BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 19-20, 2017

Extremely interesting Verse is the ‘spur’ from the Spirit for this message in Psalm 42:6, “O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore I will remember You.” And then in Verse 11 the ‘forgetful mind’ examined deeper as he clearly examined himself: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.” And as I read those Verses I had to pause, consider, reflect when the psalmist said, “For I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God,” because I see him at that moment still in the grips of a forgetful mind! “Yet praise Him?” Yes, there are times in spiritual immaturity when one has to work through his ‘down moments’ of, yes, devotion to the One who redeemed us!

And, spiritually, forgetful minds are usually the result of neglect intentionally of failing to “be still” before Holy God because one gets wrapped up ‘soul satisfying’ as that person yields to his/her ‘flesh’ and not yielded to the Spirit! If one “thirsts for God,” “hopes for God,” “has known the health and help and holy purpose of God”, how does one get swept away from “the River of Life” into a “down-stream of forgetfulness”?

One of Job’s counselors said in Job 8:11-21, “Can the papyrus grow without a marsh? Can the reeds flourish without water? While it is yet green and not cut down, it withers before any other plant. So are the paths of all who forget God; and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish, (“hypocrites are ‘play-actors’!”), whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust is a spider’s web. He leans on his house, but it does not stand. (Is that the problem of forgetful minds? They lean on themselves and ‘fall away’?). He holds it fast, but it does not endure. He grows in the green sun, and his branches spread out in his garden. (His garden? How easy is it for some to choose ‘God’s garden’, their professing lives, but no trust in the God who blesses you with your own garden with insistence of ‘my way’ but not God’s way, will, and awesome wonder of birthing, raising, and using His sons as, yes, He used Christ Jesus?). Bildad continued in Verse 17, His roots wrap around the rock heap, and look for a place in the stones. If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’ Behold, this is the joy of His (God’s) way, and out of the earth others will grow. Behold, God will not cast away the blameless, nor will He uphold the evildoers. He will YET fill your mouth with laughing, and your lips with rejoicing.”

Do YOU get the feeling, the sensing, the hoping, that even if a man of faith finds himself overcome by the cloud of forgetfulness that Holy God still shines behind one’s dark cloud, and He is able to blow it away to reveal He had no desire to cut you off, but to pick you up, and kick you in your rear to get you back in His Way? It’s so interesting in studying the history of Israel, God’s initial ‘chosen people’, in seeing them, as Judges 3:7 describes them, “So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs,” “gods and goddesses” of the ‘brain-dead’ and ‘fleshly-minded’ “chosen of God”, again, yielding to the old sin-nature rather than faithfulness to their divine calling!

Is it any different today in the divine calling of God, in, yes, the “chosen people” sovereignly birthed by the Holy Spirit, being built up as the “temple of Christ’s Holy Presence”? As Israel was fragmented by many, and shame came on God’s Name because of them, does it happen in the Christian community at times that some have no desire to be identified in Christ’s sufferings since they want to, at times, share in the world’s shame? Oswald Chambers once said, “Men have sought to procure the carrying out of God’s order by a short cut of their own. God’s way is always the way of suffering, the way of the “long, long trail.””

And, if according to Romans 8:28-29 that “All things work together for good to them that love God,” or as the New King James Version (Holman Study Bible) interprets it, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

A “forgetful mind” takes no time, moment by moment, daily, some never even weekly, to sit before God the Father, Jesus the Son seated on the Throne by the Father, or the Spirit of Christ within, the Holy Spirit, but certainly have the time hours at a time to “watch” television broadcasters and shows ignoring, “Father, what would YOU have me to do?” A “forgetful mind” has no desire for Holy God to obliterate in them their “personal ambitions” void of eternal will or to see Him wipe out “selfish, fleshly desires, or my personal determinations which are my individual rights”, telling God the Father and the True Master of one’s life for eternal blessing, “I am my own boss – you should, as God, appreciate my personal ingenuity”! Just how stupid is that?

As most know who hear my messages or read them, I love Oswald Chambers’ writings in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest”. In one writing (p.231), he highlighted Romans 8:28-29, which says: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are THE CALLED according to His purpose. For whom HE FOREKNEW, HE ALSO PREDESTINED TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren,” entitling it: “The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances”, saying,

“The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint (one set apart to the glory of God!) there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you cannot understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God is bringing you into places and among people and into conditions in order that the intercession of the Spirit in you may take a particular line. Never put your hand in front of the circumstances and say – I am going to be my own providence here, I must watch this, and guard that. All your circumstances are in the hand of God, therefore never think it strange concerning the circumstances you are in. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to enter into the agony of intercession, but to utilize common-sense circumstances GOD PUTS YOU IN, and the common-sense people He puts you amongst by His providence, to bring them before God’s throne and give the Spirit in you a chance to intercede for them. In this way God is going to sweep the whole world with His saints.”

