light Of Christ Jesus”?

By J.Farrell Fisher, March 23-24, 2017

Ravi Zacharias, formerly of India, as he reflected on his past life without Christ, stated: “Life with all its hurts and pains squinted at you, squatted before you, and stared you down daily. This was the street where I grew up.” And, no doubt, in those early days he ‘wondered’: “What is life all about?” Is there today, still, a spirit in fallen men, alienated and separated from God of ‘squinting’, ‘squatting’, or ‘staring you down daily’ with “What is this fleshly, earthly life all about?” Some don’t even ask – they ignore eternal purpose and live in their ‘fleshly indulgence’ acknowledging and bowing before continually their “idols” of self-importance and self-awareness and self-pumping of the fallen sin-nature!

It was Theodore Parker, in his writing “Critical and Miscellaneous Writings: A Discourse of the Transient and Permanent in Christianity” who said: “Silence the voice of Christianity, and the world is well-nigh dumb, for gone is that sweet music which kept in order the rulers of the people, which cheers the poor widow in her lonely toil, and comes like light through the windows of morning to men who sit stooping and feeble, with failing eyes and a hungering heart.”

But before coming to “Wondering? Wandering? Or Willfully Worshipping?”, are you aware of those Francis Thompson wrote about in his writing “The Hound of Heaven”? He wrote: “I fled Him down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and in the midst of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter.”

But some have “no tears” about God because they are consumed by “me, mine, my way – and your God means nothing to me!” Yes, there are those consumed by “there is no God,” because they live in their cocoon of self-indulgence and are guided and motivated only to be what their minds agree to – and the atheists willfully denounce one’s faith in God as they submerge themselves in a sea of unbelief!

And, of course, there are those “on the edge of belief in God”, but all that they can agree to is, “if there is a God, He’s UNKNOWN – and WE cannot KNOW Him.” How sad is that? At the same time there are those with ‘religious, magical wands that they wave’ convinced they can mentally reject ‘superstitious spirits’ and ward off being confronted by a caring, merciful, loving God!

Have you ever crossed paths with an agnostic?? The Random House Collegiate Dictionary of 1975 defines an agnostic as “a person who holds that the ultimate cause (God) and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or, a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study…”, adding ‘agnosticism’ as “an intellectual doctrine or attitude affirming the uncertainty of all claims to ultimate knowledge.”

Dare I express eternal truth? I believe I will! Christ Jesus said, John 14:6, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to Father-God except through Me!” And that eternal truth has never changed, regardless of the mindless, heartless denial of His Eternal Life!

“Wondering?” It was Sir Winston Churchill who, in his writing entitled “Information”, said: “Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may distort it; but there it is.” In Galatians 1:1 Paul describes himself as “an apostle (not from men nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father Who raised Christ Jesus from the dead).” And Resurrected King Jesus is still “guiding us into all truth;” YOU don’t have to ‘wonder’! It’s best you bow before Him and worship!

But even the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 53:1, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” He was fully aware, even before Christ was miraculously, supernaturally birthed to Mary, that, Isaiah 53:3, “He(Christ Jesus) is despised and rejected by men,” the prophet seeing Him as “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we (Israel, and even some Americans today!)) hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” Has that changed in the hearts and minds of many who “wonder”?

There IS a strong force called ‘doubt’ that IS a ‘spiritual grave-digger’! Enoch Fitch Burr once said: “In the hands of unbelief half-truths are made to do the work of whole falsehoods. – The sowing of doubts is the sowing of dragon’s teeth, which ere long will sprout up into armed and hostile men,” who choose godlessness as their false armor! I love what Samuel Taylor Coleridge once wrote! “Never be afraid of doubt, if only you have the disposition to believe.” So true! There has never been any person void of questions about his/her doubts or fears – but the battle is: “In what, in who, or why do YOU personally ‘rest in’ God’s revelation rather than fallen mankind’s bankruptcy of the ‘soul-life’ at its best but short of the manifested glory of God in a “blood-bought” heart?”

Faith is not, “it smells good”, but true faith is “looking up to Holy God, looking in to one’s needy heart, and ‘born again’ looking around to a world of “wondering”! A “new-born child of King Jesus” is always baffled by the unbelief of the Creator, Sustainer of all life, and the Savior and Lord over the falseness, futility, and faithlessness of ‘rejecters’ of the King of kings and Lord of lords!

I found Oswald Chambers’ words in his “My Utmost For His Highest” book, (p.128), on target and to the very core and center of a godless man’s need of the Savior! He wrote: “The recognition of sin does not destroy the basis of friendship; it establishes a mutual regard for the fact that the basis of life is tragic. Always beware of an estimate of life which does not recognize the fact that there is sin.” And the eternal truth of every man birthed into human ‘existence’? “BORN IN SIN, BORN WITH THE NATURE OF THE POWERS OF DARKNESS, BORN WITH THE VOID OF HOLY PRESENCE!” Which is why the Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, King of kings and Lord of lords said: “You MUST BE BORN AGAIN! BORN OF THE SPIRIT! DEAD TO ADAM’S NATURE AND CHARACTER, RAISED IN CHRIST’S ‘NEWNESS’ OF RESURRECTION LIFE, RESURRECTION POWER, AND RESURRECTION HOPE!”

I’m sure this is why Martin Luther, in “Table Talk,” once wrote: “Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a begging.” So true! There ARE “men of Truth”, but also “men of The Lie – ‘One can sin and not die!’” Malachi 2:5-6 speaks of Levi – hear it! God speaking! “My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear Me; So he feared Me and was reverent before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity.” Why? Because “the soul that sins, and keeps on sinning, abides in sin and death,” not liberty and freedom from sin’s controlling, damaging, suffocating, continually blinding of the love, mercy, and grace of God!

