By J.Farrell Fisher, April 5, 2017

There’s an interesting Verse of the Holy Word found in Genesis 15:12 that says, “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him;” but then Verse 13 says, “Then He (God) said to Abram…”!

It is “horror and great darkness” when a man decides “There is no God”, and lives in a state of life with no faith or trust in the “All-Loving and All-Caring God” who made them, lost them, and then bought them at a high price, even the shed blood of the Lamb of God at Calvary’s Cross! Yes, there are those who don’t even acknowledge the reality of Holy God, or if they do, there are those who assert He doesn’t see them, know them, or care for them, when in reality and the historical event of Christ’s birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, God declared, “I love the worst of sinners with an everlasting, unending, unconditional, powerful love!”

GOD IS NOT BLIND CONCERNING YOU BUT ALL-SEEING, ALL-KNOWING, ALL-LOVING, YES, EVEN OF THE GREATEST SINNER OR THE ONE THE FURTHEREST THROW AWAY FROM HIM! “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17).

As the Lord spoke of Israel, His people, so that word for them speaks loudly today of those who are ‘blind themselves’, not God blind to them! In Isaiah 43:24b-28 God, our “All-Seeing Holy God”, said: “…But you have burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities. I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.” And if one’s sin and sin nature was crucified with Christ and one’s transgressions blotted out, what is their “now” problem of separation from God? It’s their unbelief, their continuous rebellion, their refusal to give Him His rightful place on the throne of their hearts – they “love” Him, but still live in their sins and fleshly pleasures! Like the religious priests of Isaiah’s day, they still ‘worship’ in the Temple as they, at the same time, celebrate and indulge their old sin-nature!

And, no doubt, this was what Samuel was inspired to write about as he called to the Lord in 1 Samuel 12:18-25, So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die; for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves.”

Then Samuel said to the people, “Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, BUT serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it pleased the Lord to make you His people.[Insert? And it pleased the Lord to call you as a follower of Christ – and He sees YOUR every step!].

Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly (people of God!), you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”

How many “people of God” have you witnessed who “turn aside” and “go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver”? Yet we read Paul challenging the Galatians and us today when in Galatians 1:15-17 he wrote: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.”

Question! “Is it the purpose of God TO REVEAL HIS SON IN YOU”?? If so, has there been in you, or even around you, people who spend their days and hours being fully introduced to and empowered by the Spirit as to their ministry and calling as “ambassadors of Christ”? AND, are there those around you “glorifying God” because THEY SEE “CHRIST IN YOU”?

“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me…?” ETERNAL LIFE PURPOSE “IN CHRIST”?

There is an awesome unveiling of God’s divine intent in and through Christ through repentant, re-born, reconciled sons and daughters of true redemptive faith in Colossians 1:16b-23a – Paul wrote: “…All things were created through Him and FOR HIM. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, THAT IN ALL THINGS HE MAY HAVE THE PREEMINENCE.

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

And YOU, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight – IF indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard…”!

“Blind God OR All-Seeing God?” In my Holman “New King James Bible”, Acts 15 has a title: “Conflict Over Circumcision”. It reads: Verses 6-29, Now the apostle and elders came together to consider this matter. And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, WHO KNOWS THE HEART (of ALL men!), acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

But we believe that THROUGH THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WE SHALL BE SAVED in the same manner as they.”

Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me: Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: ‘After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things.’

Known to God from eternity are all His works. Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.’

Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren. They wrote this letter by them:

The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings.

Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, ‘You must be circumcised and keep the law – to whom we gave no such commandment – it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you do well.”

“Blind God? OR All-Seeing God?” And Holy God is not blind concerning man’s heart and mind, not blind to the flesh’s chosen remedies of ‘religious shortcomings’ or ‘alternative measures of one’s desire to at least be god-like’ – or, and I believe I understand Trump’s earthly assessment about America, but only a temporary ‘help’ if Holy God is not the source of national ‘fixing’ – “The world is a mess, and we’re going to fix it.” But, sadly, personally and nationally and worldwide, most are blind to the “salvation of God”!