Remember, “saints” are those “set apart” to honor, glorify, praise, by yielding, submitting, obeying, taking advantage of every situation He places you in certain circumstances to testify of His love, His grace, His mercy, His intent for that life in that very situation he/she finds himself/herself in!

“Forgetful minds” are minds of men and women who easily become personal “back-slappers” and forget, omit, or overlook the VERY MIND OF GOD REVEALED THROUGH HIS HOLY WORD! “Forgetful minds” easily proclaim allegiance to “my Savior and Lord”, when in reality their day by day journey ‘in the faith’ is utmost confidence in their own abilities, bowing before their natural virtues, reminding God of how fortunate He is to have them on His team!

Just as it is in our modern-day ‘religious culture’, so it was in Jeremiah’s day as Holy God unveiled the true and the false devotees to the One True Living God! In Jeremiah 29 there is an amazing Word from God for “the captives of the Jewish faith” who’ve been in bondage. Receive Verses 4-14 as a prophetic word for YOU in the life settings, circumstances, and, yes, the divine place of opportunity Holy God has allowed you to be in!! It says:

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel (the God of the U.S.A., the God of your present location and abiding), to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and begat sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters – that you may be increased there, and not diminished. AND SEEK THE PEACE OF THE CITY WHERE I HAVE CAUSED YOU TO BE CARRIED AWAY CAPTIVE, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel (the God of Bedford, Texas, the God of Cleveland, Tennessee, the God of New York, California, all of North America, South America, Europe, Asia): Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams WHICH YOU CAUSE TO BE DREAMED. For they prophesy falsely in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord.

For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. (GET READY!!!). 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.

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me, and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I WILL BE FOUND BY YOU, says the Lord, AND I WILL BRING YOU BACK FROM YOUR CAPTIVITY…”. Dare YOU to examine yourself and your pilgrimage up to this moment? And are you WHAT AND WHERE AND WHO merciful God desires you to be? OR, are you STILL “a captive in a land foreign to the nature and character of loving God?”

One of the saddest Verses in God’s Word is John 6:66 after the Lord Jesus had spoken about “eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood”, because Jesus said, “If you don’t, you have no life in you” – and they didn’t receive that, couldn’t understand it, and certainly didn’t want to appropriate the Life of Another other than themselves! John 6:66 then says: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him, Jesus then saying to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Are Your “thoughts” God’s “Truths” with your journey of discipleship grounded, founded, sustained on the abiding truth of “Christ in you, through you, for you” to His glory and His praise for, yes, His hope of glory through you, humbling people around you because they sense the presence of the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords in you? Or is it for you ‘maturity in the faith’ denied, overlooked, abandoned, because one ‘senses’, “How proud God must be to have ME on His team”, rather than you the vessel, the temple, the tabernacle, in which willfully through repentance and faith in Christ alone HE DWELLS, RESIDES, and PRESIDES TO HONOR HIS FATHER THROUGH YOU? Natural virtues, which most men hold onto, were “crucified with Christ”, your good and your bad! Your ‘best’ and your ‘worst’, yes, was crucified with Christ! When your best and your worst finally dries up in you because you see it crucified with Christ, Holy God rejoices and releases all of Heaven’s advantages to be expressed through you.

In Psalm 87:7 there is the psalmist praising God for His blessings and cloud of glory on “the Holy City”, but, for me, I see God no respecter of just cities, churches, or groups of peoples, but the individual, heart-trusting lives redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, new “cities”, new “lives”, new “dwelling places” like the Holy Temple where Christ Jesus the King, Lord, and Savior has taken up residence! Psalm 87:7 clearly says” “All my fresh springs are in YOU.”

I pray that you are fascinated by, enlightened by, encouraged by every emphasis Christ Jesus put upon His “new-born servants” coming into His fullness of the blessing of His gospel or His “good news”. And a part of that “good news”? Follow John 4:7-26! A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as wells as his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this (physical) water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. BUT the hour is coming, AND NOW IS, when the TRUE WORSHIPPERS will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” AND I ASK: DO YOU TRULY KNOW THE TRUE MESSIAH, AND HAVE YOU DIED TO YOURSELF THAT THE RESURRECTED CHRIST MAY RULE, REIGN, AND BRING “ETERNAL REST” TO EVERY NEEDY SOUL AROUND YOU?