Do you think this might be why Paul said of some Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 6:13, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.” What is it or Who is it that has your heart, mind, and will? This just may be why David asked in Psalm 15:1-2, “Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill (or divine Presence!)? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart,” or do you ‘live’ (?), speaking out of both sides of your mouth? A divided heart is not a united heart with Christ! If “God divided the light from the darkness”, in Christ does He still divide? Certainly! There are, will be, times when you are confronted: “My way or His Way, my desires in the flesh or His ultimate intention AND provision in the Spirit?”

What did King Jesus say in Revelation 2:7? “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Paradise living is, without hesitation, being dead to one’s self but fully “alive” in Christ, yes, “our tree of life”, resting in His inspirational Truth: “In the world you will have trouble, tribulation, trials – but BE OF GOOD CHEER, I HAVE OVERCOME YOUR WORLD!” But how many do you know in their fleshly mental state who “frustrate the grace of God”? Isn’t that why in John 5:38-40 the Lord Jesus said to the unrepentant Jewish ‘followers’ (?), “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them YOU THINK you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. BUT YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO COME TO ME THAT YOU MAY HAVE LIFE,” because they were bound in their ‘religious pretenses’!!

Do you remember John 10:25-31? It was the time of the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, AND IT WAS WINTER – the Abiding Presence of Jesus among the Jews, but they said in Verse 24, “If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them: “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep HEAR MY VOICE, and THEY FOLLOW ME. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”

Do YOU hear His voice? Are YOU following Jesus wherever He leads? Are YOU “led by the Spirit of God” (?) – Romans 8:14! Do YOU hear God in Christ through His Holy Spirit speaking to YOU, yes, daily, even at times: moment by moment! It was A.W. Tozer, in his book, “The Pursuit of God” (Harrisburg, Penn.:Christian Publications, Inc. 1982, pp.80-82) who wrote:

“The Bible will never be a living Book to us until we are convinced that GOD IS ARTICULATE IN HIS UNIVERSE. To jump from a dead, impersonal world to a dogmatic Bible is too much for most people. They may admit that they “should” accept the Bible as the Word of God, and they may try to think of it as such, but they find it impossible to believe that the words there on the page are actually for them. A man may “say”: “These words are addressed to me,” and yet in his heart not feel and know that they are. He is the victim of a divided psychology. He tries to think of God as mute everywhere else and vocal only in a book…

I believe (Tozer continued) that much of our religious unbelief is due to a wrong conception of and a wrong feeling for the Scriptures of Truth. A silent God suddenly begins to speak in a book and when the book was finished lapsed back into silence again forever…

I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is “now speaking”. The prophets habitually said, “Thus says the Lord.” They meant their hearers to understand that God’s speaking is in the continuous present.”

HOW AWESOME IS THAT? AND DO YOU LISTEN TO HIS VOICE IN AND THROUGH HIS HOLY WORD? There was a journey Jesus took, led of the Spirit, that every true disciple of Christ must walk through and learn from. It’s found in John 4:1-4 – don’t miss His message to us today!! Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he (the tempter! The devil!) said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

Oh, how thrilling, life-changing, eternally daily reminding us, is John 6:53-58!! Jesus speaks to us now! “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father (now in human flesh!), so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven – not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

Hear me, disciples of Christ Jesus! John 14:16-18, spoken by Jesus, says: “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

Well then : Who are the true sons and daughters within the Holy Family of God? Are you ready? Examine Romans 8:12-14 the Holy Word declares: “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh (Old sin-nature of devilish driven men!), to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

‘Led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God?’ You can tell that I’m a strong fan of A.W.Tozer’s writings! In “Echoes from Eden,” (p.62, Christian Publications, Inc., 1981), Tozer wrote, “Just the words of a Scripture text falling upon a human ear may not mean anything,” saying later: “I believe that God has related these somehow: the voice of conviction in the conscience and the Holy Spirit, the point of contact, witnessing within man’s being. A person has not been illuminated until that voice begins to sound within him…Men and women need to be told that it may be fatal to silence the inner voice. It is always perilous to resist the conscience within, but it may be fatal to silence that voice, to continue to ignore that speaking voice within.” And that voice IS the Holy Spirit!

Are you “an illuminated life” to the voice of Truth, to the tender, yet strongly convicting voice and instruction and guidance by the Holy Spirit? In Chuck Colson’s book entitled “Life Sentence” published by Chosen Books, he introduced Chapter Twenty-two with a statement by Henry Fairlie, Fairlie saying: “It is the characteristic of our age that people want to have God but do not want the devil. People are inventing gods for themselves…their Do-It-Yourself-God-Kits. But they are gods who do not demand much…who [do not] punish, [but] absolve them from conflict and doubt, massage them, pat them on the head, and rather like their [parents, tell them to run along, get stoned if they will, pick marigolds, and love. So easy it is to love! But above all they are gods who will not trouble them with…problems of evil, suffering, and death…The recipes are too easy…Universal harmony has never been offered so cheaply before.”

Do you understand that most Biblical language is unacceptable in the vocabulary of some pastors and a lot of “professing believers” who speak about “joined to Christ” but know nothing about His demands? You are aware that our “so-called ‘Christian nation’ today, governed by ‘voiceless, non-assertive, conscience-less leaders’ are trying to silence God and His Holy Word so the nation can be guided by “men’s best”, asserting “we only want to elevate our nation by man’s best not God’s blessing.” So…we witness the “curse” not the blessing! Fallen men are out to wean our nation from our Lord and Savior’s eternal wisdom and witness. Stand up!

Do YOU ‘wonder, wander, or willfully worship, bow before, surrender to the King of kings and Lord of lords?