An affront to fallen humanity, to the alienated and separated from God, to sinners who live as if their style of life is normal and natural, is an affront to the God of love, mercy, and grace! Again, Paul nailed it when he wrote in Galatians 1: 15, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me,” but that doesn’t include you or me? Oswald Chambers wrote: “ God gets me into a relationship with Himself whereby I understand His call, then I do things out of sheer love for Him on my own account,” SO, I hear His calling, I understand His mission in me and through me, I’m aware of His presence in me – SO, I choose to daily serve Him to His glory, honor, and praise!

“Blind God? OR All-Seeing God?” It’s not that Holy God is blind, but the truth is, men without Christ are veiled to the reality and glory of God Himself, but through repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross, then the ‘veil’ is removed, and we’re able to discern God’s intent for our lives in devotion to Him! 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 tells us, “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, ARE BEING TRANSFORMED into the same image FROM GLORY TO GLORY, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

It’s not God who is blind but those who live with unbelieving, unrepentant, unreconciled testimonies of their godlessness! In 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Paul said, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. FOR IT IS THE GOD WHO COMMANDED LIGHT TO SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS, who has shone in our hearts TO GIVE THE LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST!”

“Blind God? OR All-Seeing God?” Do you remember some asking Jesus in Acts 26:15, “Who are You, Lord?”, with Christ Jesus responding in Verses 15a-18, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” Who is ‘blind’? God or unbelievers? God or the unrepentant? God or the worldly who do not see “the kingdom of God”? God or the “flesh’s perverted pleasures? God or those who count their lives dear to themselves – their desires, their wants, their dreams, with not a silly, minor meter of consideration of God’s eternal intent for their earthly presence?

Again, it was Paul who understood that God WAS NOT BLIND, but fully aware of His intent for every true believer’s life! In Acts 20:20-24 he alerts us to the All-Seeing God’s intent for born again believers! He said: “How I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD AND FAITH TOWARD OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

Did Paul say, “but none of these things move me,” chains and tribulations, with Paul saying, because, “I don’t count my life dear to myself”, fully yielded for the honor of Christ alone even if he was assassinated? Yes, he did! But, what about YOU?

It was Oswald Chambers, in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.46], who said: “It is easier to serve God without a vision, easier to work for God without a call, because then you are not bothered by what God requires; common sense is your guide, veneered over with Christian sentiment. You will be more prosperous and successful, more leisure-hearted, if you never realize the call of God. But if once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God wants will always come like a goad; you will no longer be able to work for Him on the common-sense basis.”

In 2 Corinthian 1:9 the Apostle said, as a living testimony for every true believer, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead,” saying also in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I DIE DAILY.”

For you, is it the ‘daily drudgery’ of trying or the day by day discipline of death to yourself that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in your mortal flesh? Sad testimony of some in John 6:66 where John recorded, “From that time many of His (Jesus’) disciples went back and walked no more with Him.” How often have you witnessed it, when convinced you’ve seen others around you, serving a “Blind God”, and walking away as a ‘deserter’? But the ‘sons of Korah’, in Psalm 87, sang, Verse 7, Both the singers and the players on instruments say, “All my fresh springs are in you,” as the Holy City of Zion!

No doubt this is why God said, in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” WOULD YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FUTURE AND YOUR HOPE?

By J. Farrell Fisher, January 23-25, 2017

In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 there is a strong challenge to the stubborn indifference to fallen man’s challenge to Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross in their behalf because they see nothing in themselves worthy of death! Paul wrote: “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”

I’m assuming that YOU are aware, for the most part, of the blindness of many of the world’s civilizations concerning their ‘standing’ before God – most sense no need of Him because in them there is nothing needed to be redeemed from! Most are “waders” in the shallow waters of their existence with no awareness of what abides in the dark depths of the human heart, or the dark spaces of a nation’s blackened heart, alienated and separated from Holy God! Human and, yes, national ‘blindness’ to one’s spiritual condition is best described in Mark 4:18-19 when Jesus said, “Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, AND THE CARES OF THIS WORLD, THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES, AND THE DESIRES FOR OTHER THINGS ENTERING IN CHOKE THE WORD, and it becomes unfruitful.” They have no shame!