I close with words again from Oswald Chambers in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.271), saying: “The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but remnants of what God created man to be. We will cling to the natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us into contact with the life of Jesus Christ which can never be described in terms of the natural virtues.”

YES, your ‘natural virtue life’ was crucified with Christ that you may be confronted by the greatness of God’s love for you in exchanging your ‘old man of sin’ for the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which IS: “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

S.Walcott and W.F.Sherman wrote the hymn, “Christ For the World We Sing.” It says: “Christ for the world we sing; the world to Christ we bring; With loving zeal; The poor and them that mourn, The faint and overborne, Sin-sick and sorrow-worn, Whom Christ does heal.

Christ for the world we sing; The world to Christ we bring, With fervent prayer; The wayward and the lost, By restless passion tossed, Redeemed, at countless cost, From dark despair.

Christ for the world we sing; The world to Christ we bring, With one accord; With us the work to share, With us reproach to dare, With us the cross to bear, For Christ our Lord.

Christ for the world we sing; The world to Christ we bring, With joyful song; The new-born souls, whose days, Reclaimed from error’s ways, Inspired with hope and praise, To Christ belong.”

How settled in your heart and mind are you that Christ Jesus IS your Lord and Savior to the glory of God the Father who in His marvelous grace and mercy “CHOSE” YOU? Settle it, if you haven’t!!

J.FARRELL FISHER, JUNE 1-2, 2019

QUANTITATIVE CHOICES OF MANKIND? THE DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF ‘QUANTITATIVE’ IN THE RANDOM HOUSE COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY OF 1975 BY RANDOM HOUSE INC. SAYS OF THAT BIG WORD, “THAT IS OR MAY BE ESTIMATED BY QUANTITY”; & WHEN IT COMES TO “QUANTITAVIVE CHOICES OF ‘FALLEN’ MANKIND”, ALIENATED & SEPARATED FROM GOD BY THE WILLFUL CHOICE OF THE MIND & HEART, ALL MANKIND WAS BIRTHED WITH THE CHOICE OF ‘SELF-WILL’ OR “DIVINE WILL”, & FROM ADAM & EVE ONWARD THROUGH ALL HUMAN HISTORY THE CHOICE HAS BEEN ‘SELF-WILL’, ‘SELF-RULE’, ‘SELF-MASTERY’, ‘SELF-INDULGENCE’,& ‘SELF-PLEASURE’, “AS I OR WE DETERMINE FOR OURSELVES”!

HOLY GOD WAS NOT INTERESTED IN MANUFACTURING “ROBOTS” WHO, WITHOUT CHOICE, WOULD AUTOMATICALLY DO WHAT HE DESIRED; SO “FREE WILL” CAME INTO PLAY, & WE ALL KNOW ADAM & EVE’S CHOICE & YOUR CHOICE & MINE! DO YOU REMEMBER JOSHUA 24:14-16 WHEN JOSHUA SAID TO THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL, “NOW THEREFORE FEAR THE LORD, & SERVE HIM IN SINCERITY & IN TRUTH: & PUT AWAY THE GODS WHICH YOUR FATHERS SERVED THAT WERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FLOOD, OR THE GODS OF THE AMORITES, IN WHOSE LAND YOU DWELL; BUT AS FOR ME & MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD”?

THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY GOD BLESSED TO ENLIGHTEN THE “CHOSEN PEOPLE” BECAUSE, ALREADY, IN HUMAN HISTORY THE “GREAT FALLING AWAY” FROM GOD CONTINUED! IN DEUTERONOMY 10:8 WE READ, “AT THAT TIME THE LORD SEPARATED THE TRIBE OF LEVI, TO BEAR THE ARK OF THE COVENANT, TO STAND BEFORE THE LORD TO MINISTER UNTO HIM, & TO BLESS HIS NAME, UNTO THIS DAY.” THEN IN VERSES 12-13 WE READ, “AND NOW, ISRAEL, WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF YOU, BUT TO FEAR THE LORD YOUR GOD, TO WALK IN ALL HIS WAYS, & TO LOVE HIM, & TO SERVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART & WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, TO KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, & HIS STATUTES, WHICH I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY FOR YOUR GOOD?” (BUT THAT’S OPTIONAL?).

TO AMERICANS TODAY, I ASK YOU, “WHAT DOES THE LORD GOD REQUIRE OF YOU?”, AND A LOST, PERISHING, DYING HUMANITY, LIVING FAITHLESS KEEPS DIGGING A DEEPER HOLE TO BE BURIED IN! BUT COMPASSIONATE GOD DIDN’T CHANGE THEN & DOESN’T CHANGE NOW! IN DEUTERONOMY 11:26-28 WE READ, “BEHOLD, I SET BEFORE YOU THIS DAY A BLESSING & A CURSE; A BLESSING, IF YOU OBEY THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD YOUR GOD, WHICH I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY: AND A CURSE, IF YOU WILL NOT OBEY THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD YOUR GOD, BUT TURN ASIDE OUT OF THE WAY WHICH I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY, TO GO AFTER OTHER GODS, WHICH YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN.”

HOW SERIOUS-MINDED ARE YOU WHEN YOU HEAR HOLY GOD SPEAK ABOUT “TURNING ASIDE, OUT OF THE WAY, WHICH I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY, TO GO AFTER OTHER ‘gods’, WHICH YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN”? IN THE END OF ISAIAH 45:20 THE PROPHET EXPOSED THOSE “WHO PRAY UNTO A ‘god’ THAT CANNOT SAVE”! THEN, OF COURSE, THERE ARE THOSE WHO NEVER PRAY BECAUSE THEY DON’T NEED “FALSE GODS” & THEY SURE DON’T DESIRE TO TRUST THE GOD WHO MADE THEM, LOST THEM, BOUGHT THEM WITH THE PRICE OF HIS OWN SON’S BLOOD, BUT THEY REFUSE HIS MERCY, HIS GRACE, & HIS LOVE – “WE’RE OK WITHOUT YOU, BIG GOD!”

JOB HAD ‘FRIENDS’ WHO MADE ‘LIGHT’ ABOUT SERIOUS-MINDED FRIENDS LIKE HIM, YES, DEVOTED TO HOLY GOD. IN JOB 13:1-11 JOB RESPONDED REPROVING “HIS FRIENDS”, SAYING, “LO, MY EYE HAS SEEN ALL THIS (FABRICATION OF FAITH!), MY EAR HAS HEARD & UNDERSTOOD IT. WHAT YOU KNOW, THE ‘SAME’ DO I KNOW ALSO; I AM NOT INFERIOR UNTO YOU. SURELY I WOULD SPEAK TO THE ALMIGHTY, & I DESIRE TO REASON WITH GOD. “BUT”, YOU (IN THE FLESH) ARE FORGERS OF LIES (PRETENDERS), YOU ARE ALL PHYSICIANS (OR DOCTORS) OF NO VALUE (HAVING NO PRECRIPTION FOR YOUR RELIGIOUS PRETENSE!). O THAT YOU WOULD ALTOGETHER HOLD YOUR PEACE! & IT SHOULD BE YOUR WISDOM. (BUT SADLY MANY ‘WORLDLY-MINDED’ ARE MORE IN TUNE TO THE FALLEN SIN-NATURE THAN SAVING GRACE, BUT DESIRING BOTH, THEY STILL “SING PRAISES TO GOD AS, YES, AT THE SAME TIME THEY SHAME THE SACRED NAME OF THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS!!). JOB CONTINUED:

VERSES 6-11, HEAR NOW MY REASONING, & HEARKEN TO THE PLEADING OF MY LIPS. WILL YOU SPEAK WICKEDLY FOR GOD? & TALK DECEITFULLY FOR HIM? WILL YOU ACCEPT HIS PERSON? WILL YOU CONTEND FOR GOD? IS IT GOOD THAT HE SHOULD SEARCH YOU OUT? OR AS ONE MAN MOCKS ANOTHER, DO YOU SO MOCK GOD? IS IT GOOD THAT HE SHOULD SEARCH YOU OUT? OR AS ONE MAN MOCKS ANOTHER, DO YOU SO MOCK HIM? HE WILL SURELY REPROVE YOU, IF YOU DO SECRETLY ACCEPT PERSONS. SHALL NOT HIS EXCELLENCY MAKE YOU AFRAID? & HIS DREAD FALL UPON YOU?