And the Proverbs author really sought to awaken both ‘saint’ and sinner when in Proverbs 11:31 he wrote: “If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth (by God Himself), how much more the ungodly and the sinner.” The former Memphis, Tennessee pastor, Dr. R.G.Lee, once preached a never forgotten message entitled “Payday Someday!” For the ungodly and the sinner who ignore, deny, excuse the sin nature and its ‘deathliness’, the ‘door’ to forgiveness, healing, and the “new life in Christ” remains firmly closed, locked, blocked, and men continue in the sin and sinfulness of “red-handed mutiny” and defiance of Holy God and His loving heart for them proven at the Cross!

Reckless unbelief, fleshly hypocrisy, irrational denial of one’s need of reconciliation with the God who made them, lost them, then bought them with the shed blood of the Lamb of God, stiff-necks, sin-clouded minds, and darkened hearts, mold, prepare, shape, and tarnish their lives with the devil’s marks of ownership, and then in their daily lives insult, curse, and continually deny the loving, merciful, caring heart of Holy God!

There are those firmly rooted in their old sin natures who are ‘in love’ with what they see as “the nobility of human nature” when the Holy Word declares in Romans 3:23, “for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So… “shedding the shame, and living to the glory of Christ’s name” OR embracing the shame and living to the goriness and godlessness of YOUR name and YOUR fame? The old, sin-nature- bound men seem ‘hell-bent’ on preserving their independence from God, leaning on their ‘foul love’ of the ‘flesh’, and, yes, worshipping the mis-alignment of one’s heart with God, ‘satisfied’ with the world, the flesh, and the devil’!

Oh, but then we read in the Corinthian letter by Paul that “God chose the foolish,” that “God chose the weak,” that “God chose the base things of the world and the things which are despised,” that “God chose the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.” In fact, in John 5:48 Jesus said: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (I rest easier when I see ‘perfect’ as “perfected by His grace, mercy, and love”!). But, imperfect men, repentant in heart AND mind, trusting in Christ alone, are not a religious society’s ‘elite’, but the Kingdom of God “elect”, God smothering man’s fleshly pride in the “blood of the Lamb”!

The ‘elite’ rather than the “elect of God” are those who resemble ‘the humiliation of Babylon’ as seen in Isaiah 47, but in Verses12-13 of chapter 46, God said, “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.”

As Isaiah 47:3 unfolds, Holy God exposes, not only Babylon’s nakedness, but the spiritual nakedness of every fallen man! Verse 3 then says, (which is an eternal principle of Holy God!), “Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame will be seen;…” with God then saying in Verses 8-11, Therefore hear this now, YOU WHO ARE GIVEN TO (FLESHLY) PLEASURES, WHO DWELL SECURELY (in ‘self-trust), WHO SAY IN YOUR HEART, “I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow (or widower), nor shall I know the loss of children”; But these two things shall come upon you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children, and (a marriage partner). They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitude of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments.

For you have trusted in your wickedness; [Would it be advisable for you to search out in the Word what God calls ‘wickedness’?]. You have said, ‘No one sees me’; your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’ Therefore evil shall come upon you; you shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; you will not be able to put if off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.” That’s fleshly independence erected as one’s ‘god before which he/she bows daily to worship’! But there IS the eternal reality of one bowing, confessing, surrendering, devoted to the King of kings and Lord of lords! And 1 Corinthians 1:28 we’re told Holy God “chooses” the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence,” but IN Christ Jesus we’re declared wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

It was Spurgeon who once preached, “The grace which is found in any man, and the glory and eternal life to which any attain, are all THE GIFTS OF GOD’S ELECTION, and are not bestowed according to the will of man.” [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol.8, p293].

How clear to you is Ephesians 2:8-10? “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is THE GIFT OF GOD, not of works, lest anyone should boast. FOR WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus for good works, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND that we should walk in them.”