QUANTITATIVE CHOICES OF MANKIND? ARE THEY STILL ALIVE ON GOD’S ‘PLANET-EARTH’? PAUL LEFT TITUS IN CRETE TO CONTINUE THE MINISTRY OF FAITH & IN TITUS 1: 9-16 HE CHALLENGED THE LORD’S AMBASSADOR OF THE TRUE FAITH, SAYING, “HOLDING FAST THE FAITHFUL WORD AS (A BISHOP) HAS BEEN TAUGHT, THAT HE MAY BE ABLE BY SOUND DOCTRINE TO EXHORT & TO CONVINCE THE GAINSAYERS (A DISPUTER OF BIBLICAL TRUTH WHO WOULD CONTRADICT THE HOLY WORD!) FOR THERE ARE MANY UNRULY & VAIN TALKERS & DECEIVERS, SPECIALLY THEY OF THE CIRCUMCISION (LEGALISTIC ‘JEWS’): WHOSE MOUTHS MUST BE STOPPED, WHO SUBVERT WHOLE HOUSES, TEACHING THINGS WHICH THEY OUGHT NOT, FOR FILTHY LUCRE’S SAKE.

ONE OF THEMSELVES, EVEN A PROPHET OF THEIR OWN, SAID, THE CRETIANS ARE ALWAYS LIARS, EVIL BEASTS, SLOW BELLIES. THIS WITNESS IS TRUE. WHEREFORE REBUKE THEM SHARPLY, THAT THEY MAY BE SOUND IN THE FAITH; NOT GIVING HEED TO JEWISH FABLES, & COMMANDMENTS OF MEN, THAT TURN FROM THE TRUTH. UNTO THE PURE ALL THINGS ARE PURE; BUT UNTO THEM THAT ARE DEFILED & UNBELIEVING IS NOTHING PURE; BUT EVEN THEIR MIND & CONSCIENCE IS DEFILED. THEY PROFESS TO KNOW GOD; BUT IN WORKS (WALKS) THEY DENY HIM, BEING ABOMINABLE, & DISOBEDIENT, & UNTO EVERY GOOD WORK REPROBATE.” WOW!!

BUT RATHER THAN THE “QUANTITATIVE CHOICES OF FALLEN MANKIND”, WHAT ABOUT EXAMINING “THE ETERNAL, QUALITATIVE CHOICE OF GOD FOR MAN?” WHAT DID JOSHUA SAY? “AS FOR ME & MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!” AND “YOU” HAVE A CHOICE! I PRAY IT’S FULL REPENTANCE BEFORE HOLY GOD & TRUE FAITH & FULL SURRENDER TO THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST JESUS!!

IN 1 KINGS 18:21 WE READ, “AND ELIJAH CAME UNTO ALL THE PEOPLE, & SAID, HOW LONG HALT YOU BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS? IF THE LORD BE GOD, FOLLOW HIM; BUT IF BAAL, THEN FOLLOW HIM. & THE PEOPLE ANSWERED HIM NOT A WORD.”

RATHER THAN HOUSES OF NATURAL ‘BEASTLINESS’, HOW ABOUT HEARTS & HOMES OF DIVINE PRESENCE, DIVINE POWER, & DIVINE PRIVILEGE, EMPOWERING MAN & WIFE & PARENTS & CHILDREN HONORING THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS? ‘HOUSES’ “CHOOSE” AS WELL AS “HOMES”, BUT ‘FLESHLY’ BEST HAS NEVER HONORED HOLY GOD! IN ECCLESIASTES 11:5-8, POSSIBLY AUTHORED BY SOLOMAN, WE READ: “AS YOU KNOW NOT WHAT IS THE WAY OF THE SPIRIT,NOR HOW THE BONES DO GROW IN THE WOMB OF HER THAT IS WITH CHILD:EVEN SO YOU KNOW NOT THE WORKS OF GOD WHO MAKES ALL.

IN THE MORNING SOW YOUR SEED, & IN THE EVENING WITHHOLD NOT YOUR HAND: FOR YOU KNOW NOT WHETHER SHALL PROSPER, EITHER THIS OR THAT, OR WHETHER THEY BOTH SHALL BE ALIKE GOOD. TRULY THE LIGHT IS SWEET, & A PLEASANT THING IT IS FOR THE EYES TO BEHOLD THE SUN; BUT IF A MAN LIVE MANY YEARS, & REJOICE IN THEM ALL; YET LET HIM REMEMBER THE DAYS OF DARKNESS; FOR THEY SHALL BE MANY. ALL THAT COMES IS VANITY.” FLESHLY BEST IS VANITY & DARKNESS! HOMES OF DIVINE PRESENCE ARE VICTORY IN JESUS, FULL OF HIS ETERNAL LIGHT!!