True believers? Those “graced by God,” those who are recipients of His mercy, those who lean not to their own understanding, but in all their ways give God His rightful place as True Sovereign, Loving Savior, and compassionate Lord and Master, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power through a repentant, yielded, surrendered life! No doubt this is why David prayed in Psalm 86:3-5, “Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry to You all day long. Rejoice the soul of Your servant, for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and ABUNDANT IN MERCY to all those who call upon You.” How clear is Romans 9:16? Paul said, “So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”

David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51:1-13 certainly ought to capture and guide any ‘convicted by the Spirit’ sinner! David said: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me, a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.” WHAT AN AWESOME REVELATION! But, I wonder sometimes, how many “disciples, pastors, churches today” live with the zeal of King David to touch the lost, needy world with the message of repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross, and beyond the empty tombs to “street evangelism” and “missions”!

Paul gives us a true picture of the “redeemed” when In Galatians 4:3-7 he wrote about our “adoption” as sons and daughters of Holy God through God’s Son the Lord Jesus: Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God had sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

You are aware that the world, the flesh, the devil are ‘slaves’ in bondage – a statement in an old hymn said: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,” and there becomes instilled in a born-again life with its trials, temptations, and troubles, that apart from God’s grace, there would be mass ‘fallings-away’! But because we ARE ‘sons of faith”, Holy God sent the Spirit to guard, protect, empower, and oversee our journey of faith into the fullness of Christ Himself!

And, because of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to true sons and daughters of the faith, Simon Peter broadens our understanding of the Spirit’s ministry beyond “born of the Spirit” to being “anointed by the Spirit” to bear witness of Christ! In 1 Peter 1:2 he speaks to “the elect” which was and is “according to the foreknowledge of God,” set apart by the Spirit “for obedience”! “You shall be My witnesses…to the uttermost parts of the earth!”

It’s amazing to me, and awe-inspiring, that in Acts 4:8, I read about Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” with Verse 13 telling and inspiring me, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

Many of the intellectual elites in our modern-day assume they are smarter than God Himself! It’s been a ‘philosophically debated argument’ that “Christ and His teachings” don’t measure up to their ‘philosophical brilliance’ whose numbers are few, while today billions upon billions of re-born mankind ‘in Christ’ are conquering the nations!

IN fact, Paul was very clear in his anointing in the Holy Spirit when he said in Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight… for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” How clear is that? And law-breaking in the Word of God is to shatter one’s self-image and then willingly to cast himself/herself upon the mercy, grace, and love of God! Jesus still says: “You must be born again. That which is flesh is flesh, but that which is of the Spirit is spiritual reality, sovereign oneness with the Savior, and declared vessels washed and cleansed and indwelt in Resurrection life, Resurrection power, and resurrection hope!

Have YOU died? Colossians 3:3 declares, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Why did Paul say, “I die daily”? Because he wanted no part ever with the ‘old man,’ the ‘sinner’, the rebellious loyalist to one’s sin nature, but was passionate in his desire, motivation, and prayer to be found loyal to the “new life” in Christ! Yes, Paul put on the “new man” daily who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him…with Christ as his “All in all!” Paul said in Galatians 6:14-15,

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” ARE YOU CHRIST’S NEW CREATION?

Are you living in darkness or have you come to “The Light of life in Christ”? In 1 John 1:7 John wrote: “But if we walk in the light as He (Jesus) is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.” In the old “American Hymnal” of the 1930’s there is a hymn entitled, “There Is A Fountain”, written by William Cowper and Lowell Mason. It says: “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day; And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed church of God Be saved, to sin no more.

Ever since, by faith, I saw the stream Your flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die.

Then, in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Your power to save, When this poor lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave.”

What’s your song that you sing to the glory of God alone?

By J. Farrell Fisher, January 23-25, 2017

In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 there is a strong challenge to the stubborn indifference to fallen man’s challenge to Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross in their behalf because they see nothing in themselves worthy of death! Paul wrote: “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”

I’m assuming that YOU are aware, for the most part, of the blindness of many of the world’s civilizations concerning their ‘standing’ before God – most sense no need of Him because in them there is nothing needed to be redeemed from! Most are “waders” in the shallow waters of their existence with no awareness of what abides in the dark depths of the human heart, or the dark spaces of a nation’s blackened heart, alienated and separated from Holy God! Human and, yes, national ‘blindness’ to one’s spiritual condition is best described in Mark 4:18-19 when Jesus said, “Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, AND THE CARES OF THIS WORLD, THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES, AND THE DESIRES FOR OTHER THINGS ENTERING IN CHOKE THE WORD, and it becomes unfruitful.” They have no shame!

And the Proverbs author really sought to awaken both ‘saint’ and sinner when in Proverbs 11:31 he wrote: “If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth (by God Himself), how much more the ungodly and the sinner.” The former Memphis, Tennessee pastor, Dr. R.G.Lee, once preached a never forgotten message entitled “Payday Someday!” For the ungodly and the sinner who ignore, deny, excuse the sin nature and its ‘deathliness’, the ‘door’ to forgiveness, healing, and the “new life in Christ” remains firmly closed, locked, blocked, and men continue in the sin and sinfulness of “red-handed mutiny” and defiance of Holy God and His loving heart for them proven at the Cross!

Reckless unbelief, fleshly hypocrisy, irrational denial of one’s need of reconciliation with the God who made them, lost them, then bought them with the shed blood of the Lamb of God, stiff-necks, sin-clouded minds, and darkened hearts, mold, prepare, shape, and tarnish their lives with the devil’s marks of ownership, and then in their daily lives insult, curse, and continually deny the loving, merciful, caring heart of Holy God!

There are those firmly rooted in their old sin natures who are ‘in love’ with what they see as “the nobility of human nature” when the Holy Word declares in Romans 3:23, “for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So… “shedding the shame, and living to the glory of Christ’s name” OR embracing the shame and living to the goriness and godlessness of YOUR name and YOUR fame? The old, sin-nature- bound men seem ‘hell-bent’ on preserving their independence from God, leaning on their ‘foul love’ of the ‘flesh’, and, yes, worshipping the mis-alignment of one’s heart with God, ‘satisfied’ with the world, the flesh, and the devil’!

Oh, but then we read in the Corinthian letter by Paul that “God chose the foolish,” that “God chose the weak,” that “God chose the base things of the world and the things which are despised,” that “God chose the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.” In fact, in John 5:48 Jesus said: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (I rest easier when I see ‘perfect’ as “perfected by His grace, mercy, and love”!). But, imperfect men, repentant in heart AND mind, trusting in Christ alone, are not a religious society’s ‘elite’, but the Kingdom of God “elect”, God smothering man’s fleshly pride in the “blood of the Lamb”!

The ‘elite’ rather than the “elect of God” are those who resemble ‘the humiliation of Babylon’ as seen in Isaiah 47, but in Verses12-13 of chapter 46, God said, “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.”

As Isaiah 47:3 unfolds, Holy God exposes, not only Babylon’s nakedness, but the spiritual nakedness of every fallen man! Verse 3 then says, (which is an eternal principle of Holy God!), “Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame will be seen;…” with God then saying in Verses 8-11, Therefore hear this now, YOU WHO ARE GIVEN TO (FLESHLY) PLEASURES, WHO DWELL SECURELY (in ‘self-trust), WHO SAY IN YOUR HEART, “I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow (or widower), nor shall I know the loss of children”; But these two things shall come upon you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children, and (a marriage partner). They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitude of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments.

For you have trusted in your wickedness; [Would it be advisable for you to search out in the Word what God calls ‘wickedness’?]. You have said, ‘No one sees me’; your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’ Therefore evil shall come upon you; you shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; you will not be able to put if off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.” That’s fleshly independence erected as one’s ‘god before which he/she bows daily to worship’! But there IS the eternal reality of one bowing, confessing, surrendering, devoted to the King of kings and Lord of lords! And 1 Corinthians 1:28 we’re told Holy God “chooses” the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence,” but IN Christ Jesus we’re declared wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

It was Spurgeon who once preached, “The grace which is found in any man, and the glory and eternal life to which any attain, are all THE GIFTS OF GOD’S ELECTION, and are not bestowed according to the will of man.” [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol.8, p293].