ALSO, RATHER THAN HOLLOW HEARTS, WHAT ABOUT VIBRANT HEARTS WITH THE PRESENCE OF THE LIVING CHRIST? IN COLOSSIANS 1:27 WE READ PAUL SAYING, “TO WHOM GOD WOULD MAKE KNOWN WHAT IS THE RICHES OF THE GLORY OF THIS MYSTERY AMONG THE GENTILES, WHICH IS CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY.” ALSO, EXAMINE FOR YOURSELF 1 JOHN 3:16-24!!! “HEREBY PERCEIVE WE THE LOVE OF GOD, BECAUSE, HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR US; & WE OUGHT TO LAY DOWN OUR LIVES FOR THE BRETHREN. (AND THAT’S “SAVED BRETHREN OR LOST BRETHREN”!)

BUT WHOSO HAS THIS WORLD’S GOOD, & SEES HIS BROTHER HAS NEED, & SHUTS UP HIS BOWELS OF COMPASSION FROM HIM, HOW DOES THE LOVE OF GOD DWELL IN HIM? MY LITTLE CHILDREN, LET US NOT LOVE IN WORD, NEITHER IN TONGUE; BUT IN DEED & IN TRUTH. & HEREBY WE KNOW THAT WE ARE OF THE TRUTH, & SHALL ASSURE OUR HEARTS BEFORE GOD. FOR IF OUR HEART CONDEMN US, GOD IS GREATER THAN OUR HEART, & KNOWS ALL THINGS.

BELOVED, IF OUR HEART CONDEMN US NOT, THEN WE HAVE CONFIDENCE TOWARD GOD. & WHATSOEVER WE ASK, WE RECEIVE OF HIM, BECAUSE WE KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, & DO THOSE THINGS THAT ARE PLEASING IN GOD’S SIGHT. & THIS IS THE COMMANDMENT, THAT WE SHOULD BELIEVE (TRUST IN,RELY UPON,ADHERE TO)ON THE NAME OF HIS SON JESUS CHRIST, & LOVE ONE ANOTHER, AS HE GAVE US COMMANDMENT. & HE THAT KEEPS HIS COMMANDMENTS DWELLETH IN HIM, & GOD IN HIM. & HEREBY WE KNOW THAT HE ABIDES IN US BY THE SPIRIT WHICH THE FATHER HAS GIVEN TO US.”

AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO ALSO KNOWS ‘WARPED SPIRITS’ WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, & THAT THROUGH REPENTANCE & TRUE FAITH, THE “BORN-AGAIN HEART & LIFE” THE HOLY SPIRIT WANTS IT TO BE HIS EARTHLY TEMPLE, TABERNACLE, WHERE HE LIVES IN RESIDENT-LIVING & PROVIDES OVERCOMING POWER FOR THE “TEMPLE” THAT FACES UNCEASING CHALLENGES FROM ‘THE POWERS OF DARKNESS’! THERE CAN BE, IS, & MUST BE “YIELDEDNESS” TO THE WILLFUL SPIRIT OF HOLY INTENT!

OH, THEN CONSIDER: “BUSINESSES ONLY FOR PROFIT” OR “LIFE-BUSINESS FOR THE PRAISE OF THE LORD”? EXAMINE THOROUGHLY YOUR OWN HEART & MIND BEFORE HOLY GOD AS YOU LISTEN TO, RESPOND TO, & REST IN COLOSSIANS 1:16-29!! PAUL WROTE: “FOR BY HIM WERE ALL THINGS CREATED, THAT ARE IN HEAVEN, & THAT ARE IN EARTH, VISIBLE & INVISIBLE, WHETHER THEY BE THRONES, OR DOMINIONS, OR PRINCIPALITIES, OR POWERS:ALL THINGS WERE CREATED BY HIM, & FOR HIM. AND HE IS BEFORE ALL THINGS, & BY HIM ALL THINGS CONSIST.

AND HE (CHRIST JESUS!) IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH:WHO IS THE BEGINNING, THE FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD; THAT IN ALL THINGS HE MIGHT HAVE THE PREEMINENCE. FOR IT PLEASED THE FATHER THAT IN HIM SHOULD ALL FULLNESS DWELL; & HAVING MADE PEACE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS, BY HIM TO RECONCILE ALL THINGS UNTO HIMSELF; BY HIM, I SAY, WHETHER THEY BE THINGS IN EARTH, OR THINGS IN HEAVEN. & YOU, THAT WERE SOMETIME ALIENATED & ENEMIES IN YOUR MIND BY WICKED WORKS, YET NOW HAS HE RECONCILED IN THE BODY OF HIS FLESH THROUGH DEATH, TO PRESENT YOU HOLY & UNBLAMEABLE & UNREPROVEABLE IN HIS SIGHT: IF YOU CONTINUE IN THE FAITH GROUNDED, & SETTLED, & BE NOT MOVED AWAY FROM THE HOPE OF THE GOSPEL, WHICH YOU HAVE HEARD, & WHICH WAS PREACHED TO EVERY CREATURE WHICH IS UNDER HEAVEN; WHEREOF I PAUL AM MADE A MINISTER;

WHO NOW REJOICE IN MY SUFFERINGS FOR YOU, & FILL UP THAT WHICH IS BEHIND OF THE AFFLICTIONS OF CHRIST IN MY FLESH FOR HIS BODY’S SAKE, WHICH IS THE CHURCH: WHEREOF I AM MADE A MINISTER, ACCORDING TO THE DISPENSATION OF GOD (GOD’S ‘STEWARDSHIP’!) WHICH IS GIVEN TO ME FOR YOU, TO FULFILL THE WORD OF GOD; EVEN THE MYSTERY WHICH HAS BEEN HIDDEN FROM AGES & FROM GENERATIONS, BUT NOW IS MADE MANIFEST TO HIS SAINTS: TO WHOM GOD WOULD MAKE KNOWN WHAT IS THE RICHES OF THE GLORY OF THIS MYSTERY AMONG THE GENTILES: WHICH IS CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY: WHOM WE PREACH, WARNING EVERY MAN, & TEACHING EVERY MAN IN ALL WISDOM; THAT WE MAY PRESENT EVERY MAN PERFECT IN CHRIST JESUS; WHEREUNTO I ALSO LABOR, STRIVING ACCORDING TO HIS WORKING, WHICH WORKS IN ME MIGHTILY.”

“THE ETERNAL, QUALITATIVE CHOICE OF GOD FOR MAN”? I WANT TO SHARE HERE WORDS FROM ERIC METAXAS IN HIS BOOK “7 MEN & THE SECRETS OF THEIR GREATNESS.” HE WROTE IN THE INTRODUCTION,(PP.19-20) THE FOLLOWING: “BUT BECAUSE MEN HAVE SOMETIMES USED THEIR STRENGTH SELFISHLY, THERE HAS BEEN A BACKLASH AGAINST THE WHOLE IDEA OF MASCULINE STRENGTH. IT HAS BEEN SEEN – & PORTRAYED – AS SOMETHING NEGATIVE. IF YOU BUY INTO THAT IDEA, THEN YOU REALIZE THE ONLY WAY TO DEAL WITH IT IS TO WORK AGAINST IT, TO TRY TO WEAKEN MEN, BECAUSE WHATEVER STRENGTH THEY HAVE WILL BE USED TO HARM OTHERS. THIS LEADS TO THE EMASCULATED IDEA OF MEN. STRENGTH IS DENIGRATED BECAUSE IT CAN BE USED FOR ILL. SO WE LIVE IN A CULTURE WHERE STRENGTH IS FEARED & WHERE THERE IS A SENSE THAT – TO PROTECT THE WEAK – STRENGTH ITSELF MUST BE WEAKENED. WHEN THIS HAPPENS, THE HEROIC & TRUE NATURE OF STRENGTH IS MUCH FORGOTTEN. IT LEADS TO A WORLD OF MEN WHO AREN’T REALLY MEN. INSTEAD THEY ARE JUST TWO KINDS OF BOYS: BOASTING, LOUD-MOUTHED BULLIES OR SOFT, EMASCULATED PSEUDO-MEN. WOMEN FEEL THAT THEY MUST BE “EMPOWERED” & MUST NEVER RELY ON MEN FOR STRENGTH. IT’S A LOT LIKE A SOCIALISTIC IDEA, WHERE “POWER” & “STRENGTH” ARE REDISTRIBUTED – TAKEN AWAY FROM MEN & GIVEN TO WOMEN, TO EVEN THINGS OUT. OF COURSE IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. EVERYONE LOSES.

THE KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR WHO DOES ALL HE CAN TO PROTECT OTHERS, THE GENTLEMAN WHO LAYS DOWN HIS CLOAK OR OPENS A DOOR FOR A LADY – THESE ARE CHRISTIAN IDEALS OF MANLINESS. JESUS SAID THAT HE WHO WOULD LEAD MUST BE THE SERVANT OF ALL. IT’S THE BIBLICAL IDEA OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP. THE TRUE LEADER GIVES HIMSELF TO THE PEOPLE HE LEADS. THE GOOD SHEPHERD LAYS DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS SHEEP. JESUS WASHED THE FEET OF THE DISCIPLES. JESUS DIED FOR THOSE HE LOVES. THAT IS GOD’S IDEA OF STRENGTH & LEADERSHIP & BLESSING. IT’S SOMETHING TO BE USED IN THE SERVICE OF OTHERS. SO GOD’S IDEA OF MASCULINE STRENGTH GIVES US THE IDEA OF A CHIVALROUS GENTLEMAN TOWARD WOMEN, NOT A BULLY OR SOMEONE WHO SEES NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIMSELF & THEM.” SO TRUE!