How clear to you is Ephesians 2:8-10? “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is THE GIFT OF GOD, not of works, lest anyone should boast. FOR WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus for good works, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND that we should walk in them.”

True believers? Those “graced by God,” those who are recipients of His mercy, those who lean not to their own understanding, but in all their ways give God His rightful place as True Sovereign, Loving Savior, and compassionate Lord and Master, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power through a repentant, yielded, surrendered life! No doubt this is why David prayed in Psalm 86:3-5, “Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry to You all day long. Rejoice the soul of Your servant, for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and ABUNDANT IN MERCY to all those who call upon You.” How clear is Romans 9:16? Paul said, “So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”

David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51:1-13 certainly ought to capture and guide any ‘convicted by the Spirit’ sinner! David said: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me, a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.” WHAT AN AWESOME REVELATION! But, I wonder sometimes, how many “disciples, pastors, churches today” live with the zeal of King David to touch the lost, needy world with the message of repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross, and beyond the empty tombs to “street evangelism” and “missions”!

Paul gives us a true picture of the “redeemed” when In Galatians 4:3-7 he wrote about our “adoption” as sons and daughters of Holy God through God’s Son the Lord Jesus: Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God had sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

You are aware that the world, the flesh, the devil are ‘slaves’ in bondage – a statement in an old hymn said: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,” and there becomes instilled in a born-again life with its trials, temptations, and troubles, that apart from God’s grace, there would be mass ‘fallings-away’! But because we ARE ‘sons of faith”, Holy God sent the Spirit to guard, protect, empower, and oversee our journey of faith into the fullness of Christ Himself!

And, because of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to true sons and daughters of the faith, Simon Peter broadens our understanding of the Spirit’s ministry beyond “born of the Spirit” to being “anointed by the Spirit” to bear witness of Christ! In 1 Peter 1:2 he speaks to “the elect” which was and is “according to the foreknowledge of God,” set apart by the Spirit “for obedience”! “You shall be My witnesses…to the uttermost parts of the earth!”

It’s amazing to me, and awe-inspiring, that in Acts 4:8, I read about Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” with Verse 13 telling and inspiring me, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

Many of the intellectual elites in our modern-day assume they are smarter than God Himself! It’s been a ‘philosophically debated argument’ that “Christ and His teachings” don’t measure up to their ‘philosophical brilliance’ whose numbers are few, while today billions upon billions of re-born mankind ‘in Christ’ are conquering the nations!

IN fact, Paul was very clear in his anointing in the Holy Spirit when he said in Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight… for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” How clear is that? And law-breaking in the Word of God is to shatter one’s self-image and then willingly to cast himself/herself upon the mercy, grace, and love of God! Jesus still says: “You must be born again. That which is flesh is flesh, but that which is of the Spirit is spiritual reality, sovereign oneness with the Savior, and declared vessels washed and cleansed and indwelt in Resurrection life, Resurrection power, and resurrection hope!

Have YOU died? Colossians 3:3 declares, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Why did Paul say, “I die daily”? Because he wanted no part ever with the ‘old man,’ the ‘sinner’, the rebellious loyalist to one’s sin nature, but was passionate in his desire, motivation, and prayer to be found loyal to the “new life” in Christ! Yes, Paul put on the “new man” daily who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him…with Christ as his “All in all!” Paul said in Galatians 6:14-15,

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” ARE YOU CHRIST’S NEW CREATION?

Are you living in darkness or have you come to “The Light of life in Christ”? In 1 John 1:7 John wrote: “But if we walk in the light as He (Jesus) is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.” In the old “American Hymnal” of the 1930’s there is a hymn entitled, “There Is A Fountain”, written by William Cowper and Lowell Mason. It says: “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day; And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed church of God Be saved, to sin no more.

Ever since, by faith, I saw the stream Your flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die.

Then, in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Your power to save, When this poor lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave.”

What’s your song that you sing to the glory of God alone?