“THE ETERNAL, QUALITATIVE CHOICE OF GOD FOR MAN?” WHAT ABOUT 1 SAMUEL 3:10? “AND THE LORD CAME, & STOOD, & CALLED AS AT OTHER TIMES, ‘SAMUEL, SAMUEL’. THEN SAMUEL ANSWERED, “SPEAK, LORD; FOR YOUR SERVANT HEARS.” BUT DOES GOD COME, DOES HE STILL KNOCK, DOES HE STILL CALL AS HE HAS FOR SO MANY MULTITUDES & YET WHEN THE “WISDOM OF GOD CALLS, THERE ARE THOSE WHO REFUSE TO ANSWER OR RESPOND TO HIS PASSIONATE INVITATION! IN PROVERBS 1:22-33 WE READ, “HOW LONG, YOU SIMPLE ONES, WILL YOU LOVE SIMPLICITY? & THE SCORNERS DELIGHT IN THEIR SCORNINGS, & FOOLS HATE KNOWLEDGE?

TURN YOU AT MY REPROOF, BEHOLD, I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT UNTO YOU, I WILL MAKE KNOWN MY WORDS UNTO YOU. BECAUSE I HAVE CALLED, & YOU REFUSED; I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HAND, & NO MAN REGARDED. BUT YOU HAVE SET AT NOUGHT ALL MY COUNSEL, & WOULD NONE OF MY REPROOF; I ALSO WILL LAUGH AT YOUR CALAMITY; I WILL MOCK WHEN YOUR FEAR COMES; WHEN YOUR FEAR COMES AS DESOLATION, & YOUR DESTRUCTION COMES AS A WHIRLWIND; WHEN DISTRESS & ANGUISH COMES UPON YOU.

THEN SHALL THEY CALL UPON ME, BUT I WILL NOT ANSWER; THEY SHALL SEEK ME EARLY, BUT THEY SHALL NOT FIND ME: FOR THAT THEY HATED KNOWLEDGE, & DID NOT CHOOSE THE FEAR OF THE LORD; THEY WOULD NONE OF MY COUNSEL; THEY DESPISED ALL MY REPROOF. THEREFORE SHALL THEY EAT THE FRUIT OF THEIR OWN WAY, & BE FILLED WITH THEIR OWN DEVICES. FOR THE TURNING AWAY OF THE SIMPLE SHALL SLAY THEM, & THE PROSPERITY OF FOOLS SHALL DESTROY THEM. BUT WHOSO HEARKENS UNTO ME SHALL DWELL SAFELY, & SHALL BE QUIET FROM FEAR OF EVIL.” THE ETERNAL,QUALITATIVE CHOICE FOR MAN?” FANNY CROSBY & W.H.DOANE, IN THE OLD “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL”,(PUBLISHED IN 1933, BY THE BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN.) WROTE A HYMN ENTITLED “SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS”. IT SAYS: “SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS, SAFE ON HIS GENTLE BREAST, THERE BY HIS LOVE O’ER-SHADED, SWEETLY MY SOUL SHALL REST. HARK! IT’S THE VOICE OF ANGELS, BORNE IN A SONG TO ME, OVER THE FIELDS OF GLORY, OVER THE JASPER SEA.

SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS, SAFE FROM CORRODING CARE, SAFE FROM THE WORLD’S TEMPTATIONS, SIN CANNOT HARM ME THERE. FREE FROM THE BLIGHT OF SORROW, FREE FROM MY DOUBTS & FEARS; ONLY A FEW MORE TRIALS, ONLY A FEW MORE TEARS!

JESUS, MY HEART’S DEAR REFUGE, JESUS HAS DIED FOR ME; FIRM ON THE ROCK OF AGES, EVER MY TRUST SHALL BE. HERE LET ME WAIT WITH PATIENE, WAIT TIL’ THE NIGHT IS O’ER; WAIT TILL I SEE THE MORNING BRREAK ON THE GOLDEN SHORE…..SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS,SAFE ON HIS GENTLE BREAST, THERE BY HIS LOVE O’ER-SHADED,SWEETLY MY SOUL SHALL REST. AMEN?” ARE YOU AT REST?